Project 10073 Record Card and Intelligence Report IR-1-62: Fireball Sighting, 18-19 April 1962

This document compiles reports and investigations regarding a high-profile fireball sighting that occurred over Utah and surrounding states on the night of 18-19 April 1962. The event was widely observed, with reports coming from as far as Idaho, Montana, Oregon, New Mexico, Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada, Kansas, and Utah. Witnesses described a brilliant, rapidly moving object that illuminated the night sky with the intensity of daylight. In Eureka, Utah, the light was so intense that it triggered photo-electric street lighting systems. Multiple witnesses reported hearing a series of 20 to 30 sharp, explosive sounds following the object's passage, which some compared to anti-aircraft fire. Captain Herman G. Shields, a reserve Air Force pilot flying a C-119 aircraft, provided a detailed account of the object, describing it as a slender, cigarette-shaped object with a bright white and yellow-blue flame. He observed it while turning his aircraft, noting that it appeared to travel from the southwest to the northeast. Other witnesses, including sheep herders in Jericho and residents in Silver City, provided corroborating descriptions of the object's appearance and the subsequent explosions. The Air Force Defense Command and the Foreign Technology Division (FTD) conducted a thorough investigation, led by Lt. Col. Robert J. Friend and Dr. J. Allen Hynek. Despite the unique nature of the event and the reports of explosions, the official conclusion reached by the investigators was that the object was a bolide—a large, exploding meteor. The investigation noted that while the object was tracked by radar and observed by multiple parties, no physical evidence was recovered, and the search in the Wasatch National Forest was abandoned due to the inaccessible nature of the terrain. The report emphasizes that the object was not an aircraft or a missile, and that the 'table cloth' or 'cigarette' descriptions were consistent with the visual phenomena of a disintegrating meteor.