Project 10073 Record — Winnfield, Louisiana, 27 March 1966

On March 27, 1966, at approximately 2300Z, a civilian witness reported observing an unidentified aerial object while driving approximately ten miles south of Winnfield, Louisiana, on Route 1 near Deville. The witness, a 50-year-old equipment operator whose reliability was assessed as good, observed the object for three seconds. The object was described as elongated, approximately the size of a grapefruit, and orange-white in color, with a tail roughly half the size of the body. The object was first seen at a 45-degree elevation and disappeared instantaneously to the south at a 25-degree elevation. The weather was reported as clear and mild with calm surface conditions. The report was processed by the 430th Tactical Fighter Wing at England Air Force Base. The official conclusion reached by the evaluating agency was that the object was an 'Astro (METEOR).' However, the investigating officer, 1/Lt Frederick J. Fett, included a note suggesting that the sighting could have potentially been caused by an afterburner from a jet aircraft.