Project 10073 Record — Springfield, Ohio, 3 April 1967

This document contains a Project Blue Book record and associated correspondence regarding a UFO sighting reported by a witness at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. On April 3, 1967, at approximately 9:30 P.M. E.S.T., the witness observed a brilliant light in the west-northwest sky. The witness initially suspected it might be an airplane with landing lights, but noted that the light did not move for four minutes. Upon checking again at 9:55 P.M., the witness observed that the object had shifted position relative to the stars and was no longer visible by 12:30 A.M. The witness wrote to Major Hector Quintanella at the Foreign Technology Division, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, requesting an explanation. The Air Force responded on May 11, 1967, via a letter signed by Lt. Colonel George P. Freeman, Jr. The official conclusion was that the witness had observed the planet Venus, which was low in the western sky at the time and possessed a stellar magnitude of -3.5, making it the brightest object in that portion of the sky. The Air Force noted that Venus had been the source of numerous UFO reports during that period.