Project 10073 Record — Sighting Incident, Parsippany, New Jersey, 12 November 1967

This document details a Project 10073 investigation into a UFO sighting reported by a 13-year-old boy in Parsippany, New Jersey, on November 12, 1967. The observer claimed to have photographed an object that resembled two paper plates with a dome, which hovered over his house, emitted a humming noise, and caused animals to bark before ascending straight up. The observer also claimed that his parents and a friend witnessed the event. However, the investigation by the Parsippany Police Department and the Air Force revealed significant discrepancies. The boy's parents denied that any such sighting occurred, and the local police had no record of the report. Photographic analysis conducted by the Foreign Technology Division (FTD) failed to identify the object, noting that the extreme contrast of the image and the observer's conflicting size estimates—ranging from the size of a match head to a dime—made interpretation difficult. The FTD concluded that the sighting was a hoax and that the photograph depicted a small, man-made object. The file includes correspondence between Major Hector Quintanilla, Jr. of the Air Force's Aerial Phenomena Branch and the local police, as well as subsequent letters from the observer to the Air Force, in which the boy continued to insist on the existence of extraterrestrial craft and requested further investigation. The Air Force consistently maintained that there was no evidence to support the existence of extraterrestrial flying saucers.