UFO Observation, 27 September 1967

This document collection details the investigation of an unidentified aerial phenomenon reported on September 27, 1967, off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. The initial report, filed under Project 10073, describes an observer who sighted five to seven orangish lights in a line, staggered upward on a titled axis, for three to four minutes before they suddenly extinguished. Eleven minutes later, a second pilot, located 123 miles away, reported seeing a single white light, followed by seven lights forming a triangle, before they disappeared. The Aerial Phenomena Office (Project Blue Book) attempted to verify these reports by contacting various military units, including the 68th Bombardment Wing, the 134th Air Refueling Group, and the 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, to determine if any refueling missions or aircraft were in the area. All units reported negative results. The investigation also consulted with the American Meteor Society and the Volunteer Flight Officer Network to rule out meteoritic activity or satellite re-entries. NASA was contacted regarding potential missile launches from Wallops Island, but they confirmed no launches occurred on the date in question, though they noted barium vapor cloud experiments were conducted on October 3 and 4, 1967. Despite extensive inquiries, the investigators were unable to locate the first pilot for a debriefing, and the second pilot remained unidentified. The lack of concrete data, the inability to confirm if both sightings involved the same objects, and the absence of corroborating radar data led the Air Force to conclude that there was insufficient data for evaluation.