November 1948 — three cases: the multi-witness Andrews AFB, Maryland pursuit, the Fürstenfeldbruck, Munich radar-visual sighting, and a possible early Vaughn, New Mexico green fireball. thinkaboutitdocs.com.
1948: November UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
November 1948‘s standout case is a genuinely extraordinary multi-witness pursuit over Andrews Air Force Base: two Air Force reserve pilots chasing a highly maneuverable, evasive object through repeated firing passes, corroborated independently by ground observers including a named staff sergeant, and documented directly in Edward Ruppelt’s own 1956 book. This month also carries two entries near Vaughn, New Mexico — a location already flagged twice on this archive for a recurring “basketball-sized object explodes near a colonel” account — including a “green fireball” reference that likely represents an early precursor to the famous Green Fireball phenomenon, which would explode into a dedicated, classified Air Force investigation (Project Twinkle) beginning just weeks later in December 1948.
Date: November 1948
Location: Rockford, Illinois
Time: 18:00
Summary: One object was observed by one witness (Schulz) for 12 seconds.
Source: NICAP
Date: November 1, 1948
Location: Goose Bay AFB, Labrador, Canada
Time: Unknown
Summary: Per a USAF Intelligence Report referenced in NICAP files, radar personnel at Goose Bay picked up a strange object flying at 600 mph.
Source: Ruppelt manuscript
Editorial note: This is the third radar case reported at Goose Bay, Labrador in a roughly one-month span, following two separate radar trackings there on October 29 and October 31, 1948, already documented on this archive’s October page.
Date: November 1, 1948
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Time: 22:00
Summary: One object was observed by 35 witnesses (Reeves) for two minutes.
Source: NICAP
Date: November 3-4, 1948
Location: 10 miles east of Vaughn, New Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: Witness identified only as (possibly) U.S. Army Col. Hayes; possible green fireball.
Source: McDonald list; FUFOR Index (BBU)
Editorial note: If the “green fireball” characterization is accurate, this sighting predates by only a few weeks the well-documented onset of the “green fireball” phenomenon over New Mexico, which began in earnest in December 1948 and prompted a dedicated, classified Air Force investigation (Project Twinkle) in 1949-1951. This may represent one of the earliest recorded instances of that phenomenon.
Date: November 4, 1948
Location: Glimåkra, Sweden
Time: Unknown
Summary: Two objects were observed by one witness (Nilsson) in a yard; metallic traces were found.
Source: Karl Gösta Rehn
Date: November 5, 1948
Location: Richmond, Indiana
Time: Unknown
Summary: A star-like object was observed and photographed, flying in a straight line across the sky (Stevens).
Source: Project Blue Book
Date: November 6, 1948
Location: Wakkanai, Japan
Time: 11:57 local time
Summary: A ground radar operator observed a blip that appeared at times as a single object and at other times as two targets, estimated speed 160-240 mph, circling the radar site continuously for one hour and five minutes; no interception was attempted due to adverse weather.
Source: James McDonald list; Dan Wilson
Date: November 7, 1948
Location: Lockbourne, Ohio
Time: 15:30
Summary: An object with an unusual appearance or performance was observed for 20 minutes.
Source: Jacques Vallée, Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma, Henry Regnery, Chicago, 1966
Date: November 10, 1948
Location: Ervalla, Örebro Province, Sweden
Time: 22:20
Summary: A 40-meter-high cone of multicolored light enveloped a farmer, who received ultraviolet burns to exposed skin; no object was seen as the source of the light. Several cone-shaped effects, roughly 150 feet across, were observed by the witness for over one minute.
Source: Larry Hatch, U computer database, case #1357; André Liljegren, AFU Sweden News, issue #23
Date: November 12, 1948
Location: Clark AFB, Manila, Philippines
Time: Between 13:00 and 14:00
Summary: Airman Wright, 18th Maintenance Squadron, saw a white speck flying at a distance, tracked it through cloud cover, and identified a very large, snow-white aircraft-like object, roughly 300 feet long with a 140-foot wingspan, low-winged, darting in and out of clouds far faster than any jet, an estimated 20-30 miles away at 3-6 miles altitude, leaving an exhaust trail like skywriting and making loud aircraft noise.
Source: FOIA; FUFOR Index (BBU)
Date: November 15, 1948
Location: Nevada, Missouri
Time: 16:00
Summary: A large disc hovered on a farm, emitting a whirring sound, before two smaller objects dropped from it and flew away rapidly to the southwest; the disc then departed to the northeast. Three discs were observed by one witness for over one minute.
Source: Larry Hatch
Date: November 17, 1948
Location: Peace River, Alberta, Canada
Time: 06:18 PST
Summary: The pilot and radio/radar operator of a military aircraft saw a bright orange, flaming, egg-shaped object flying on a southwest heading.
Source: Project 1947; McDonald list (BBU)
Date: November 18, 1948
Location: Andrews AFB / Camp Springs, Maryland
Time: 21:45-22:03
Case Status: Unexplained
Summary: USAF reserve pilots Lts. Jackson and Combs, aboard an Andrews AFB T-6 aircraft, and two independent ground observers saw a highly maneuverable, whitish-gray, oval lighted object, smaller than the T-6, crossing over the base repeatedly in a circular pattern between 1,700 and 7,000 feet. The T-6 pursued the object through several passes and a dive at 240 mph, but the object dropped down and came up behind the aircraft, continuing to circle the base; at one point the crew maneuvered it against city lights and, at 300-400 feet, flashed their landing light at it — the object responded with a dull glow before accelerating away to the northeast at 500-600 mph. A separate reserve pilot in another aircraft over the base saw the object directly overhead, and USAF Staff Sgt. John J. Kushner independently observed it from the ground. [Full Report]
Source: FOIA; Edward Ruppelt, p. 46 Source Status: VERIFIED — at least five independent witnesses across three separate vantage points (two aircraft and multiple ground observers), a named staff sergeant, and direct documentation in Ruppelt’s own official account.
Date: November 19, 1948
Location: Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona
Time: Night
Summary: One object was observed by one witness at a mountain.
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: November 23, 1948
Location: Vaughn, New Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: No further detail preserved in the surviving source material.
Source: Undocumented
Editorial note: Vaughn, New Mexico is now the site of at least three separate entries across this archive’s 1947-1948 record (August 1947, November 1947, and the November 3-4, 1948 entry above), suggesting either a genuine recurring local phenomenon or, alternatively, a single frequently-recycled account attached to slightly different dates across secondary sources.
Date: November 23, 1948
Location: Fürstenfeldbruck AFB, Munich, West Germany
Time: 22:20
Summary: USAF F-80 jet fighter pilot Capt. Slater, along with another jet pilot and a 1st Lt. of the 23rd Fighter Squadron, saw from the ground a reddish, star-like object to the east moving south over Munich at an estimated 200-500 mph, turning slightly southwest, then southeast. Slater alerted a radar direction-finding station, which tracked an unidentified target at 27,000 feet, 30 miles south of Munich, then climbing to 40,000 feet and circling 40 miles south of the city. The target’s tracked speed was later reported at roughly 900 mph. Slater, described as an experienced and completely reliable pilot, had his sighting independently verified by a second F-80 pilot.
Source: FOIA (BBU)
Date: November 26, 1948
Location: Washington and Oregon
Time: Unknown
Summary: No further detail preserved in the surviving source material.
Source: McDonald list; FUFOR Index (BBU)
Date: November 30, 1948
Location: Nevada, Missouri
Time: Unknown
Summary: A daytime disc was observed by one witness.
Source: Ted R. Phillips, Trace Cases
Date: November 1948
Location: Aspang, Austria
Time: Unknown
Summary: Two local men saw a cloud float over Königsberg, brighten, and part, revealing a figure in a blue cloak wearing a golden crown and holding a bunch of roses. The sighting was regarded as a Marian encounter.
Source: Undocumented
Editorial note: Treated here consistently with this archive’s handling of the April 1947 Tre Fontane, Italy and September 1948 Lipa, Philippines apparitions — as a documented account within this archive’s high-strangeness scope, without endorsing either a religious or extraterrestrial interpretation.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
November 1948 — A Pursuit Over Andrews, and the First Green Fireball
The Andrews AFB pursuit is one of this archive’s most thoroughly corroborated cases to date: five or more independent witnesses across three separate vantage points, watching an object actively evade a pursuing T-6 aircraft through repeated passes, respond visibly to a landing light signal, then outrun the aircraft entirely. This case appears directly in Edward Ruppelt’s own 1956 account. Separately, a thin, damaged entry near Vaughn, New Mexico referencing a “green fireball” likely represents one of the earliest recorded instances of a phenomenon that would explode into a dedicated classified Air Force investigation, Project Twinkle, within about a year.
“T-6 was able with difficulty to put object in front of city lights on the ground to try to make out details…turned on landing light and object responded with a dull glow.”
FOIA case record, describing the November 18, 1948 Andrews AFB pursuit.
