1949: January UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive

January 1949 opened with the Sandia/Los Alamos green fireball wave already burning across New Mexico. Security guards, AFOSI agents and pilots at Kirtland AFB and Los Alamos logged new objects in the first week, and by January 13 the Fourth Army’s intelligence chief was warning that the fireballs might be foreign radiological-warfare experiments over America’s atomic installations. The month ended with its most spectacular event: on the evening of January 30, a green fireball crossed the sky in view of thousands of witnesses across several states. Dr. Lincoln La Paz triangulated a 143-mile, nearly horizontal path from Amarillo toward Lamesa, Texas, while roughly 200 observers at Roswell, Alamogordo and Fort Worth watched it break into a shower of lighted fragments.

Away from New Mexico, the month produced two Project Blue Book Unknowns of unusual quality: an RB-29 crew on classified atomic-detection duty out of Bermuda circled a mile-wide red glow on the Atlantic for 44 minutes, and the acting chief of the Aircraft Branch at Eglin AFB watched a windowed, spark-throwing cigar bounce through the Florida sky for 25 minutes. Reports from Hawaii, Oregon, Mississippi, Maine, England and the Sea of Japan fill out one of the most institutionally consequential months of the early UFO era.

Date: January 1949
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Time: 23:00
Summary: One white ball of light, of huge size, was observed by two witnesses at an airport for five minutes. The ball circled the airport twice. Both air traffic controllers fled the tower in a panic.
Source: Hatch, Larry (*U* Database)
Source Status: Single compiled-database source; exact date and witness names not recorded.

Date: January 1, 1949
Location: Jackson, Mississippi
Time: 5 p.m.
Summary: Pilot Tom Rush and his wife, flying a private plane, saw a cigar-shaped object about 60 ft long and 10 ft wide cross their path at 1,500-1,600 ft altitude. Another estimate placed the object at 500 ft, a close-encounter range. Speed was approximately 200 mph, accelerating to 400-500 mph. The object made a 50-degree turn and was visible for 10-12 seconds. [Detailed Report]
Source: Project 1947; McDonald list; FUFOR Index (BBU)

Date: January 4, 1949
Location: Hickam Field, Hawaii
Time: 2 p.m.
Summary: USAF pilot Capt. Paul R. Stoney, on the ground at Pacific Command HQ, saw an object resembling a large, round, flat piece of cardboard the size of a T-6 trainer, white underneath and dark (matte) on top. It approached from about 25 miles at 3,000 ft and circled the area while oscillating right and left, at a recorded figure of 85 [units not given in the compiled source]. The object appeared to “blink” a whitish reflection at regular intervals and departed climbing at a 25-degree angle.
Source: Jan Aldrich; Berliner; Sparks (BBU #275)

Date: January 4, 1949
Location: Southeastern Georgia
Time: Around 2200
Summary: One object was observed by three witnesses for 48 seconds (Underwood).
Source: NICAP

Date: January 5, 1949
Location: Sea of Japan
Time: 10:07 p.m.
Summary: An unknown object was tracked on radar. The observation lasted 4 minutes.
Source: Dan Wilson; Far East Air Forces

Date: January 5, 1949
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: No details of the object or witnesses survive in the compiled record.
Source: Undocumented
Source Status: Insufficient Data. The January 6 Los Alamos AFOSI report references a January 5 incident; this may be that record.

Date: January 6, 1949
Location: Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 1730
Summary: A bright white, diamond-shaped object about 2 ft across crossed the sky in horizontal flight at roughly 1,500 ft, much faster than a jet, seen by a military guard. AFOSI special agents, pilots and security guards at Kirtland also reported a green fireball the same night. Part of the Sandia/Los Alamos green-fireball wave under investigation by the 17th District AFOSI and Dr. Lincoln La Paz.
Source: 17th District AFOSI Case 16; Project Blue Book; Hatch (*U* #1370); Maccabee, UFO-FBI Connection
Source Status: Carried as a Blue Book Unknown in the compiled record; Sparks’ Unknowns catalog lists only the Los Alamos January 6 report for this date. The Kirtland diamond object is a counted Blue Book case (#242) but its Unknown status is not independently confirmed.

Date: January 6, 1949
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: Unusual sounds were heard and an object was observed; the AFOSI report references a January 5 incident. Metallic traces were reported found. A separate account attributed to Nicholas Von Poppen describes a crashed disc reported by a male witness near the laboratory.
Source: 17th District AFOSI Cases 16 & 17; McDonald list; Sparks (BBU)
Source Status: The AFOSI object/sound report is documented and stands as a Blue Book Unknown. The Von Poppen “crashed disc” component is DISPUTED / HOAX-ADJACENT: Von Poppen’s crashed-saucer photography claims belong to the Frank Scully (Aztec) lineage and have never been substantiated. Los Alamos was a laboratory, not a nuclear test site.

Date: January 9, 1949
Location: Southport, England
Time: Noon
Summary: One object was observed.
Source: Doubt Magazine

Date: January 10, 1949
Location: South Gardiner, Maine
Time: 17:15
Summary: One object was observed by one witness briefly (Savage).
Source: Newspaper
Source Status: Likely related to the Auburn & Oxford, Maine report fifteen minutes later the same evening.

Date: January 10, 1949
Location: Auburn & Oxford, Maine
Time: 17:30
Summary: More than one object was observed by several witnesses briefly (Wardell).
Source: Newspaper

Date: January 16, 1949
Location: Endicott, West Virginia
Time: 06:30
Summary: Two hovering objects, each the apparent size of the moon, were observed by one 16-year-old male witness on a mountain (Riter).
Source: CUFOS

Date: January 16, 1949
Location: Paris, Kentucky
Time: 16:30
Summary: One walnut-shaped object was observed and photographed by two experienced female witnesses over ten minutes (Brannon; Miller).
Source: Project Blue Book

Date: January 23, 1949
Location: 4 miles S of Tillamook, Oregon
Time: 11:05 a.m.
Summary: Burt Leckington and his wife, driving south on Hwy 101 near Pleasant Valley, saw a shiny, silvery, round, stationary object about 10-15 ft across glinting in the sun to the SE at roughly 35° elevation, 500-2,000 ft up, about 1/2 to 3/4 mile away. It vanished when he went for binoculars, with no sound or trail. A second, independent witness (Smith) in Tillamook saw a polished silver saucer-shaped object at 45° elevation, then moving NE at 30-50 mph, for about a minute. [Detailed Report]
Source: FOIA; FUFOR Index; Sparks (BBU)

Date: January 24, 1949
Location: About 250 miles SW of Bermuda, Atlantic Ocean
Time: 12:00-2:10 a.m. (Z/GMT/UT)
Summary: A USAF RB-29 crew of the 373rd Reconnaissance Squadron, based at Kindley AFB, Bermuda on classified Atomic Detection System service, was searching for a lost BOAC aircraft when they sighted a red glow on the ocean 1-1.5 miles across, extending upward 2,500-6,000 ft, with 2-4 white searchlight-like beams inside it. The crew circled the glow for 44 minutes from every direction, closing to an estimated 100-150 ft at one point and banking sharply to avoid collision, before departing; the glow was still visible when they landed in Bermuda. [Detailed Report]
Source: Blue Book Maxwell Microfilm Roll 5, pp. 167-233; Project 1947; Saunders/FUFOR Index; Sparks (BBU)

Date: January 27, 1949
Location: Seattle, Washington
Time: 17:35
Summary: One object was observed by a male witness briefly (Victor).
Source: Newspaper

Date: January 27, 1949
Location: Cortez-Bradenton, Florida
Time: 10:20 p.m.
Summary: Capt. Sames (or Sannes), Acting Chief of the Aircraft Branch at Eglin AFB, and his wife watched for 25 minutes as a cigar-shaped object as long as two Pullman cars, with seven lighted square windows and throwing sparks, descended then climbed with a bouncing motion at an estimated 400-500 mph. [Detailed Report]
Source: Berliner; FUFOR Index; Sparks (BBU #284)

Date: January 30, 1949
Location: Near Amarillo to near Lamesa, Texas
Time: 5:54 p.m. (MST)
Summary: Thousands of witnesses across several states saw a spectacular green fireball. Dr. Lincoln La Paz triangulated a north-south trajectory beginning at about 12 miles altitude over the Amarillo area, descending slightly along a nearly horizontal 143-mile path to near Lamesa and disappearing at about 8 miles altitude. No sound was reported except a slight hissing. Over 100 witnesses were interviewed. Duration 10-20 seconds. [Detailed Report]
Source: Sparks (BBU, Case 831); FOIA; La Paz
Source Status: Almost certainly the same fireball logged from Roswell, Alamogordo and Fort Worth one minute later (next entry); the two records preserve different observer sets and are kept separately for that reason.

Date: January 30, 1949
Location: Roswell, New Mexico — also seen at Alamogordo/Holloman AFB, New Mexico and Fort Worth, Texas
Time: 5:55 p.m.
Summary: Approximately 200 observers saw a blue-green object moving slowly W-E at 2,000 ft in horizontal flight, disappearing in a shower of lighted fragments. Part of the same Sandia/Los Alamos green-fireball wave; also witnessed at Holloman AFB by PFC Ira W. Vail, Weather Detachment, who described “a green ball of flame with a trail of some kind.”
Source: Department of War PURSUE Release 02, DOW-UAP-D017 (General Correspondence of Sandia Base), declassified May 22, 2026; NICAP (AFOSI Case 18); Commanding Officer, Kirtland AFB, Nr. OSI-1-90, January 31, 1949
Source Status: The compiled record numbers the Roswell, Alamogordo and Fort Worth reports as AFOSI Cases 19, 20 and 21; NICAP files the Roswell report as AFOSI Case 18. Same event as the La Paz Amarillo-Lamesa triangulation (previous entry).

Date: January 31, 1949
Location: Orlando, Florida
Time: Dawn
Summary: One object was observed by a male witness.
Source: Doubt Magazine

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Fireballs Cross the State Line

January 1949 is the month the green fireball problem stopped being a New Mexico problem. The wave that began over Los Alamos on December 5, 1948 continued through the first week of January with new reports from Kirtland AFB and Los Alamos itself, and on January 13 the Fourth Army’s Director of Intelligence formally proposed a scientific board, warning that the objects were appearing over the country’s most sensitive installations and might be the product of foreign radiological-warfare experiments. Seventeen days later the January 30 fireball answered the question of scale: seen by thousands from Texas to New Mexico, triangulated by La Paz along a 143-mile nearly horizontal path with no sonic boom and no recovered fragments, it became the case that carried the phenomenon into the February 16 Los Alamos conference attended by Edward Teller. The Department of War’s 2026 PURSUE release of the Sandia Base correspondence (DOW-UAP-D017) now ties the Roswell/Alamogordo/Fort Worth reports to a named corroborating witness, PFC Ira W. Vail of the Holloman AFB Weather Detachment.

Beyond the fireballs, the month holds seven Project Blue Book Unknowns, two of them exceptional. The January 24 Bermuda case puts a classified atomic-detection RB-29 crew in a 44-minute orbit around a mile-wide red glow on the Atlantic, close enough to bank away from it; the January 27 Cortez-Bradenton case puts an Eglin AFB aircraft-branch chief under a windowed, spark-throwing cigar for 25 minutes. Two Tillamook, Oregon witnesses with no connection to each other described the same polished silver disc on January 23. The weakest material is also honestly marked: the Von Poppen “crashed disc” attached to the January 6 Los Alamos record comes from the Scully lineage and is carried as Disputed, and the January 5 Albuquerque record survives only as a date and a place.