November 1949 — three cases: the Hormuz Strait light wheel; the Biloxi, Mississippi cigar-shaped object; and the Rosario Beach, Mexico disc formation.
1949: November UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
November 1949 carries a fifth, much briefer Berger searchlight incident back in Norwood, Ohio, now folded into that standalone report’s timeline. The month also holds a distinctive naval sighting of a “light wheel” in the Hormuz Straits, a cluster of cigar-shaped object reports from Mississippi and Louisiana, and the continuing run of Los Alamos and New Mexico green fireball cases.
Date: November 1949
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Time: 10:00
Summary: One object was observed by one witness for over one minute (Newberger).
Source: NICAP
Date: November 2, 1949
Location: Unity, New Hampshire
Time: ?
Summary: An unidentified but otherwise conventional-seeming object was reported flying in a straight line across the sky (Pierce).
Source: Project Bluebook
Date: November 3, 1949
Location: Rosario Beach, Baja California, Mexico
Time: 11:00
Summary: An Air Force captain (Donnelly, W) sighted a flight of four discs in a cavorting formation north of Rosario Beach. Known as the Donnelly Case; two catalog versions of this same sighting have been merged into this single entry.
Source: NICAP; Weinstein, Dominique. Aircraft UFO Encounters, Project ACUFOE, Paris, 1999
Date: November 3, 1949
Location: Millbury, UK
Time: 23:50
Summary: More than one object was observed by two witnesses on a farm.
Source: Delaire, J. Bernard. UFO Register Volume 2 (1971), Data Research, Oxford, 1971
Date: November 7 or 17, 1949 (day misprinted as “77” in the original record)
Location: Osborne, Kansas
Time: Morning
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses for six seconds (Remick).
Source: Arnold, Kenneth. Coming of the Saucers, Authors, Amherst, 1952
Date: November 10, 1949
Location: Depues Ferry, Pennsylvania
Time: 11:30
Summary: Triangular objects were observed by three witnesses for two minutes (Eliason). Associated with a fall of “angel hair”-type material.
Source: Hall, Richard H. The UFO Evidence, NICAP, Washington, 1964
Date: November 11, 1949
Location: Hormuz Strait, Persian Gulf (26.34°N, 56.15°E)
Time: Night
Summary: A USN commander and other experienced military witnesses aboard a warship observed a “light wheel,” about 1,000 ft across, in the water in clear weather (Bodler).
Source: Lorenzen, Jim. UFOs over the Americas, Signet T3513, New York, 1968
Date: November 14, 1949
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Time: 05:00
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Wilkins, Harold T. Flying Saucers on the Attack, Ace Star A-11, New York, 1967
Date: November 16, 1949
Location: Oxford, Mississippi
Time: 09:30
Summary: A silent, vertical, cigar-shaped object made two 90-degree turns at about 40 mph. Observed by several witnesses on a farm for ten minutes (Coffey). No sound was heard.
Source: Project Bluebook
Date: November 16, 1949
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: 19:50
Summary: One observer, rated reliable, saw two bluish-green objects, stationary, that disappeared to the north at the speed of a meteor. No sound.
Source: Hatch, Larry
Date: November 18, 1949
Location: Raceland, Louisiana
Time: 09:30
Summary: A shiny, fuselage-like cigar-shaped object flew rapidly to the southwest, making two 90-degree turns. Observed by four witnesses at an oil field for five minutes (Folse). No sound was heard.
Source: Project Bluebook
Date: November 18, 1949
Location: Biloxi, Mississippi
Time: 10:00
Summary: A silent, white, cigar-shaped object — given elsewhere in the same source as 200 ft and as 300 ft long — flew at about 3,000 ft altitude and 50 mph past a hospital. Observed by three witnesses for over 25 minutes (Rice). No sound was heard.
Source: Project Bluebook
Date: November 19, 1949
Location: Norwood, Ohio
Time: 18:30
Summary: One object was observed by a male witness (Berger). The fifth and briefest of a recurring pattern of Ohio sightings tied to the same searchlight operator. [Full Report]
Source: Stringfield, Leonard H. CRIFO Newsletter & CRIFO Orbit
Date: November 19, 1949
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: 21:52
Summary: One observer, rated reliable, saw a star-like object moving vertically, described in one source note as green and in another as green then yellow, with no sound. Duration two seconds.
Source: AFOSI
Date: November 21, 1949, BBU
Location: Akita, Honshu, Japan
Time: ?
Summary: A USAF pilot flying an F-80 fighter saw a rectangular object flying at 500 mph.
Source: Weinstein
Date: November 25, 1949
Location: Inez, Texas
Time: 14:30
Summary: A cloud-like, cigar-shaped object was sighted by three witnesses driving between Edna and Inez, Texas, radiating heat and producing mist/vapor before flying off rapidly south toward Edna. Observed for over three minutes (Prurok).
Source: Arnold, Kenneth. Coming of the Saucers, Authors, Amherst, 1952
Date: November 25, 1949
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: 20:00
Summary: Five observers, rated reliable, saw a yellowish-green object at 10-15° above the horizon, moving east to west and descending about 10° from horizontal, before it disappeared behind a mountain. Duration two seconds; no sound.
Source: AFOSI
Date: November 1949 (day unspecified)
Location: Winslow, Arizona; also Socorro and Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 17:30-17:49
Summary: At 17:30, one observer of unknown reliability near Winslow, Arizona saw a bright, blue-white, egg-shaped object (about the apparent size of an egg held at arm’s length) move east to west, covering 15-20° of sky in three to four seconds before dwindling out. At 17:49, a second observer, rated reliable, near Albuquerque, New Mexico saw a round, blue-white object (about the apparent size of a pencil eraser at arm’s length) descend in a sloping path, going out, coming back on, then going out again, covering 5-7° of sky in one to two seconds. Socorro, New Mexico is named in the original record’s location header but no separate timed observation for it survives.
Source: AFOSI
Date: November 27, 1949
Location: McIntosh, New Mexico
Time: 18:00
Summary: One observer of unknown reliability saw a green, flare-shaped object descend vertically from below 2,000 ft, matching the size, speed, and disappearance of an ordinary signal flare. Duration one second.
Source: AFOSI
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Berger Pattern Fades, and a Duplicate Merged
This month’s Norwood, Ohio entry is the fifth and briefest known incident tied to Sgt. Donald R. Berger’s recurring searchlight pattern, now folded into that combined standalone report. Two catalog entries for the same November 3 sighting (an Air Force captain’s four-disc formation, reported once as “Baja California” and once with fuller detail as “Rosario Beach, Mexico”) have been merged into a single entry. A garbled date (“November 77”) is presented honestly as an unresolved choice between the 7th and 17th rather than guessed. The Arizona/New Mexico location header for the November 1949 Winslow/Albuquerque entry, which had grouped a New Mexico city under “Arizona,” has been corrected.
“A light wheel, about 1,000 feet across, was observed in clear weather.”
Jim Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, 1968, describing the November 11, 1949 Hormuz Strait sighting.
