October 1949 — four cases: George Adamski's Palomar sighting; the Palomar Observatory cosmic-ray incident; the Norwood, Ohio searchlight return; and the Davis-Monthan AFB sighting.
1949: October UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
October 1949 carries three cases substantial enough for their own full reports: George Adamski’s independently corroborated Palomar sighting, three years before he became ufology’s most famous contactee; the elaborate, years-spanning Palomar Observatory cosmic-ray correlation case; and a fourth Berger searchlight incident back in Norwood, Ohio, this time with motion picture film and a claimed object emission. The month also carries a strong run of New Mexico green fireball reports and a detailed dual military sighting at Holloman AFB and Davis-Monthan AFB on the same day.
Date: October 1949
Location: Valerio, California
Time: 03:30
Summary: A loud, crackling swish of noise was followed by a sparkling band of light; two circular objects floated gently down, described as like two mushrooms with cracks around their edges. Two white, dome-shaped objects were observed by two female witnesses at a mountain briefly (Douglas). A swishing sound was heard.
Source: Sullivan, Edward. CSI/LA investigation files
Date: October 1949
Location: Ganserndorf, Austria
Time: 04:30
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported (Radhammer).
Source: UFO Nachrichten (Veit)
Date: October 1949
Location: Palm Island, Queensland, Australia
Time: 13:00
Summary: A featureless, shiny metallic cigar about 100-150 ft long hovered above the ocean at roughly 80 ft altitude before vanishing. Observed by two witnesses for 30 minutes.
Source: Chalker, Bill. Oz Files
Date: October 1949
Location: Laramie, Wyoming
Time: Around 1600
Summary: One object was observed by numerous witnesses.
Source: Newspaper
Date: October 1, 1949
Location: Jackson, Mississippi
Time:
Summary: An unidentified object was tracked by radar and sighted visually (Rush). Known as the Rush Case; the witness surname and city match this archive’s January 1, 1949 Jackson, Mississippi cigar-shaped object sighting (Tom Rush), though the two entries describe different details and may be a second, separate sighting by the same family rather than a duplicate.
Source: NICAP
Date: October 1, 1949
Location: Mount Hope, West Virginia
Time: 17:00
Summary: One object, about 20 ft across, was observed (Garrett).
Source: Project Bluebook
Date: October 2, 1949, BB #473
Location: Holland, Michigan
Time:
Summary: A very bright disc was seen moving west into a cloud, then exiting from the same point and flying rapidly east. Observed on a farm for two minutes (Cooper).
Source: Project Bluebook
Date: October 2, 1949
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: 21:10
Summary: One observer, rated reliable, saw a bright green object with a trail at 20,000-30,000 ft that went up and then down. Duration three seconds; its disappearance was not recorded.
Source: AFOSI
Date: October 2, 1949
Location: New York, New York
Time: 21:30
Summary: A science writer using a telescope to observe a lunar eclipse saw a dark, ovoid object cross the Moon (O’Neill). No sound was heard.
Source: Newspaper
Date: October 5, 1949
Location: Phillipsburg, New Jersey
Time:
Summary: An object was observed, and physical traces were reportedly found.
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: October 6-11, 1949
Location: Mescalero, Albuquerque, Wagon Mound, Sandia, Los Alamos & Alamogordo, New Mexico
Time:
Summary: A brilliant white object was reported across multiple New Mexico locations over several days.
Source: Undocumented
Date: October 1949 (day unspecified)
Location: Roswell, New Mexico
Time: 11:15 a.m. (MST)
Summary: Three observers of unknown reliability saw a round, probably elliptical, white (silver) object at 3,500 ft, moving south to northeast in a smooth arc, faster than a jet aircraft, before going beyond range of vision. Duration 45-60 seconds.
Source: AFOSI
Date: October 12, 1949, BB
Location: Holloman AFB, New Mexico
Time: 11:15 a.m. (MST)
Summary: Flight engineer S/Sgt Clifford B. Hart, with aircraft mechanics S/Sgt J.D. Denning and S/Sgt Harry A. Boggs, saw a round, white or aluminum-colored object cross from south to north before veering northeast and disappearing. Hart estimated its speed at 1,500 mph, altitude at 35,000 ft, and size comparable to a B-29, in sight for 45-60 seconds. A similar object was seen the same day at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, at 1:40 p.m. MST.
Source: Dan Wilson, Blue Book files
Date: October 12, 1949, BB
Location: Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona
Time: 1:40 p.m. (MST)
Summary: Four airmen of the 65th Bomb Squadron — S/Sgt John A. Bobst, S/Sgt Paul C. Wallingford, T/Sgt Roy Elias, and 1st Lt. David J. Latz — standing in the aircraft parking area, saw a white or silver, solid, metallic-looking round object travel from northeast to southwest at up to an estimated 1,000 mph, at 25,000-30,000 ft, roughly 50-100 ft in diameter, in sight for about 15 seconds. Same day as a similar sighting at Holloman AFB, New Mexico.
Source: Dan Wilson, Blue Book files
Date: October 14, 1949
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: 14:20
Summary: Three observers, rated reliable, saw a round, greenish-blue object with a white trail at 20,000 ft, in level flight just above the horizon moving west to east, about the apparent size of a 12-inch disc, before it burned out. Duration two seconds.
Source: AFOSI
Date: October 14, 1949
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 20:21
Summary: Two observers, rated reliable, saw a round, red-orange object about 1/3 to 1/4 the size of the moon, moving north to south with a trail, before it broke into two pieces and disappeared. Duration ten seconds.
Source: AFOSI
Date: October 14, 1949: The Palomar Observatory “Astronomers Incident”
Date: October 16, 1949
Location: Tres Boletes, Mexico
Time: Afternoon
Summary: One object was observed by a male witness.
Source: Newspaper
Date: October 17, 1949
Location: Mt. Palomar Observatory, California
Time: 7:20 a.m.
Summary: Assistant Superintendent-Electrical B. B. Traxler saw a small, black object without apparent projections moving at high speed to the southwest at the same moment the cosmic-ray Geiger counter went off-scale again. Part of the ongoing Palomar Observatory instrument correlation. [Full Report]
Source: Sparks
Date: October 18, 1949
Location: Offutt AFB, Nebraska
Time: 17:45
Summary: One object was observed by two military witnesses near a missile for a few seconds (Callessen; Lincoln; Sparks).
Source: Project Bluebook
Date: October 21, 1949
Location: Mt. Palomar Observatory and Palomar Gardens, California
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Summary: Observatory Assistant Superintendent-Electrical B. B. Traxler saw an elongated, slightly curved, banana-shaped object traveling east for about three seconds. Independently, and without knowledge of Traxler’s sighting, George Adamski of Palomar Gardens saw a dark, cigar-shaped object — three years before his famous 1952 contactee claims made him internationally known. [Full Report]
Source: Jan Aldrich; McDonald list
Date: October 21, 1949
Location: Buffalo, New York
Time: Night
Summary: One object was observed by one witness briefly (Bell).
Source: Bloecher, Ted R.
Date: October 1949 (day unspecified)
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: 02:20 & 02:28
Summary: One observer, rated reliable, saw a small, green, flare-like object rise vertically 50-100 ft before going out (duration one second). Eight minutes later, the same or a similar observer saw a bright green object, about four times the size of a flare, moving northwest to southeast on the horizon at an estimated 150 mph, before it disappeared behind a hill. Duration two seconds.
Source: AFOSI
Date: October 23, 1949
Location: Norwood, Ohio
Time: 19:15, lasting 210 minutes
Summary: A disc of huge size was observed and filmed on black-and-white motion picture footage hovering in a searchlight beam for three and a half hours; the source describes the disc as emitting smaller, triangular-shaped objects. Observed by more than four named male witnesses (Berger, Davidson, Koch, Miller, Winkler); animal reactions were again reported. A return visit by the same core group behind August’s original Norwood searchlight sighting. [Full Report]
Source: Project Bluebook
Date: October 28, 1949
Location: Montecarotto, Marche, Italy
Time: After 0600
Summary: Several independent witnesses (Carotti and others) watched an eight-meter cigar-shaped object fly about 100 meters overhead toward the north-northeast; tree branches thrashed about as it passed. Gravity effects were noted.
Source: FSR
Date: October 31, 1949
Location: Los Angeles, California
Time: 00:15
Summary: A pilot reported a weird, comet-like aircraft, observed by three witnesses at an airfield (Hanley).
Source: Project Bluebook
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A Future Contactee, a Decade-Long Radiation Mystery, and a Fourth Searchlight Return
October 1949 produced two of the year’s most historically interesting cases at the same location within a week of each other: George Adamski’s own, independently corroborated Palomar sighting — three years before his famous, far more contested contactee claims — and the Palomar Observatory’s cosmic-ray correlation case, whose documentary trail (via an anonymous “mineral club” of AEC physicists) stretches years past 1949 itself. Both are now standalone reports. The Berger Ohio searchlight pattern also gained a fourth, more dramatic incident this month, back in Norwood with motion picture film and a claimed object emission; that combined report has been updated accordingly. A likely duplicate (the October “Rush Case” in Jackson, Mississippi) is cross-referenced against this archive’s January 1949 Jackson entry rather than presented as unrelated.
“Independently and without knowledge of Traxler’s sighting, George Adamski… saw the dark cigar-shaped object.”
From the Jan Aldrich/McDonald list record of the October 21, 1949 Palomar sightings.
