Four defining cases from the April 1-14, 1950 UFO wave, from a Boston airport radar-visual case to a touchable disc in Texas.
1950: April 1st – 14th
UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
The first two weeks of April 1950 include three close, well-documented reports in the Northeast and Midwest: four Logan Airport controllers watching a blue light split in two, a Kokomo, Indiana man 200 feet beneath a
top-shaped disc with lit portholes, and an Army sergeant near Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, watching four flat amber rectangles shuffle in formation. Project Blue Book explained the Logan sighting as inversion effects and left the other two UNIDENTIFIED. The same days brought a stream of daily reports across the United States and Europe, and on April 4 the White House denied that saucers were secret weapons.
Date: April 1, 1950
Location: Holloman AFB, New Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: Project Twinkle’s contract period with Land-Air, Inc. begins: a $20,000, six-month contract to keep a 24-hour watch in New Mexico, with the photo-theodolite crews at White Sands filming any unusual objects that passed.
Source: NICAP 1950 UFO Chronology (Gross); Holloman AFB report on aerial phenomena
Source Status: Context for the New Mexico observations of March and April 1950.
Date: April 1, 1950
Location: Balearic Islands, Spain
Time: Unknown
Summary: An object was observed and photographed by three witnesses.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: April 1, 1950
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: 04:20
Summary: One reliable witness saw a round, white-light object move from south to north at 75° above the horizon, disappearing behind a building after one second or less.
Source: AFOSI
Date: April 1, 1950
Location: North St. Louis, Missouri
Time: Morning
Summary: A group of objects was observed by one witness.
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 1, 1950
Location: Perugia, Umbria, Italy
Time: 19:00
Summary: A boat crew watched an ovoid object dive into the sea, sending up a column of water (Ragni).
Source: Boncompagni, Solas UFO in Italia, Volume I (Periodo 1907-1953) Tedeschi, Firenze, 1974
Date: April 1, 1950
Location: Monterey, California
Time: 19:35
Summary: One object was observed by one witness for five minutes (McNally).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 2, 1950
Location: Upper Austria, Austria
Time: Unknown
Summary: A flying disc was observed.
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 2, 1950
Location: Elizabeth, Illinois
Time: 03:15
Summary: One object was observed by one witness for over one minute (Lee).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 2, 1950
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Time: 03:50
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Petrowitsch, Pablo
Date: April 2, 1950
Location: General Pacheco Aerodrome, Argentina
Time: 04:12
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Petrowitsch, Pablo
Date: April 2, 1950
Location: Tipp City, near Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
Time: 05:00
Summary: Two brilliant nocturnal lights hovered and maneuvered, flying south, then west, then hovering directly over Wright-Patterson AFB; independently observed by nine witnesses at the airfield for over 60 minutes (Robinson).
Source: APRO
Date: April 2, 1950
Location: Nara Visa, New Mexico
Time: Daytime
Summary: Several objects were observed by one witness (Griffin).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 2, 1950
Location: Butler, Pennsylvania
Time: 14:00
Summary: One silver, football-shaped object about 150 feet across was observed by three witnesses on a road for over one minute (Hickman).
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: April-July Author, Fremont, 1982
Date: April 3, 1950
Location: Summerville, South Carolina
Time: 4:30 p.m. EST
Summary: A woman saw a very shiny object like a piece of pipe, moving very slowly at about 150 feet on a steady course for about three minutes, silently, directly over her home.
Source: Army letter; Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes A/C.
Date: April 3, 1950
Location: Gijón, Asturias, Spain
Time: 21:15
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Stendek
Date: April 4, 1950
Location: Washington, D.C.
Time: Unknown
Summary: The White House press secretary announced that the President and his top military aides denied that flying saucers are a secret government project or a foreign weapon, and the Secretary of Defense and other officials supported the denial.
Source: NICAP 1950 UFO Chronology (Brad Sparks)
Source Status: Context: a response to the March press stories that saucers were Soviet or U.S. secret weapons.
Date: April 4, 1950
Location: Grieskirchen, Upper Austria, Austria
Time: 05:00
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: April 4, 1950
Location: Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
Time: 05:00
Summary: Several lights were observed by two witnesses at the airfield for five minutes before departing by flying straight up until lost to sight.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: April-July Author, Fremont, 1982
Date: April 4, 1950
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Time: Night
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: April 5, 1950
Location: San Jose, California
Time: 11:20
Summary: A dull white disc flew over and was lost behind trees, departing rapidly to the northwest in 18 seconds.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: April-July Author, Fremont, 1982
Date: April 5, 1950
Location: Ironwood, Michigan
Time: 14:15
Summary: Two objects were observed by more than three witnesses.
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 5, 1950
Location: Denver, Colorado
Time: 14:40
Summary: Two silver discs were seen spinning and dipping, wobbling and maneuvering for ten minutes.
Source: Hatch, Larry
Date: April 5, 1950
Location: Ahoskie, Woodland and Hertford, North Carolina
Time: Late afternoon to about 19:30
Summary: Many witnesses saw a very bright red, rectangular, “neon tube” object, about 18 feet long and 2 feet thick, move slowly north at high altitude on a steady 360-degree course at about 25 degrees elevation on the western horizon for about five minutes. One card calls it white and cigar-shaped and files it under Ahoskie. The Third Army forwarded the Raleigh News and Observer clipping of April 6.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: April-July, Author, Fremont, 1982; Third Army G-2 transmittal of April 10, 1950; Project Blue Book record cards
Source Status: Blue Book concludes Other (Contrail).
Date: April 5, 1950
Location: Whitby, England
Time: Evening
Summary: Two rings were observed by several witnesses on the shore for over one minute.
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 5, 1950
Location: Meteor Crater, Arizona
Time: 20:50
Summary: A white nocturnal light hovered, made a sudden extremely fast maneuver, then shot up vertically and was lost among the stars; observed by several witnesses in the desert for over three minutes.
Source: Hatch, Larry
Date: April 6, 1950
Location: Mount Carroll, Illinois
Time: 10:00
Summary: One object was observed by three witnesses for 30 seconds (Law; Westbo).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 6, 1950
Location: Grenoble, Rhône-Alpes, France
Time: Daytime
Summary: One object was observed by several witnesses.
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 6, 1950
Location: Asmara, Maekel, Eritrea
Time: 13:00
Summary: One object was observed by several thousand witnesses in the town for 85 minutes.
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 6, 1950
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Time: 13:06
Summary: Two objects were observed by one witness for six seconds (Schnedorf).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 6, 1950
Location: Westfield, Massachusetts
Time: 16:45
Summary: A huge, noisy disc moved slowly to the west across the sky, making a roaring sound and giving off sparkles; observed by one witness in a residential area for five minutes (Krygowski; Sevila), with a roaring sound heard.
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 6, 1950
Location: Salamanca, Spain
Time: 19:30
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported in the city.
Source: Ballester Olmos, Vicente-Juan
Date: April 6, 1950
Location: Delano, California
Time: Evening (card: 2100 to 2250 PST)
Summary: A civilian reported a circular object about 25 feet across at about 200 feet over the south side of the city that seemed to whirl and “darted back and forth.”
Source: Air Force letter of April 10, 1950; Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Astro (Star/Planet).
Date: April 7, 1950
Location: Duncannon, Pennsylvania
Time: Unknown
Summary: Two railroad employees saw a disc the size of a large plane roughly 3,000 feet over their train; one disc was observed by the two male witnesses on the railroad for five minutes (Peary).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 7, 1950
Location: Newark, New Jersey
Time: Unknown
Summary: Electromagnetic effects were noted; a transient unexplained phenomenon was reported.
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: April 7, 1950
Location: St. Ignace, Michigan
Time: Unknown
Summary: Two ferrymen watched a disc race across the sky over the Straits, exhibiting a plasma-like glow; one disc was observed by the two male witnesses at a lake for five minutes (Angelson).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 7, 1950
Location: Jericho, Israel
Time: Unknown
Summary: Two silver discs, clearly seen, flew rapidly from north to south.
Source: Lumières Dans la Nuit
Date: April 7, 1950
Location: Fort Madison, Iowa
Time: 11:00
Summary: A silver, rotating disc flew past a pen factory, leaving a shower of sparks behind it; observed by four witnesses at the factory for over one minute.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: April-July Author, Fremont, 1982
Date: April 7, 1950
Location: Long Beach, California
Time: Daytime
Summary: A pink, pancake-shaped disc flipped across the sky; one pink disc was observed by two military witnesses on the shore for over one minute.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: April-July Author, Fremont, 1982; Brawley, California newspapers
Date: April 7, 1950
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Time: 16:30
Summary: A blue-white object with a lightning-like tail was seen by children playing a baseball game; observed by several children at a park for two minutes (Turkle).
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: April-July Author, Fremont, 1982
Date: April 7, 1950
Location: Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts
Time: About 9:55 p.m. EST
Summary: The CAA watch supervisor, an Air National Guard lieutenant colonel, and three controllers watched through binoculars a deep-blue, blurred elliptical light in the west that moved southwest to northeast at about the speed of an airplane. It turned white, returned to blue, split into two blue lights revolving around each other and climbed from 15 to 45 degrees, and a red object that glowed like molten metal appeared for 10 to 15 seconds. The overcast was at 16,000 feet. The supervisor tried searchlights and aircraft and found a meteorological explanation not completely satisfactory. [Full Report]
Source: Statement of the CAA watch supervisor, Logan Tower; Project Blue Book record card; NICAP 1950 UFO Chronology (Hynek, The UFO Report, pp. 65-68; BBU)
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Other (Inversion effects). NICAP lists the case as a Blue Book unknown.
Date: April 7, 1950
Location: Upper Sandusky, Ohio
Time: 18:29
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses (Widman).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 7, 1950
Location: El Centro, California
Time: 22:00
Summary: Hundreds of nocturnal lights were observed, some hovering, others darting about; observed by several witnesses on a farm for over 60 minutes.
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 7, 1950
Location: Oba, Ontario, Canada & Eton, Ontario, Canada
Time: Night
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses for over one minute (Brenell).
Source: Newspaper; Bloecher, Ted R.
Date: April 7, 1950
Location: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Time: 23:30
Summary: One object was observed by three witnesses (Baker).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 8, 1950
Location: San Francisco, California
Time: Unknown
Summary: Two disc-shaped objects buzzed a house, stopped, then moved up and around as if playing a game of tag; observed by one witness in the city for two minutes.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: April-July Author, Fremont, 1982
Date: April 8, 1950
Location: Niort, Poitou-Charentes, France
Time: 00:00
Summary: Two objects were observed for over four minutes (Dangibeault).
Source: Poher, Claude Etudes Statistiques Portant Sur 1000 Temoignages Author, undated
Date: April 8, 1950
Location: Kokomo, Indiana
Time: 2:00 a.m. CST
Summary: A sheet-metal fabricator awakened by his dog saw a grayish metal disc about 200 feet overhead, about 15 feet across and 50 feet around, shaped approximately like a child’s toy top, with a small conning tower on its top bulge and three small portholes on the rim showing a blue-white light. It rotated slowly, hovered about two minutes, then rose soundlessly and moved north. Fifth Army intelligence interviewed him on April 12. Blue Book’s card concludes UNIDENTIFIED. [Full Report]
Source: Headquarters Fifth Army letter of April 25, 1950; Project Blue Book record card; NICAP 1950 UFO Chronology (Berliner; BBU 706); Vallée, Magonia 75
Date: April 8, 1950
Location: Amarillo, Texas
Time: 11:00 or 15:00
Summary: Twelve-year-old David Lightfoot and his nine-year-old brother Charles saw a disc land behind a hill and walked up close enough to touch it. It was the size of a car tire, about 30 cm high, with a rounded, rotating top on a pivot connecting it to the base. It took off very fast to the northeast. The boys’ faces and arms later became red with welts.
Source: APRO; NICAP 1950 UFO Chronology (McDonald letter, via Jan Aldrich)
Source Status: Disputed. NICAP’s chronology dates the Lightfoot report April 29 and records that James McDonald re-interviewed the witnesses, who did not outright admit a hoax, but that after talking with the boy he concluded the story had no basis.
Date: April 8, 1950
Location: Shelby, North Carolina
Time: 12:00
Summary: Civilians reported in a newspaper that a round aluminum object moved southwest for two minutes, “wobbled” along its course and then shot straight up. A farm family of five watched it for over two minutes (Limerick).
Source: Project Blue Book record card (newspaper report); Project Blue Book
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Insufficient Data.
Date: April 8, 1950
Location: Tarbes, Midi-Pyrénées, France
Time: Daytime
Summary: One object was observed by several witnesses (Camps).
Source: Poher, Claude Etudes Statistiques Portant Sur 1000 Temoignages Author, undated
Date: April 8, 1950
Location: Henderson, Kentucky
Time: Afternoon
Summary: Cigar-shaped objects resembling 30-foot-diameter oil drums flew by in formation, leaving a trail of smoke; several cylinders about 40 feet across were observed by three witnesses on a farm for over one minute (Sowards).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 9, 1950
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Time: 5:30 p.m. CST
Summary: Seven civilians watched streaks of light moving at fighter-aircraft speed for two to three minutes and took a photograph, which Blue Book determined showed abrasions in the film.
Source: Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s list gives the conclusion Other (Crimp in negative).
Date: April 9, 1950
Location: Fort Ord, California
Time: 08:00
Summary: One object about 10 feet across was observed by four witnesses (as reported to the police) at a military facility for five minutes (Cross).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 9, 1950
Location: Hapeville, Georgia
Time: 13:00
Summary: A silent, bright red, six-meter-long pencil-shaped object flew south, flickering like a neon light; one red cylinder about 20 feet across was observed in the town for over one minute.
Source: Hitt, Michael Georgia UFO Phenomenon 1947-1987
Date: April 9, 1950
Location: Preston, England
Time: Afternoon
Summary: One object was observed by three female children.
Source: Awareness
Date: April 10, 1950
Location: Robbins AFB, Georgia
Time: About 2:10 a.m. (the scan of the card is partly unclear)
Summary: An Air Force sergeant saw a white-and-red, top-shaped object about 75 feet across at 500 to 700 feet that moved north, east and north again for four to five minutes, turned right and back left and gained altitude very rapidly.
Source: Air Force letter of April 11, 1950; Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes A/C.
Date: April 10, 1950
Location: York, Pennsylvania
Time: 10:45
Summary: Nine men on a road crew heard a whine and saw a six-meter-wide disc, 150 meters overhead, spewing fire and smoke with no propellers visible; one disc about 20 feet across was observed by the nine witnesses on the road for two minutes (Jenkins), with a whining sound heard.
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 10, 1950
Location: Lindsborg, Kansas
Time: 11:30
Summary: One object was observed for over one minute (Patchin).
Source: Scully, Frank Behind the Flying Saucers Holt, 1950
Date: April 10, 1950
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Time: Daytime
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses (Hardy).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 10, 1950
Location: Brookley AFB and Bates Field, Mobile, Alabama
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Summary: A USAF control tower operator, a civilian tower operator, and the pilots of two separate aircraft all saw an object flying northeast or east over Brookley AFB at 3,500 feet altitude, about 45° elevation from the Brookley tower, for 30 seconds.
Source: Willy Smith files; NICAP 1950 UFO Chronology (BBU)
Source Status: Blue Book’s card for the April 10 New Orleans and Brookley reports is a separate evening meteor sighting, listed below.
Date: April 10, 1950
Location: Bristol, Virginia
Time: 16:05
Summary: One object was observed by one witness for six seconds (Wood).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 10, 1950
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana, and Brookley AFB, Alabama
Time: 8:05 p.m. CST
Summary: Three reports described a fiery greenish-purple object about 2 degrees across that moved from west to east in 10 to 12 seconds with a buzzing sound like the exhaust of a large engine.
Source: Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Astro (Meteor).
Date: April 11, 1950
Location: San Francisco, California
Time: Noon
Summary: One object was observed by four witnesses (Montez).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 11, 1950
Location: Alatri, Lazio, Italy
Time: Daytime
Summary: A daytime disc was reported (Ceccarelli).
Source: Boncompagni, Solas UFO in Italia, Volume I (Periodo 1907-1953) Tedeschi, Firenze, 1974
Date: April 11, 1950
Location: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada
Time: 23:40
Summary: One disc was observed by one male witness briefly (Finn).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 12, 1950
Location: Reus, Tarragona, Spain
Time: 12:00
Summary: Two brothers traveling in a light truck saw a disc-shaped UFO, about one meter in diameter, hovering low over olive trees; it disappeared at very high speed within a few seconds.
Source: Rogerson, Peter Worldwide Catalog of Type 1 Reports
Date: April 12, 1950
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Time: 11:30 p.m. CST
Summary: A man awakened by his wife saw through the window a dark red or orange round object just over the lake, like a small sunset, about two miles to the northwest. It passed through 15 degrees of arc in about 10 seconds, descending at the speed of an aircraft landing.
Source: Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Probable A/C, and notes it could have been a seaplane landing on the lake.
Date: April 12, 1950
Location: Buffalo, New York
Time: 23:57
Summary: One object was observed by one witness (Williams).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 13, 1950
Location: Genoa, Liguria, Italy
Time: Unknown
Summary: A flying disc was observed.
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 13, 1950
Location: Kundl, Austria
Time: 08:40
Summary: A daytime disc was reported.
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: April 13, 1950
Location: Montclair, New Jersey
Time: 19:30
Summary: Fewer than 12 objects were observed by two witnesses for 30 minutes (Delapena).
Source: Newspaper
Date: April 14, 1950
Location: Volta Redonda, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Time: Unknown
Summary: A 23-year-old male witness (Restier) reported being abducted; an object about 80 feet across was observed for approximately four minutes.
Source: FSR (Flying Saucer Review)
Date: April 14, 1950
Location: Fort Monmouth, New Jersey
Time: 2:30 p.m. EST
Summary: An Army master sergeant near Port Monmouth saw four flat, amber, rectangular objects about 3 feet wide by 3 to 4 feet long and 1 foot thick fly south in a loose formation at about 2,000 feet and 75 to 100 mph. Each constantly changed places within the group while the whole formation rose and fell about 1,000 feet together, for three to four minutes, with no towing cable or conventional aircraft in sight. Blue Book’s card concludes UNIDENTIFIED. [Full Report]
Source: Fort Monmouth Security and Intelligence Division memorandum of April 17, 1950; Project Blue Book record card; NICAP 1950 UFO Chronology (Berliner; BBU 711)
Date: April 14, 1950
Location: Camarasa, Lleida, Spain
Time: 12:00
Summary: Witnesses saw a UFO come down into the water of a lake at a hydroelectric plant; it floated briefly, then submerged.
Source: Rogerson, Peter World-Wide Catalog of Type 1 Reports
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A Blue Light That Split, a Toy-Top Disc and Four Amber Slabs
Project Blue Book’s record cards sort the period. Kokomo and Fort Monmouth were left UNIDENTIFIED. Logan went down as inversion effects, Summerville, Robbins AFB and New Orleans as aircraft, Delano as a star or planet, the New Orleans and Brookley reports as a meteor, the Ahoskie and Hertford object as a contrail, and Shelby as insufficient data. The Logan supervisor’s statement is worth reading for its own sake: an experienced Air National Guard colonel who tried every explanation and still called the meteorological one not completely satisfactory.
Several reports on this page rest on a single source, including the Amarillo boys’ account, which NICAP says James McDonald investigated and found baseless, and it is marked Disputed here. The page also records the context for the month: the start of Project Twinkle’s contract on April 1 and the White House denial on April 4.
“…glowing red like a molten mass of metal.”
From the CAA watch supervisor’s statement on the April 7, 1950 Logan Airport sighting.
