1950: August UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive

August 1950 produced one of the most famous pieces of UFO film evidence ever captured — Nick Mariana’s Great Falls, Montana footage — alongside a dense run of military radar-visual cases spanning England, Cyprus, Bermuda, and Newfoundland, and a pair of remarkable Holloman AFB sightings that closed out the month with a failed jet interception. The month’s entity content ranges from a shape-shifting figure in rural Greece to a childhood chapter of the extensively documented Andreasson abduction case, both documented in full via the standalone reports linked below.

Date: August 1950
Location: Agia Mavra Village, Ilia, Greece
Time: Daytime
Summary: Miltiades Boyopoulos, at a location called Gefyria, saw a woman dressed in black walking toward him. When the distance between them had closed to about six meters, the woman suddenly shrank until she was the height of a ten-year-old child, made a 90-degree turn to the left, and entered the tall vegetation of a nearby crop. The witness was terrified.
Source: Makis Nodaros

Date: August 1950
Location: Águilas, Murcia, Spain
Time: Night
Summary: A man named Mendoza, finishing an outdoor film screening and cleaning the projector’s filters, noticed a bright light descend and hover silently overhead. A telepathic voice instructed him to write; looking up, he saw a huge luminous sphere suspended in midair. Lacking paper, he used carbon paper from the projector and chalk to record a message from an entity identifying itself as “Messenger Herion,” said to be from the fourth planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. The message concerned the virtues of Earth and its inhabitants, referenced a coming universal “Absolute Truth,” and was dated to the year 10,860 from the sinking of Atlantis. The sphere then departed silently.
Source: Grupo Tseyor, Barcelona, Spain

Date: August 3, 1950
Location: Dardennes, Var, France
Time: 14:00
Summary: Three-year-old Lily F. went to play in a field belonging to a local merchant and failed to return home. Her parents searched the area for over two hours without success before finding her sitting peacefully at the bottom of a small ravine, essentially unharmed. According to the child, she had been cared for by a “beautiful lady” in a brilliant white costume who comforted her.
Source: Denys Breysse, Project Bécassine

Date: August 4, 1950
Location: Approximately 100 miles southeast of New York City
Time: 10:00 a.m. EDT
Summary: Master Nils Lewring, Chief Mate Jacob Koelwyn, and the Third Mate of the M/V Marcala saw a roughly 10-foot elliptical, half-egg or cylindrical object with a shiny aluminum or metallic-white surface sparkling in sunlight, approaching from the southwest heading northeast at 50-100 feet altitude. It closed to within an estimated 1,000 feet to 10 miles (accounts vary), moving at 25 to 500 mph (accounts vary) with a churning or rotary motion, accelerating at the end of the sighting, which lasted from 15 seconds to a minute and a half.
Source: Berliner; Tony Rullan; NICAP

Date: August 7, 1950
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico (BBU)
Time: Approximately 4:00 a.m.
Summary: USAF fighter pilot Frazier of the 93rd Fighter Interceptor Squadron saw a black object at 20,000 feet disappear into the distance.
Source: Project 1947; FUFOR Index

Date: August 14, 1950
Location: 10 miles north of Cromer, England (BBU)
Time: 1:22 p.m. GMT
Summary: RAF Fighter Command’s Neatishead radar station tracked an unidentified aircraft near Cromer at 15,000 feet, traveling roughly 375 mph. Two RAF Meteor jet fighters, led by 257 Squadron’s Flight Lt. Kartley, were scrambled at 1:24 p.m. and airborne by 1:27 p.m. Radar then tracked the target climbing to 40,000 feet; the jets, climbing to 25,000-30,000 feet, reached a position 10 miles north of Cromer at 1:35 p.m. and saw two vapor trails — suggesting to the pilots widely spaced engines on a single aircraft — at great distance and higher altitude, on a parallel heading of 280°. The jets closed to a radar-tracked range of about 5 miles while keeping the contrails in sight, getting slightly ahead of them without further resolving the object.
Source: Jan Aldrich

Date: August 15, 1950
Location: Great Falls, Montana
Time: Approximately 11:25-11:29 a.m.
Summary: Nick Mariana, general manager of the Great Falls “Electrics” minor-league baseball team, and his secretary Virginia Raunig were at Legion Stadium preparing for that afternoon’s game when they saw two bright, rotating, disc-shaped objects crossing the sky. Mariana ran for his 16mm color movie camera and captured roughly 315 frames — about 16 seconds — of the objects as small silvery points of light. The Air Force’s own investigation concluded the objects were most likely reflections off two F-94 jet fighters known to be in the area, though this explanation has been challenged by independent analysts, and portions of the film showing the objects at closer range with visible rotating rims were reportedly missing when the footage was returned by the Air Force. See the Full Report.
Source: NICAP, UFO Evidence, 1964; Project Blue Book files; Dr. Robert M. L. Baker Jr., photogrammetric analysis

Date: August 20, 1950
Location: Nicosia, Cyprus (BBU 793, possibly 783)
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Summary: USAF MATS liaison officer Lt. William G. Ghormley, Col. William V. Brown, and Lt. Col. Lloyd W. Brauer heard an aircraft overhead (a Turkish C-47 heading to Beirut at 9,500 feet) and looked up, instead spotting a small, round or elliptical, bright object directly overhead traveling west at very high speed and altitude, moving somewhat erratically as it passed near the glare of the sun with no change in brightness, before disappearing 30-35 degrees above the horizon in clear weather with 50-plus miles visibility. The sighting lasted 15-20 seconds.
Source: Jan Aldrich

Date: August 24, 1950
Location: About 250 miles southwest of Bermuda (BBU 787)
Time: 8:04-8:27 p.m. AST
Summary: A USAF 373rd Reconnaissance Squadron B-29, piloted by 1st Lt. Frank J. Stockton and flying at 10,000 feet, had radarman S/Sgt. William W. Shaffer track a distinct, bright, unidentified target moving at the same speed and heading as the bomber, roughly 1,000 feet lower and a mile and a half away. Two officers independently verified the radar readings; a visual search found nothing, likely due to cloud cover. The target held position for several minutes, fell behind, was overtaken by the B-29, then passed the bomber on the right before turning away and accelerating rapidly out of radar range at roughly 460 mph. Minutes later, a crew member saw a bluish streak flash past the aircraft from head-on, resembling a meteor but dimmer than lightning.
Source: Jan Aldrich

Date: August 27, 1950
Location: Near Brockton, Massachusetts (BBU)
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Summary: USN radio mechanic and licensed civilian pilot John T. Early, flying with passenger Russell Des-Jardins at 1,300 feet, spotted a shiny white spherical object roughly 20 feet in diameter, with no visible projections or irregularities, at least 1,000 feet below their aircraft, moving east at high (possibly jet) speed with no exhaust smoke or unusual noise.
Source: Jan Aldrich

Date: August 30, 1950
Location: Ernest Harmon AFB, Newfoundland
Time: 0545Z (1:15 a.m. local)
Summary: A GCA scope picked up an object traveling at an estimated 40-60 mph at 4,000-6,000 feet on a course of 120 degrees, which paused for 30 seconds upon reaching the 5-mile ring. A blip on a second scope then veered to a heading of roughly 210 degrees, then 140 degrees, disappearing at approximately 9 miles’ range. No aircraft were in the GCA area at the time.
Source: Dan Wilson

Date: August 30, 1950
Location: South of Sandy Point/Indian Head, Newfoundland, Canada (BBU 790)
Time: 1:30-1:50 p.m. ADT
Summary: Three civilian Harmon AFB Water Transportation Section employees — John Kaeel, Fred Messervery, and John Smith — in a boat about two miles south of Indian Head saw a black or dark, round, barrel-sized object resembling a large balloon, roughly three miles offshore, hovering just above the water. After a few minutes it slowly ascended to 15-20 feet, then descended again, cycling this way three times over 40-60 seconds each; on the final cycle it remained near the surface for three to four minutes before ascending vertically out of sight at 1:50 p.m. A helicopter search launched shortly afterward found nothing. A similar object was separately reported near Kippens around 2:00 p.m. the same day.
Source: Jan Aldrich

Date: August 30, 1950
Location: South of Kippens, Newfoundland, Canada (BBU 790)
Time: Around 2:00 and again around 4:00 p.m. ADT
Summary: William Alexander, his son Bill, and nephew Austin Alexander, fishing in a dory about 1.5 miles offshore from Kippens, saw a black or yellowish-brown object roughly the size of their dory (about 20 feet), some 1.5-2 miles away, and 15-20 feet above the water — shaped like a large aerial gunnery target balloon or a barrel with a pole or periscope trailing into the water, moving toward shore at 3-5 mph. The object disappeared over the horizon and was briefly re-sighted from high ground ashore around 4:00 p.m. It was reported to the USAF at 4:10 p.m.; a helicopter search launched at 4:20 p.m. found nothing. No smoke, exhaust, noise, or markings were observed.
Source: Jan Aldrich

Date: August 30, 1950
Location: Holloman AFB, Alamogordo, New Mexico (BBU)
Time: 10:45 a.m.
Summary: During a Bell Aircraft MX-776 Shrike missile test (a precursor to the Rascal air-to-ground strategic missile), a USAF Master Sergeant and eight Bell Aircraft employees on base saw two glaringly bright, circular-to-elliptical unidentified objects maintain relative position to each other while following the B-50 launch aircraft on both a dry run and the live missile release. The objects gave off a strong glare not attributable to reflected sunlight, maneuvered at estimated speeds up to ten times the B-50’s own (roughly 2,500 mph) over short distances, left no vapor trails, hovered, accelerated rapidly, and made abrupt right-angle turns with apparent size changes suggesting ascent and descent, over a 30-minute observation period.
Source: Sparks; Jan Aldrich; McDonald files

Date: August 31, 1950
Location: Holloman AFB, Alamogordo, New Mexico (BBU)
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. MST
Summary: Following V-2 missile launch No. 51, Project TWINKLE Askania theodolite crews tracked and filmed multiple objects sporadically from several directions at very high speeds over roughly three hours. Cinetheodolite station P-5 filmed one object using color film, with two seconds of footage showing its elevation angle changing at 0.37 degrees per second. A four-F-86 jet interception attempt from the 93rd Fighter Interceptor Squadron, Kirtland AFB, failed over an hour to locate the objects, which apparently returned only after the jets left the area. Cinetheodolite observers described an object with a definite shape and three-dimensional depth but indistinct edges, no smoke or trail, an apparent rocking or oscillating motion, and a tendency to be lost from sight whenever the observer looked away to check an angle reading.
Source: Sparks; McDonald files; Jan Aldrich

Date: Fall 1950
Location: Westminster, Massachusetts
Time: Morning
Summary: Thirteen-year-old Betty Aho (later Betty Andreasson, subject of the extensively documented Andreasson Affair) reportedly saw an object “like a moon” grow larger before becoming unable to move; she then found herself inside a misty white room, examined by three small gray-skinned beings with large oval heads and eyes, before an elaborate journey involving an underwater tunnel of preserved humans, a meeting with a robed figure called “The One,” and the removal and replacement of her right eye. This account was not reported in 1950 — it was recovered decades later, around 1977-1982, under hypnotic regression as part of investigator Raymond Fowler’s inquiry into Betty’s better-known 1967 adult encounter. See the Full Report for the complete account and analysis of the hypnotic-recovery method’s limitations.
Source: Raymond E. Fowler, The Andreasson Affair: Phase Two, 1982

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

From a Montana Ballpark to a Failed Jet Intercept

August 1950 is bookended by two of the archive’s most historically significant cases: the Great Falls, Montana film footage, one of the earliest and most analyzed motion-picture UFO records, and the closing Holloman AFB Project TWINKLE case, in which a four-jet interception attempt failed to locate objects that had been actively tracked and filmed by theodolite crews only hours earlier. Between them, the month produced an unusually dense run of military radar-visual cases — England, Cyprus, Bermuda, and three separate Newfoundland sightings within a single day — reflecting the period’s intensive Cold War-era aerial monitoring infrastructure. The Westminster, Massachusetts entry is presented with particular care: though dated to 1950 within its own narrative, it was recovered only decades later through hypnotic regression as part of the celebrated Andreasson Affair, a method this archive treats as producing sincere but historically unverifiable testimony.

“Object with definite shape and 3-D depth but indistinct or not sharp edges… lost when observer looked away to get angle reading.”

— Cinetheodolite observers, Project TWINKLE, Holloman AFB, August 31, 1950