Six defining cases from the March 11–20, 1950 UFO wave, headlined by the Farmington Armada.
1950: March 11th – 20th:
UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
Mid-March 1950 is when the Southwest’s reports collided with the eastern press. The Farmington, New Mexico “Armada” of March 15 to 18 drew crowds in the streets of Farmington, and on the afternoon of March 17 four Eighth Air Force airmen at Kirtland AFB, well over a hundred miles away, watched three tumbling objects, one of which shot straight up into cloud. In New Jersey, Fort Monmouth investigators took statements from witnesses to three vapor trails at sunset, and at Holloman AFB a photographed light followed a trip to Vaughn that led to a permanent observation program. The period closes with a Chicago and Southern Airlines crew’s close pass by a disc with a ring of purple portholes near Stuttgart, Arkansas, the case Project Blue Book left UNIDENTIFIED.
Date: March 11, 1950
Location: Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: More than one disc was observed by a male witness at an airport for 20 minutes.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 11, 1950
Location: Holloman AFB, New Mexico
Time: 1:00 a.m. MST
Summary: Maj. William J. Haynor, Holloman’s Air Provost Marshal, observed and photographed an aerial phenomenon at about 0100 hours on March 11, 1950; NICAP lists it as a five-minute sighting. Holloman’s report on its observation program places it after a March 2 trip to Vaughn, New Mexico, where about eight residents were interviewed, a link was found between visual reports and radio disturbances, and a three-point instrumentation plan was drawn up: Askania triangulation by Land-Air, Inc., a spectrum-grating Mitchell camera and frequency-spectrum analysis equipment. Blue Book’s card concludes Insufficient Data and notes the photograph is not in its file.
Source: Holloman AFB report on aerial phenomena (February 21, 1950 through April 1951); Project Blue Book record card; NICAP 1950 UFO Chronology (Sparks; Blue Book microfilm Roll 91, pp. 381-383, 469-470)
Date: March 11, 1950
Location: Punta Arenas, Chile
Time: Noon
Summary: Many inhabitants saw a silver, ping-pong-ball-shaped object at extreme altitude move from the northeast to the southwest. Prof. Frederico Rutland, director of the University of Chile’s astronomical observatory, told the press they were seeing Venus, which was clearly visible at that latitude that time of year.
Source: U.S. Air Attaché, Chile, report IR-42-50 (March 30, 1950); Los Angeles Times, March 12, 1950, as filed in Project Blue Book
Source Status: Blue Book’s Chile card concludes Venus, and the Punta Arenas clipping is filed as No Case (information only). NICAP lists the case as a Blue Book unknown (BBU), which the card does not support.
Date: March 11, 1950
Location: Biggs AFB, El Paso, Texas
Time: About noon MST
Summary: Capt. Alvin J. Ziegler (Hq Continental Division, MATS, Kelly AFB), 1st Lt. Billy Payne and Capt. Sterling Alford (Biggs AFB) saw a round white object, “cloudish but bright,” about the size of a quarter, move from south to west in straight, level flight at more than 20,000 feet. Alford, using a telescope, thought it half- or quarter-moon shaped, and a jet fighter sent to 20,000 feet could not reach it. There were scattered clouds at about 10,000 feet.
Source: MATS Continental Division message of March 14, 1950; Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Venus.
Date: March 11, 1950
Location: Nogales, Arizona
Time: 21:00
Summary: 36 objects were observed by one witness (Beyerley).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 11, 1950
Location: Chualar, California
Time: 21:00
Summary: A car was buzzed by a brilliant blue disc at 9:00 p.m. as it was being driven from Chualar to Salinas, California. The UFO made a loop, then shot off to the south. There were many calls to the authorities reporting sightings of the object.
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: March 12, 1950
Location: Calexico, Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: Several crescent-shaped objects were observed by a male witness in a city for 20 minutes, circling very high above the city, seen by the mayor and many others.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 12, 1950
Location: Hawthorne, California
Time: Daytime
Summary: An object was observed and photographed. One spindle-shaped object was observed by a female witness at an electric plant (Malles, B).
Source: Delaire, J. Bernard UFO Register Volume 6 (1975) Data Research, Oxford, 1975
Date: March 12, 1950
Location: Pacific City, Oregon
Time: 14:00
Summary: Photo of a turtle-shell shaped object, moved south to north over the ocean, with 6 portholes in the bottom; did not spin. One domed disc was observed by one male witness on the ocean for over one minute (Hermann, R).
Source: Arnold, Kenneth Coming of the Saucers Authors, Amherst, 1952
Date: March 12, 1950
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 15:30
Summary: One object was observed by one witness for over three minutes (Lucero).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 12, 1950
Location: Columbus, Montana
Time: 19:10
Summary: A featureless cigar-shaped object flamed as it flew to the northwest; a separate weatherman reported seeing it independently. More than one cigar-shaped object was observed by three witnesses at a mountain for over one minute.
Source: Hatch, Larry
Date: March 12, 1950
Location: Blackfoot, Sun Valley, Idaho
Time: 19:15
Summary: One object was observed by one witness briefly (Martindale).
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: March 12, 1950
Location: American Falls, Idaho
Time: 19:15
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses briefly (Hortin).
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: March 12, 1950
Location: Falfurrias, Texas
Time: 22:00
Summary: A plain, 4-meter-wide disc circled a ranch at 300 meters altitude for a few minutes, then flew off rapidly to the southwest toward Mexico.
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: March 12, 1950
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico
Time: 23:00
Summary: Two disc-shaped objects buzzed a terrified witness over the highway in front of their car. Two discs were observed by one witness on a road for over one minute.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 13, 1950
Location: Clarksburg, California
Time: 05:00
Summary: A glowing, saucer-shaped light descended, then hovered with a swaying motion over farm country, making a droning sound and remaining in the area for 15 minutes.
Source: Hall, Richard H. The UFO Evidence NICAP, Washington, 1964
Date: March 13, 1950
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: Meteorologists at the Mexico City airport, using weather-balloon tracking instruments, calculated an altitude of 35,000 to 40,000 feet for four objects seen by hundreds of people; an airline’s weatherman thought the one he saw an asteroid, and the Mexican Aviation Co.’s chief observer watched a half-moon shape through a telescope.
Source: United Press, March 14, 1950, as filed in Project Blue Book (No Case, information only).
Date: March 13, 1950
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Time: Unknown
Summary: Electromagnetic effects were noted; a transient, unexplained phenomenon was reported.
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: March 13, 1950
Location: Piñon De Los Baños, Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: A claimed “Martian spaceship,” 9 by 6 meters and said to be equipped with a powerful propeller and built of a metal that defies gravity, allegedly landed; the pilot reportedly engaged a local resident in fluent Spanish, describing underground Martian cities and plans to colonize Earth after humanity destroys itself in a future world war. A strong sulfur odor was reported after the craft departed. This entry is preserved as a contact-claim narrative rather than a documented physical event.
Source: Webb, David HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports
Date: March 13, 1950
Location: Denver, Colorado
Time: 06:05
Summary: One object was observed by four witnesses (Dunn; Padilla).
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: March 13, 1950
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Time: 12:00
Summary: Two saucers and two pear-shaped objects were observed at 10,000 feet altitude. Four discs were observed by one witness in-flight for over three minutes.
Source: Weinstein, Dominique Aircraft UFO Encounters Project ACUFOE, Paris, 1999
Date: March 13, 1950
Location: Near St. Johns, Michigan
Time: 2:15 p.m. EST
Summary: The pilot of a Piper Cruiser at 3,500 feet, about 15 miles north of Lansing, reported an object he could not identify at about 25,000 feet heading west-northwest at very high speed. Detroit’s air route traffic control center relayed it to the Wright-Patterson Flight Service Center within 15 minutes, and Selfridge had no jets in the Lansing area. Weather: scattered clouds at 3,000 feet and a deck at 25,000, visibility 10 to 15 miles.
Source: MATS Air Intelligence Information Report IR-88-50 (April 11, 1950); Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Insufficient Data.
Date: March 13, 1950
Location: Eunice, New Mexico
Time: 22:00
Summary: A dull red, glowing disc about 40 feet across flew east over an oilfield at 150 meters altitude, made a 90-degree turn, and accelerated to roughly 1,600 kph. One red disc was observed by two witnesses at an oil field for two minutes (Hedgepath).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 13, 1950
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Time: Night
Summary: One object was observed by one witness (Hendricks; Hutto).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 14, 1950
Location: Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: Two objects were observed.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 14, 1950
Location: Kailua, Hawaii
Time: Unknown
Summary: A farmworker sighted a silver disc trailing smaller shining streaks, flying rapidly to the northwest. One silver disc was observed on the shore for over one minute.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 14, 1950
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico
Time: 12:00
Summary: Teenagers saw a huge, shiny sphere hover over the mountains before making a sudden burst of speed to the northeast. One shiny sphere was observed by a male teenage witness at a mountain for two minutes (Richardson).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 14, 1950
Location: Vicenza, Italy
Time: 13:00
Summary: A close encounter with a craft and its occupants. A 6-meter-diameter metallic saucer with legs landed at a cemetery; six four-foot-tall humanoid figures were observed climbing ladders and gesturing before the craft departed rapidly to the northeast. One metallic disc was observed by one military witness for two minutes.
Source: Webb, David HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports
Date: March 14, 1950
Location: Piggott, Arkansas
Time: 4:00 p.m. CST
Summary: A man standing in front of a service station watched a white or aluminum-colored object, longer than wide and shaped like a 100-pound sack of potatoes, drift from west to east with the wind at about 60 degrees elevation and an estimated 8,000 feet for 10 to 20 minutes, silently, until it drifted out of sight. The day was clear.
Source: Fourth Army G-2 transmittal of April 6, 1950, with Incident No. 9052 interview form; Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s list concludes Balloon, and the card’s comment reads “Pillow balloon?”
Date: March 14, 1950
Location: Archon, Aquitaine, France
Time: 22:30
Summary: One object the size of the moon was observed by one witness for over four minutes (Serre).
Source: Poher, Claude Etudes Statistiques Portant Sur 1000 Temoignages Author, undated
Date: March 14, 1950
Location: Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Time: Night
Summary: One green, dome-shaped object roughly 40 feet across was observed at an airport for over three minutes, departing by rapidly flying straight up until lost to sight.
Source: Hill, H. Edward Catalog Through 1950
Date: March 14, 1950
Location: Pacific Beach, Washington
Time: Evening (teletype time group March 15 GMT)
Summary: An object first sighted bearing 360 degrees true was watched for four minutes. Its bearing changed to 272 degrees as it descended from 15 degrees elevation, it decelerated to a comparatively slow speed and made a series of incalculable movements while keeping its relative position, with only one major course change among apparently random movements. No color, sketches, photographs, sound or exhaust trail were reported. An Air Force civilian technical representative’s letter report was to follow.
Source: Air Force teletype to Continental Air Command and Fourth Air Force; Project Blue Book list of March 1950 sightings (Insufficient Data)
Date: Mid-March 1950
Location: Worcester, Massachusetts
Time: Around 11:00
Summary: Two objects were observed by one witness (Orsi).
Source: Unknown
Date: March 15, 1950
Location: Farmington, New Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: A single flying disc was observed over the town — the opening report of what became a four-day mass sighting event known as the “Farmington Armada.” See the Full Report for the complete incident record.
Source: Flying Saucers, Flying Saucers Magazine (Palmer)
Date: March 15, 1950
Location: Aspres-sur-Buëch, France
Time: 10:23
Summary: A hovering object was observed by two witnesses for over six minutes.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 15, 1950
Location: Orange, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France
Time: 10:47
Summary: Two Vampire jets on patrol at 6,000 feet and 250 kph spotted a UFO at 10,000 feet that began moving when first detected and gained altitude as the jets approached; it appeared silver, changed shape to elliptical as it moved rapidly east, and was observed for over six minutes.
Source: Poher, Claude Etudes Statistiques Portant Sur 1000 Temoignages Author, undated
Date: March 15, 1950
Location: Guatemala City Airport, Guatemala
Time: About 11:00 a.m.
Summary: Three TACA airline crew members from New Orleans told their company’s pilot, a USAF Reserve captain, that they had seen three or four shiny, oval, slightly elliptical silver objects, larger than a DC-4, pass directly over the airport runway from south to north at about 25,000 feet. The first flew about 30 miles north, turned left and came back south as the others followed in turn, at an estimated 1,000 mph and possibly 1,400 to 1,500 mph, with no exhaust and no sound. The captain, who did not see them, was interviewed by the OSI at Brookley AFB during a tour of active duty. A 1952 file shows the Air Force press office clearing a reply to an Associated Press inquiry about the case.
Source: Air Force OSI district report of April 11, 1950 (Lt. Col. Patrick W. Hayes, Maxwell AFB); Project Blue Book record card; Air Force Office of Public Information correspondence, February to April 1952
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Insufficient Data. The crew’s account reached the Air Force secondhand through the captain.
Date: March 15, 1950
Location: Prestonsburg, Kentucky
Time: 12:50
Summary: A loud roar accompanied three star-like discs as they slowed and maneuvered; two more were seen later. Five discs were observed by 36 children in a residential area for 50 minutes (Holbrook), with a roaring sound heard.
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 15, 1950
Location: Algorta, Spain
Time: Daytime
Summary: A daytime disc was reported.
Source: Ballester Olmos, Vicente-Juan
Date: March 15, 1950
Location: Little Silver, Fair Haven, Red Bank, Waterwitch and Oceanport, New Jersey
Time: 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. EST
Summary: At least five people, among them Fort Monmouth employees, reported three vertical vapor trails with bright objects at their heads moving from the southwest toward the ocean at high altitude at sunset, in clear weather. One saw three portholes with lights behind them, another three luminous discs with white streaks behind each, and one estimated 40,000 to 50,000 feet. A Signal Corps radio engineer watched the streaks for three to four minutes. They heard no sound. Fort Monmouth intelligence interviewed them on March 23 and 24 and reported them reliable.
Source: Signal Corps Center and Fort Monmouth reports (Cases 1023-1026) forwarded by First Army on April 18, 1950; Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book concludes Other (Contrails): the card says the several sources probably saw contrails from very high-flying aircraft.
Date: March 15, 1950
Location: Near Clearfield, Pennsylvania
Time: 18:15
Summary: Having stopped to make repairs on his car, Craig Hunter heard a whistling sound and saw a flying saucer about 300 feet up, which circled him at 60–70 mph before hovering; he reported seeing moving “images of human character” through windows in the lower section of the craft. A bluish-green object was reportedly shot at him, exploding 20 feet away in a brilliant white light lasting more than 30 seconds, after which the object flew off to the northwest. A passing truck driver, Ellis Yeager, stopped to help, saw the saucer, and drove away.
Source: William C. Baggs, Miami Daily News
Date: March 15, 1950
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Time: 22:00
Summary: Five white or aluminum-colored ovoid objects flew fast in formation, seen for 10 seconds.
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 15, 1950
Location: La Roche, France
Time: 23:30
Summary: A hovering object about one foot across was observed by three witnesses for 20 minutes.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 16, 1950
Location: Denver, Colorado
Time: Unknown
Summary: A hovering object was observed.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 16, 1950
Location: Miraflores, Peru
Time: Unknown
Summary: A Swiss engineer and his family saw a glowing disc stop overhead for five minutes before continuing rapidly to the north.
Source: Arnold, Kenneth Coming of the Saucers Authors, Amherst, 1952
Date: March 16, 1950
Location: La Paz, Bolivia
Time: Unknown
Summary: Two glowing discs were seen to the northeast, overhead, and away — local news coverage observed in a city for over one minute.
Source: Lumières Dans la Nuit
Date: March 16, 1950
Location: Delhi, Ontario, Canada
Time: 04:00
Summary: An “extra moon” jerked around the sky, generally heading rapidly to the south and quite fast. One object was observed by four male witnesses in a town for two minutes (Rapai).
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: March 16, 1950
Location: Farmington, New Mexico
Time: 10:00 and 11:00
Summary: Two waves of objects the day before the main mass sighting, part of the ongoing “Farmington Armada.” At 10:00, ten observers saw objects climb skyward to the northeast from over 20,000 feet, bright aluminum in color, oval-and-oblong in shape, for 30 minutes. At 11:00, the same observers saw a separate group turning on their axis and maneuvering up and down, luminous like tin foil, flat and spheroid, for 3–5 minutes. See the Full Report.
Source: AFOSI
Date: March 16, 1950
Location: Dallas, Texas
Time: Just before noon, 11:55
Summary: A Navy Chief Petty Officer at a Naval Air Station saw a flat, oval UFO pass under a B-36 bomber. Per Edward Ruppelt’s account, Chief Petty Officer Charles Lewis saw a disk-shaped UFO streak in from the north, lower than the B-36, then pull up to hover briefly beneath the bomber before speeding off and disappearing. The base commander, Captain M. A. Nation, vouched for his chief and noted tower operators had reported a UFO about ten days earlier.
Source: Condon Committee
Date: March 16, 1950
Location: San José Purua, Mexico
Time: 13:00
Summary: An American tourist filmed a double truncated cone (the film was later lost); animal reactions to the object were also reported. One cone-shaped object roughly 40 feet across was observed by one witness at a mountain for over an hour (Behen).
Source: Weinstein, Dominique Aircraft UFO Encounters Project ACUFOE, Paris, 1999
Date: March 16, 1950
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Time: 17:45
Summary: An unidentified object was sighted by multiple independent witnesses. One object was observed by a male witness at a mountain for 30 minutes (Wright).
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 17, 1950
Location: Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: A plane chased a 30-meter-diameter disc at 10 km altitude, seen by the aircrew and four pilots on the ground. One disc roughly 150 feet across was observed by several witnesses for two minutes.
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: March 17, 1950
Location: Crescentino, Piedmont, Italy
Time: Unknown
Summary: A flying disc was observed by several witnesses.
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: March 17, 1950
Location: Ankara, Turkey
Time: Unknown
Summary: Six bluish-white, disc-shaped objects turned in the sky over the city, then shot straight up and vanished from sight. Observed by several witnesses for over one minute.
Source: Lumières Dans la Nuit
Date: March 17, 1950
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: 03:07 – 04:45
Summary: A series of five separate observations by one reliable witness across the pre-dawn hours: an orange-and-green object dropped straight down for 2–2.5 seconds before an apparent impact or disintegration; a greenish-yellow round object about 1/4 the size of the full moon moved level to the northeast for three seconds before disappearing like a light going out; a green-turning-yellow spherical object of similar size climbed, changed color, then fell and vanished suddenly over five seconds; a reddish-then-green object appeared to fall toward earth over one second; and a small, round green object formed an arc and fell in free fall over five seconds.
Source: AFOSI
Date: March 17, 1950
Location: Roslyn, Long Island, New York
Time: 9:30 a.m. EST
Summary: A woman driving from Northport to New York City, between East Norwich and Roslyn, saw what she took for sky-writing at extreme altitude, then an object that dropped away from the trail, descended slowly and came closer, looking like a tennis ball and then like two plates placed face to face. It changed direction and went due west out of sight after about ten minutes. Her husband was an aeronautical engineer, and she wrote to Project Saucer that it was not a conventional jet, propeller aircraft, balloon or parachute.
Source: Letter to Project Saucer, Wright-Patterson Field; Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes A/C (aircraft).
Date: March 17, 1950
Location: Farmington, New Mexico
Time: 10:15
Summary: The climax of the “Farmington Armada”: first reports came in at 10:15 a.m., and for the following hour the sky reportedly filled with saucer-shaped objects, estimated from a conservative 500 up to “thousands,” seen by most of the town’s 3,600 residents including the mayor, newspaper staff, ex-pilots, and highway patrol. The objects darted and reversed at extreme speed with no fixed flight path. The most-cited explanation involves a brittle, high-altitude Skyhook balloon launched from Holloman AFB shattering into thousands of drifting plastic fragments. Project Blue Book’s file classes the Farmington sightings as a balloon observation, citing a later book passage describing a Skyhook balloon launched from Holloman that morning that burst at 60,000 feet and scattered plastic fragments. The Full Report examines that explanation.
Source: Condon Committee
Date: March 17, 1950
Location: Las Vegas, New Mexico
Time: 11:35
Summary: Hovering objects were observed. Several objects were observed by two witnesses for a few seconds (Gerdeman; Hilgers).
Source: Eberhart, George M. A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980. ISBN: 0-313-21337-2
Date: March 17, 1950
Location: Ironton, Michigan
Time: 13:12
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses at a lake for seven minutes (Shantz).
Source: Arnold, Kenneth Coming of the Saucers Authors, Amherst, 1952
Date: March 17, 1950
Location: Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 3:00 p.m. MST
Summary: An Eighth Air Force captain and three technical sergeants on the Operations ramp saw three silver-and-dark objects tumbling at 10,000 to 12,000 feet. One rose vertically at high speed into cloud, and the other two drifted away, one north and one northeast, the latter in view for 15 minutes. The Eighth Air Force intelligence report called them unidentifiable and said the witnesses had ruled out parachutes, balloons and radar reflectors. Blue Book’s card concludes Balloon. [Full Report]
Source: Eighth Air Force Air Intelligence Information Report of March 21, 1950; Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s folder also holds a book passage attributing the Farmington sightings of the same day to a burst Skyhook balloon.
Date: March 17, 1950
Location: Tucumcari, New Mexico
Time: 15:00
Summary: Many objects were observed by numerous witnesses in a town for 30 minutes.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 17, 1950
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: 15:00
Summary: One object was observed by three witnesses near a nuclear test site for 105 minutes.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 17, 1950
Location: Adams Field, Little Rock, Arkansas
Time: 4:30 p.m. CST
Summary: A 50-year-old flight operator with 25 years of flying, 500 feet up in the landing pattern, saw six to twelve dark, round or octagonal objects against the setting sun, 10 to 15 miles away at 30 degrees elevation. They first looked like a large plane, then like a formation of aircraft, flew southeast and then southwest, and he lost sight of them for about two minutes as he turned. A student in the plane saw them too. The Arkansas Air National Guard’s operations officer listed four local flights that could have been involved.
Source: Fourth Army G-2 transmittal of March 24, 1950, with Incident No. 5051 interview form; Project Blue Book list of March 1950 sightings
Source Status: Blue Book’s list concludes A/C.
Date: March 18, 1950
Location: San Bernardino, California
Time: Unknown
Summary: An unidentified but otherwise conventional-appearing object was sighted; electromagnetic effects were noted, and a transient unexplained phenomenon was reported.
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: March 18, 1950
Location: Erie, Pennsylvania
Time: Unknown
Summary: A hovering object was observed by one witness.
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: March 18, 1950
Location: Livorno-Volterra, Italy
Time: Unknown
Summary: Flying discs were observed. Two discs were observed by several witnesses.
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 18, 1950
Location: Over Bradford, Illinois
Time: 8:05 a.m. CST
Summary: The pilot of a private aircraft, N505B, reported a saucer-shaped object at about 8,000 feet moving southeast at about 200 mph. The report went through Burlington, Iowa radio and the Chicago air route traffic control center to the Wright-Patterson Flight Service Center at 0833. Weather: 25,000 broken, 12,000 scattered, visibility 12 miles.
Source: MATS Air Intelligence Information Report IR-88-50 (April 11, 1950); Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Possible A/C. NICAP’s summary of the Bradford report describes an illuminated oval, which the card does not.
Date: March 18, 1950
Location: Farmington, New Mexico
Time: 10:30
Summary: A final reprise of the “Farmington Armada”: a large number of saucers performing aerobatics appeared over the town around noon before flying away at an estimated 1,000 mph, closing out four consecutive days of activity. See the Full Report.
Source: Trench, Brinsley LePoer Flying Saucer Story Tandem, 1973
Date: March 18, 1950
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Time: 11:30
Summary: Six airline pilots on the tarmac at Atlanta Municipal Airport reported a silent, aluminum-colored disc moving rapidly to the southwest at 6,000–7,000 feet before making an “impossible climb.”
Source: Hitt, Michael Georgia UFO Phenomenon 1947-1987
Date: March 18, 1950
Location: Ironwood, Michigan
Time: 12:15
Summary: A hovering object was observed by more than two witnesses for over one minute.
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 18, 1950
Location: Montevideo, Uruguay
Time: 15:45
Summary: A daytime disc was reported.
Source: Petrowitsch, Pablo
Date: March 18, 1950
Location: Lago Argentino, Argentina
Time: 18:30
Summary: Rancher Wilfredo Arévalo saw a large disc land while a second hovered above it. He approached to within 150 yards; the landed craft gave off a greenish-blue vapor and a strong smell of burning benzene. Above it, a large flat disc rotated “like a phonograph record”; through a transparent central cabin he reportedly saw four tall, pale-faced men dressed in “cellophane,” working at instruments. The craft then shone a searchlight on him, lit up blue, and rose with red and green flames and a faint hum; both craft departed leaving bluish trails. Burnt grass was found at the site the next day, and several other witnesses saw the craft in flight. See the Full Report.
Source: Hanlon, Donald The Humanoids
Date: March 18, 1950
Location: Leuven, Flemish Brabant, Belgium
Time: Evening
Summary: Nocturnal lights were observed by several witnesses.
Source: SOBEPS
Date: March 19, 1950
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Time: 13:00
Summary: Four objects were observed by five witnesses in a city for a few seconds (Moore).
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: March 19, 1950
Location: Chehalis, Washington
Time: Afternoon
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses briefly (Boorman).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 19, 1950
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Time: 17:45
Summary: One object was observed by numerous witnesses.
Source: Bloecher, Ted R.
Date: March 19, 1950
Location: Guijuelo, Salamanca, Spain
Time: 18:15
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses in a town for over three minutes.
Source: Data-Net Report
Date: March 20, 1950
Location: New York, New York
Time: 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. EST
Summary: A photographer from Underhill Studio, 17 Park Place, taking a night view of Manhattan from the Queensboro Bridge walkway looking southwest, found a glowing shape in the sky on his print and months later sent it to the Air Force. Air Materiel Command’s two photographic analysts and an astronomer concluded it was the moon, smeared by a five-to-ten-minute time exposure and dimmed by cloud, noting that a new moon on March 18 would show only a sharp crescent that evening and that a streak of light in the lower right is typical of a moving ground vehicle. The studio’s manager said the object may have been brushed out before the print was delivered, and the photographer saw nothing in the air. [Full Report]
Source: Air Force OSI 2nd District report of December 8, 1950; Air Materiel Command memorandum of December 1950 to January 1951; Project Blue Book photo file
Source Status: Explained: the moon in a time exposure.
Date: March 20, 1950
Location: La Serena Estación, Chile
Time: 02:30
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Petrowitsch, Pablo
Date: March 20, 1950
Location: Clovis, New Mexico (BBU)
Time: 09:00
Summary: A USAF T-6 pilot 35 miles southeast of Clovis saw a white, spherical object that elongated while flying at an estimated 2,000 mph.
Source: AFOSI
Date: March 20, 1950
Location: Las Vegas, New Mexico
Time: 11:50
Summary: Two objects were observed by two witnesses (Gallegos).
Source: Bloecher, Ted R.
Date: March 20, 1950
Location: Greenwood, Missouri
Time: 12:30
Summary: A bright, strange object of unconventional appearance and performance disappeared suddenly. One object was observed by two witnesses in-flight for ten minutes.
Source: Weinstein, Dominique Aircraft UFO Encounters Project ACUFOE, Paris, 1999
Date: March 20, 1950
Location: 15 miles north of Stuttgart, Arkansas
Time: 9:26 p.m. CST
Summary: The captain and co-pilot of a Chicago and Southern Airlines flight from Memphis to Little Rock (Capt. Jack Adams and First Officer G. W. Anderson, per the Blue Book summaries) saw a circular object about 100 feet across, with an extremely bright blinking light on top and a ring of 9 to 12 purple-lit portholes underneath, cross their path at about half a mile and 1,000 feet higher, flying straight and level at an estimated 1,000 mph or more for 25 to 35 seconds. Blue Book’s card concludes UNIDENTIFIED. [Full Report]
Source: 516th Troop Carrier Wing interrogation report of March 22, 1950; Project Blue Book record card
Date: March 20, 1950
Location: Houston, Texas
Time: Afternoon
Summary: More than eight objects were observed by one witness for two minutes (Jeanes; Smith).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 20, 1950
Location: Villach, Kärnten, Austria
Time: 20:00
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: March 20, 1950
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico
Time: Evening
Summary: More than one object was observed by two witnesses (Ortiz).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 20, 1950
Location: San Vicente, Libertador General Bernardo O’Higgins, Chile
Time: Night
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Petrowitsch, Pablo
Date: March 20, 1950
Location: Asiago, Veneto, Italy
Time: 23:00
Summary: One object was observed by a male witness.
Source: Doubt Magazine
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Farmington Over the Town, and the Cards That Closed the Rest
Project Blue Book’s record cards sort these days. Stuttgart is the case it left UNIDENTIFIED. Kirtland and Piggott became balloons, Little Silver became contrails, Roslyn, Little Rock and Bradford became aircraft, Punta Arenas and Biggs AFB became Venus, and Guatemala, St. Johns and Pacific Beach were closed for insufficient data. The Kirtland report is unusual because the Air Force intelligence officer who wrote it called the objects definite and unidentified, and the card overruled him with one handwritten word.
The Farmington sightings sit in the middle of the record. Blue Book’s own file for them is a book passage about a burst Skyhook balloon, and the Full Report weighs that explanation.
“…two plates placed face to face.”
From the Roslyn, New York witness’s letter to Project Saucer, March 17, 1950.
