Six defining cases from the March 21–31, 1950 UFO wave, from military radar trackings to the Samuel Eaton Thompson Venusian contact claim.
1950: March 21st – 31st
UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
The last eleven days of March 1950 begin with four enlisted men at Kirtland AFB and Sandia Base reporting silver objects that darted and reversed, and end with Samuel Eaton Thompson’s claim of contact with Venusians. In between, three cases stood out in the Air Force’s own files: an Army radar operator on Okinawa who tracked a target that sat stationary for ten minutes and then ran at 500 mph, an Air Attaché sergeant who spent an hour on the Santiago Embassy roof trying to disprove a saucer scare and then saw something he could not explain, and two Nashville fishermen who watched a flock of five-foot bomb-shaped objects pass 200 feet overhead. Most of the month’s other reports, from Brunswick to Selma, were closed as aircraft, balloons, meteors and reflections.
Date: March 21, 1950
Location: Gainchurizqueta, Spain
Time: 00:30
Summary: Objects moving with a falling-leaf motion were observed by two male witnesses at a mountain for six seconds.
Source: Data-Net Report
Date: March 21, 1950
Location: General Belgrano, Córdoba, Argentina
Time: 03:00
Summary: One object was observed.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 21, 1950
Location: Zaragoza, Spain
Time: 04:30
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Data-Net Report
Date: March 21, 1950
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: Morning
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses near a nuclear test site (Griffin).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 21, 1950
Location: Rapid City, South Dakota
Time: 10:00
Summary: A daytime disc was reported in a city for two minutes.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 21, 1950
Location: Barra do Douro, Portugal
Time: 11:30
Summary: A daytime disc was observed by a male witness.
Source: Data-Net Report
Date: March 21, 1950
Location: Idyllwild, California
Time: Daytime
Summary: One object, about 150 feet across, was observed by 100 witnesses for four hours (Elder).
Source: Scully, Frank Behind the Flying Saucers Holt, 1950
Source Status: “The four-hour, hundred-witness account rests on a single source (Frank Scully’s lineage) and has no Blue Book or NICAP counterpart.
Date: March 21, 1950
Location: Kirtland AFB / Sandia Base, New Mexico
Time: 13:00 – 13:20
Summary: A cluster of four separate observations across twenty minutes: one witness at Sandia Base tracked a round object, shiny silver fading to shady gray, moving northeast to southeast at 40,000–60,000 feet for 30 minutes at roughly jet speed before it disappeared. Four witnesses at Kirtland AFB independently tracked a bright silver, dime-sized round object moving in a zigzag southeast to south for one minute at fast-jet speed. A single Sandia Base witness saw a white round object moving east at roughly 600–700 mph for five minutes. A separate Sandia Base witness saw two silver round objects moving east to southwest at excessive-to-jet speed over ten minutes, fading gradually from view.
Source: AFOSI NICAP and Gross (M/Sgt Guy Johnson, S/Sgt R. E. Bedwell, Sgt C. D. Byzewski and Sgt M. B. Woodward)
Date: March 21, 1950
Location: Miranda de Ebro, Spain
Time: 15:00
Summary: One object was observed by more than three witnesses.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 21, 1950
Location: Houston, Texas
Time: 15:35
Summary: Seven objects were observed by one witness for five minutes (Bradley; Rhodes).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 22, 1950
Location: Villarta de San Juan, Ciudad Real, Spain
Time: 05:45 – 05:50
Summary: Two industrialists driving through the province saw a bright blue, cloud-like object emitting an intense light; it appeared to collide with a second object, and the phenomenon was seen roughly 20 times over the course of their drive.
Source: Rogerson, Peter Worldwide Catalog of Type 1 Reports
Date: March 22, 1950
Location: Near Montpelier, Vermont
Time: About 8:00 a.m. EST (1300Z)
Summary: A Barre restaurant operator saw an aircraft with three or four contrails at high altitude, which he took for a B-36 type, and two silver, bowling-ball-sized objects flying in formation with it, white on a 330-degree heading, that seemed to break up cirrus clouds as they passed. There was no sound or trail. Montpelier Radio Range passed the report to Boston Control. Rentschler Field had a modified B-29 on a three-hour test flight at about that time at 25,000 feet between Lake Winnipesaukee and Lake George.
Source: MATS Air Intelligence Information Report IR-88-50 (April 11, 1950); Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Other (Reflection), reading the objects as reflections from the aircraft.
Date: March 22, 1950
Location: Sandia Base, New Mexico
Time: 12:10
Summary: Three witnesses saw a round object, blue at the center with an orange exterior — resembling a Roman-candle ball — travel southeast to northwest on a line parallel to the horizon at roughly 30° azimuth per 1.5 seconds, over a total of 1.5–3 seconds before burning out.
Source: AFOSI NICAP, citing Sparks and Blue Book microfilm Roll 91 pp. 373-374 and 475-476
Date: March 22, 1950
Location: Kirtland AFB, New Mexico
Time: 11:00
Summary: Eleven members of the 4925th Test Group (Atomic) witnessed, in broad daylight, a tan-to-brown, flying-wing-shaped object northwest of the base, changing to due north, at 25,000–30,000 feet altitude, roughly golf-ball sized at arm’s length, moving at extremely high speed on a horizontal course for five to six seconds before disappearing.
Source: Loren E. Gross, UFOs: A History, 1950: January–March, and the AFOSI Spot Intelligence Report covering both days (per NICAP).
Date: March 22, 1950
Location: White River Junction, Vermont
Time: 12:10
Summary: One object was observed by 20 witnesses for ten minutes (Grant).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 22, 1950
Location: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Time: Daytime
Summary: Several objects were observed by one witness (Linfield).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 22, 1950
Location: Tarragona, Spain
Time: Daytime
Summary: A daytime disc was reported.
Source: CEONI
Date: March 22, 1950
Location: Berlin, Germany
Time: Afternoon
Summary: A daytime disc was reported.
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: March 22, 1950
Location: Hasselt, Limburg, Belgium
Time: 18:15
Summary: One object was observed by several witnesses for several minutes (Gerard).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 22, 1950
Location: Keewatin, Ontario, Canada
Time: 19:45
Summary: One object, about 2 feet across, was observed by one witness (Morden).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 22, 1950
Location: Madrid, Spain
Time: Night
Summary: More than two objects were observed by several witnesses.
Source: CEONI
Date: March 22, 1950
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Time: After 23:00
Summary: One object was observed by numerous witnesses for six seconds (Onama).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 23, 1950
Location: Idyllwild, California
Time: Unknown
Summary: Eight objects, about 40 feet across, were observed at an airport.
Source: Hill, H. Edward Catalog Through 1950
Date: March 23, 1950
Location: 85 miles northwest of Jacksonville, Florida
Time: 12:30 a.m. EST
Summary: 1st Lt. J. K. Hahn, piloting a 2104th Weather Group C-47 from Jacksonville toward Robins AFB, saw a blue-white flame about 50 to 75 feet long coming at him from his 11 o’clock position at very high speed. He took it for a jet’s exhaust, pulled up sharply, and the flame had vanished. T/Sgt. L. E. Young, looking from the cargo bay window, saw the flame approach with no object behind it, ran to the other side as the aircraft pulled up, and saw it disappear. The co-pilot and engineer saw nothing. Weather was CAVU with 15 miles’ visibility.
Source: Warner Robins Air Materiel Area spot report of March 29, 1950; Project Blue Book list of March 1950 sightings
Source Status: Blue Book concludes Astro (Meteor).
Date: March 23, 1950
Location: La Buitrera, Colombia
Time: 04:00
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Petrowitsch, Pablo
Date: March 23, 1950
Location: Zaragoza, Spain
Time: 04:30
Summary: One object was observed by one witness for a few seconds.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 23, 1950
Location: Pensacola, Florida
Time: 09:00
Summary: One metallic disc was observed at a military facility for 30 minutes.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 23, 1950
Location: Asti, Piedmont, Italy
Time: 12:30
Summary: A daytime disc was reported (Larizza).
Source: Boncompagni, Solas UFO in Italia, Volume I (Periodo 1907-1953) Tedeschi, Firenze, 1974
Date: March 23, 1950
Location: Yuma, Arizona
Time: Daytime
Summary: A hovering disc of huge size was observed at 20,000 feet over a park for two minutes before departing rapidly to the east at high speed (McCullen).
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 23, 1950
Location: El Moudzine, Morocco
Time: 18:45
Summary: One flying disc was observed for a few seconds.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 23, 1950
Location: Hörsching, Upper Austria, Austria
Time: 22:50
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported (Simon).
Source: Keul, A.
Date: March 23, 1950
Location: Havana, Cuba
Time: Night
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Petrowitsch, Pablo
Date: March 23, 1950
Location: Jalapa Enríquez, Veracruz, Mexico
Time: Night
Summary: The Mexican newspaper El Universal reported at least 300 disc-shaped UFOs seen zooming around the sky above the city.
Source: Arnold, Kenneth Coming of the Saucers Authors, Amherst, 1952
Date: March 24, 1950
Location: Willows, California
Time: Unknown
Summary: One silver disc was observed for ten minutes.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 24, 1950
Location: Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada
Time: Unknown
Summary: A couple saw an unusual object about 200 feet above the ground “streaking through the air” over the town.
Source: Thunder Bay Public Library, “The Flying Saucer Frenzy of 1950,” TBPL Research Blog, January 12, 2025 (citing Port Arthur and Fort William newspaper reports of March 1950)
Source Status: The library notes this report and the Geraldton one had plausible explanations.
Date: March 24, 1950
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico
Time: Morning
Summary: One object was observed by 20 witnesses briefly (Coco).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 24, 1950
Location: Eisden, Belgium
Time: 13:25
Summary: One object was observed by three male witnesses at a mine for over one minute (Maes; Peters).
Source: SOBEPS
Date: March 24, 1950
Location: Sioux City, Iowa
Time: Around 15:00
Summary: One object was observed by one witness.
Source: Bloecher, Ted R.
Date: March 24, 1950
Location: Sandia Base, New Mexico
Time: 3:00 to 3:47 p.m. MST
Summary: Four soldiers of the 8450th MP Group saw silver objects over the Sandia Mountains. Pfc William B. Gault saw a softball-sized, square-looking object at 45 degrees that stood still, then moved north at about 700 mph in a looping motion; Cpl William Schmidt a moon-sized round silver object to the east flying south at about 100 mph for three or four minutes; Cpl Davis M. Gear a bright silver object going northeast; and Pvt Henry D. McKinn four silvery, spinning objects about 18 inches long at about 7,000 feet, which he first thought were paper, that flew north at about 150 mph, then about 700, level and then straight up. The weather was clear with good visibility.
Source: Fourth Army G-2 transmittal of April 25, 1950, with four interview forms; Project Blue Book list of March 1950 sightings
Source Status: Blue Book’s list concludes Balloon.
Date: March 24, 1950
Location: Jerseyville, Illinois
Time: Night
Summary: A hovering object glowed with bluish-white light and appeared to remain stationary for two to three minutes.
Source: Weinstein, Dominique Aircraft UFO Encounters Project ACUFOE, Paris, 1999
Date: March 24, 1950
Location: Holloman AFB and Vaughn, New Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: Headquarters Air Materiel Command told Holloman’s commanding officer it was increasing the Land-Air, Inc. contract by $20,000 to keep a constant watch at two Askania instrument stations near Vaughn for six months, with the Askania triangulation and spectrum-camera portions of the program put into effect on April 1, 1950.
Source: Holloman AFB report on aerial phenomena (February 21, 1950 through April 1951)
Source Status: Context for the Vaughn and Datil observations of February and March 1950.
Date: March 24, 1950 (also March 25)
Location: San Bernardo, Santiago and Valparaiso, Chile
Time: Unknown
Summary: Local newspapers reported a disc seen by the public on March 24 and 25, with the usual descriptions of a silver object, according to the U.S. Air Attaché’s report.
Source: U.S. Air Attaché, Chile, report IR-42-50 (March 30, 1950); Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Insufficient Data.
Date: March 25, 1950
Location: Peñaranda de Duero, Spain
Time: Unknown
Summary: One object was observed by a group of witnesses (Ananz).
Source: Ballester Olmos, Vicente-Juan
Date: March 25, 1950
Location: Valdehuncar, Cáceres, Spain
Time: 02:20
Summary: One object, about 150 feet across, was observed by three experienced male witnesses (Obejero).
Source: Ballester Olmos, Vicente-Juan
Date: March 25, 1950
Location: Balearic Islands / Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Time: 03:00
Summary: A flying disc was observed and photographed by one male witness. Separately, an oval object was observed by one male witness (Mueller).
Source: Wilkins, Harold T. Flying Saucers on the Attack Ace Star A-11, New York, 1967
Date: March 25, 1950
Location: Paterna, Valencia, Spain
Time: 10:30
Summary: A daytime disc was reported on the shore.
Source: Ballester Olmos, Vicente-Juan
Date: March 25, 1950
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Time: 12:00
Summary: More than one object was observed by several witnesses on the shore for over 15 minutes.
Source: Ballester Olmos, Vicente-Juan
Date: March 25, 1950
Location: San Martín de los Andes, Argentina
Time: Afternoon
Summary: A daytime disc was reported (Franke).
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: March 25, 1950
Location: Vienna, Austria
Time: 22:02
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: March 25, 1950
Location: New York, New York
Time: Night
Summary: One object was observed by numerous witnesses.
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 26, 1950
Location: Bayreuth, Germany
Time: Unknown
Summary: Three flying discs were observed.
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 26, 1950
Location: Acre (Akko), Israel
Time: Unknown
Summary: Several discs were seen from a Lebanese airliner off the coast of the ancient city, traveling north at high altitude while emitting trails of smoke.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 26, 1950
Location: Brunswick, Georgia
Time: 11:15 to 11:30 a.m. EST
Summary: Five plate-shaped objects in two groups, three and two, at an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 feet were seen by a garageman, Frank Preston, through binoculars, and by four experienced pilots, two of them airport commission members flying separate light planes who landed at St. Simons Island Airport and found two veteran pilots who had watched from the ground. They were silver, left vapor trails, flew south, disappeared and came back north, and the pilots estimated 1,800 to 2,000 mph from altitude, distance and time. One pilot thought they might be a new secret jet.
Source: Florida Times-Union, March 28, 1950; Third Army G-2 transmittal of April 4, 1950; Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes A/C (aircraft), noting several sources saw objects that left vapor trails and appeared to be discs through binoculars.
Date: March 26, 1950
Location: Adamant, Vermont
Time: 11:43 a.m. EST
Summary: A man with about six years’ experience around aircraft saw a crescent-shaped object the size of a DC-3, white outlined in black, at about 10,000 feet moving northeast at about 300 mph. Rentschler Field told the Olmsted Flight Service Center it had no modified aircraft flying and no other unidentified aircraft in the vicinity.
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.
Date: March 26, 1950
Location: Zugspitze, Austria
Time: 09:45
Summary: A daytime disc was reported (Kecht) — part of a recurring pattern of near-identical reports by the same witness at nearly the same hour across several days this week.
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: March 26, 1950
Location: National Airport, Virginia
Time: 10:00
Summary: A private-plane pilot dove toward a 40-foot-wide metallic disc, which ascended vertically into the clouds and then departed rapidly to the east; observed in flight for two minutes.
Source: Hatch, Larry; United Press, March 27, 1950, as filed in Project Blue Book (No Case, information only), naming the pilot as Bertram A. Totten, a former Air Force aircraft inspector, who described an aluminum-colored disk about 40 feet across and 10 feet thick that zoomed into overcast, giving off vapor trails.
Date: March 26, 1950
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma
Time: Daytime
Summary: More than two objects were observed by seven witnesses for a few seconds.
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 26, 1950
Location: Jaén, Spain
Time: Afternoon
Summary: One object was observed by one witness.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 26, 1950
Location: Los Barrios, near Algeciras, Spain
Time: 19:00
Summary: A rancher saw a flying disc pass rapidly overhead heading east to west in about one second. One disc was observed by one experienced male witness on the shore for a few seconds (Ayala, José).
Source: Vallee, Jacques; ABC News (Spain)
Date: March 26, 1950
Location: Reno, Nevada
Time: 20:50
Summary: A CAA control tower operator saw a maneuvering light source; more than one hovering object was independently observed by several witnesses at an airport for five minutes (Henseler; Matthews).
Source: Hall, Richard H. The UFO Evidence NICAP, Washington, 1964
Date: March 27, 1950
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Time: Unknown
Summary: Electromagnetic effects were noted; a transient unexplained phenomenon was reported.
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: March 27, 1950
Location: Fairfax, Virginia
Time: Unknown
Summary: One object, about 20 feet across, was observed.
Source: Hill, H. Edward Catalog Through 1950
Date: March 27, 1950
Location: Torredonjimeno, Jaén, Spain
Time: 06:00
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 27, 1950
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma
Time: 06:16
Summary: More than five discs were observed by one male witness in a city for over 60 minutes, departing by flying straight up until lost to sight (Andrews; Hughes).
Source: Scully, Frank Behind the Flying Saucers Holt, 1950
Date: March 27, 1950
Location: Zugspitze, Austria
Time: 09:45
Summary: A daytime disc was reported (Kecht) — continuing the same daily pattern seen the prior day.
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: March 27, 1950
Location: Motobu Peninsula, Okinawa
Time: 10:30 a.m. local
Summary: An Army radar operator, Cpl. Bolfango of the 65th AAA Gun Battalion, tracked a stationary target at 13,000 feet for about ten minutes on an SCR-584B, then watched it move southwest on 220 degrees for 16.9 miles in two minutes, about 500 mph, over a mountain before it was lost. No other radar saw it. Blue Book’s card concludes UNIDENTIFIED, noting the track was not consistent with aircraft and the case was never sent to radar analysts in 1950. [Full Report]
Source: Twentieth Air Force Air Intelligence Information Report IR-1-50 (April 8, 1950); Project Blue Book record card; NICAP 1950 UFO Chronology (BBU 678)
Date: March 27, 1950
Location: Madrid, Spain
Time: Afternoon
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 27, 1950
Location: Bludenz, Vorarlberg, Austria
Time: 15:30
Summary: A daytime disc was reported.
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: March 27, 1950
Location: Algorta, Spain
Time: 18:30
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 27, 1950
Location: St. Pankraz, Austria
Time: 20:45
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: March 27, 1950
Location: Goshen, Indiana
Time: Night
Summary: An unidentifiable object was observed at close range.
Source: Haines, Richard F. CE-5: Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind Sourcebooks, Naperville, 1998. ISBN: 1-57071-427-4
Date: March 27, 1950
Location: Worland, Wyoming
Time: 23:00
Summary: Five people in a car saw a saucer with a row of blue lights hovering over a sulfur plant; it flew away as the car approached (Sherard).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 27, 1950
Location: Berlin, Germany
Time: Night
Summary: Astronomers noticed a bright “star” they had not seen before; it zig-zagged to the west, occasionally stopping, with no sound heard, over 20 minutes.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Digne, France
Time: Unknown
Summary: Three objects were sighted with an appearance and performance beyond the capability of known contemporary aircraft — an early entry later associated with the “Ummo” case lineage.
Source: FSR (Flying Saucer Review)
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Riva del Garda, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
Time: Unknown
Summary: A flying disc about 2 feet across was observed departing by rapidly flying straight up until lost to sight.
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Caracas, Venezuela
Time: Unknown
Summary: Two witnesses aboard a Venezuelan Airlines DC-3 observed a huge, turtle- and dome-shaped object at 7,000 feet altitude; behavior most likely had a conventional explanation.
Source: Weinstein, Dominique Aircraft UFO Encounters Project ACUFOE, Paris, 1999
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Eureka, California
Time: 03:20
Summary: One yellow cylinder was observed on the shore for eight minutes.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Zugspitze, Austria
Time: 10:05
Summary: A daytime disc was reported (Kecht) — the third consecutive day of near-identical reports from the same witness.
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Bludenz, Vorarlberg, Austria
Time: 10:45
Summary: A daytime disc was reported.
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Longmont, Colorado
Time: 11:50
Summary: One object was observed by several witnesses for several hours (Overturf).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Amarillo, Texas
Time: 11:55
Summary: A silver disc hovered in the sky for ten minutes before shooting straight up out of sight; observed by three witnesses in the city (Davis).
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Between Morton and Mineral, Washington
Time: Daytime, extending into the following two days
Summary: Samuel Eaton Thompson claimed he came upon an 80-foot object on the ground, shaped like two saucers edge to edge and “made of a glowing, sun-colored substance similar to plastic.” Invited aboard by its occupants — 10 men, 10 women, and 25 children, none clothed, speaking English — he said he spent roughly 40 hours with them, was told they were sent from Venus to “establish goodwill among Earth people,” and was named the first person ever contacted on the planet. A photograph he attempted came out overexposed and was discarded. See the Full Report.
Source: Kenneth Arnold & Ted Bloecher
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Santiago, Chile
Time: About 3:15 p.m.
Summary: M/Sgt. Prince Patterson of the U.S. Air Attaché’s office, who went to the Embassy roof with borrowed field glasses to disprove the crowds’ saucer reports, saw a whitish object cross from south to north at extreme altitude and speed after an hour of watching, covering about 30 degrees of sky in five to ten seconds, and could not find it again when he returned with a camera. Blue Book’s card concludes UNIDENTIFIED. [Full Report]
Source: Air Attaché, Chile, report IR-42-50 (March 30, 1950); Project Blue Book record card; NICAP 1950 UFO Chronology (BBU 680)
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Chattanooga, Tennessee
Time: About 4:00 p.m. EST
Summary: Two women, named in the News-Free Press as Mrs. E. V. Romito and Mrs. M. B. Wingfield, saw a round silver object heading toward Lovell Field that suddenly disappeared. A Weather Bureau meteorologist said they had probably seen the weather balloon released at the station at 1000 and 1600 daily. The airport had no planes over the field.
Source: Third Army CIC summary of March 31, 1950 and newspaper clippings; Project Blue Book list of March 1950 sightings
Source Status: Blue Book’s list concludes Balloon.
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Hibbing, Minnesota
Time: 6:40 p.m. CST
Summary: A podiatrist and former Air Force pilot, with his wife, saw a greenish-glowing, tadpole-shaped object about the size of a 55-gallon oil drum, with a tail, descend steadily at 45 degrees from north to south for about four seconds before it went behind an obstacle. It made no sound, left no exhaust, and no solar phenomenon or test apparatus was found. The 2465th Air Force Reserve Training Center’s intelligence officer rated him exceptionally reliable.
Source: 2465th AFRTC Intelligence Officer letter of April 4, 1950 with Essential Elements of Information forms; Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Astro (Meteor).
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Shabaqua, Ontario, Canada
Time: Around 19:00
Summary: One object was observed by one witness for over three minutes (Makinen).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Fort William & Terrace Bay, Ontario, Canada
Time: 19:30
Summary: One object, about 5 feet across, was observed by several witnesses for a few seconds (Cambly; Gould; Wirstiuk).
Source: Newspaper
Source Status: A local-history account says reports came in between 7:35 and 7:50 p.m. on March 28, 1950, from Fort William, Port Arthur, Terrace Bay, Shabaqua, Atikokan (Steep Rock Iron Mines) and Kawene: a soundless, circular or spherical object gliding west at high speed with a fiery vapor trail, estimated at 8 to 60 feet across and bluish-green or silvery-blue. Descriptions varied from place to place.
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Kawena & Ouimet, Ontario, Canada
Time: 19:35
Summary: One object was observed by one witness (Rusnak).
Source: Newspaper
Source Status: A local-history account says reports came in between 7:35 and 7:50 p.m. on March 28, 1950, from Fort William, Port Arthur, Terrace Bay, Shabaqua, Atikokan (Steep Rock Iron Mines) and Kawene: a soundless, circular or spherical object gliding west at high speed with a fiery vapor trail, estimated at 8 to 60 feet across and bluish-green or silvery-blue. Descriptions varied from place to place.
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Atikokan, Ontario, Canada
Time: 19:37
Summary: One object, about 80 feet across, was observed by one witness (Taylor; White).
Source: Newspaper
Source Status: A local-history account says reports came in between 7:35 and 7:50 p.m. on March 28, 1950, from Fort William, Port Arthur, Terrace Bay, Shabaqua, Atikokan (Steep Rock Iron Mines) and Kawene: a soundless, circular or spherical object gliding west at high speed with a fiery vapor trail, estimated at 8 to 60 feet across and bluish-green or silvery-blue. Descriptions varied from place to place.
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: South Gillies, Ontario, Canada
Time: 19:40
Summary: One object was observed by one witness for a few minutes (Kamstra).
Source: Newspaper
Source Status: A local-history account says reports came in between 7:35 and 7:50 p.m. on March 28, 1950, from Fort William, Port Arthur, Terrace Bay, Shabaqua, Atikokan (Steep Rock Iron Mines) and Kawene: a soundless, circular or spherical object gliding west at high speed with a fiery vapor trail, estimated at 8 to 60 feet across and bluish-green or silvery-blue. Descriptions varied from place to place.
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Escanaba, Michigan
Time: 19:45
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses (Fleury; Siebert; Snow; Strickling).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Oakland, California
Time: 21:30
Summary: A luminous white ball the size of the moon left behind trailing smoke, moved in fast and slow circles, then departed rapidly to the east; observed by five witnesses in the city for five minutes (Sutton).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Ceglie Messapica, Apulia, Italy
Time: 22:00
Summary: An 80cm-wide lenticular disc was observed on the shore for over one minute before taking off vertically and departing rapidly until lost to sight.
Source: Verga, Maurizio
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Falasco, Italy
Time: Night
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported (Nacci).
Source: Boncompagni, Solas UFO in Italia, Volume I (Periodo 1907-1953) Tedeschi, Firenze, 1974
Date: March 28, 1950
Location: Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy
Time: Night
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Boncompagni, Solas UFO in Italia, Volume I (Periodo 1907-1953) Tedeschi, Firenze, 1974
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Almansa, Albacete, Spain
Time: 00:45
Summary: An object with appearance and performance beyond the capability of known earthly aircraft, about 10 feet across, was observed by one experienced male witness at a building (Gonzalvo).
Source: Ballester Olmos, Vicente-Juan
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Marrowbone Lake, Tennessee
Time: About 7:00 a.m. CST
Summary: Two Nashville real estate salesmen fishing on Marrowbone Lake saw six to twelve dark, round, bomb-like objects about five feet long fly low overhead at 200 to 300 feet and at least 500 mph, with a noise like wind in trees. They turned together and circled behind the hills on the west side. Sewart AFB said they could not have been jets. Blue Book’s card concludes UNIDENTIFIED. [Full Report]
Source: Third Army G-2 transmittal of April 3, 1950 enclosing the Army CIC Nashville summary of March 30, 1950; Project Blue Book record card; NICAP 1950 UFO Chronology (BBU 682)
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: La Palma del Condado, Huelva, Spain
Time: 08:30
Summary: A rectangular object hovered and made wild maneuvers; observed by several witnesses in a town for two minutes.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Albany, California
Time: 10:30
Summary: A teenager saw a white, spinning, cone-shaped object with blue streaks on its underside at 150 meters altitude, departing rapidly to the east; observed in a town for over one minute (Peterson).
Source: Oakland Tribune
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Villafría, Spain
Time: 11:20
Summary: The airport tower first heard sounds resembling an unexpected incoming plane, then a disc buzzed the tower before shooting up and away to the east at roughly 1,800 kph; briefly observed by several male witnesses, three of them experienced observers.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Las Salinas, Chile
Time: 12:00
Summary: A daytime disc was reported.
Source: Petrowitsch, Pablo
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Port Arthur and Fort William (Thunder Bay), Ontario, Canada
Time: Afternoon
Summary: The public and airport officials described a brilliant white, star-like object over Lake Superior that was joined by four more identical objects. All five traveled back toward the airport, circled, and left to the northeast, reportedly at terrific speeds and changing trajectories in a non-linear way.
Source: Thunder Bay Public Library, “The Flying Saucer Frenzy of 1950,” TBPL Research Blog, January 12, 2025 (citing Port Arthur and Fort William newspaper reports of March 1950)
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Quilpué, Valparaíso, Chile
Time: 13:00
Summary: A daytime disc was reported.
Source: Petrowitsch, Pablo
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Coalbank Hill, Colorado
Time: Daytime
Summary: One object was observed by four witnesses for a few seconds (Paisley).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Austin, Texas
Time: Daytime
Summary: A flat, featureless, silver disc hovered briefly for three seconds before departing rapidly to the northeast; observed by three male witnesses in the city.
Source: Hatch, Larry
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Ironwood, Michigan
Time: 14:55
Summary: One object was observed by seven witnesses at an airport (Christensen).
Source: Hall, Richard H. The UFO Evidence NICAP, Washington, 1964
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Ethel, California
Time: 19:00
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses (McVicar; Saubert).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Eureka, California
Time: 19:20
Summary: One object was observed by several witnesses.
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: San Diego, California
Time: 21:00
Summary: One orange light was observed in a city for over three minutes.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Maxwell AFB, Alabama
Time: 9:30 p.m. CST
Summary: A WAF tower operator of the 1922nd AACS Squadron saw a slow, large object over the runway showing 10 to 12 large red lights, which looked like five aircraft in “V” formation and then a flying wing, and seemed to hang in one spot. A co-worker who went for binoculars found it gone, and other tower personnel and aircraft reported nothing.
Source: MATS Air Intelligence Information Report IR-129-50 (May 16, 1950); Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Insufficient Data.
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Union Point, Georgia
Time: 22:10
Summary: Three members of a train crew watched a round object with an orange glow hover for 10 minutes.
Source: Hitt, Michael Georgia UFO Phenomenon 1947-1987
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Time: Night
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Stendek
Date: March 29, 1950
Location: Fort William, Ontario, Canada
Time: Night
Summary: A brilliant, wingless fireball was joined by four additional nocturnal lights, which then hovered together before departing rapidly to the northeast; five fiery balls were observed in a town for five minutes.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Salamanca, Spain
Time: 01:30
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Zugspitze, Austria
Time: 09:45
Summary: A daytime disc was reported (Kecht) — a further instance of this week’s recurring pattern from the same observer.
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Adrian, Michigan
Time: Noon
Summary: A UFO was seen hovering over the town at noon.
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Port Arthur and Fort William (Thunder Bay), Ontario, Canada
Time: Day, with a return hours later
Summary: Up to six white, star-like objects flew past the inter-city area, and three returned for a short time hours later. They were estimated at about 125 feet in diameter and 4,000 to 10,000 feet up.
Source: Thunder Bay Public Library, “The Flying Saucer Frenzy of 1950,” TBPL Research Blog, January 12, 2025 (citing Port Arthur and Fort William newspaper reports of March 1950)
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Sioux City Municipal Airport, Iowa
Time: About 12:10 p.m. CST (1810Z)
Summary: Leo Jeske, a Weather Bureau employee, saw an object he took first for a weather balloon that stayed stationary at 10,000 to 12,000 feet before flashing out of sight. National Guardsmen at the Sioux City air base saw a small, white object like a parachute apparently following a T-6, which one said seemed to hover about 300 feet above it; the object turned west-northwest and disappeared rapidly. Others called it a shiny, pencil-shaped aircraft that swung back and forth over the city. Fourteen Iowans reported it.
Source: United Press, March 31, 1950; MATS Air Intelligence Information Report IR-88-50; Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Other (Debris in air), suggesting debris from the aircraft.
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Between Worland and Greybull, Wyoming
Time: 23:00
Summary: A UFO was seen hovering between the two towns.
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Quinteros, Chile
Time: 12:20
Summary: A daytime disc was reported.
Source: Petrowitsch, Pablo
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Rancagua, Libertador General Bernardo O’Higgins, Chile
Time: 12:30
Summary: A daytime disc was reported.
Source: Petrowitsch, Pablo
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Austin, Texas
Time: 13:30
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses for 42 seconds (Osborne).
Source: Unknown
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Greater Pittsburgh Airport, Pennsylvania
Time: About 5:15 p.m. EST
Summary: 1st Lt. Edward A. Floretti of the 2239th Air Force Reserve Training Center, officer of the day, and an airman saw a round white object they put at about 50 feet across and 2,000 to 2,500 feet up. It hovered, then climbed out of sight to the east, reaching 20,000 feet in five minutes (about 5,600 feet per minute), with what looked like an exhaust flame in the center.
Source: MATS Air Intelligence Information Report IR-88-50 (April 11, 1950); Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes Balloon: flight consistent with a weather balloon and overestimation of its size.
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: St. Ignace, Michigan
Time: 19:30
Summary: A 60cm white disc was observed at a lake for over one minute at very high altitude over the straits, leaving a bluish, smoky film in the sky; corroborated by three separate witnesses.
Source: Hatch, Larry
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Selma, Alabama
Time: 6:08 to 6:13 p.m. CST
Summary: Three men, a Selma man named Townsend, his son and a newsboy, saw three circular objects, glowing like suns, in formation in a clear sky, at first taking them for clouds with the sun shining through. They were broadside and looked like planes, then showed an edge. The middle one pulled straight up and the other two followed, and they seemed as big as B-17s at 10,000 feet or higher, going west for about three minutes with no sound or trail. A Prattville couple saw three circular objects with a bright light about the rim near Autaugaville between 5 and 6 p.m. the same day.
Source: Teletype from Maxwell AFB, March 31, 1950; MATS Air Intelligence Information Report IR-129-50 (May 16, 1950); Montgomery Advertiser, March 31 and April 2, 1950; Project Blue Book record card
Source Status: Blue Book’s card concludes A/C.
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Time: Night
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Stendek
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Kassel, Germany
Time: Night
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported (Niemann).
Source: UFO Nachrichten (Veit)
Date: March 30, 1950
Location: Sioux City, Iowa
Time: Unknown
Summary: Three men, one a stockyard veterinarian, watched a silver speck through field glasses for about ten minutes and gave conflicting descriptions of it (ruler-like, round with wings, slender). It made a slow square pattern over the city at about 20,000 feet and left into the haze.
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 Balloon.
Date: March 31, 1950
Location: Bari, Apulia, Italy
Time: Unknown
Summary: A flying disc was observed.
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 31, 1950
Location: Escanaba, Michigan
Time: Unknown
Summary: A fiery blue, glowing disc raced over the town, spewing a ribbon of blue flame, per news reports.
Source: Gross, Loren E. UFOs: A History. 1950: January-March Author, Fremont, 1983
Date: March 31, 1950
Location: Linz, Upper Austria, Austria
Time: 03:00
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Keul, A.
Date: March 31, 1950
Location: McAlisterville, Pennsylvania
Time: 13:30
Summary: A farm boy saw two ovoid objects dive fast, then level off at 600 meters altitude, buzzing and whirling for two minutes; observed on a farm for over two minutes (Watts), with a buzzing sound heard.
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 31, 1950
Location: Crescent City, California
Time: 19:21
Summary: One object was observed by two witnesses (Bienick; King).
Source: Newspaper
Date: March 31, 1950
Location: Niort, Poitou-Charentes, France
Time: Night
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Plantier, Jean La Propulsion des Soucoupes Volantes Mame, 1955
Date: March 31, 1950
Location: Fontenay-le-Comte, Pays de la Loire, France
Time: Night
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Plantier, Jean La Propulsion des Soucoupes Volantes Mame, 1955
Date: March 31, 1950
Location: Near Jacumba, California
Time: Night
Summary: An experienced female witness reported a disc landing on Highway 80 outside town; a small, four-foot-tall, dwarf-like humanoid exited the craft and reportedly ran off down the highway “faster than Jesse Owens.” A close encounter with an unidentified craft and its occupant.
Source: Newspaper clipping in HUMCAT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Three Cases the Air Force Left Unidentified
Project Blue Book’s cards leave exactly three of these cases UNIDENTIFIED: Okinawa, Santiago and Marrowbone Lake, each now documented in a full report. Brunswick, Adamant and Selma went down as aircraft, Jacksonville and Hibbing as meteors, Chattanooga, Pittsburgh, Sandia and one Sioux City report as balloons, Montpelier as a reflection, and Maxwell AFB and the first Chile reports as insufficient data. On the 24th the Air Materiel Command extended a six-month, $20,000 instrument watch at Vaughn, New Mexico, around the date NICAP’s chronology gives for the start of Project Twinkle.
The same days saw a run of near-daily mountain-top sightings at the Zugspitze in Germany, a wave of reports across northern Ontario on March 28, and the Samuel Eaton Thompson contact claim of March 28 to 30, documented in its own full report. Where the sources allow, the entries here separate what witnesses said from what the Air Force concluded.
“…little moons or suns glowing.”
From a Selma, Alabama witness’s account in the Maxwell AFB teletype of March 31, 1950.
