February 25, 1950 — twelve AESS inspectors at Los Alamos track a silver cylindrical object for two hours.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT
1950: The Los Alamos AESS Inspectors’ Cylinder UFO (Blue Book 645)
Between 3:45 and 3:55 on the afternoon of February 25, 1950, Atomic Energy Security Service inspectors at Los Alamos, New Mexico, watched a silver, flashing object come down out of cloud over the Tech Area, in 30 to 35 degrees of sky, four to twenty miles away. It looked circular, or like the fuselage of a small airplane tapered at both ends. It moved from very slow to very fast, fluttered, wobbled and oscillated, and seemed able to change course, slow down and accelerate. Then it faded from view.
The Los Alamos AESS cylinder sighting reached the Air Force when Lt. Col. John A. Carroll, the AESS Chief Inspector, passed the inspectors’ accounts to OSI at Kirtland AFB on February 27. Special Agent Cristino B. Griego wrote it up as a “fireball” investigation, and the Project Blue Book card that summarizes it concludes UNIDENTIFIED. NICAP counts 12 witnesses and Gross counts 11, and the OSI copy blacks out every name.
Date: February 25, 1950
Sighting Time: 3:45 to 3:55 p.m. MST (1545 to 1555; Blue Book card: 1555)
Day/Night: Day
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA; point of observation the Tech Area, 340 West Road, Section II
Urban or Rural: Secured research town (Atomic Energy Commission facility)
No. of Entity’s: Not Applicable
Entity Type: Not Applicable
Entity Description: Not Applicable
Hynek Classification: DD (Daylight Disc; elongated variant)
Duration: The window ran about ten minutes (1545 to 1555); the object was in sight for 3 seconds to 2 minutes at a time
No. of Object(s): 1
Description of the Object(s): Circular, or like a plane fuselage tapered fore and aft; bright and glaring; no projections or indentations; construction unknown; no visible means of support or propulsion; no trail, exhaust, sound or odor; no effect on clouds
Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Circular or fuselage-like, tapered at both ends (NICAP’s summary calls it a cylinder with tapered ends); size varied from “unknown” to that of a small airplane; silver and flashing
Distance to Object(s): Varied from 4 to 20 miles
Height & Speed: Elevation 30 to 35 degrees; direction from the observers varied (north to south, northeast to southwest, east to west); it came out of clouds heading toward the ground; speed from very slow to very fast; fluttering, wobbling or oscillating motion
Number of Witnesses: 11 or 12 Atomic Energy Security Service inspectors (NICAP and Berliner: 12; Gross: 11). The OSI report blacks out the names and does not give the number in a legible form.
Special Features/Characteristics: Group of security inspectors watching from a fixed point; object emerged from cloud on a descending path; apparent ability to change course, slow down and accelerate; attention drawn by blinking or reflected light; disappeared by fading from view
Case Status: Unexplained. Project Blue Book’s record card concludes UNIDENTIFIED (NICAP: BBU 645).
Source: AFOSI 17th District Report of Investigation (file 24-8-22, S/A Cristino B. Griego, 7 March 1950; forwarded 15 March 1950 by Lt. Col. Doyle Rees), information from Lt. Col. John A. Carroll, Chief Inspector, AESS, Los Alamos, 27 February 1950; Project Blue Book (Project 10073) record card; NICAP 1950 UFO Chronology (Berliner); Loren E. Gross, UFOs: A History, 1950: January–March
Summary/Description: Atomic Energy Security Service inspectors at Los Alamos saw a silver, flashing object, circular or shaped like a plane fuselage tapered at both ends, come out of clouds heading toward the ground between 3:45 and 3:55 p.m. on February 25, 1950. It moved from very slow to very fast, fluttered and oscillated, and seemed able to change course, slow down and accelerate before it faded from view. Blue Book’s card concludes UNIDENTIFIED.
Related Cases: Albuquerque theodolite case (February 24, 1950); Los Alamos tower sighting (February 24, 1950, per Gross); Datil, New Mexico, photographed light (February 24 and 25, 1950); Los Alamos green fireballs (January 9, 1950)
Detailed Report
What the Inspectors Reported
The OSI report gives the observation as made from the Tech Area at 340 West Road, Section II, between 1545 and 1555 hours on February 25. One object was seen. Its direction from the observers changed during the sighting, from north to south, northeast to southwest and east to west, at distances that varied from 4 to 20 miles and at an elevation of 30 to 35 degrees. The object came out of clouds heading toward the ground. It was circular, or like a plane fuselage with tapered fore and aft ends, without projections or indentations, and its construction was unknown. Its size ranged from unknown to that of a small airplane. It was bright and glaring, silver and flashing, and it made no sound, gave off no odor and left no trail or exhaust. Its speed ran from very slow to very fast, and its motion was fluttering, wobbling or oscillating. It faded from view. What drew the inspectors’ attention was blinking or reflected light, and they added that the object seemed able to change course, slow down and accelerate.
How It Reached OSI
Lt. Col. John A. Carroll, Chief Inspector of the Atomic Energy Security Service at Los Alamos, gave the observers’ information to the 17th District OSI at Kirtland AFB on February 27. Special Agent Cristino B. Griego wrote the report on March 7, under the subject “Unidentified Aerial Objects, Fireball Sighted at Los Alamos, New Mexico, at 1555 hours, 25 February 1950,” and the district commander, Lt. Col. Doyle Rees, forwarded it to Air Materiel Command on March 15 with copies to the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory and OSI headquarters. It was closed with all logical leads concluded. The Blue Book card lists one object, silver and flashing, with a fluttering, wobbling or oscillating motion, on an earthward course, observed from the ground for 3 seconds to 2 minutes, and concludes UNIDENTIFIED.
Los Alamos Two Days Running
Loren Gross describes the February 25 report as the second of two. On February 24 at 1:15 p.m., two AESS inspectors in the Los Alamos airport tower watched an aluminum-colored, round object over the town for 20 minutes, circling slowly and then fast with an intermittent vapor trail. A chemical operator near “M” Building in the Tech Area saw a silver-white object at about 1:40 p.m. that went east to west and back, hovered, and then went practically straight up. The next day, Gross writes, eleven civilian experts at Los Alamos saw an object emerge from cloud on a descending path, circular, silver and brightly reflecting the sun, fluttering and oscillating as it slid downward and appearing to change course and velocity, and Lt. Col. Carroll reported it to OSI.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
Ten Minutes Over the Tech Area
- A Ten-Minute Window: The OSI report puts the sighting between 1545 and 1555, and the card records 1555, which NICAP renders as 3:55 p.m. The 3 seconds to 2 minutes are the lengths of individual views. Together they describe a ten-minute window in which the object came and went.
- Eleven or Twelve: Berliner and NICAP say 12 AESS inspectors, and Gross says eleven civilian experts. The names in the OSI report are blacked out, so the count can’t be settled from the file.
- Circular, Fuselage-Like or Cylindrical: The OSI report gives “circular; or like a plane fuselage, tapered fore and aft,” Gross says circular and silver, and NICAP’s summary calls it a cylinder with tapered ends. All agree on silver, flashing and fluttering.
- A Fireball by Name Only: OSI titled the file a fireball, but the description of a silver object that fluttered, changed speed and course over several minutes is not a fireball’s brief streak, and the card concludes UNIDENTIFIED.
- Who the Witnesses Were: They were Atomic Energy Security Service inspectors at Los Alamos, security personnel of the Atomic Energy Commission’s facility. The file says nothing about any training in identifying aerial objects.
- Part of a Two-Day Pattern: Gross’s account of the tower sighting the day before, at 1:15 and 1:40 p.m., shows the same group of security personnel reporting an aluminum-colored object performing gyrations over Los Alamos.
The Los Alamos AESS case is a well-documented ten-minute sighting by a group of security inspectors who agree on silver, flashing and fluttering, and disagree only on details such as the exact shape and the head count. It is filed here as Unexplained, with the card’s UNIDENTIFIED stated.
“…seemed to be able to change course and to slow down and accelerate.”
From the additional remarks of the observers, AFOSI report on the February 25, 1950 Los Alamos sighting.
