1951: September UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive

The UFO sightings of September 1951 are anchored by two cases that tested the Air Force’s own explanations. On September 10, two Air Force officers in a T-33 chased a silver disc over the New Jersey coast near Sandy Hook while radar students at Fort Monmouth tracked fast and hovering echoes, a case still remembered as a turning point in how the Air Force handled UFO reports. On September 23, six F-86 pilots in three flights tried and failed to reach a silver object orbiting at 50,000 feet over Long Beach and March AFB. In Withdean, Sussex, a teenage girl watched three identical figures leave a landed craft and retrace their steps “like a film played backwards.”

The month also brings two of Project Blue Book’s Unknowns: six orange lights seen by two airmen over Claremont, California on September 6, and three radar targets on a collision course at Goose Bay, Labrador on September 13. A B-36 crew tracked a white-lighted aircraft over Hudson Strait, Air Defense Command radars in the Midwest recorded targets at an estimated 6,000 mph, a Bloomington, California woman reported a saucer hovering over her trailer park with four men at its windows, and an Illinois man later recalled, under hypnosis, an encounter with small frog-like beings near Orland Park.

Date: Fall 1951
Location: Dugny-sur-Meuse, France
Time: Night
Summary: A group of workers trying to recharge their stalled truck’s battery were suddenly bathed in orange light and saw a luminous orange globe nearby on the ground. A tall, beautiful, Nordic-looking woman with long blond hair stepped out, wearing a belted blue robe, smiling and cradling what appeared to be an infant in her arms. The figure abruptly vanished; the globe then brightened and took on the appearance of a “jellyfish.” The witnesses felt a sudden, intense cold, as if inside an icebox, before the light blinked out. They left convinced they had encountered the Virgin Mary.
Source: Raoul Robe, Regional Catalogue

Date: Fall 1951
Location: Manila, Philippines
Time: Afternoon
Summary: Sixth-grader Cornelio Closa, of Zamora Elementary School, met a beautiful, barefoot girl about his own age in a nearby field, with long blond hair reaching her waist, who appeared to float rather than walk beside him. Though her lips never moved, he could hear and understand what she said; when she touched his hand, he felt suddenly light and lost awareness of his surroundings, with no memory of the rest of the encounter. He reported meeting her many times afterward, during which he was able to float and travel to various places in the city, and apparently gained the ability to disappear at will, an ability he lost as he grew older.
Source: Brad Steiger, Strange Disappearances

Date: Fall 1951
Location: Pacific Ocean, off Korea
Time: Night
Summary: A UFO circled a U.S. task force of fourteen ships. After outmaneuvering Navy interceptors, it sped off and was about 200 miles away on radar within ten minutes.
Source: NICAP; The UFO Evidence, VIII

Source Status: NICAP lists this report as fall 1951 and other sources give only the year. No ship, unit or witness is named.

Date: September 1951
Location: Bloomington, California
Time: 9:00 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.
Summary: Sitting on the lawn outside their trailer park home, Mrs. Louise McDougall felt she was being watched and looked up to see a lenticular flying saucer, roughly 100 feet across and gunmetal silver, hovering less than 20 feet overhead. Tall rectangular windows in its lower half revealed, against an amber glow, four men in one-piece jumpsuits with shoulder-length hair. She turned a spotlight on the object, which shot off silently at incredible speed; about 15 minutes later it returned to the same spot, the figures still visible, before departing again to the southeast after 6 to 7 minutes. Her husband and three others also witnessed the sighting.
Source: NICAP; Lucius Farish; Albert Rosales, 1951 Humanoid Reports

Source Status: The only known source is Albert Rosales’s humanoid catalog, which credits NICAP and Lucius Farish. No NICAP or Farish record has been located, no other source mentions the sighting, and the day of the month is not given, so the report needs confirmation.

Date: September 3 to 8, 1951
Location: Spokane, Washington
Time: About 2:00 p.m. (September 3 sighting)
Summary: An Air Force major saw three disc-shaped objects, bronze in color and estimated at 20 to 30 feet across, appear out of the northwest. Viewed through binoculars, they moved erratically for three to five minutes, at times hovering and at times moving at high speed, at high altitude and without a sound. The same file includes reports from an Air Force captain and his wife (about 10:20 p.m. on September 3) and an Air Force first lieutenant (September 8) of a bluish-white light about the size of an automobile headlight, with a fiery trail, moving low and fast for a few seconds, which the status reports called a probable meteor or fireball.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Air Force status report extracts

Source Status: Blue Book rated the case Insufficient Data and noted that no case file exists. The card gives the course of the disc sighting as southeast (135 degrees) while the status reports give a heading of 225 degrees.

Date: September 4 or 5, 1951
Location: Withdean, Sussex, England
Time: Approximately 6:30 a.m.
Summary: Teenager Sheila Burton watched a dome-shaped, fluorescent silvery-green craft descend at incredible speed onto her family’s garden. Three identical, bald, “Kojak”-style entities in dark green suits emerged in perfect synchronization, each carrying a gun-like device, walked about 30 feet, then stopped and walked backward to the craft in reverse, re-entering and departing vertically. The entire silent episode lasted 40 to 50 seconds. See the Full Report.
Source: Norman Oliver, Quest UFO Magazine; BUFORA Journal Vol. 8 #1, Jan/Feb 1979

Date: September 6, 1951
Location: Claremont, California (U.S. Highway 66, about four miles east of the city)
Time: 7:20 p.m. local time
Summary: Two Air Force airmen from the 1st Fighter-Interceptor Wing at George AFB, driving west toward Los Angeles, stopped their car and watched six bright orange lights in an irregular, incomplete circle, the last two well inside the formation, move straight and level to the west at an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 feet for three to four minutes before fading over a coastal fog bank. A seventh orange light followed the same course. The wing called both men very reliable, and Blue Book rated the case Unknown. See the Detailed Report.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (BBU #964); 1st Fighter-Interceptor Wing report; Berliner; FUFOR Index; NICAP

Source Status: The Blue Book case number comes from NICAP’s chronology; the record card itself carries none. The file redacts the airmen’s names, which earlier catalogs give with question marks. The Greenwich time on the card (06/1920Z) appears to be the local time entered by mistake.

Date: September 6, 1951
Location: Hollywood, California
Time: 7:20 p.m. local time
Summary: A woman who watched the sky from a sidewalk near Hollywood Boulevard reported two glowing, deep-red, round objects that appeared in the southwest, flew in line toward the Moon, and positioned themselves on either side of it before turning, climbing and vanishing in a few seconds. She described them as three times the Moon’s diameter in length, with a flash of brilliant white light along one, and estimated the observation at five to ten minutes. She also recounted a similar large red glow over Hollywood in the fall of 1948.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; witness’s typed account

Source Status: Blue Book classified the case “Other: Psychological,” commenting that the observation was attributed to an overactive imagination and that the witness probably saw an aircraft, meteor or balloon.

Date: September 9, 1951
Location: Off the North Korean coast, aboard USS Cony (DDE 508), Task Force 77
Time: 6:50 p.m. local time
Summary: A high-speed target, or targets, was tracked on the USS Cony’s AN/SPS-6B air search radar, functioning normally before and after the incident, roughly 50 miles off the North Korean coast. The target held a course of 225° true at approximately 900 knots for about one minute; the operator’s interpretation was “many bogies” on a line of bearing perpendicular to the target’s course.
Source: Jan Aldrich (BBU)

Date: September 10 to 11, 1951
Location: Fort Monmouth, New Jersey
Time: About 11:10 a.m. EDST on September 10; further contacts at 3:15 p.m. that day and 10:50 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on September 11
Summary: Radar students and an instructor at the Signal Corps’ Fort Monmouth school tracked several unusual targets over two days. At about 11:10 a.m. on September 10, an AN/MPG-1 set picked up a fast, low-flying target southeast of the post that followed the coastline and changed bearing too quickly for aided tracking; the operator, who was demonstrating the set to visiting officers, judged it at about 700 mph. That afternoon a target at an extreme elevation angle, roughly 93,000 feet, proved to be a weather balloon. On September 11 two sets tracked a strong target at about 31,000 feet that the Air Force identified as a balloon, and a third followed a target over Navesink that hovered at about 6,000 feet, rose almost vertically and then moved south faster than the set’s tracking limit. Blue Book’s card calls the September 10 target a balloon and the September 11 targets anomalous propagation. See the Detailed Report.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (Monmouth); Air Technical Intelligence Center special report; Ridge/Wilson

Source Status: See also the T-33 pilots’ sighting near Sandy Hook the same day, which the Air Force treated as a separate event.

Date: September 10, 1951
Location: Over Sandy Hook, Freehold and Point Pleasant, New Jersey (T-33 en route from Dover AFB, Delaware, to Mitchel AFB, New York)
Time: 11:35 to 11:37 a.m. EDST
Summary: Lt. Wilbert S. Rogers and Major Ezra S. Ballard, flying a T-33 at about 20,000 feet, saw a round, silver object below them over Sandy Hook, rolled into a 360-degree left turn to intercept it, and followed it as it turned toward the coast near Freehold and disappeared out to sea near Point Pleasant. They estimated it covered 30 to 50 miles in about two minutes and put its size at 30 to 50 feet. A silver-painted weather balloon had been released from Evans Signal Laboratory at 11:12 a.m., and Blue Book’s card reads Was Balloon, although the Air Force’s special report says it could not conclude the object was definitely a balloon. See the Detailed Report.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (Sandy Hook); Air Technical Intelligence Center special report and interrogations; Sparks; Wendy Connors & Mike Hall, UFO Casebook Files

Date: September 10, 1951
Location: Andrews AFB, Washington, D.C. area (over Maryland, near Millersville)
Time: About 10:00 p.m. EDT
Summary: Two Air Resupply and Communications Service pilots on a night flight in a C-47 near Andrews AFB saw a streak of blue flame about 100 feet long, turning white at the end, cross their path at about their own altitude of 5,500 feet at an estimated 500 mph and vanish in five to ten seconds near Millersville, Maryland. The captain wrote that he could place it in neither the jet-aircraft nor the flare category; his copilot said it looked like the exhaust of a rocket. The reports reached Project Blue Book only in April 1952, and the card evaluates the sighting as a meteor.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (Was Astronomical: meteor); pilots’ letters of September 12, 1951, forwarded through Headquarters Command, Bolling AFB

Source Status: The card gives the local time as 2000; both pilots’ letters give about 10:00 p.m.

Date: September 12, 1951
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Time: About 1:15 to 1:30 a.m.
Summary: A civilian saw a dark, bullet-shaped object about the size of a B-29, with a dark-red glow at the front and a white trail behind it, travel at high speed at about 20,000 feet and disappear behind mountains to the north in about ten seconds. No investigation was made, and Blue Book evaluated the report as a meteor.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (Was Astronomical: meteor); Air Force status report extract

Source Status: The card gives 0615Z and 0630Z and the status report gives 0130 local; the witness is described only as one man of unknown background.

Date: September 13, 1951
Location: Goose Air Base, Labrador, Canada
Time: About 9:00 p.m. AST (0100Z)
Summary: Two GCA radar operators at Goose Air Base, waiting to guide an inbound C-54 to a landing, tracked three aircraft-like targets near the field. The first, strong and steady at about 4,000 feet and 150 mph, crossed south of the base; a second appeared about three minutes later and the two converged on a collision course until the operators told the control tower to order both aircraft to turn. The tower reported no aircraft in the area, and neither target was seen or heard. A third target appeared about 15 minutes later. Blue Book rated the case Unknown, commenting that targets would not have followed such a definite course even if the scope was warming up. See the Detailed Report.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (BBU #969); Northeast Air Command Air Intelligence Information Report IR-18-51; Berliner; McDonald files; Jan Aldrich

Source Status: The Blue Book case number comes from NICAP’s chronology; the card carries none. The file redacts the operators’ names. The Northeast Air Command report uses the Greenwich date (September 14); the card gives September 13 local time, and Berliner gives September 14 at 9:30 p.m.

Date: September 16, 1951
Location: 3 miles northeast of Marion, Ohio
Time: 12:17 p.m. EST
Summary: A private pilot flying a Cessna at 2,800 feet on a heading of 230 degrees reported that a black object with a high tail, 45-degree swept-back wings and a long pointed nose came toward him on a reciprocal heading and that he barely avoided a collision. His report reached the Office of Special Investigations through Selfridge AFB and Lockbourne AFB. Blue Book’s card reads Possibly Aircraft, and the Air Force status report called it a probable friendly conventional aircraft.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Office of Special Investigations report of September 17, 1951; Project 1947; FUFOR Index

Source Status: The file redacts the pilot’s name, which earlier catalogs give as a surname only. The status report lists September 17, the date of the report; the card and the OSI report give September 16.

Date: September 17, 1951
Location: Tatum, New Mexico
Time: Not given
Summary: A civilian watched an orange-red, ball-shaped object, larger than a B-29, move slowly and change direction, disappearing and reappearing three times for 10 to 15 seconds each. No case file exists on the report, and Blue Book rated it Insufficient Data, noting conflicting information: the speed was described as slow, yet the duration was only 10 to 15 seconds.
Source: Project Blue Book record card

Date: September 17, 1951
Location: Over Hudson Strait and Baffin Island, Canada, en route from Goose Air Base, Labrador, to Resolute, Northwest Territories
Time: 10:20 p.m. to 11:55 p.m. EST
Summary: A B-36 crew picked up radar interference at 10:20 p.m. that radar operator Major Paul E. Gerhart finally identified as an unidentified aircraft 28 miles off the right front. The interference grew to cover 120 degrees of the scope by about 11:35 p.m., when the aircraft crossed from right to left over the bomber at 18,000 feet, about 30 knots faster than the B-36 and showing white running lights instead of red and green. Navigator Major Charles J. Cheever watched it for about 20 minutes. At about 11:50 p.m. the autopilot and radar failed, and the radar returned a few minutes later. On September 19 and 20, electronic-countermeasures operators on two more B-36s along the same route recorded unexplained carrier-wave and radar-like signals. Northeast Air Command ruled out ships, its own aircraft and known radar stations. See the Detailed Report.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Northeast Air Command Air Intelligence Information Report; Jan Aldrich; cf. Hynek, The UFO Experience, ch. 7, case RV-11

Source Status: Blue Book’s card reads Was Aircraft, with the comment “Not a UFO report”; the file does not identify the aircraft. The card gives September 17 (0420Z on the 18th), while the Air Force report uses Greenwich dates of September 18 to 20.

Date: September 18, 1951
Location: Empire AFS, Michigan; Elkhorn AFS, Wisconsin; Finland AFS, Minnesota
Time: 1035Z to 1131Z (about 4:35 to 5:31 a.m. Central time), with returns as late as 1335Z
Summary: Air Defense Command radar sites P-34, P-31 and P-69 recorded intermittent, oblong radar targets resembling large aircraft but somewhat larger, which appeared as new plots on several occasions over about three hours. Speeds varied up to an estimated 6,000 mph, no altitude could be estimated because of the speed, and adjacent stations recorded similar plots. Two F-86s scrambled with negative results. Heavy ground fog with high moisture was moving east and north through the area, and Blue Book’s card gives the conclusion as ducting.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (Other: ducting); McDonald files; Jan Aldrich; Grudge Report 1; FUFOR Index

Date: September 23, 1951
Location: Over Long Beach and the March AFB area, California
Time: About 7:55 a.m. to 9:25 a.m. PDST
Summary: Three flights of F-86 jets scrambled from George AFB, six pilots in all, tried to close on a bright silver object that appeared to hold a controlled orbit at about 50,000 to 55,000 feet. The first pair saw it at 7:55 a.m. and said it looked like a swept-wing aircraft; a second flight of four split into two pairs, one climbing to 43,000 feet and staying 10 to 15 minutes, the other following the object through a wide turn at about 47,000 feet and calling it round and silver. Ground radar never picked it up. The Air Force traced a radiosonde balloon released from Long Beach airport at 7:00 a.m. and rated the case a balloon, but its report says the third intercept “cannot be explained.” See the Detailed Report.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (Was Balloon); March AFB special report; Project Grudge Reports 1 and 2; Ruppelt, pp. 94-95

Date: September 24, 1951
Location: Near Orland Park, Illinois
Time: 11:00 p.m.
Summary: Walking through a wooded area, the witness felt a burning sensation in his neck and saw a silvery-gray, oval object ahead, becoming paralyzed as two beings appeared at a window and appeared to question him. Under hypnosis he later recalled a dozen 18-inch-tall, frog-like beings with large slanted eyes, slit mouths and brown striped skin approaching and jumping against his body making high-pitched noises, along with smaller bug-like beings present; he fled but felt heaviness and passed out, later resuming his walk and again encountering the object. Under deeper hypnosis he recalled waking inside the craft on a soft bed under a shining light, approached by two five-foot humanoid beings with flat faces behind transparent shields, wearing one-piece suits and helmets. He reportedly suffered chronic ill health following the incident.
Source: Thomas E. Bullard, UFO Abductions: The Measure of a Mystery

Date: September 30, 1951
Location: Woodberry Forest, near Orange, Virginia
Time: 3:00 p.m. EST
Summary: Three high school boys standing on top of a 50-foot silo saw a circular object, brownish-black and surrounded by a haze of brownish-black smoke, about 8 to 10 miles away over a small mountain, roughly three miles southwest of Orange. It moved violently at high speed, stopped suddenly, and at times became hard to see, staying within an area of about four square miles. They heard no sound and wrote in a signed statement the next day that no plane could have made its maneuvers at that speed. Blue Book rated the case Insufficient Data.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Air Intelligence Information Report IR-14-51E (Eastern Air Defense Force, October 30, 1951); witnesses’ statement of October 1, 1951

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Balloons, Radar and the Limits of Official Explanations

September 1951 shows the Air Force reasoning through its own files. The Fort Monmouth and Sandy Hook reports, a pilot sighting and a series of radar echoes, ended with a balloon verdict and a stated caveat that the pilots’ sighting could not be called definite. The March AFB intercepts ended with a balloon verdict and one intercept the report said “cannot be explained.” The Fort Monmouth case is often credited with pressing Air Force intelligence toward a more methodical project, and both cases show how much rested on assumptions about balloons, winds and radar propagation.
Blue Book’s September Unknowns are smaller and cleaner: six orange lights seen by two airmen at Claremont and three radar targets at Goose Bay that the Air Force said did not behave like a warming-up scope. Against them stand cases the files resolved: meteors over Andrews AFB and Cincinnati, ducting behind the Michigan-Wisconsin radar tracks, a probable friendly aircraft near Marion, Ohio, and a Hollywood sighting rated psychological. Among the entity reports, Withdean, Sussex remains the month’s strangest, for the synchronized and purposeless behavior of its three visitors.