THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT

1952: Two Senior Pilots Over Pittsburgh Watch a Pulsing Orange Flame That Was Not a Jet, and Tactical Air Command Rejects ATIC’s Meteor Call

A little after 3:00 a.m. on February 11, 1952, Major Richard J. Gedeon of Tactical Air Command and Captain George P. Arns of the 47th Bomb Wing were flying an AT-11 from Cleveland to Langley AFB when a cold front forced them to divert to Greater Pittsburgh Airport. Approaching the city from the south at about 5,000 feet, they saw a brilliant light high to the right, at 1 o’clock, on a reciprocal course. It looked like an aircraft on fire: a comet-shaped body with a yellow-to-orange flame.

As it swung toward their 3 o’clock high, the flame began to pulse in regular one-to-two-second cycles until the light passed over the cloud tops and out of sight, about a minute after they first saw it. Both pilots had seen jets at night, and neither had seen a pulsating flame. Gedeon, who had watched buzz bombs in Belgium, said the sight reminded him of them, though much larger and not continuous. ATIC’s status report called it “description similar to meteor.” Tactical Air Command wrote back that this was in error. This Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania UFO case comes from the Blue Book file and is carried as a Blue Book Unknown.

Date: February 11, 1952

Sighting Time: Between 0300 and 0315 EST; landed at Pittsburgh at 0330

Day/Night: Night; a bright moon above a cloud bank

Location: Approaching Greater Pittsburgh Airport from the south, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (40.44°N, 79.97°W)

Urban or Rural: Airborne near a metropolitan area, clear sky above a cold-front cloud buildup

No. of Entity’s: Not Applicable

Entity Type: Not Applicable

Entity Description: Not Applicable

Hynek Classification: NL (Nocturnal Light)

Duration: About one minute of continuous, unobstructed observation

No. of Object(s): 1

Description of the Object(s): A brilliant, comet-shaped light with yellow-to-orange flame coloration; regular one- to two-second pulsations of the flame; no exhaust, smoke or structure seen

Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Comet-like light; yellow to orange; larger than a buzz-bomb flame, according to the witness

Distance to Object(s): More than 5 miles, estimated from the cloud buildup the object flew over

Height & Speed: Observers at about 5,000 feet; the object was high; speed “jet-like,” not measurable; heading about 130° on the Blue Book status report

Number of Witnesses: 2 (Major Richard J. Gedeon and Captain George P. Arns)

Special Features/Characteristics: Reciprocal course (about south) at the same level; straight and level throughout; pulsations became visible when the object reached the 3 o’clock-high position; the object passed over a cloud buildup 12,000–15,000 feet high

Case Status: Blue Book Unknown (BBU 1052 in Sparks’ catalog). ATIC status report: “description similar to meteor.” Tactical Air Command disputed that conclusion on May 6, 1952

Source: Tactical Air Command letters of February 23 and 25 and May 6, 1952; OSI questionnaire completed by Maj. Gedeon; ATIC status report extract (Project Blue Book Report No. 5, March 31, 1952); Sparks #357

Summary/Description: Two senior pilots in an AT-11 saw a bright yellow-to-orange comet-shaped light with a pulsing flame cross their path at the same level for about a minute. ATIC called it similar to a meteor; TAC wrote that the course was straight and lacked a meteor’s characteristics.

Detailed Report

The signed statement is dated February 23, 1952 and addressed to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Headquarters TAC at Langley AFB. Gedeon wrote that he and Arns were flying a T-11 (AT-11) aircraft from Cleveland to Langley on February 11 when an unusual object was sighted near Pittsburgh. A cold-front cloud buildup southeast of Pittsburgh could not be topped or penetrated, so they changed their flight plan to land at Greater Pittsburgh Airport.

Approaching from the south at about 5,000 feet, they saw a brilliant lighted object high to the right on a reciprocal course. The sighting occurred between 0300 and 0315 EST. At first they thought an aircraft was on fire, because of the brilliance, comet-like appearance and yellow-to-orange flame. As the object reached the 3 o’clock-high position, regular one- to two-second pulsations of the flame were noted, which continued until it passed out of sight.

Both thought it was a jet because of the speed, but neither had ever seen a pulsating flame emitted from a jet at night. The sight reminded Gedeon of buzz bombs he had seen many times in Belgium, though the buzz-bomb flame was only a fraction of the size and was continuous. He estimated the object was more than five miles away, from the cloud buildup on their right (12,000 to 15,000 feet) over which it flew. A bright moon above the clouds gave clear, continuous, unobstructed observation for about a minute. They landed at Pittsburgh at 0330.

Gedeon also completed an OSI questionnaire. His direction estimate was south to south-southeast; Arns thought south-southeast to east-southeast. The flight path was straight and level; no exhaust, smoke or structure was observed, and the object was seen only in the clear-sky area. Gedeon had slept four hours before the flight, felt well rested, and had been airborne about one hour and fifteen minutes. He listed 3,400 flying hours; Arns’ hours are not clear on the scan. There were no other witnesses. TAC’s intelligence staff considered him “a fairly competent witness in that he is serious minded, not given to fancy or exaggeration,” who had “no doubt that the object sighted was not a meteor.”

TAC forwarded the report to the Director of Intelligence, USAF on February 25, 1952. ATIC then included it as item 5 in Project Blue Book Report No. 5 (March 31, 1952), with the status extract: time 0300, length of observation one minute, speed same as a jet, altitude high, heading 130°, source two Air Force pilots, and the comment “Description similar to meteor.”

On May 6, 1952 the TAC Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence wrote to the Director of Intelligence that the ATIC conclusions were “in error.” Gedeon had observed meteors before, and in this instance the course appeared to be a straight line and did not show a meteor’s characteristic orbit. Speed could not be estimated because the lateral distance of the object east of their course was a matter of conjecture, but the roughly one-minute duration would tend to preclude conventional aircraft. TAC added that Capital Airlines was understood to be experimenting with a high-intensity rotating aircraft marker in place of the conventional flasher, and that Gedeon had not seen it in flight; the duration argued against it unless it was being tested on a jet. Another document in the file asks whether a Capital flight equipped with the new marker light was in the area at that date and time. The answer is not in the file.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

A Meteor Call the Witness and His Command Rejected

Aircraft. The statement and the status message call it a “T-11,” and Sparks says Beech AT-11. The serial number scans as 41-274 with the last two digits unclear. The AT-11 was a twin-engine trainer.
Names. Sparks gives the observers as “G. P. Arns and R. J. Gedson.” The signed statement reads Richard J. Gedeon; Arns is George P. Arns.
Heading and Direction. The status report gives a heading of 130°. The two pilots disagreed slightly on the object’s direction (south to south-southeast versus south-southeast to east-southeast), and TAC noted that the lateral distance was conjecture.
The Meteor Case. A meteor can pulse and be comet-shaped, and a one-minute duration is long for one, though bright fireballs and earth-grazers can last that long. TAC’s argument rests on the straight path and the pilot’s own meteor experience. The file does not show the astronomical check that would have supported ATIC’s view.
The Capital Airlines Marker. The rotating-marker idea was offered as conjecture; TAC itself noted that duration argued against it. No reply from Capital Airlines is on file.
Why It Stays a BBU. Blue Book carries it as unidentified (BBU 1052). The ATIC status line says “similar to meteor,” which is not the same as a final identification; the record card was not in this batch.
Hynek Class. Hynek’s original system has no category for a pulsing flame on a reciprocal course; NL is the closest fit. No radar was involved.

The Pittsburgh case is a short, clean visual sighting by two senior pilots with a clear moon-lit sky and a stated distance estimate, which makes it valuable. It stands out for the paper trail: an ATIC meteor comment that the witness’s own command contested in writing three months later, and a Capital Airlines hypothesis that was raised and left unanswered.

“Both of us thought it was a jet because of the speed, however, neither of us have ever seen a pulsating flame emitted from a jet at night.”
— Maj. Richard J. Gedeon, TAC statement, February 23, 1952