THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT

O’Hare Airport, Chicago:

Air Policemen and Firemen Watch a Silver Oval Hover Between Two Radio Towers

Between 5:45 and 6:30 on the evening of June 29, 1952, three air policemen of the 83rd Air Base Squadron at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport watched a bright silver, smooth-surfaced oval object, about 30 feet across, hover two to three miles away between the radio towers of stations WGN and WBBM. It hung there for the first twenty to twenty-five minutes, surrounded by a blue haze and reflecting the low sun, and then moved up, down and sideways relative to the towers far faster than any jet fighter.

The O’Hare Airport UFO sighting of June 29, 1952 was independently seen by Chicago firemen several miles away. It receded at high speed and disappeared, in the air policemen’s words, “like shutting off a light,” with no trail and no noise, and Blue Book listed it as Unidentified.

Date: June 29, 1952

Sighting Time: 5:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (near sunset)

Day/Night: Day (evening, near the setting sun)

Location: O’Hare Airport, Chicago, Illinois, looking toward the WGN and WBBM radio towers about seven miles away

Urban or Rural: Urban

No. of Entity(‘s): Not Applicable

Entity Type: Not Applicable

Entity Description: Not Applicable

Hynek Classification: Daylight Disc (DD)

Duration: About 45 minutes

No. of Object(s): 1

Description of the Object(s): A bright silver, smooth-surfaced, flat oval object that hovered for the first 20–25 minutes, then moved very fast left, right, up and down relative to the towers, rocking on its longitudinal axis; it receded at high speed and vanished “like shutting off a light” with no trail and no noise

Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Flat oval / about 30 feet across / bright silver, with a blue haze around it for the first 20–25 minutes

Distance to Object(s): About 2–3 miles from the observers

Height & Speed: About 500–1,000 feet up; hovering at first, then far faster than any jet fighter

Number of Witnesses: 3 air policemen, plus Chicago firemen several miles away

Special Features/Characteristics: Appeared oval (roughly 2.2:1 major-to-minor axis ratio) when vertical and thin and hard to see when horizontal; reflected sunlight; independently witnessed by firemen

Case Status: Unidentified (Project Blue Book)

Source: Jan Aldrich; unpublished Ruppelt manuscript; Project Blue Book unknown BBU 1364 (Berliner)

Summary/Description: Three USAF air policemen at O’Hare watched a silver oval hover for over twenty minutes near two radio towers and then vanish at high speed, as Chicago firemen independently saw it.

Related Cases: Chicago, Illinois, June 25, 1952

Detailed Report

The sighting was made by three USAF air policemen of the 83rd Air Base Squadron, S/Sgt. Lopez, A/1c Weber and A/3c Korkowski, at O’Hare. They saw a bright silver object with a smooth surface, a flat oval roughly 30 feet across, about 500 to 1,000 feet up and two to three miles away. For the first 20 to 25 minutes it hovered, surrounded by a blue haze, between the radio towers of WGN and WBBM, seven miles away, near the setting sun, reflecting sunlight.

Then it began to move very fast, left, right, up and down relative to the towers, far faster than any jet fighter, rocking on its longitudinal axis. When vertical it looked oval, with a roughly 2.2:1 ratio of major to minor axis; when horizontal it was thin and hard to see. It finally receded at high speed and disappeared, as the report put it, “like shutting off a light.” There was no trail and no noise. Chicago firemen several miles away saw it independently.

The case is recorded by Jan Aldrich and in an unpublished Ruppelt manuscript, and Berliner lists it as Blue Book unknown 1364. Blue Book’s June 23–30 table lists “O’Hare Airport, Chicago” on June 29, military observers, evaluated Unidentified. The case file itself was not among the pages I could read; the description above is taken from the existing archive entry.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

Three Air Policemen, a Fire Company and Two Radio Towers

• Witnesses: Three trained air policemen plus independent Chicago firemen several miles away, which supports a real object at a distance.
• Duration: The first 20–25 minutes of hovering followed by fast maneuvers makes this one of the longest observations in the late-June wave.
• Shape change: The 2.2:1 oval seen when vertical and a thin line when horizontal is consistent with a flat disc rocking on its axis.
• Evaluation: Unidentified in the Blue Book table; BBU 1364.

A long, daylight-and-dusk observation by trained witnesses, a second group of witnesses miles away and a clean disappearance: the O’Hare report closes the Chicago series of June 11, 25 and 29 with the strongest of the three.

“The object receded at high speed then disappeared like shutting off a light. No trail, no noise.”

— USAF air police report, O’Hare Airport, Chicago, June 29, 1952