Port Lyautey, August 6, 1952: the disc that outclimbed an R5D.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT
Port Lyautey, French Morocco:
A Navy R5D Crew and a Climbing, Hovering Disc, August 6, 1952
At 7:51 on the evening of August 6, 1952, control tower personnel at the Naval Air Station at Port Lyautey, French Morocco, and three Navy officer pilots flying an R5D transport watched a brilliant white, disc-shaped object with a blinking red light. It left a smoke trail, flew straight and level at high speed, then climbed vertically to 15,000 feet, hovered, and descended.
When the R5D tried to climb toward it, the object accelerated away and the crew abandoned the chase. The Port Lyautey UFO sighting is a rare multi-witness report from a U.S. Navy base in North Africa in the summer of 1952, and the Hynek-CUFOS review of Blue Book files kept it on record.
Date: August 6, 1952
Sighting Time: 7:51 p.m.
Day/Night: Evening
Location: Naval Air Station Port Lyautey, French Morocco (now Kenitra, Morocco)
Urban or Rural: Rural
No. of Entity(‘s): Not Applicable
Entity Type: Not Applicable
Entity Description: Not Applicable
Hynek Classification: Nocturnal Light (NL)
Duration: Not recorded
No. of Object(s): 1
Description of the Object(s): A brilliant white, disc-shaped luminous object with a blinking red light and a smoke trail
Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Disc; brilliant white; size not recorded
Distance to Object(s): Not recorded
Height & Speed: Straight and level at high speed, then a vertical climb to 15,000 feet at high speed, a hover and a descent
Number of Witnesses: Control tower personnel (number not recorded) and 3 Navy officer pilots in an R5D
Special Features/Characteristics: A smoke trail; a red blinking light; a vertical climb to 15,000 feet; a hover; a descent; the object accelerated away when the aircraft tried to climb toward it
Case Status: Insufficient Data — known through the CUFOS re-evaluation and catalogue indexes; the original Blue Book evaluation was not available for this entry
Source: J. Allen Hynek / CUFOS re-evaluation; Jan Aldrich; FUFOR Index
Summary/Description: Control tower personnel and three Navy officer pilots flying an R5D saw a brilliant white, disc-shaped object with a red blinking light and a smoke trail. It flew level at high speed, climbed vertically to 15,000 feet, hovered, descended, and accelerated away when the aircraft tried to climb toward it.
Related Cases: Hamilton AFB, California, August 3, 1952; the Spain and North Africa sightings of July-October 1952
Detailed Report
The Port Lyautey report is known through catalogue summaries. At 7:51 p.m. on August 6, 1952, control tower personnel at the Navy air station and the three officer pilots of an R5D transport (the Navy’s Douglas C-54) saw a brilliant white, disc-shaped object carrying a red blinking light and trailing smoke.
It traveled straight and level at high speed, then climbed vertically to about 15,000 feet, hovered, and came back down. The R5D crew tried to climb toward it. As they did, the object accelerated away and the chase was abandoned.
Port Lyautey, near present-day Kenitra, was a major U.S. Navy air station. The archive carries two things about this case: the report itself, and the fact that a multi-witness report from a Navy station reached Blue Book. The sources reviewed give no duration, weather, or a name for any witness.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
A Navy Station in Morocco and a Disc That Would Not Be Caught
- Observers on the ground and in the air: The tower personnel and the R5D crew are two independent vantage points on the same object, which is better than a lone witness. The sources do not say how closely their accounts matched.
- The smoke trail and blinking light: A red blinking light is an aircraft convention, and a smoke trail suggests a flame or exhaust. Both are consistent with a conventional aircraft or a flare, and the record does not rule those out.
- The vertical climb: The climb to 15,000 feet followed by a hover is the feature that sets the report apart from aircraft traffic. It is a witness estimate without radar support in the sources.
- Limits: No names, durations, weather or tower logs are in the material reviewed, and the Blue Book evaluation is not stated.
Port Lyautey is a short but structured report: two groups of trained observers, an object that behaved unlike an aircraft, and a failed attempt to approach it. The record cannot go beyond what the catalogues say.
When the aircraft attempted to climb toward the object, it accelerated away and the chase was abandoned.
— Summary of the Port Lyautey, French Morocco sighting of August 6, 1952 (paraphrased)
