March 1956: an interceptor's landing lights catch a glowing disc over Westover AFB, while radar targets outrun jets from Washington to Labrador.
1956: March UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
At 9:17 p.m. on March 26, 1956, a blip appeared on the tower radar at Westover AFB, Massachusetts, and jets were scrambled. According to Donald Keyhoe’s account, the lead interceptor pilot closed in on a large round object, near enough to light it up with his landing lights. It was 100 to 150 feet across, with a green fluorescent glow around its rim. Then it climbed steeply and vanished at 30,000 feet. The Westover AFB intercept anchors the March 1956 UFO sightings archive, and it caps a month in which military radar kept catching things it couldn’t explain.
Over Spokane, Washington, an F-86D pilot watched a radar target race away from his jet faster than anything he had seen in 930 flying hours. Above Goose Bay, Labrador, an airliner crew tracked a blue, teardrop-shaped object trailing fire. On the ground near Grand Ledge, Michigan, a laboratory technician said a glowing metallic sphere stopped ten feet from him and seemed to try to make contact. March 1956 also carries one of ufology’s most notorious and least substantiated stories: the alleged abduction and mutilation of Air Force Sgt. Jonathan P. Lovette at White Sands, New Mexico. The case appears here with an honest account of its sourcing.
Date: Spring 1956
Location: Unknown
Time: Afternoon
Summary: A six-year-old boy went into some woods to relieve himself and saw what he described as a huge praying mantis in front of him. It stood sideways to him, with its head turned to look straight at him, and he was so horrified he felt nearly sick. He then heard his mother and others calling his name and ran toward them. His mother scolded him for having been gone for over an hour, a stretch of time he could not remember.
Source: About.com Paranormal Phenomena, reader-report archive, July 2002
Source Status: A single-witness childhood memory, reported about 46 years later on a general-interest website, with no location given. The date is given only as spring 1956.
Date: March 1956
Location: White Sands Missile Range, near Holloman AFB, New Mexico
Time: About 3:00 a.m.
Summary: The claim concerns Air Force Sgt. Jonathan P. Lovette and Maj. William Cunningham, who were said to be searching downrange for missile-test debris. Lovette went over the ridge of a sand dune, and Cunningham heard him scream. Running over the crest, the major reportedly saw a long, snake-like appendage wrapped around Lovette’s legs, dragging him into a silvery disc that hovered 15 to 20 feet away. The disc then climbed rapidly out of sight. Cunningham is said to have radioed Missile Control, which confirmed a radar contact, and he was admitted to the base dispensary for observation. According to the story, Lovette’s nude body was found three days later about ten miles downrange. It had been drained of blood and mutilated with apparent surgical precision, with the eyes, tongue, genitals and anus removed.
Source: William (Bill) English’s recollection of an alleged “Grudge/Blue Book Report 13,” also repeated by William Cooper; circulated by Yorkshire UFO and others
Source Status: DISPUTED / UNSUBSTANTIATED. The story comes entirely from the recollections of William English and William Cooper about a document neither ever produced. The declassified Project Grudge reports run from 1 to 12 plus 14, and no Report 13 has been found. No autopsy, death certificate, base log or casualty record has surfaced, and no Sgt. Jonathan P. Lovette matching the account has been confirmed. Project Grudge had also been replaced by Project Blue Book in 1952, four years before the alleged 1956 incident.
Date: March 3, 1956
Location: Spokane, Washington
Time: 4:40 p.m. (PST) (04/0040Z)
Summary: 1st Lt. Donald A. Stoner, flying an F-86D at 22,000 feet on an air defense mission, saw a target on his radar that moved rapidly up the scope and faded. He later called the incident peculiar and worth bringing to someone’s attention, writing: “I had never before seen such rapid target movement away from an aircraft going almost 300 mph in the same general direction.” He cited his experience: “I have 560 hours in the F-86D, 930 hours total time.” The file lists ground radar and air-intercept radar as the types of observation.[Full Report]
Source: BBU Files (BBU)
Date: March 5, 1956
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Time: Unknown
Summary: A formation of UFOs was photographed.
Source: The UFO Evidence (NICAP), Section VIII
Date: March 23, 1956
Location: Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada
Time: 6:39 a.m. local time
Summary: The pilot and copilot of an aircraft at 30,500 feet watched a round, bright blue object trailing heavy yellow-orange fire and sparks for about 60 seconds. It appeared to be 2 to 3 miles to the left of the aircraft and 2,000 to 5,000 feet above. Overall the object was teardrop-shaped, and both pilots estimated its speed at 500 to 600 knots.
Source: Dan Wilson; Blue Book files (BB)
Date: March 23, 1956
Location: Grand Ledge, Michigan
Time: 3:00 a.m.
Summary: A 27-year-old laboratory technician named Bassett was walking along the river bank when he “felt the presence of something” and looked up. A metallic sphere giving off an orange glow was descending rapidly. It stopped just ten feet away, four feet above the ground, and made no sound. He “lost track of time” and felt the object had tried to make contact with him. The case may involve missing time. [Full Report]
Source: Jerome Clark, “The Anomalist,” April 2000
Date: March 26, 1956
Location: Westover AFB, Massachusetts
Time: 9:17 p.m.
Summary: A strange blip appeared on the Westover tower radar. Jets were scrambled and vectored toward the circling UFO. The lead interceptor pilot, identified only as Captain E____, closed on a large round object, near enough to light it up with his landing lights. It appeared to be 100 to 150 feet in diameter and 8 to 12 feet thick at the center, with a green fluorescent glow around its outer edge. As he tried to close in, the disc climbed steeply and disappeared into the night at 30,000 feet. Besides the pilot, the report named a tower operator and a radioman.
Source: Westover AFB Control Tower Daily Report, 26 March 1956, Classified 56-51-059, signed Capt. F.E. Edwards USAF; Notes from tape of Rev. Albert H. Baller, ca. January 1957, #2459 (Barry Greenwood archive); Rev. Baller letter to [recipient], ca. January 1957 (Barry Greenwood archive, pages 12–15) [Full Report ]
Source Status: Keyhoe is the only source, and he withheld the pilot’s name.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Interceptors, Radar Scopes and a Legend Without Paperwork
March 1956 is a month of military radar and pilot reports. The Westover AFB intercept on March 26 is the most dramatic: a tower radar blip, a scramble, and an interceptor pilot close enough to light up a 100-to-150-foot glowing disc before it climbed away. It rests on Donald Keyhoe’s account alone. The Spokane F-86D case of March 3 is thinner in drama but stronger on paper. It is a Blue Book unknown in which 1st Lt. Donald A. Stoner described, in his own statement, a target outrunning his interceptor on both ground and airborne radar. The Goose Bay airliner sighting of March 23 describes a fire-trailing blue object at an estimated 500 to 600 knots.
On the ground, the Grand Ledge, Michigan metallic sphere of March 23 is a close-range case with a hint of missing time, and a spring 1956 childhood account describes a giant mantis-like figure and a lost hour. The month also carries the Lovette-Cunningham story from White Sands, one of the most graphic human-mutilation claims in UFO lore. It is recorded here in full but marked disputed. Its only sources are later recollections of a “Report 13” that has never surfaced, and no record confirms that Sgt. Lovette existed.
“I had never before seen such rapid target movement away from an aircraft.”
1st Lt. Donald A. Stoner, F-86D pilot, Spokane, Washington, March 3, 1956 (Project Blue Book file)
