Ellenton, South Carolina, May 10, 1952: eight discs over the Savannah River Plant.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT
Ellenton, South Carolina: Eight Gold Discs Cross the Savannah River Plant
At about 10:40 on the night of May 10, 1952, four DuPont employees at the Savannah River Plant in Ellenton, South Carolina, looked up from their work and saw something the Atomic Energy Commission could not explain: four yellow-gold discs, each about fifteen inches across, sweeping in from the south toward the plant’s “400 area” at high speed and without a sound. Minutes later more followed, and the last of them, the FBI recorded, “approached the 400 area from northeast; was traveling at altitude so low it had to rise to pass over some tall tanks.”
This Savannah River Plant UFO sighting of May 10, 1952 was reported by the FBI to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and to the AEC, which ran the nuclear-materials site on the Georgia–South Carolina line. It is one of the clearest early cases of discs over a nuclear facility, and Project Blue Book never explained it.
Date: May 10, 1952
Sighting Time: 10:40 p.m. to 11:15 p.m. EST (card: 2245, 2305, 2310, 2315)
Day/Night: Night
Location: DuPont Savannah River Plant (Atomic Energy Commission), “400 area,” Ellenton, South Carolina, across the river from Augusta, Georgia
Urban or Rural: Rural industrial site
No. of Entity(‘s): Not Applicable
Entity Type: Not Applicable
Entity Description: Not Applicable
Hynek Classification: Nocturnal Light (NL)
Duration: A few seconds per object over about 35 minutes
No. of Object(s): Eight per the FBI report; six per the 6th District OSI synopsis; four per the Blue Book card
Description of the Object(s): Disc-shaped, luminous, silent; about fifteen inches in diameter; some “weaved” from left to right while holding a general course
Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Disc / about 15 inches / yellow to gold
Distance to Object(s): Not reported; the eighth object was low enough to rise over tall tanks
Height & Speed: High altitude and high speed for seven objects; the eighth very low and fast
Number of Witnesses: Four DuPont employees (names withheld in the file)
Special Features/Characteristics: Objects crossed in successive groups over about 35 minutes: four, two, one, one. No noise. Witnesses saw them only for a few seconds each because of speed and altitude.
Case Status: Unidentified / Insufficient Data (Project Blue Book card)
Source: FBI report forwarded to AFOSI and the AEC; 6th District OSI, Robins AFB synopsis; Project Blue Book record card; Look Magazine, June 24, 1952; Berliner (BBU 1198)
Summary/Description: Four DuPont workers at the Savannah River Plant watched four, then two, one and one more disc-shaped lights cross the night sky over the nuclear site, the last flying low enough to rise over the tanks.
Related Cases: Greenville, South Carolina, May 13, 1952; George AFB, California, May 1952
Detailed Report
The FBI report. According to the report passed from the FBI’s Augusta office through the Air Force Counter Intelligence Division, four employees of the DuPont Company at the Savannah River Plant saw four disc-shaped objects approach the 400 area from the south and disappear to the north. “At approximately 2305 hours, the same employees saw two similar objects approach from the south and disappear in a northerly direction. At approximately 2310 hours, one similar object approached from the northeast and disappeared in a southwesterly direction. One more object sighted about 2315 hours traveling from south to north.” The employees described the objects as about fifteen inches in diameter, yellow to gold, “traveling at a high rate of speed and at high altitude without any noise.”
An eighth object, the report says, approached the 400 area from the northeast “at altitude so low it had to rise to pass over some tall tanks.” It was also fast and noiseless. The witnesses said the objects weaved from left to right but seemed to hold a general course, and that because of speed and altitude each was visible for only a few seconds. The FBI advised that no further investigation was contemplated, and the AEC was given the information.
The OSI version. The 6th District Office of Special Investigations at Robins Air Force Base summarized the report differently: four individuals sighted four disc-shaped objects at 2240 hours on May 10 while working at the DuPont Savannah River project across the river from Augusta, Georgia; about twenty minutes later, one more came from the north moving south, and about ten minutes after that, one more went from south to north. That gives six objects and slightly different times, and the altitude is again listed as “high except for last which was very low.”
Blue Book’s card. The Project Blue Book record card lists four witnesses, a yellow, disc-shaped object flying straight and level with one object “pulled up” to clear an object on the ground, and times of 2245 (two objects, south to north), 2305 (two objects, south to north), 2310 (one object, northeast to southwest) and 2315 (one object, south to north). Its comments note that the sighting was near balloon-launch time and could be similar to a report that “turned out to be ducks, but no proof.” The evaluation boxes were marked Unknown and Insufficient Data, and Blue Book’s own 11–31 May table carried the case as insufficient. Look magazine carried the story in “Hunt For The Flying Saucer” on June 24, 1952.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
Four Counts, One Night, One Nuclear Site
- Count discrepancy: The FBI report totals eight objects (4+2+1+1); the OSI synopsis totals six (4+1+1); the Blue Book card lists four. All three agree on four discs at the start, from the south, and on a low final object in the FBI version.
- Timing: The FBI gives 2305, 2310 and 2315 for the later groups; OSI gives 2240 and then roughly twenty and thirty minutes later. The sequence is the same; the clock readings differ by a few minutes.
- Witness quality: The witnesses were plant employees working at a restricted AEC site. Names are held back in the file, so independent checking is impossible.
- The balloon question: Blue Book suggested a balloon launch or a repeat of a duck report but offered no evidence. Balloons do not cross in groups from several directions within minutes, and the witnesses stressed speed.
- Why it matters: The case sits beside other 1952 reports at nuclear and military sites and shows how quickly a plant incident moved from the FBI to the Air Force.
Blue Book left the Savannah River Plant case without an explanation, and the surviving records leave only the witnesses’ own description: small, fast, golden lights, crossing in separate groups over a restricted nuclear site, one of them skimming low over the tanks. The honest position is that the discrepancies in the count do not weaken the core account, and that nothing in the file identifies what they were.
“Eighth object approached the 400 area from northeast; was traveling at altitude so low it had to rise to pass over some tall tanks in 400 area.”
— FBI report quoted in the Air Force Counter Intelligence Division record, May 1952
