One blue-orange ball was observed by three witnesses for five minutes.

Project Grudge Assessment:

I. DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENT

On the night of 29 January 1952, 30 miles WSW of Wonson, Korea, three members of a B-29 crew, the tail, left, and top gunner, observed a light orange colored sphere for a period of five minutes. The object was on a parallel course to the B-29 at 8 o'clock level. The color of the object was further described as being the color of the sun with an occasional bluish tint. The outer edge of the object appeared to be fuzzy and it seemed to have an internal churning movement like flames or fiery gases. The object closed in on the B-29 to an undetermined distance, and then faded away in the distance.

The aircraft was on a heading of 274°, was at 22,500 ft. altitude and was making a ground speed of 145 knots. The time of the sighting was 2300 local Korean time. The weather was CAVU.

At 2324 local Korean time, members of another B-29 crew observed an identical object near Sunchon. This object was observed for one minute. The observers were the left and tail gunners. In this instance, the B-29 was at 22,250 ft.

The sources of these reports are all World War II veterans and veterans of previous combat missions in Korea, The crews were from different squadrons and were interrogated separately.

II. DISCUSSION OF THE INCIDENT

The times that the object or objects followed the B-29's indicate that the objects were propelled by some means, which eliminates the possibility of an unguided ground-to-air missile, drop missiles, etc. The color and shape of the flame were studied by members of the ATIC Propulsion Group to determine whether or not the flame could have been the exhaust of a conventional jet engine with or without an afterburner, a pulse-jet, ram-jet, or rocket engine. None of these possibilities were considered to be applicable. The report is somewhat similar to the reports of "fireball-fighters", a type of phenomena observed in Europe during World War II. The exact nature of this phenomena was never determined but bomber crews reported large fiery balls, similar to the sun, passing through or near their formations. There is no documented evidence or data available on this phenomena, and all the information that has been obtained is verbal from World War II bomber crewmen, consequently, few actual facts are available.

III. CONCLUSIONS

No conclusions have been reached as to the identity or origin of these unidentified aerial objects. One possibility is that this may have been some type of flare towed by an aircraft to mark the B-29 for flak crews. No aircraft exhaust flame was reported, however.

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