An unidentified but otherwise conventional object was sighted. One ball was observed by seven military witnesses at an airport for 52 minutes.

Project Grudge Assessment:

I. DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENT

On 3 April 1952 at 0815 MST, three civilian AF pilot instructors and several other people observed an object from the Benson,, Arizona, airport. The object was about the size of a bright star but was prominent enough to be continually-observed (i.e. not necessary to scan the sky to find).

At 0823 MST, one of the instructors took a fix on the object by sitting in a T-6 and sighting across the canopy with the aircraft on a magnetic heading of 255° at the time. Fixes were taken at intervals until 0914 at which time the object disappeared. The object did not move during the 51 minute period. How the object disappeared is not known as one of the observers attention was distracted for about 15 seconds and when he looked up the object was gone.

One of the instructors flew a T-6 up to 13,500 ft0 in an attempt to better observe the object, however, there was no relative change in the size.

Several cadets flying T-68s in the area also observed the object.

II. STATUS OF THE INVESTIGATION

The excellent forethought of the instructor to take continual fixes on the object has eliminated the possibility of the object being an aircraft or balloon since no motion was observed. In addition, an investigation was made and it was determined that there were no balloons in the area.

It is possible that the object was a bright planet. This is doubtful, however, since a planet would appear to move some in 51 minutes.

The approximate, elevation of the fix has been requested. In the original report it was given as '"two inches above the canopy". This angle will depend on height of the pilot, height of seat, etc. When this information is received, a nearly exact fix can be obtained and known astronomical bodies checked.

III. CONCLUSIONS

Pending.

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