PROJECT BLUE BOOK

1.
1. DATE · TIME GROUP LOCATION
9 December 65 09/21152 Indiana, Ohio Penna, Michigan, Canaia
3. SOURCE 10. CONCLUSION
Civilians (MULTIFLE) Astro (METEOR)
4. NUMBER OF OBJECTS
One
3. LENGTH OF OSSERVATION 11. BRIEP SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS
Seconds SEE CASE FILE
5. TYPE OF OBSERVATION
Ground-Visual
7. COURSE
Descending
8. PHOTOS
IN FILE I
11

MEMO FOR THE RECORD 10 Dee 65

DAYTON DAILY NEE, =e

Mr I 20 ted to know the latest news on the sighting seen on Acme , Pennsylvanie
docation. Major Quintanilla told hin that there were no Locel reports,

only selephone calls. He told him-that we just contacted Oakdale Radar

Site and there was no additional iuformation. Major told him that the

highway patrol went out to the area, but Pound nothing.

a me ——

Rt a i 8

MEMO FOR THE RECORD 10 Dec 55
Call from Oakdale, Pennsylvania
Some people saw a glowing light.
There was also a report that there was a blue light, and there was an odor.
(Second call to Oakdale)
Et Cashnan said that the search ended at bout o2oo. They searched with the
State Police. They could not find anything. They do not plan on going
out again. The news media, ete. stopped calling about l o'clock.
a

HU
4

NE States & Part Canada
Information Chly 9 December 1965
Souree: Saucer News, Vol 13, #1, Mar 66
On the af tarnoon of December 9th, a mystericus fireball made its way
across seven nartheastern states_and part of nd was sightad by air-
line pilots as well as by hundreds of other people trange metal strips were
found in a swamp 40 miles north of Detroit. woodad a about 30
miles from Pittsburg, Pa. was sealed aff far several hours wt e a thorough
Squadron, stats police, and volunteers. Nothing was found, however. Officials
state that a meteorite was probably the cause of it all, but the times in-
volved indicate that abject traveling much too slow for a meteorite.
There is also evidence that it char course in flight. (N.Y. Journal-Ameri-
can, 12/10/65; The Jersey City N. J. Journal, I2/10/65; Duluth, Minn. Naws- is
Tribuns, 12/10/65; UPI; etc.)....
EM

about so deqnes. olovation, +
sby
direathywouth. The flosh
a traveled to the cast ox a coue
estimatid about 11o degese and
anded shith a defnit flo
A

on the should of the rood of light, I stopped my con
and made four phatopashs of
the smeke remainig with a milimiter lonse ox forer
by fine id fim The ft 1277
ep n a
45 pon aftw my fit ation
the pcond efpone 55 sconds the thid at a minete and tox
seconde; a the furta
minute and Do seeonds,
The photopapho made are
retuced and unspoed fo
3

3
which abouts 1o peront of the negative wvas ised.
Photoqapho are for fr
ony. Fov any other pulication
pleose contact me.
foure vaytuly -
R R
Rogd Ouh Micd Rogd OukMick -
Du.Hck Du. Hcke C: RCise
Mot wastern Univeraity Spy and Telescepe
.

TORONTO 13. CANADA
i.4=165
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Gentle men
Wicni on Gi Canade
a 7liglot
snice A sighled thi "thing" onir it
C 24.45 p.m L4.45 p.m and at abred io ren and at aboed io Jun
Oppret Opprat outh of th eity o Pitdungh when Bouth of the ity o Pitegh when
Hlying Jluing tinr
we lic22 al 18.,00 ft. & weai -toeking aut tte
Lindo to wand the  wen  s
C sact pinceil shaped ssjar fyin
going
fame
chen bchind iT. Lu a
appearing acccnd 7
fit 3or4

1B. CANADA
appamenth, I was the ouly oue on
td tat saw i toen when  che TE
the standen to
She told ma thar he had zeci the
annd was ixpoiting )
Saua
the radio.
lag not drukin and hava not drinking and hava
flown flon qrile adit as a passenger anal -
Qn a
tait weer weer 3 have havs hever Q00n 000n
any thing like iT
reepid
speed.
.
7 10u UsE
frus

The object which you observed, south of Pittsburgh, on the
. 1 .
evening of December 9,19 65, was definitely a brtlliant "firecall." 2
This same objeet was reported to the Air Force by munerous
observers in Indiana, Chio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
2
Your interest in a our program is sppreciated. Thank you for
reporting your sighting to us.
2 al 14
. =
- Sinceraly,
an
-
CEOPE P. FREPNAN. JK.
7AT4
-343-010
Comble ay--GAF-oTO
Reader Gy - SAr-OIC
Activity cy.- SAP-OIC
Stayback

30 degrees. The fire- troit area, 2 to fi minutes later, de-
ball traveled toward the pending on the location of the observer.
east, ending at an ele- A seismograph at Willow Run Airport
vation of 25 degrees. It (about 25 miles southwest of Detroit)
lasted about one sec- recorded the shock.
ond. Although when One observer in Michigan had just
first seen the fireball finished taking sunset had
appeared to be fading, pictures and
it ended with a burst turned toward the southeast when the
of light. fireball appeared. quickly took two
Standing on the shoul- color pictures train and cloud.
der of the road, Mr. "Preparations nder way for Cana-
Champine took this pic· dian scientists myself to begin ser-
ture with a 4-by-5-inch ious attempts to locate the region of a
camera and a 127-mm. possible fall of met orites."
lens. It is the first oi By chance, G. Wetherill, a geophys
a series of four, the ics and geology proiessor at the Univer
others being taken at sity of California at Los Angeles har
55, 70, and 80 seconds already planned a business trip east. H
after his first observa· started three days earlier, in order
cion. In the last picture interview people who had seen the fir
the train is strongly
Administration flight control center
TATE on the aiternoon of December 9, locate any possible meteoritic mass. An Oberlin, Ohio, to see if they had any u
L 1965, a fireball that must have been astronomer close to the scene was Von ful inforrnation. They did, and throu
brighter than the full moon streaked Del Chamberlain of the Abrams Planetar- Mr. Hatton of this facility I was giy
across the sky near the Great Lakes. ium, East Lansing, Michigan. In response a copy of 2s reports by aircraft pilot
Though the briliant light lasted only a to his requests for information, more than The first report was received at 4
few seconds, the meteor left a smoke train 100 persons sent him reports. He writes: p.m. EST from American Airlines Fi
that remuined visible for at least 20 min- "The fireball occurred at about 21:44 180, which was about 20 miles west
utes. Universai time (4:44 p.m. Eastern sran- Peck, Michigan (some 65 miles north
The fireball's path through the atmo-
sphere appears to have been steep, prob- Poatioe N
ably over the southern Michigan Penin- Dretden
sula for the most part. This track
terminated near the western end of Lake LANE: ONTARIO
Erie. It is possible that the fireball Detcot ST. CLAIR
dropped meteorites, but because its trajec- The path of the freball MICHIGAN Windsor
tory is not yer well known, it is not clear extended roughly from
whether they fell on land or into the northwest to southeast, Colchester
water. passing well south of LAKE ERIE
Two factors contribute to this uncer- Pontiac and Detroit,
tainty of the fireball's path through the Michigan, and ending D
atmosphere. Since the time was near sun- in or near the western Bass
set, there were no star fields against which part of Lake Erie. Toledo
the fireball could be plotted. Aiso, the Post Clinton
brief duration and short path in the sky Clareland
hampered attempts to ix its direction Sondusky F1yri0
over the ground. Fremant
. -esivaly study Oberlia miles
OHIO

C (Eontinued from page 79)
was much closer than it really was. When ST
it disappeared behind a house or a tree.
many people thought it had fallen only
a a few hundred yards beyond.
If the meteorite had fallen a few min.
utes later that day, it probably could have
been recovered from the much more fa
vorable terrain farther west. The steep
trajectory with the short visibility of the
fireball indicate that it was extraterres
trial matter rather than a returning space
craft."
William Werner, a regional directo
for the American Meteor Society, sul
mitted three sightings. One was by How
ard Duell of Wooster, Ohio, who d
scribed the fireball as "very bright, ye
lowish, like a rocket flame. Blue-gra
smoke trail remained one minute; la
a clear western sky. It became twisted ai
off-white in color, ending as "a thin ho .
zontal cloud"' visible for at least 20 mi
utes.
al -i
6 - 4
L N
C

Detroit). The crew had sighted an object
trailing smoke south of Detroit.
Within the next few minutes many
other radio messages were received from
airborne observers in Michigan, Ontario.
and Ohio. Many pilots thought an air-
plane was down in Lake Erie. When all
the bearings were plotted on a map, they
intersected in an approximately 300.
square-mile arca between Toledo, Ohio,
and Pelce Island (see map). This agreed
with sightings from the Cleveland area.
"The next day I drove farther west to
the region of Fremont, Sandusky, and
Port Clinton, Ohio. Although these cities
were nearer the end of the fireball's trajec-
tory, very few people had noticed the
phenomenon, probably because it was
high in the sky rather than close to the
horizon. However, several reports placed
the fireball to the north. Oue observer
at Port Clinton-on the south shore of
Lake Erie-also saw the fireball to the
+ north, indicating quite clearly that no im- 11
pact occurred south of the lake.
"I then telephoned police stations and
local operators on al inhabited islands
in the western end Erie, inquir-
ing if anyone had seen fireball. No
one had, but many persons heard a loud
detonation or sonic boomn at that time.
Several people were certain that it came
from the west or northwest. This sonic
boom had also been heard by many in
Port Clinton, but not farther east.
In view of the small population of
these islands (Pelee Island; North, Mid-
dle, and South Bass and Kelleys
Island) and the fact that most inhabitants
stay inside as much as possible in Decem-
ber, it is not surprising that there were ber, it is not surprising that there were
no observers of the fireball.
"Calling Colchester, Ontario, on the
opposite shore of the lake, I talked to
Mrs. Margaret Lankin, who with her
daughter had been hanging clothes when
al the fireball appeared. About 30 seconds
after it disappeared, they heard loud
detonations.
"I also talked by telephone to Richard
M Champine, who took the accompanying
photograph. His naine had been given
to me by the FAA in Oberlin.
"It is clear that only one fireball oc-
curred and that this became nonluminous 2
a number of miles above the western end
of Lake Erie. Most observers agreed thac
it burst into several pieces at the end of
its trajectory.
"The fireball was observed by many
people in Ontar nigan, Ohio, Penn-.
sylvania, and to a lesser extent in neigh-
boring states. In accounts, a
great many suppo sites were
1 reported, both in sout vestern Pennsyl-
vania and castern Ohio. Fragments were
claimed to have fallen in Ohio and Mich-
igan.
These imagined happenings arose
from the impossibility of estimating the
distance of an object in the sky. Almost
everyone who saw the fireball thought it
(Continued on page 82)

PHOTOGRAPHS
IF NOT DELIVERED PLEASE RETURN TO
11
a C
ILS.POSTAUN
Loyal Oh Mh
1*2 43
Do not bold it EC
ITS.POSTAGE DUSPOSTAGEI
WKICH7 PATEKSON
454.33
a
A/T
MJS QUINTANNLA

informed me Sector,
wO 26161, Ex. 7+1, called thim and riported some
Repats cane Luers
The time of wa selayed as 4.45PM.
object was ozange and
othus stated it was white with a tail.
called Maj, Quintamilla for hu adrise and
antistanc. He cami to the base and called
Way:Lwer. A further call wao mude t
2 Oakdale Radar Site L 12nna. 0 a Thre
wolks for a and
wsa) looking for mole ifon was
He was aditial to sond any
Two calle hove been RecaLDEd foom
Both haw bee
.

: Ruew junk enterin q the atimoplre
of4 information has beer reloyed to
today.
Ct. Fowkes 1 AF Command Part The best
estimate at This time is C meteonte may
2100 have entered the atmorpere
2250 Call received from Oehoit madis wonting to
told me They had reporits
of Three otgct hut They did not bnow sten andy The
hut. I tod them That I kniw no mouTha
did But b any ifo that the.
had.
7
hiim with the infr. 'Wly been
quth 3 pue of abnnum matenal hia-
Lapen, Mich Cra J was lijing to be
we lik to

Mreball - The
material which you suboitted for analysis is chaff. This material
in interdiction exercises. Charf can travel for many siles, depend-
ing on wind currents and vind velocities.
Il 41
Your interest in the Ar Forcs is appreciated and we sincerely
regret the delay in answering rour letter.
Sincarely,
dord ay - SAE-OLC
SAFOC- SAFOI- Combk oy - SaR-Oro
Reader oy - -SaF-O12
Acttvity,oy - Sar-oro4
Stayoack

hept one pice. to a spectal analpis m f.
said g. rught ahiad bet send Th othe two.
The guces WeeR ueported as not charred:
however, the people findng Thene 1 pelu said the
showened fre and are sprad oven a
wide area. said the sigutinig The
fie ball was 200hm na Jhit,
=

151
sound-

reply.
2. The "fireball" which was spotted by Lapeer County residents was
also observed by residents in Indiana, Ohio, Southeastern Michigan,
and Pennsylvania. There is no connection between the fireball and
the material which was found in Lapeer County. The material submit-
ted to FTD for analysis, by Sheriff Parks, is "chaff." This material
is dropped by aircraft to confuse radar complexes when participating
ing on wind currents and wind velocities.
FOR THE COMMANDER
ERIC T de JONCKHEERE, ColOneL, USAF ERIC T de JONCKHIERE, ColoneL, USAF 2 Atchs
Deputy for Technology and Subsystems Deputy for Technology and Subsystems 1. 1.0 Ltr Lapeer County Sheriff
2. Envelope containing chaff

LAPEER COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
a KENNETH A. PARKS, SHERIFF
1 LAPEER + MICHIGAN
1. Phone MO 664-8565
December 10, 1965
Project Bluebook
F.P. D.
Wright, Patterson Air Force Base,
Dayton, Ohio:
Gentlemen:
On December 9, 1965 in Lapeer County several
residents spotted a fireball in the sky, said
claimed that they seen an object go down. In
the area the enclosed was found.
Would you be able to identify this and advise
any information that might be of help in this
matter.
I
Thank you.
Very/truly yours
Lapeer County Sheriff.

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MEMO FOR THE RECORD 10 December 1965

2 Stas from Detroit, Michigan called in regards to the picture of

the meteor which landed in Acme, Pennsylvania. He said that it was 105

degrees magnetic. It came down to about 25 degrees, The duration was

instantaneous. It lasted less than 1/4 second. He ‘legt his numbee-

at work ull: He would be working until 5:30.

PRD owe ort

‘ewe

Pe OO Oe oP Renee

—

)
4

This thing was visual, was not picked up by radar. Major told Major
Howard that reports came from northern Pennsylvania, Southerm Michigan,
Northern Ohio, and parts of Indiana. I I
sound.
that entered the atmosphere. He said that
investigation is still under way. There was no space debria which entered was no space debria which entered
the atmosphere on 9 December 1965.

a i a ea Oa OAR a Ale a ee i ———- |

MEMO FOR THE RECORD 10 December 1955

The Information Officer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, called to Pind
out what he could about the meteor seen over Acme, Pennsylvania. We

told him it would be wise to contact the Pentagon, and possibly get

~ the same statement which the Pentagon is releasing to the public.

2.