1953: declassified UAP incidents — timeline.
10 UAP cases
1953 accounts for 10 UAP cases in this archive — 10 documents — released by CIA and Department of War under the PURSUE program. Reported locations for the year include Alaska, Canada, and Germany, among others. This page is part of the 1950s on the UAP Browser timeline; browse the full decade for more context on the years around it.
UFO report: Prince George, British Columbia, 1953 (USAF)
This is a "Flying Objects Report" dated 13 November 1953 from the U.S. Air Force's 918th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron at Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, sent under AFR 200-2 to USAF intelligence, Air Defense Command, the A
UFO report: Berlin Tempelhof air traffic, 1953 (USAF)
This is a two-page U.S. Air Force Air Intelligence Information Report (AF Form 112) dated 11 August 1953, prepared by Capt. Fred L. Allen, Air Intelligence Officer of the 7350th Base Complement Squadron at Tempelhof, Berlin, with extracts f
UFO radar report: French Morocco, December 1953 (USAF)
This is a U.S. Air Force Air Intelligence Information Report dated 23 December 1953 from the 316th Air Division (Defense) about an unidentified radar return over French Morocco and the Mediterranean Sea. On 16 December 1953 at 1754Z, person
UFO report: light on Big Diomede Island, Alaska, 1953
This is a U.S. Air Force Air Intelligence Information Report dated 24 November 1953 from the 5004th Air Intelligence Service Squadron in Alaska, titled "Sighting of Light on Big Diomede Island, USSR" (evaluation C-3). It reports that a 14-y
UFO report: light west of Gambell, Alaska, 1953 (USAF)
This is a U.S. Air Force Air Intelligence Information Report dated 8 December 1953 from the 5004th Air Intelligence Service Squadron, titled "Light Observed West of Gambell," St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. A 26-year-old local hunter and Alask
UFO sighting by a Swedish pilot, Hässleholm, 1953
This is a U.S. Air Force Air Intelligence Information Report dated 13 January 1954 from the Air Attaché's office in Stockholm, titled "'Flying Saucer' Sighted by Swedish Pilot." It forwards a translated Swedish newspaper account of an "unkn
UFO report: ring-shaped objects, Seymour, Indiana, 1953
This is a report dated 13 January 1954 from the 2466th Air Force Reserve Combat Training Center at Atterbury Air Force Base, Columbus, Indiana, to the Director of Intelligence, USAF, submitted under AFR 200-2. It records a sighting by a pha
Project Blue Book UFO case, Catalina Island, 1953
This file contains a completed Project Blue Book record form — with an official conclusion of "Astronomical (JUPITER)" and a note that astronomers at the Griffith Park Observatory evaluated the sighting as possibly a planet — and a 1953 tel
CIA memo on Air Force UFO project status, 1953
This is a three-page CIA memorandum dated 17 December 1953 from the Chief, Physics and Electronics (P&E) Division, SI, to the Assistant Director, Scientific Intelligence, titled "Current Status of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOB) Project"
Robertson Panel UFO report to Defense Secretary, 1953
This 7-page file is the Office of the Secretary of Defense's copy of a 13 March 1953 CIA transmittal of the report of a scientific panel on "Unidentified Flying Objects" ("Flying Saucers"). It contains a divider sheet, an OSD routing slip r