A Brief Background
On February 17, 1952, around 6 p.m., the control tower at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada received numerous calls from residents of Las Vegas, 10 miles to the south, reporting a strange object hovering over the city. No regular flights were recorded in the area, apart from an F-86 arriving from March Field in California, so the crew turned its binoculars skyward.
What Was Seen?
A short time later, a disc-shaped object appeared over the peak of Sunrise Mountain, five miles from the base and at an elevation of 5,000 feet. It reflected the red light of the setting sun. The disc had a shiny metallic surface, with no windows, antennas, or doors, and was surrounded by a halo of thin mist. It flew at an altitude of about 150–200 meters, leaving a vapor trail behind it—a strange sight in the dry desert.
The disc stopped and hovered for about 20 minutes near the eastern end of the base’s east-west runway, roughly one mile from the tower. It then made three consecutive circles, forming a ring of vapor. After moving about two miles west, the vapor disappeared, and the object seemed to become a “dark object” as the sun continued to set.
The Crew’s Response
When the F-86 flight was ordered to investigate, the pilot approached at high speed, reported sighting the object, and tracked it by radio. But before reaching it, the object vanished from the sky. The tower crew also watched it disappear.
Why Is This Interesting?
The report describes several unusual features: a halo around the object, a vapor trail at low altitude in the desert, and the ability to hover for several minutes and perform precise maneuvers. The account also came from three crew members—a tower operator, an operations officer, and an assistant controller—who reported the same event, with no record of other aircraft in the air at the time.
Summary
The incident remains unexplained, but it illustrates how sightings near military facilities, where personnel have access to professional equipment, can contribute meaningful information to discussions of unidentified phenomena.
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The report is listed in the NUFORC database under case number 39861.
