The Air Force Investigated Sightings. One in Ten Remained Unexplained

An intelligence officer with the US Air Force received reports of objects in the sky. His team tried to determine what people had seen. A CIA update written in December 1953 described the team’s work.

The CIA monitored the Air Force’s activities and wrote about them. The team looked for familiar explanations and requested further checks when needed. Even so, about one in ten reports was marked unresolved. What exactly had those people seen? The document doesn’t say.

Looking for Familiar Explanations

The team received reports and checked them against information about the weather, stars, aircraft, and balloons. When information was missing, intelligence officers in the area where a sighting occurred were asked to investigate.

The Air Force had stopped sending team members into the field to investigate every sighting. Instead, they received and reviewed reports, asking others to investigate when necessary. They documented their findings and conclusions. The team also passed information to the Air Force office responsible for public releases.

The Project Changes Hands

At the time, the Air Force was transferring the project to Air Defense Command, a military organization responsible for defending against threats from the air. According to the document, the command was already doing most of the work. In other words, those investigating the reports were already handling most of the project’s activity.

What Remains Unknown

The supplied document cuts off midway through its explanation of the project’s transfer, so it doesn’t give the full reason. It also doesn’t say which reports remained unexplained or what, exactly, the witnesses saw. There is no example to compare with the explanations the team considered.

The file, then, contains reports that were investigated but never resolved. Sometimes, even after checking the weather, stars, and aircraft, something in the sky still has no clear explanation.