A Family Letter Reported an Object Over Hungary
In 1955, news of a sighting in Hungary surfaced through relatives living in two countries.
In 1955, news of a sighting in Hungary surfaced through relatives living in two countries.
An unidentified flying object was reported in Hungary in 1955. The summary says the information came in a letter exchanged by relatives living in the United States and Budapest, but does not describe the object.
A CIA Information Report (report no. 00-B-93674) disseminating an account of so-called flying saucer sightings in Hungary in late 1955. The information originated from a personal letter sent by a naturalized U.S. citizen's niece in Budapest to her uncle in the United States, describing weeks of public excitement over fast-moving aerial objects and scientists studying them. The report includes a translated excerpt of the letter, a witness-drawn sketch of the objects' suspected formation and course (between Budapest and Moscow), and notes that a photostatic copy of the original Hungarian letter and its English translation was available on loan from the CIA Library. The document is marked unevaluated information.
For several weeks in late 1955, so-called flying saucers kept the Hungarian public in a nervous, excited state. Scores of scientists were reportedly kept busy studying the fast-moving aerial phenomena. A witness-drawn sketch in the letter indicated the formation and suspected course of the objects, plotted between Budapest and Moscow.
"The so-called saucers (rockets) for several weeks kept the people in a nervous state. These very fast speeding things kept scientific groups very busy."
Speaker: Niece in Budapest (letter excerpt quoted in para. 1)
Why it matters: Firsthand civilian account of mass UFO excitement in Communist-era Hungary keeping scientists occupied.
Page 1
"a speed of 12,000 km per hour was estimated on these fliers."
Speaker: Niece in Budapest
Why it matters: Specific (if unverified) velocity estimate attributed to the objects.
Page 1
"These fast-rushing heavenly phenorna have been and still are keeping scores of scientists busy"
Speaker: Niece in Budapest (full letter translation)
Why it matters: Claims numerous scientists were engaged in studying the phenomena.
Page 2
Naturalized US citizen of [redacted] extraction
source; uncle who received the letter and corresponds regularly with two nieces living in Hungary · Page 1
Niece in Budapest
letter writer / firsthand reporter of the sightings · Page 1
Hungary
Page 1
Budapest, Hungary
Page 1
Pest, Hungary
Page 2
Moscow, USSR
Page 1
SOURCE field: 'Naturalized US citizen of [redacted] extraction. He corresponds regularly with two nieces living in [redacted].'
Likely reason: Protecting the identity/national origin and location of the source and his relatives.
Personal details throughout the letter translation (names of family members, who took a day off, who has back trouble) are redacted.
Likely reason: Protecting personal identities of the letter writer and her family.
Single CIA Information Report, 3 pages (page 3 blank). Source material is a private family letter from Budapest to a US relative; intelligence value is low/unevaluated. Manifest notes a more redacted version exists on CIA's public website. OCR is rough but core facts (Hungary, 1955, saucers, 12,000 km/h, Budapest-Moscow sketch, CIA Library photostat) are legible.
The summary describes a report of an unidentified flying object but does not say what it looked like.
According to the summary, the information came in a letter between relatives living in the United States and Budapest. It does not explain how the information later reached the intelligence agency.
An unidentified flying object was reported in Hungary. The sighting did not come to light through a direct report; it was mentioned in a letter between relatives living in two countries.
One relative lived in the United States, the other in Budapest. That connection links the sighting in Hungary to information preserved in a report by the U.S. intelligence agency. But the summary includes neither the letter itself nor a description of the object. It leaves us with an intriguing family connection and few details about what appeared in the sky.
The report concerns a sighting in 1955. The summary says the information came in a letter between Hungarian relatives: one in the United States, the other in Budapest. It does not say who wrote the letter, who received it, or whether the writer saw the object.
The letter’s contents are not included. So it is impossible to know what the writer said or what details of the sighting the letter conveyed. The summary gives only the central fact: information about an object seen in Hungary passed between relatives living far apart.
The account is preserved in a document from the U.S. intelligence agency. According to the summary, a more heavily redacted version of the report was available on the agency’s public website. The report was more than a family anecdote: it also became part of an official record, though the summary does not explain how.
The contrast between the few details available is striking: the summary briefly identifies the source of the report and the location of the sighting, but says nothing about the object itself. And the fact that the report concerns a sighting does not mean the agency identified what was seen.
The summary does not specify what was seen, who saw it, or what happened afterward. It offers no conventional explanation for the sighting and does not explain how the information reached the agency.
The letter connected Budapest and the United States. What was seen in Hungary remains unknown.