The 701 club: Case #1198 Ellenton, South Carolina May 10, 1952
Don Berlinner’s list describes the case as follows:
May 10, 1952; Ellenton, South Carolina. 10:45 p.m. Witnesses: 4 Dupont employees at the Savannah River nuclear plant. Up to four yellow, disc-shaped objects were seen on five occasions between 10:45 and shortly after 11:15..1
Brad Sparks adds that one object pulled up to avoid hitting ground objects.2
The Blue Book file3
The Blue Book file consists of only a few pages and most of it is just a report based on an interview of the four eyewitnesses by the FBI.
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The four witnesses saw four disc-shaped objects approach the plant from the south at 2245.
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They saw two more come from the south at 2305
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At 2310, one object was seen to go from NE to SW.
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The last object came from the south and headed north at 2315.
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The objects were estimated to be 15-inches in diameter and were gold in color.
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All the objects traveled at high speed and high altitude. No noise was heard.
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The object from the northeast was traveling at low altitude and had to increase altitude to avoid some tanks.
- The objects were visible for only a few seconds and weaved from left to right.
Analysis
The record card speculates that these could have been ducks but they had no proof. The estimated size is awful small and, if ac- curate, tends to indicate birds, of some kind, as a possible answer.
It is not clear where the Dupont plant was exactly located but it seems it was in the general vicinity of the nuclear facility associated with the Savannah River Project. This why the FBI chose to investigate. The location of the Savannah River project is in an area that was mostly swamp and lakes adjacent to the Savannah river. This makes it a place for where water fowl tend to congregate.
The flight paths of the objects tend to indicate birds as a potential explanation. They tended to weave in flight and, when confront- ed with an object, they rose to fly above it. The gold color may had a lot to do with the lighting in the area. The belly of the birds
would reflect light and take on the color of the light beneath them.
Migrating birds do fly at night and, for Georgia and South Carolina, there is a significant amount of migratory activity in early to mid-May. Four out of the five sightings had the objects traveling northward, which is the path migrating birds would take. The one sighting that was not heading south was described as flying low and having to avoid some tanks. This may have been a bird that had gotten disoriented by the lighting in the area. Artificial lighting plays havoc with migrating birds. This is why Georgia’s Audu- bon’s society has a “lights out campaign” running from March 15 to May 31 in the spring and August 15 to November 15 in the fall.4 The reduction in artificial lighting helps the migration patterns of the birds at night.
This video shows the migration of birds at night for May 7, 2009.5 There is a concentration in the Savannah river area around the time of night the sighting happened. Other data shows that the top 5 migration flight maps for the spring of 2021 were in early to mid-May.6 Georgia had a pretty dense pattern early during this time period. The concentration towards mid-May was not as great but it was still significant.
Conclusion
There is not enough information to tell exactly what was seen but there is a reasonable possibility that what was seen were birds of some kind being illuminated by ground lighting. They acted like birds and it was during the peak migration period for birds. I would change this classification from “Unidentified” to “possible birds”. Therefore, it should be removed from the list of Blue Book unknowns.
Quelle: SUNlite 3/2023