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March 22-23, 1957
The UFO evidence document summarizes this case in its chronology as:
March 23, 1957--Long Beach, California. Four UFOs tracked on CAA radar, widespread visual sightings. [VIII]1
Section VIII has a much longer version of events. This description is highlighted by an anonymous report for a CAA radar operator, who described tracking a radar contact:
“At 2350 (11:50 p.m.) I was watching the radar scope, when I noticed a target about 15 miles northwest and moving northwest. At first I thought it was a jet, then I noticed it was moving much faster than anything I had ever seen on the scope. About 40 miles northwest it came to an abrupt stop and reversed course, all within a period of about three seconds. It then traveled back along its course for about 20 miles, reversed course again and disappeared off the scope at 50 miles (our radar reaches out only 50 miles).
‘’Approximately 5 minutes later 2 more targets appeared and disappeared off the scope in the same direction as the first; and these we had time to clock. They traveled 20 miles in 30 seconds which figures out to 3600 mph. A minute or so later a fourth target appeared in the same area as the other 3, 10 or 15 miles northwest, and went off the scope to the northwest at 3600 mph.
‘Our radar does not give height of aircraft so I couldn’t give you the height, however they had to be about 10,000 feet or lower because our radar’s maximum height range is about 10,000 feet.”2
In addition to the radar contacts, there were numerous visual sightings in the Pasadena area. Most of these were reported between 11PM and midnight PST. One sighting was singled out in the NICAP document:
Mrs. Robert Beaudoin, wife of an Oxnard AFB Captain, telephoned the base tower to report sighting the UFO. It was described as a large silent object, flashing a brilliant red light, and maneuvering above the Santa Rosa Valley
An F-89 interceptor attempted to locate the object, but the Air Force denied it was able to make contact, although at the same time witnesses on the ground could see the UFO plainly near one of the Oxnard runways.3
The case seems to have a pretty full plate but was NICAP accurate?
Media reports
I did a check of the newspaper archive and discovered the Oxnard Press-Courier of March 23rd described the events on the night of the 22/23rd (see right).4 They also highlighted the report of Mrs. Beaudoin and she was quoted as stating that the UFO was changing colors and that it moved towards them and the receded. There really wasn’t much else in the way of media coverage outside of the local area. The national media seems to have missed the event but NICAP felt the case was significant because of their anonymous radar operator reporting exotic speeds of 3600 mph.
Missing in this article were any mention of the sightings in Pasadena. A check of Blue Book’s documentation revealed that those events happened the following evening. For some reason, NICAP chose to make it appear that all the events happened on the same night. The radar and Beaudoin sightings were on the evening of the 22/23rd. The Pasadena sightings occurred on the night of the 23rd/24th. Is it possible that the media coverage of the Beaudoin sightings might have influenced people to go out looking for UFOs the following night?
Is this a Radar-Visual?
NICAP tries to paint this as a “radar-visual” sighting. The problem with this is NICAP had only one piece of information and chose to accept it as factual. In the Blue Book file, the radar sighting is described very much like the NICAP document states. However, a key bit of information is provided that NICAP’s source apparently left out (or NICAP chose not to tell anyone about). According to the message concerning the incident:
Possible malfunction of radar equipment. Since no visual sightings were reported, and at 0807Z the station’s radar lost it’s high voltage and went off.5
The power supply failed just 17 minutes after the radar began to show these bizarre maneuvers. Could it have been simply that as the power supply became erratic prior to its failure and produce erratic returns? This seems to be a reasonable answer to the strange radar contact that no aircraft in the area saw.
Meanwhile, the Beaudoin sighting file has the following comment:
The 669th Aircraft Control and Warning squadron located on Santa Rosa Island was contacted and the controller on duty the night of 22/23 Mar furnished the following information PD Station operative during the entire period of sighting PD Only one paint was noted that night CMM five hours before the sighting was reported PD6
This had been reported in the media but, not surprisingly, was ignored by NICAP in favor of the more spectacular report. If the advanced air search radar at Santa Rosa, which was closer than the CAA radar, did not paint a target, then it brings into question the contacts reported by the radar operator. Based on this information, one can not link the visual with the radar contact. This was not a radar-visual case.
The Beaudoin sighting
This sighting received some significant media coverage and was published in the local press the next day. Missing from the NICAP document are some pertinent facts that were uncovered by the USAF. The 4602nd AISS investigated the case thoroughly and provided a detailed report of what exactly happened that night.7
Mrs. Beaudoin was the wife of an AF captain, who was not present because he was away on temporary duty assignment. She had answered a phone call late that night around 11:15PM. While Mrs. Beaudoin was on the phone, she looked out the window a saw the UFO. She then called Oxnard AFB to report the UFO to an officer she knew. Lt. Ott, who answered her call, joked with her a bit and suggested she was just seeing a temperature inversion of some kind. When Mrs. Beaudoin called back five minutes later to state the UFO was joined by two red lights, Ott called the radar site to see if they had any targets. According to him the officer in charge said they had a target in the area. As a result, Lt. Ott called Mrs. Beaudoin back. Because she was alone at home, she became worried/frightened and requested that he call the local police to see if they could come out to her home.
The call resulted in members of the Sheriff’s office and highway patrol arriving at the Beaudoin home. Meanwhile, Ott reports that somebody had scrambled two jets to investigate. Efforts were made to coordinate observation from the ground in order for the jets to intercept the UFO. These attempts were unsuccessful. The jets could not locate the UFO and returned to base when they ran low on fuel. The Navy also sent up two aircraft but were no more successful than the AF. They couldn’t seem to see the UFO that Beaudoin and the police officers apparently saw. The entire exercise was essentially over by 0300 local time. Mrs. Beaudoin stated she continued to watch until 0330.
When the 4602nd AISS talked to the witnesses, it became clear what was seen that night. Mrs. Beaudoin had observed an object low (10 degrees) in the northeast sky that was green and brighter than the surrounding stars. It was joined by two red lights. While the UFO was reported to have been moving very quickly, the actual position did not really change. It appeared to just jump back and forth over a small area of the sky. Mrs. Beaudoin also stated that the UFO appeared to pulse/throb. The highway patrol reported they found a barn nearby, which had red lights on top of it. When they arrived at Mrs. Beaudoin’s, they stated they saw nothing unusual except stars. The Sheriff’s also stated they only saw stars.
The 4602nd contacted an astronomer at San Bernardino Valley college. He told them that Arcturus was high in the northeast and that the stars Castor and Pollux were visible low in the northeast sky as well. While Arcturus was in the northeast sky as the astronomer stated, the stars Castor and Pollux were low in the west. Perhaps the investigating officer misunderstood the astronomer. There is one page in the file that came from Dr. Hynek. He pointed out the problem with Castor and Pollux and noted that a better candidate for the UFO was the bright star Vega, which was low in the northeast at the start of the sighting. The red lights on the barn were apparently reflecting off some nearby wires adding to the confusion.
Lt. Ott apparently had mistook the description of a radar contact in the area. When interviewed, the officer in charge restated that he had only one contact that evening and it was five hours prior to this. Perhaps he mentioned this to Lt. Ott, who thought he meant the contact was still there.
Apparently, NICAP could not get any of the police officers or Mrs. Beaudoin to talk to them. They blamed the USAF for intimidating the witnesses not to talk to NICAP. Is this true or did NICAP choose not to pursue the case closely?
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The Pasadena sightings
The final part of The UFO evidence entry has to do with widespread sightings in the Pasadena area the following night. There is little information provided other than between 10 PM and midnight people were making UFO reports to the local police. Additionally, several people in the GOC saw the UFO. The Blue Book file is limited, with only a single teletype describing some of the observations. No azimuths or elevations are given. It is only stated that the object disappeared in the west after fourteen minutes of observation. It was described as round and bright red with white flashes of light shooting off of it.
The NICAP web site does not provide any additional information other than an article that appeared in the March 26th Pasadena Independent. This seems to be one of the primary sources NICAP relied upon in writing their summary of the case. Again, the article lacks any specific details that can be used to evaluate the case. About the only thing we get is a description that he object was “orange-red” and had a bright white light flashing.
Blue Book classified this as a possible aircraft exhaust glow. I think this is unlikely as the event supposedly lasted for fourteen minutes or longer.
If we are to believe NICAP that all the observations during the two hour period were of the same object, we are looking at a potential astronomical explanation. Is it any surprise that the star Sirius set in the WSW around 11:45 PM and Betelgeuse set around midnight? These seem to be potential candidates for this UFO. Betelgeuse is orange-red but, when low in the sky, Sirius can give the appearances of being red as it scintillates. Either are bright enough to be seen low in the sky and can be described in the way mentioned in the telex (see right).8
Evaluating the “evidence”
This case does not belong in the UFO evidence All of the events are either explained or have plausible explanations offered for them. NICAP did not even bother to gather additional information beyond looking at newspapers and relying upon the words of a single radar operator, who did not tell NICAP (or NICAP withheld this fact) that the radar had failed shortly after he saw all these radar contacts. How can one really consider this “evidence” when it is all anecdotal? Where were the records of NICAP’s “investigations” to these many sightings that occurred in Pasadena? The UFO evidence makes no mention of any real data gathered from any interviews, which implies they did not perform any investigation at all or found nothing of importance. Once again, we discover that NICAP’s evidence is far from compelling. They created a mountain from a molehill.
Notes and references
Hall, Richard M. (Ed.)1. The UFO evidence. The National Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). New York: Barnes and Noble. 1997. P. 136
ibid. P. 85-86.2.
ibid. P. 86.3.
“Flying saucer reported, but not located”. 4. Oxnard Press-Courier. Oxnard, California. March 23, 1957 P. 1.
Quelle: SUNlite 4/2013
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