The location of the sighting was in a remote area between

Wolf Creek and Craig Montana. The witnesses were in their vehicle driving towards the southwest. The nearest major population center, Helena, Montana, was about 30 miles distant. The image to the right shows how the area appeared in 2014. Sixty years ago, it was even more remote.

A husband, his wife, and their 13-year old daughter were in the automobile. According to the report, the daughter

had drawn a sketch of what she saw but it was not in the file. The male witness was a manager with some experience

as an aircraft spotter during World War II, which made him “reliable”. There were also three witness statements

but they all contained the same exact story.

The witnesses described the object as “two soup bowls put together”. It was only visible for 10 seconds and traveled

from SW to NE before disappearing. There was also mention of seeing portholes. 2

There are some issues with the file that have me confused. The three identical copies of the report that were signed by each of the witnesses made it appear that the report was already typed up and put in front of the witnesses to sign. This prevented the witnesses from giving additional information that might be helpful in resolving the case. Missing from these affidavits was the one part of the file that seems to be a mistake in how the investigator reported the incident. That being, that the primary witness managed

to get out of the car to observe the object’s trajectory. Since the vehicle was apparently in motion at the start of the sighting, it seems unlikely that the witness could have stopped the car and then gotten out within 10 seconds.

It seems that what the witness reported was some sort of object that went from southwest to northeast in ten seconds at a high angular speed. The most likely source for this sighting is a fireball or bright meteor. It might have been fragmenting, which gave the impression of “portholes” just like the imagery found in events like Zond IV.

I don’t blame Blue Book for not being able to classify this case. However, I think the label of “unknown/unidentified” is a bit much since the case really lacks details to evaluate properly. We can not positively identify this UFO because of the remote location, from where it was observed. However, examining the description given by the witnesses indicates it is very similar to other UFO reports involving bright meteors. I would classify this as a “possible meteor” and remove it from the “unidentified” category.

Quelle: SUNlite 1/2015