65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_005
- Date
- 1949 to 1950
- Place
- Oak Ridge / Knoxville, TN; Toronto, Ontario
- Record
- Pentagon file
- Assessment
- Not assessed
- Evidence strength
What was reported
Covers roughly 1949-1950. Its most developed case is a March 1950 radar detection over the Oak Ridge, Tennessee AEC controlled area: an operator named Adcock, using a three-week-old civilian radar station near Knoxville, reported an object at 40,000 feet directly over Oak Ridge on two occasions, but a Naval Reserve radar unit at Knoxville did not detect it, and Air Force personnel who examined Adcock's equipment found it unreliable and doubted Adcock's own technical competence and sobriety; CIC and OSI declined further action. A separate item records a claim that 'flying saucers from Venus' came to earth by accident, treated by the Bureau as a curiosity rather than followed up. The section closes with a September 1950 letter from a Toronto farmer describing a hazy, maneuvering light he and his houseman watched through clouds for 35 minutes, forwarded to the Air Force with no FBI follow-up.
What officials concluded
Resolved
The Oak Ridge radar detections were discounted: a second radar unit did not corroborate them, examiners found the equipment unreliable and the operator technically mistaken, and his sobriety was questioned.
- Agency
- FBI
- Released in
- 123456
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- Yes: Radar
- No: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- Yes: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- Yes: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- Yes: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Why this rating The section's best-documented case (Oak Ridge radar) was explicitly discounted by the government's own technical reviewers for equipment and operator reliability; the Toronto sighting has two witnesses and a long duration but the object's shape could never be determined through the clouds, and no sensor beyond eyesight was involved.
As described in the file
- Witnesses
- Adcock (amateur/commercial radar operator, Knoxville); Walter D. Jones (Toronto farmer) and his houseman (two witnesses)
- Sensors
- Radar, visual
- Lights and colour
- Hazy light, per the Toronto account
- Motion
- Circled and varied speed and direction, per the Toronto account
- Duration
- About 35 minutes, per the Toronto account
- Altitude or range
- 40,000 feet per the radar operator's claim (unverified)
Pentagon files
65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_005
Open the original on war.gov
What the file claims
- Unverified
A Knoxville-area radar operator reported an unidentified object directly over the Oak Ridge AEC facility at 40,000 feet on two occasions in early March 1950.
- Unverified
A separate Naval Reserve radar unit at Knoxville did not detect the object on any occasion the civilian station reported it.
- Unverified
USAF examiners judged Adcock's radar unreliable and questioned both his understanding of radar theory and his sobriety.
- Unverified
A Toronto farmer and his houseman together watched a hazy light circle and change speed above his farm for about 35 minutes before it disappeared.