Minot AFB B-52 radar-visual case

In the early hours of 24 October 1968, maintenance and security teams in the missile field reported a large glowing object, at times two, near launch facilities including Oscar-7, where a security alarm was triggered. Radar approach control vectored a returning B-52; its radar recorded a target that paced the bomber at about three miles and then closed to one mile for nearly 20 miles, during which the B-52's UHF transmitter failed, and the crew then saw a large lit object on or near the ground. Radarscope photographs were taken. Project Blue Book's chief Hector Quintanilla closed the case in November 1968, attributing the radar return to a plasma or ball-lightning-type phenomenon and the ground observations to stars; the radarscope photographs and later witness interviews were analysed by Thomas Tulien's Sign Oral History Project (2011), which treats the radar echo, the radio failure and the coincident air and ground observations as unexplained.

None established; the radar return, the radio failure and the coincident air and ground observations remain unexplained

• Minot AFB B-52 UFO case archive (Tulien)minotb52ufo.com
• NICAP: Minot AFB, 24 October 1968nicap.org