Incandescent ball over the Azores

Summary

In September 1960, a U.S. Air Force pilot sighted an incandescent ball falling straight from the sky. The object lit up the entire sky, leaving a white trail about five degrees wide with white lines at the edges of the shock wave. The pilot described it as a burning ball that left incandescent debris in the center of the trail. Although initially considered a UFO, investigators concluded it was likely a meteor. The detailed description includes visual observations from an aircraft, adding credibility to the account.

The ball fell in a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean, west of the Azores. The pilot, commanding a barrier aircraft, reported the sighting upon returning to Argentia base. The message was urgently transmitted to air intelligence authorities, including the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC). Despite the lack of photographs, the pilot's testimony and technical description of the trail and the object's behavior were enough to classify it as a meteor. This case is part of the Project 10073 records, an Air Force initiative to investigate unidentified flying objects.