Mitchel AFB — a Navy TBM chases a “parachute” over Long Island

21 January 1952 · Mitchel Air Force Base, Hempstead, Long Island, New York · Aviation encounter
DISPUTED
Explanation proposed but contested
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At about 9:50 a.m. on January 21, 1952, a Navy pilot who had just taken off from Mitchel AFB in a TBM Avenger saw below him, south-east of the field, what he took for the canopy of a parachute. Realising it was moving across the wind, he climbed after it as it climbed, tried to cut inside its left turn, overshot and passed over it, then dived to get behind it. It turned through 180 degrees, swung round the north side of the base gaining speed, and outran him; he last saw it crossing the coast near Freeport, heading out to sea. He put it at 200 to 300 ft over houses at first and its speed at several hundred knots by the end. The tower did not see it. Ruppelt went to New York to interview him and thought him careful and reliable; he wrote that unless the pilot was several miles from where he believed, the object could not have been the weather balloon released that morning.

Explanation

The base weather section launched a Rawinsonde balloon at 09:50 from south-east of the field, and Blue Book’s analysts believed the pilot saw it. Ruppelt, who interviewed him, noted that the balloon drifted south-east and never passed north of the field, where the pilot followed the object, and that it pulled away from him in a straight chase, which a balloon cannot do.

What was seen

Shape: Dome-shaped like a parachute canopy, white with a dark underside; rocking as it flew
Witnesses: A Navy pilot from the Special Devices Center at Port Washington, flying a TBM-3W
Duration: About two and a half minutes

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