RB-47 radar–ECM–visual encounter

An RB-47H electronic-reconnaissance jet of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing was paced across Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas by a source seen visually by the pilots, detected by the ECM operators’ direction-finding gear, and painted by ground radar at the same position. The source blinked off on all three channels at once, then reappeared.

Explanation

Condon Report Case 5 concluded the crew’s recollections were "not adequate to allow identification"; skeptics have proposed a mix of airliner lights and ground radar. Physicist James McDonald considered it among the strongest cases.

What was seen

Shape: Intense white / red light; 2.8–3 GHz radar-like signal
Witnesses: 6-man USAF RB-47H crew; ground radar operators
Duration: Over 1 hour, ~700 miles

Sources

• Condon Report — Case 5
• J. E. McDonald — the 1957 Gulf Coast RB-47 incident (1970)

Browse

• United States
• 1950s
• Unresolved
• Radar-visual cases
• Military witnesses
• Pilot and aircrew witnesses
• Radar tracking
• Infrared or other sensor data
• Lights and fireballs

Similar cases

• Ellsworth AFB — the Black Hawk light and the F-84 chase 5 August 1953
• Washington, D.C. radar-visual sightings 19 July 1952
• Lakenheath–Bentwaters radar-visual case 13 August 1956
• The Nowra Sea Fury — two lights on the radar 31 August 1954