Bermuda.Bermuda · radio station men watch a still white object

On Saturday, August 18, 1962, at about 2100 UTC, in broad daylight, at the west end of Bermuda, the chief announcer and the owner of a radio station were looking at the top of a 150-foot radio tower under construction. They were standing about 80 feet from its base. The message records a clear sky throughout the observation, wind of 10 knots from the southwest, visibility of 9 miles, a temperature of 83 degrees Fahrenheit and a dew point of 71. It also records scattered clouds at 1,500 and 10,000 feet and scattered towering cumulus with tops at about 20,000 feet; the August 29 reply says there were no clouds in the area where the object was.

Above the tower, a little to the right of their line of sight, they saw a white object with a very intense glow, not quite round, close to the shape of an egg, about 70 degrees above the horizon. The first description said it was the size of a football. It stayed still for 10 to 15 minutes, with no change of position relative to the top of the tower. While it was still its outlines were not sharp; when it moved, they were, because it looked white. When it began to move it went straight east and disappeared in about 15 or 20 seconds, at a speed they described as tremendous. It made no maneuvers. It was lost from sight without going behind clouds or down to the horizon.

Another man from the company, who had looked away, looked back when he was told the object was moving, and then saw three egg-shaped objects, dull white and not brilliant, going west, not in formation, considerably lower, which disappeared over the horizon in 10 to 15 seconds. One of the others did not see those three objects, and the one who saw them did not see the single object move off. The three seemed to waver as they moved; the report says they did not have the appearance of a bird in flight, but that their movement, though they held a westerly heading until they disappeared, was not stable.

The plans and intelligence officer of the 1604th Air Base Wing at Kindley, a major, sent on August 20 the report that Air Force regulations require on unidentified flying objects. He addressed it to Air Defense Command, to Air Force Systems Command at Wright-Patterson and to Air Force headquarters. He noted that the information was reliable, that it had been witnessed by more than one person and that the investigation indicated "there were no balloons or other trajectories in the area that could explain these sightings".

On August 24 the Foreign Technology Division at Wright-Patterson asked for clarifications: which way the witnesses were looking, whether the outlines were sharp, how it disappeared, at what altitude and azimuth it was when stationary and when it vanished, how large it was compared with the sun or the moon, whether the three objects varied in brightness or hurt the eyes. Kindley replied on August 29: they were looking west, at about 280 degrees; the object was lost from sight without going behind clouds or over the horizon, and there were no clouds in that area; it was at 70 degrees of altitude, "very very high"; compared with the sun or moon, "much smaller, looked like aspirin". The three objects were comparable to an F-86 at an altitude where vapor trails are common, somewhat larger than the single object and much closer, dull white with no reflection. The reply corrects the size: one of the witnesses "did not understand question during previous interview, size is now firm, aspirin".

The witnesses do not agree on everything: one saw a single object that went east and another saw three more going west, and each did not see what the other saw. That difference weighs less than what does agree: a very bright white object, still for 10 to 15 minutes above the top of a tower, which gives a fixed reference point, in broad daylight and with visibility of 9 miles. The Kindley report says, however, that there were no balloons or other trajectories in the area, and the Air Force proposes no cause.

The size went from a football to an aspirin on re-questioning, and that correction shows how little an angular size estimate says without the distance: by a calculation of this entry, an aspirin at arm's length and a football about 50 feet away fill the same angle. The Foreign Technology Division's questions touched on the sun and moon as a comparison, hiding behind clouds, vapor trails and brightness that hurts the eyes. The answers add nothing that ties it to a specific object.

What is missing is usual in these cases: no photograph, no radar, no instrument, and the witnesses' names blacked out in the copy. What there is, is an official report two days later, signed by the base intelligence officer with the note that the information was reliable, and a technical follow-up with a written reply. No one proposes a cause, but that does not rule out an ordinary explanation: similar cases that were resolved almost always ended up as balloons, birds, aircraft or satellites.