Philippines.USS Hassayampa · a Navy oiler's crew sees fast-moving lights

In May 1965, the USS Hassayampa, a U.S. Navy fleet oiler supplying the Seventh Fleet, was sailing west across the Philippine Sea, some thousand kilometers east of Luzon. On May 5 at 11:45 GMT (around 20:45 ship's time), at position 20°54′ N, 135°30′ E, the officer of the deck and all bridge personnel saw two objects pass from east to west at extremely high speed. They were of first magnitude and kept the same position relative to each other. About thirty-five minutes later, the same or identical objects passed again, this time from west to east and again very fast. They were seen with the naked eye, but radar did not pick them up and their altitude could not be determined.

The second episode came the next day. On May 6 at 09:10 GMT (around 18:10 local), at position 20°22′ N, 135°50′ E, the signalman on watch reported what he thought was an aircraft. Through binoculars three objects were seen close together, one of first magnitude and two of second, approaching the ship at high speed. At 09:14 GMT, the SPS-6C air-search radar detected four moving objects, at ranges up to 22 miles, and held them on screen for up to six minutes.

According to the message, on reaching the ship the objects spread into a circular formation directly overhead and stayed there for about three minutes, a maneuver observed both visually and on radar; the brightest, which hovered off the starboard quarter (the rear of the ship's right side), made the largest blip on the radar screen. The objects changed course several times, were tracked at speeds "in excess of three thousand knots" and did not answer the challenge of the identification friend-or-foe system (IFF), the automatic signal by which friendly military aircraft identify themselves. They then moved off to the southeast at high speed. It was seen by the commanding officer, all bridge personnel and "numerous hands topside."

The Hassayampa's message, addressed to the Seventh Fleet command and to the 13th Air Force at Clark Air Base (Philippines), copied to the Chief of Naval Operations and the Pacific Fleet command, added a third paragraph: between May 5 and 7, from 18:00 to 20:00, other objects were seen with all the characteristics of a satellite, and the crew stressed a marked difference in speed and maneuverability between those assumed satellites and the objects of the first two episodes. The message was distributed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Military Command Center, among others.

On May 14, Captain David G. Robinson of the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington asked Major Hector Quintanilla, head of Project Blue Book, for an informal evaluation. On May 28 Blue Book replied that the most likely cause was an aircraft, but that the data were "too incomplete and conflicting for analysis": the reported duration and speed were incompatible with each other, and the range and visual characteristics seen through binoculars did not agree with the report either.

It attributed the routine sightings of the third paragraph to satellites "NOT ECHO I or II," while admitting it did "not have Equatorial crossings on the others"; that note does not concern the radar episode. The official record card classifies the three episodes separately: insufficient data, likely aircraft and probable satellites. "Without additional data," it concluded, "all we can do is speculate."

The crew itself distinguished the satellites it saw every evening from what troubled it, and said so in writing. That rules out the easiest explanation for fast lights in the evening sky. In addition, on the copy of the message kept in the Blue Book file, handwritten notes check where the Echo I and Echo II satellites were at the times and positions of the first two episodes, the radar episode included, and conclude that neither passed overhead.

But the weakness of the case lies in the same document, and Blue Book pointed it out well. An object at more than three thousand knots covers 22 miles in under half a minute, so it cannot be held for six minutes on a radar with that range; and objects that look like first- and second-magnitude stars through binoculars do not square with something the radar detects a few miles away. Something in the report was mismeasured or mistransmitted.

The May 6 episode, moreover, happened around 18:10 local, at twilight, when high objects still catch sunlight and high-flying aircraft can shine like stars; the SPS-6C, an air-search set of the period, was not reliable for measuring the speed of objects that change course. A group of military aircraft (friendly ones not answering IFF because it was not switched on, or another country's reconnaissance aircraft) explains what the radar saw and the formation well, though not the reported speed.

The message from an oiler reached the Defense Intelligence Agency, which did not analyze it itself but asked Blue Book for an informal opinion by telephone, and Blue Book answered with a routing note. There is no record that anyone interviewed the witnesses or asked for the radar logs.