The Report on Unidentified Flying ObjectsRuppelt, Edward J.
History
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Ruppelt, Edward J.
Unidentified flying objects
For about five minutes the radar tracked the UFO as it cut back and
forth across the central part of Tokyo Bay, sometimes traveling so
slowly that it almost hovered and then speeding up to 300 miles an
hour. All of this time the tower operators were watching the light
through binoculars. Several times when the UFO approached the radar
station--once it came within 10 miles--a radar operator went outside
to find out if he could see the light but no one at the radar site
ever saw it. Back at the air base the tower operators had called
other people and they saw the light. Later on the tower man said that
he had the distinct feeling that the light was highly directional,
like a spotlight.
Some of the people who were watching thought that the UFO might be a
lighted balloon; so, for the sake of comparison, a lighted weather
balloon was released. But the light on the balloon was much more
"yellowish" than the UFO and in a matter of seconds it had traveled
far enough away that the light was no longer visible. This gave the
observers a chance to compare the size of the balloon and the size of
the dark, shadowy part of the UFO. Had the UFO been 10 miles away it
would have been 50 feet in diameter.
Three minutes after midnight an F-94 scrambled from nearby Johnson
AFB came into the area. The ground controller sent the F-94 south of
Yokohama, up Tokyo Bay, and brought him in "behind" the UFO. The
second that the ground controller had the F-94 pilot lined up and
told him that he was in line for a radar run, the radar operator in
the rear seat of the F-94 called out that he had a lock-on. His
target was at 6,000 yards, 10 degrees to the right and 10 degrees
below the F-94. The lock-on was held for ninety seconds as the ground
controller watched both the UFO and the F-94 make a turn and come
toward the ground radar site. Just as the target entered the "ground
clutter"--the permanent and solid target near the radar station
caused by the radar beam's striking the ground--the lock-on was
broken. The target seemed to pull away swiftly from the jet
interceptor. At almost this exact instant the tower operators
reported that they had lost visual contact with the UFO. The tower
called the F-94 and asked if they had seen anything visually during
the chase--they hadn't. The F-94 crew stayed in the area ten or
fifteen more minutes but couldn't see anything or pick up any more
targets on their radar.
Soon after the F-94 left the area, both the ground radar and the
tower operators picked up the UFO again. In about two minutes radar
called the tower to say that their target had just "broken into three
pieces" and that the three "pieces," spaced about a quarter of a mile
apart, were leaving the area, going northeast. Seconds later tower
operators lost sight of the light.
The FEAF intelligence officers had checked every possible angle but
they could offer nothing to account for the sighting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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