August 29, 1952 — Thule Air Base, Greenland
10:50 a.m. Pilot LtJG William A. O’Flaherty and navigator LtJG R. S. Moore are flying a PB4Y-2 Privateer patrol plane west of Thule Air Base, near Qaanaaq, Greenland. They are following an 85-foot-diameter Skyhook balloon launched from an icebreaker, US Coast Guard Cutter Eastwind,
when, upon release of the parachute instrument package from the balloon, they see 3 white discs or globes, about ½ to almost the full apparent size of the balloon, in triangle formation clustered to the right of the Skyhook instrument package at 74,000 feet for some 2–3 minutes. [Eberhart]
Blue Book Record Card:
Report From Patrol Squadron 23 / Statements:
Blue Book Worksheet:
Sources:
Brad Sparks, Blue Books Unknowns Catalogue, Case 803, p. 170;
“August–December 1952 Sighting Chronology,” Journal of UFO History 2, no. 4 (Sept./Oct. 2005): 5, 8;
NICAP, “Three Objects Shake Up Air Crew”;
Commander Edward P. Stafford, U.S. Navy (Retired), “Cosmic Curiosity,” Naval History 18, No. 5 (October 2004);
https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2004/october/cosmic-curiousity
“Arctic Navy Pilot Reports Seeing Strange Phenomena,” Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, October 18, 1952, p. 15; [p. 4 in Evening edition]
