May 13, 1959 — Des Moines, IA / Omaha, NE
9:18 p.m. Don Miller, Robert Ford, and Lyle Bjerkestrand, control tower operators at Des Moines Municipal Airport [now Des Moines International Airport], Iowa, see a flying object with a flaming white tail speeding across the sky. They note it resembles a meteor but travels horizontally rather than toward the ground. The object streaks west of Des Moines on a southwesterly course, trailing a white flame that gradually turns green before it disappears after about 10 to 15 seconds.
9:20 p.m. The pilot and first officer of a Braniff flight on approach to Omaha Municipal Airport [now Eppley Airfield], Nebraska, see a similar object.
9:21 p.m. M/Sgt Harold M. Applegate at Offutt Air Force Base, observes an oval object about twice the size of a pinhead. He sees it glowing blue-white, with occasional slight yellow bursts, traveling without a tail for more than two minutes. The object appears to change course several times, then produces intermittent ten-second bursts with a trailing flame about six times its length.
Record Card:
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Sources:
“Unidentified Object Spotted,” Ames (Iowa) Tribune, May 15, 1959, p. 1;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tribune-thetribune195905151/194070071/
“Unidentified Object Seen In Air Near Omaha Base,” St. Louis (Miss.) Post-Dispatch, May 15, 1959, p. 9;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-louis-post-dispatch-stlouispostdi/194070147/
“Flying Object Probed,” Wilmington (Del.) Morning News, May 16, 1959, p. 15;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-news-wilmingtonmorningnews/194070116/
“Slow UFO Near Offutt,” APRO Bulletin, July 1959, p. 6;
Richard Hall, The UFO Evidence, pp. 137, 151;
Brad Sparks, Blue Books Unknowns Catalogue, Case 1379, p. 282;
