May 19, 1960 — Ekuk nr. Dillingham, Alaska
A silver-colored round object, 20–25 feet wide with hanging appendages, hovers 50–100 feet away from Indigenous observers in the village of Ekuk, Alaska, south of Dillingham. It barely clears electric wires 12 feet above the ground. It sucks up two empty five-gallon trashcans and drags them swirling along the ground. It flies between two houses and crosses to the other side of a ridge for 100 yards, drops the trashcans and sucks up some swirling grass, makes a loud sucking sound, then ascends rapidly. Thomas M. Conrow, chief of intelligence at a nearby Air Force Base, interviews the witnesses and concludes that “there still appears to be no logical explanation of the sighting.” At Wright Patterson AFB, Blue Book analysts classify it as a “weather balloon with a radar reflector,” even though it is traveling against the wind. [Eberhart]
Sources:
J Allen Hynek, The Hynek UFO Report, pp. 146–149;
Brad Sparks, Blue Book Unknowns Catalogue, Case 1443, p. 284;
Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January–June 1960, The Author, 2003, pp. 99–101;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., p. 920;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 4th Ed., pp. 1030–1031;
Blue Book - UFO Analysis Sheet:
AF-112 Report Form, Prepared by Capt. Thomas M. Conrow
