Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency compilation, dated 24 November 1952, gathers translated press reports of unidentified flying objects seen over Spain and Africa from July to October 1952. Sources include Moroccan, Algerian, Spanish and Ivory Coast newspapers. It covers disks over Marrakech, a theodolite sighting by two meteorologists in Durban, and a widely observed object on 21 September 1952 over Casablanca, Tangier, Fes and Rabat, including a close view by a pilot. One Rabat paper suggested that object was a meteor.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
BELIEVE OBJECT OVER MOROCCO ONLY A METEOR -- Rabat, L'Echo du Maroc, 22 Sep 52 On 21 September 1952, at 1818 hours, the mysterious flying object seen in all Morocco and beyond was observed over Rabat. It seems more likely, however, that this time, it was a meteor, because the trajectory of the object was given as rectilinear, it did not maneuver in the way saucers are said to do, and its entire body was incandescent, which is not true of flying machines. The object was variously described as an orange-colored ball of fire, an arrow, or a cone-shaped object trailing a bright green-blue cloud of smoke, heading from east to west and parallel to the coast, and moving at the speed of a conventional plane at an altitude of about 1,000 meters. The object was visible for only a few seconds. After it passed a thin, white trail of smoke remained visible for about 5 minutes. GIVE DETAILS ON MYSTERIOUS OBJECT FLYING OVER IVORY COAST -- Abidjan, La Cote d'Ivoire, 8 Oct 52 Three members of a family in Abidjan declared that shortly after 0130 hours on 3 October 1952, a bright green light flashed from the east across the sky, seemingly the exhaust of some craft. The latter was momentarily motionless, at which time it seemed orange red in color. Then it revolved about itself in a ring of fire, zig-zagging upward and remaining in the same area of the sky. As it moved, it assumed various shapes, flat, round, and oval. Its color varied then from purple to gold. After many rapid, noiseless turns, it dwindled in size, turned green, and disappeared -- that was at about 0200 hours. The three observers gave the impression of being quite level-headed.
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 4 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.