Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency report (No. 00-W-29903), distributed on 20 April 1954, compiles unevaluated foreign newspaper accounts published between November 1953 and January 1954. It covers sightings over Peshawar, a motorist followed by a light in South Africa, and a luminous object at Djougou in Dahomey. French reports include a landing at Marignane airfield and an explosion over Dieppe. It also covers meteors over Denmark and Sweden, which astronomer Bertil Lindblad explained, and a fiery object over Bad Oldesloe.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
LARGE METEOR EXPLODES --- Stockholm, Dagens Nyheter, 10 Jan 54 A large ball of fire which was seen over large parts of Skaane, Blekinge, Smaaland, and west coast of Sweden passed through the sky over Lund at a speed of about 10,000 kilometers per hour at about 1616 hours on 9 January. The ball disappeared in a westerly direction and emitted a long trail of sparks. According to reports from Denmark, the ball appeared to have exploded over Copenhagen, leaving a smoke formation which remained for 10 minutes. Some persons thought a jet plane had exploded and others thought it was a flying saucer. Reports streamed into the Swedish Air Force from all over southern Sweden. According to Bertil Lindblad of the Lund Observatory who witnessed the phenomenon, there is no doubt that it was a meteor with an apparent diameter of one third that of the moon and a luminosity of the moon. The trail of the meteor was photographed at the observatory. Observer Nielsen, at the Ole Römer Observatory in Aarhus, Denmark, received reports of the meteor from Aarhus and Copenhagen. He is not of the opinion that it exploded over Copenhagen but thinks that the explosion might have taken place 100 kilometers away. [The article also contains a request by Bertil Lindblad that persons who saw the meteor submit written descriptions of it to him.] ## LARGE METEOR EXPLODED OVER SOUTHERN HALIAND -- Stockholm, Dagens Nyheter, 13 Jan 54 The large meteor sighted on 9 January clearly exploded at a great altitude over southern Halland. Preliminary calculations show that the meteor was traveling in a general east-west direction and exploded in a shower of sparks in the forested area between Knared and Markaryd. [Above request by Bertil Lindblad repeated in this article.] ## WEST.GERMANY FLYING OBJECT LEAVES TRAIL OF FIRE -- Hamburg, Hamburger Abendblatt, 7 Dec 53 On 5 December at 1640 hours, a strange flying object was observed over Bad Oldesloe [about 20 miles west of Luebeck]. Eyewitnesses report that it was flying at an altitude of 5,000 to 6,000 meters and from northeast to southwest. A trail of fire, as from a rocket, could clearly be distinguished at the rear and on the side of the object. A police patrol which observed the object stated that is was elongated and smaller than an airplane. QUEST & ARE
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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.