Dept. of DefenseUnresolvedAmbiguous
Perfectly circular 50-ft object descending to land — Los Angeles, CA, ca. 1948
Date unknownLos Angeles, California (descending for landing) (approx.)
Analysis — our summary
A commercial pilot descending for landing at Los Angeles observed a perfectly circular object estimated at approximately 50 feet in diameter. The pilot assessed it was not a balloon. The incident number is approximately 175 in the USAF compilation; the exact date is not recoverable from the heavily OCR-degraded text.
As reported — verbatim from the document
“Pilot, coming in for landing at Los Angeles, used a thing on the object; determined it was a perfectly circular object approximately 50 feet in diameter; not a balloon.”
Analyst notes — caveats & confidence
Incident ~175. OCR quality is extremely poor; most form fields are illegible. Date not recoverable. Observer was a commercial pilot (credible source). Confidence very low due to OCR degradation.
Provenance
Source document38_143685_box7_Incident_Summaries_173-233.pdf
Document typeincident summary compilation
Reporting agencyDept. of Defense
Source pages144
DeclassifiedFirst public at this release (2026)
Extraction confidence LowHow cleanly this record could be parsed from the source — driven by legibility & redaction. It is not a measure of how credible or anomalous the sighting is.