Dept. of DefenseUnknown
Yellow-orange cigar-shaped light — Sandia vicinity (Feb 17 1949)
Feb 17, 1949Sandia Base vicinity, Albuquerque, New Mexico (approx.)420s
Analysis — our summary
On 17 February 1949 at 17:59, a yellow-orange cigar-shaped light was observed from Sandia Base, remaining visible until 18:06 (approximately 7 minutes). This sighting was noted as a footnote by Captain Neef in Commander Mandelkorn's report of the 16 February 1949 Los Alamos conference. A separate blue fireball was also reported visible from Sandia at 05:30 the same morning.
As reported — verbatim from the document
“"Captain Neef reports blue fireball visible from Sandia at 0530, 17 February 1949, and a yellow-orange cigar-shaped light at 1759, visible until 1806, 17 February."”
Analyst notes — caveats & confidence
Reported as an addendum footnote by Captain Neef; minimal detail. Duration of 7 minutes (1759–1806) is notably long for a transient fireball. The cigar shape is qualitatively different from the green fireball series. The morning blue fireball is noted here for completeness but is too briefly described to extract separately with confidence. Confidence moderate.
Provenance
Source documentDOW-UAP-D017_General_Correspondence_Of_Sandia.pdf
Document typeGeneral correspondence file — multi-document compilation including OSI summaries, scientific reports (LaPaz/Crozier), field investigation summaries, and raw sighting tables; 1948–1950
Reporting agencyDept. of Defense
Source pages116
DeclassifiedFirst public at this release (2026)
Held classified~77 years (≥, to this release)
Extraction confidence ModerateHow 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.