NUFORC Sighting 96081

Occurred: 1954-07-01 22:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2013-01-24 16:09 Pacific
Duration: 15 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA

Shape: Circle

In 1954, I saw a red glowing disc traveling thousands of mph straight over the Los Angeles night sky.

I was 11 years old in 1947 and lived in south central Los Angeles at the time of the "flying saucer" siting. It was night time and my friend and I saw a red glowing disk traveling at enormous speeds, southeast to northwest over Los Angeles. The flying saucer was very high in a super clear night sky.

I'm a college graduate and worked for Lockheed Martin Corp. for 39 years and retired 3 years ago. I'm 69. I'm an amateur astronomer and I am familiar with the night sky, stars and planets. I would call myself a "trained observer" having lived near airports and now near Cape Canaveral, Florida where missiles commonly take off. I was also in the Air Force with the Hayward National Guard in California. My point is that I know what I am looking at and can judge speed and altitude as well as identify night time objects in the sky.

I have always described the flying saucer I saw as a looking like a round red Ford tail light of the 1950s traveling at an altitude above 30,000 feet and probably much higher (70,000 feet or more). So, I estimate the flying saucer was at least twice the size of a modern airliner at 30,000 feet, bigger if it was higher. The glowing red "saucer" appeared to be a perfect disk, not a ball. The glowing red disk had no other features. As I say, the speed of the round red disk was enormous flying horizon to horizon in less than 20 seconds at an extremly high altitude plastered against the roof one of the best night skys I have ever seen which is why my friend and I were looking up at the time. We caught site of the glowing red disk about 30 degrees above the horizon to the southeast and watched it disappear to the northwest.

My date of the siting is approximate as to month and time, but I'm pretty sure it was 1954 judging by the events going on in my life at the time. It was a warm summer evening, and I was taking my friend home on the handle bars of my bicycle at the time as we were marveling at the clarity of the night sky and the stars.

The reason that I believe it was a "flying saucer" is because no aircraft of the times in 1954 or now could even begin to match the speeds of this object. This red glowing disk left no trail like a fireball meteor which I have also seen. It just zipped across the L.A. night sky in a straight line horizon to horizon in a matter of seconds never losing its circular (disk-like) shape or losing speed or altitude. It left no trail or emited sound. If I was going to guess at the speed and altitude of the flying saucer I saw, I would say it was flying at 70,000 feet or more at speeds of tens of thousands of miles per hour. This was not a common site in 1954 or even now with our rockets and satellites which I am also very familiar with having worked for Lockheed Corp and living now near Cape Canaveral, Florida. Nothing in our arsenal of jets and rockets flys anywhere near as fast the flying saucer I saw that summer night in 1954.

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date is approximate. PD

Posted 2013-02-04