The 701 club: Case 9675: 4 August, 1965 Dallas, Texas 

Don Berlinner’s list describes the case as follows:

Aug. 4, 1965; Dallas, Texas. 9:30 p.m. Witness: J.A. Carter, 19. One light flew fast, straight and level for 12 seconds. No further data in files.1

Brad Sparks has no additional information. 2

The Blue Book file

The Blue Book file contains the questionnaire that was completed by the witness after they wrote to Blue Book about their sighting. That letter is from a recent high school graduate, who had written a report on UFOs in his senior year of high school. He expressed skepticism about the subject but seems to have changed his attitude after this sighting.

The object was seen at 2125 PM CST. Mr. Carter reported it as dim red, about magnitude -1, and traveled halfway across the sky in a straight line in 10-12 seconds before fading out. There was no trail or sound. The witness also noted the object must have been higher and faster than aircraft he had seen in the past. This description was essentially the same in his Blue Book reporting form.

Analysis

Project Blue Book considered this as a possible meteor but rejected that explanation because it left no trail or had no tail. I assume what they meant was an ion trail being left behind. Not all bright meteors produce ion trails so this is not reason to reject this explanation. In fact, this is probably what was seen. The object’s duration was described in seconds, it traveled in a straight line, it disappeared by fading away, and it was described as traveling faster than any aircraft. All of this matches a description of a meteor. 

Conclusion

In my opinion, this case is probably a meteor observation and should be removed from the list of Blue Book unknowns.

Quelle: SUNlite 4/2021