DOW-UAP-D157: The "Flying Sphere" of Sassari, Sardinia, as Relayed by the Air Attache in Rome, 1952-1953

Source file: DOW-UAP-D157-Air-Intelligence_Information-Report-Italy-1953.pdf Originating agency: U.S. Air Force (USAF), Office of the Air Attache, U.S. Embassy, Rome Document type: Air Intelligence Information Report (AF Form 112), with the translation of a civilian's letter Date: report dated 15 December 1953; translated letter dated 19 November 1953; sighting on 27 August 1952 Classification: UNCLASSIFIED (declassification stamp, Authority NND 57597); released to the public in 2026 Page count: 5 VIRIN: 260508-D-D0360-1149 PURSUE Release: 7

Summary

On the evening of 27 August 1952, at 2145, a local professor was walking in the courtyard of an institute for war orphans in Sassari, Sardinia, saying the rosary, just as the barracks trumpet sounded lights out. A small, transparent cloud, he wrote, appeared from the east in a clear sky, and then "a sphere of astonishing brightness and luminosity seemed to depart from the Milky Way." Three to five seconds later it was gone over the horizon.

Almost a year and a half later, on 15 December 1953, the Acting Air Attache in Rome, Lt Col Joseph A. Woida, passed the story to the Air Force as report IR-700-53. Most of the report, four of its five pages, is a translation of a letter the professor sent to the Embassy on 19 November 1953. The letter combines the original newspaper article, altitude and size calculations, scientific speculation and a series of religious and political "personal remarks".

The report is unusual in that the officer's own contribution is an assessment of the witness rather than of the phenomenon. He rated the information D-4.

Research Article

The sighting as told in the newspaper

The article published in Corriere dell'Isola on 28 August 1952, quoted on page 2, describes a hot, moonless evening after three months of clear skies. The object, according to the writer, was "slightly larger than the full moon, of green-blue color, silver bright like the mother-of-pearl, with metal streaks in the right side." It moved "at a dizzy speed along East-West direction."

The distinctive detail is the pattern of appearance: within a second the sphere disappeared, "leaving behind a line or luminous ribbon, having a thickness of one-seventh of the sphere", came back, vanished and returned again, "always identical", until it disappeared toward the horizon. The writer places it to the south, about 45 degrees between zenith and horizon.

He says two other people saw it: an orphan at the institute, through the dormitory window, and a guard at a facility about three kilometres in a straight line from Sassari. The report does not say either was interviewed, and their names as given in the letter are not reproduced here.

From meteorite to heavenly explanation

The writer himself first raised the most down-to-earth explanation: "My first idea was that such a phenomenon was due to an aerolite." He rejected it, arguing that the sphere's light came from the sun, like the moon's. As general context only: a duration of three to five seconds, fast motion across the sky, greenish colour and a luminous trail are features commonly associated with bright meteor fireballs. The report neither raises nor settles that comparison.

On page 3, under "ALTITUDE AND DIMENSIONS OF THE SPHERE", the writer describes turning to a priest-astronomer whom the letter presents as director of the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo. The calculations attributed to the astronomer estimate that the object left the earth's shadow about 1,681 km to the south or about 1,091 km to the south-west, implying an actual diameter of 14.67 or 9.25 km respectively. The quoted conclusion: the object "could not be a common terrestrial 'flying saucer'... because its dimensions would be too big." Since the document is a translation of the writer's letter, these calculations reach us second-hand; the report does not check them. The coordinates quoted also contain a garbled longitude ("Longitude 33.8 East (08° 33")").

"Personal remarks"

Page 4 moves from the scientific to the devotional. Under "PERSONAL REMARKS" the writer says he dares not claim that the sphere was occupied by non-human beings, "but the heavenly intervention is too evident!" He calls the light "a heavenly smile which inspired my soul with a joy and peace never felt before."

He links the event to its setting, the Institute for War Orphans of the Sassari Brigade, "the custodian of Trieste", and launches into praise of America as the guardian of freedom, quoting the sixth book of Virgil's Aeneid. Finally he declares his intention to transfer "the secret and the property of this writing of mine to the American Embassy, Office of the Air Forces", and asks that a request he had made earlier to the Ambassador, referred to in a letter of 3 July 1953 from Col. Anthony Mony, be granted "as a token of reward rather than as a compensation" for the benefit of the orphans' institute and a body identified by the initials E.N.A.L.L.I.

The officer and the evaluation

Page 1 is the only part written by the Air Force itself. In the preparing officer's comments, Lt Col Woida writes that he interviewed the witness, who "appeared to be intelligent, pleasant, and very eager to tell his story." According to the officer, the witness was convinced of one of two things: that the United States had made scientific strides unknown to the rest of the world, or that the phenomenon was supernatural or instituted by another government in Italy. The officer concludes: "while not exactly fanatic, I believe that this title comes very close to fitting him."

The evaluation field reads "D-4": a source not usually reliable and information whose truth is doubtful. The date-of-information field says only "August". Distribution is one copy to ATIAE-5, "Aerial Phenomenon Section", with "to ATIC" (the Air Technical Intelligence Center) added by hand. The enclosures field reads "1 Drawing", and the officer notes that "Enclosure #1 is a sketch by the professor of what he thought he saw." The sketch is not included in the released file.

Date discrepancies

Several dates in the document and its metadata do not line up. Page 1 states that the phenomenon was witnessed "on the 28th of August 1952", but the quoted article describes "Yesterday evening, 27th of August"; the 28th is the date of publication. The official filename carries the year 1953, the year of the report and the letter, while the official title and the release spreadsheet give 1952, the year of the sighting. The official blurb says the account was relayed "in November 1953"; the translated letter is indeed dated 19 November 1953, but the report itself is dated 15 December 1953.

Significance

The document's value does not lie in the strength of its evidence, which is weak: one interviewed civilian witness, a sighting of a few seconds, and other witnesses who were never questioned. Its value is in showing how reports from the public reached Air Force intelligence in the 1950s: through a letter to the Embassy, a full translation, an interview by the attache and onward transmission to the Aerial Phenomenon Section. It also shows a clean separation between passing on information and evaluating it. The officer forwarded the text as it stood, religious and political passages included, and attached a frank assessment of the witness and a D-4 rating.

Key People

Locations

Incidents

Notable Quotes

"Suddenly my attention was attracted by a transparent small cloud, coming from the East, isolated in the middle of the sky: the remaining sky was serene." -- page 2

"It came out and in a second disappeared, leaving behind a line or luminous ribbon, having a thickness of one-seventh of the sphere." -- page 2

"The apparition lasted in total three to five seconds." -- page 2

"My first idea was that such a phenomenon was due to an aerolite." -- page 2

"From the above it can be easily deduced that the object observed could not be a common terrestrial 'flying saucer', some bright metal body illuminated by the sun, because its dimensions would be too big." -- page 3

"I dare not affirm - and it would be presumption on my part - that the sphere was occupied by non-human beings, no matter what they may be like: but the heavenly intervention is too evident!" -- page 4

"while not exactly fanatic, I believe that this title comes very close to fitting him." -- page 1