DOW-UAP-D177: Two Seconds over Avalon - A Nickel-Sized Orange Light That Fell Straight Down and Became a Meteor, 1955

Source file: DOW-UAP-D177_Unresolved_UAP_Report_Catalina_Island-1955.pdf Originating agency: U.S. Air Force (USAF), Combat Operations Center, 670th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, San Pedro; 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron (4602d AISS) Document type: UFOB teletype message, UFOB index card (AISOP Form 5) and Project 10073 record card (ATIC Form 329) Date: Sighting 15 March 1955, at night; message 15 March 1955; receipt stamps 16 March 1955 Classification: UNCLASSIFIED (as marked on the message); declassification stamp NND 923007; released in 2026 Page count: 4 VIRIN: 260508-D-D0360-1169 PURSUE Release: 7

Summary

DOW-UAP-D177 closes the series of four Catalina Island files in Release 7 (D181 of 1949, D179 of 1952, D178 of 1953, D177 of 1955). Like D181, it begins with a resident of Avalon, but this time the report entered an orderly military channel at once: an Air Defense Command radar unit at San Pedro, which relayed it the same day as a UFOB-format teletype.

The sighting is the shortest in the series: two seconds. A round, very bright object the size of a nickel at arm's length, changing from orange to red, dropped vertically until it faded. The explanation offered, a meteor, is the most natural one for such a description, and the document does not suggest otherwise.

The file's interest lies instead in its three levels of certainty: the officer in the field wrote "probably a meteor", the intelligence squadron's index card marked "Possibly Astronomical", and the Project 10073 archival card typed "Meteor" beside "Was Astronomical".

Research Article

The message from San Pedro

Pages 3 and 4 are a message sent "FM COC 670TH ACWRON SPEDRO CALIF", that is, from the Combat Operations Center (COC) of the 670th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron at San Pedro, to the COC of the 27th Air Division at Norton AFB, to the Commander, Air Defense Command at Ent AFB, Colorado, to the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at Wright-Patterson and to the Director of Intelligence, Headquarters USAF. The message identifies itself as "670TAC C-001" and is submitted "IN ACCORD WITH AFR 200-2 PAR 7D"; its numbered items 1 to 12 follow the fixed structure of a UFOB report, as in the D178 message.

It is worth stressing that although the reporting unit was a radar squadron, this was not a radar sighting. Item 3 states "GROUND VISUAL", with no optical aids ("NONE"). The unit served as a reporting channel, not a sensor.

What was seen

Item 1 describes the object in telegraphic shorthand: "A. ROUND B. NICKLE C. ORANGE TO RED D. ONE", with no formation, trail or sound, and in the final sub-item "VERY BRIGHT". Item 2 describes the event: "A. JUST HAPPEN TO NOTICE B. 45 AT 340 C. 10 AT 340 D. STRAIGHT DOWN E. FADE OUT OF SIGHT F. TWO SECONDS". In other words, the object was first seen at 45 degrees elevation on azimuth 340 (north-north-west) and vanished at 10 degrees on the same azimuth after a two-second vertical drop.

Item 4 gives the time only as "NIGHT". Item 5 gives the location as "BAKER DOG 3920 AVALON, CATALINA ISLE", a grid reference alongside the town name. Item 6 lists the witness's name, address and telephone number; the witness is a private civilian and is not named here (the name appears in the official release blurb), and his occupation is given as "UNK".

Weather

Item 7 records a night that was "CLEAR DRY AND COOL", and the winds aloft: "10A 260-25K 16A 260-25K 20A 260-40K 30A 270-80K 40A 270-70K 80A 270-30K", that is, westerly winds from 10,000 to 80,000 feet at 25 to 80 knots. Ceiling "UNLIMITED", visibility "UNRESTRICTED", cloud "THIN". Items 8 to 10, on further checks and air activity, are answered "NONE".

The assessment in three versions

Item 11 is the officer's comment: "FLIGHT PATH AND LENGTH OF TIME IN SIGHT, SUGGEST UFOB WAS PROBABLY A METEOR. BRANT, CLIFFORD E. CAPTIAN USAF INTELLIGENCE OFFICER". Someone added "Prob. Meteor" by hand on the message.

The UFOB index card (page 2), on AISOP Form 5 of 15 October 1954, marks "Possibly Astronomical" and explains: "Possibly astronomical, but due to the brevity of the sighting, no further investigation was deemed worthwhile by this organization (4602d AISS)". As general context, the 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron was an Air Defense Command unit that in these years also handled field inquiries into UFO reports. Here it decided explicitly not to inquire.

The Project 10073 record card (page 1), on ATIC Form 329 (Rev 26 Sep 52), summarises: "Round. Changed from orange to red. Very bright. Fell straight down." and comments: "Probable meteor." Yet in the conclusions column the word "Meteor" is typed beside "Was Astronomical". Within a single file, then, the conclusion moves from "possibly" through "probably" to "was".

Times and details that do not line up

The message carries two time groups: "R 151900Z" at the head and "15/2231Z MAR" at the end. Both are message time groups, and on West Coast time both fall in daylight hours, whereas the sighting itself is described as "NIGHT". The index card enters "15/2231Z Mar 55" in its sighting date-time field, which is the message's time, while the Project 10073 card gives the time as "unknown". The document never states the local time of the sighting; the official blurb speaks of "evening".

The lower half of page 4 is covered by strips of tape and illegible show-through text; at the bottom a message routing line ("RR JWPJB JEDEN JEDWP JEPHQ") and an "INFORMATION" stamp are visible. Two receipt stamps carry the date 16 March 1955.

Significance

DOW-UAP-D177 is a routine report whose meteor explanation is persuasive on the description itself: a bright flash, a colour change, a vertical fall and a fade within two seconds. Its research value therefore lies not in the phenomenon but in the documentation of the machinery: an Air Defense Command reporting channel, a reasoned decision not to investigate, and the gradual hardening of the conclusion on its way to the archive. The file title "Unresolved UAP Report" reflects the fact that the field conclusions were "probably" and "possibly", not certain. In the Catalina series it completes the arc: an unanswered private letter (D181), a Boy Scouts' report with no evaluation (D179), a point of light attributed to Jupiter (D178) and a presumed meteor (D177). The last two are also linked by place: both passed through San Pedro, once as the observation point and once as the home of the reporting unit.

Key People

Locations

Incidents

Notable Quotes

"1. A. ROUND B. NICKLE C. ORANGE TO RED D. ONE" -- page 3

"2. A. JUST HAPPEN TO NOTICE B. 45 AT 340 C. 10 AT 340 D. STRAIGHT DOWN E. FADE OUT OF SIGHT F. TWO SECONDS" -- page 3

"FLIGHT PATH AND LENGTH OF TIME IN SIGHT, SUGGEST UFOB WAS PROBABLY A METEOR." -- page 4

"One (1) object, approx the size of a nickel held at arm's length, very bright and orange in color, was observed to fall straight down in the vicinity of Catalina Isle." -- page 2

"Possibly astronomical, but due to the brevity of the sighting, no further investigation was deemed worthwhile by this organization (4602d AISS)" -- page 2

"Round. Changed from orange to red. Very bright. Fell straight down." -- page 1

"Probable meteor." -- page 1