1949 UAP Sighting — FBI Files
The Air Force issued a statement regarding reports of unidentified flying objects. The statement attributed these reports to misinterpretations of conventional objects, mass hysteria, or hoaxes. The Air Force also stated that further inquiry into the matter was unwarranted.
Background
A UFO/UAP incident extracted from page 53 of 65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_SUB_A, a declassified FBI vault file released by the Department of War on May 8, 2026 as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). The incident is dated December 27, 1949 and located in Unknown location.
What the file records
The Air Force issued a statement regarding reports of unidentified flying objects. The statement attributed these reports to misinterpretations of conventional objects, mass hysteria, or hoaxes. The Air Force also stated that further inquiry into the matter was unwarranted.
Witnesses on file: Air Force.
Verbatim from the file
“‘Mass hysteria””. “Reports of un-Agen ned flying objects are the result of misinterpretation of various conventional objects or 2 | mild form of mass hysteria or hoaxes.””
Status of the case
The page-level assessment recorded in the file is: discounted by investigators. All records released under the PURSUE program are designated unresolved by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office unless otherwise stated, meaning the federal government has not concluded the events were anomalous, has not concluded they were conventional, and has not ruled out either possibility. Conventional candidates for sightings of this period include experimental aircraft, weather balloons (especially the Project Mogul series), atmospheric optical phenomena, and astronomical objects.