Gulf of Mexico UFO Encounter

On December 6, 1952 the crew (three men) of a USAF B-29 was flying over the Gulf of Mexico just before dawn when several unidentified targets appeared on the bomber radar’s scopes.

The targets maneuvered around the bomber at speeds at 5240 mph. The crew members had visual contact with the objects as they streaked past their aircraft.

After several minutes of maneuvering around the B-29, the five objects, still moving over 5000 mph, merged with a larger object which appeared on radar as a huge blip and began to accelerate and flashed across the three radar scopes at a speed computed to be over 9000 mph.

Statement of 1st Lt Norman Karas (USAF Blue Book record) :
” On 6 December 1952, while flying over the Gulf of Mexico towards Galveston, Texas, the flight engineer finished transferring fuel and I then turned on my radar set. I noticed an unidentified target approaching our aircraft at terrific rate odf speed.

I timed it as best as I could with my stopwatch over a known distance and the instructor flight engineer computed the speed at 5,240 mph. I alerted the entire crew to look for the object visually and some flashes of light were noticed. The closest the objects came were approximately 20 miles.

I saw about 20 objects in all, sometimes as much as two and three on the scope at one time. I re-calibrated the set and there was no change. The object was small and possibly round …….”.

“I also noticed a large return come up to within 40 miles of our tail from behind, and then disappeared. To the best of my knowledge, I believe that this object was real and moved at an extremely high speed and was not a set malfunction or optical illusion”.

Statement of 1st Lt William W. Naumann (USAF Blue Book record) : “Contact was broken off at 05:35 after a group of the blips merged into a ½ inch curved arc about 30 miles from our aircraft at 320 degrees and proceeded across the scope and off it at a computed speed of over 9,000 mph.

AIRCRAFT INFORMATION
Type of Aircraft B-29 bomber
Airline or Air Force USAF
Flight origine
Flight destination   Galveston, Texas
Altitude
speed

UFO INFORMATION
Number      5 then 1
Shape
Size           5 small then one large
Color
Altitude (estimation)
Course
Speed (estimation)

RADAR INFORMATION
Radar type Airborne
Radar set(s) number one (three radar scopes)
Radar Location airborne
Number of target(s) several
Target size
Target altitude 18,000 ft
Target speed 5240 to 9 000 mph
Trajectory
Duration

EME
Distance UFO – A/C
Weather

Witness(es) B-29 (three crew members) including : 1st Lt Norman Karas and 1st Lt William W. Naumann.

Source(s) (03) Project 1947, Jan Aldrich (21) USAF Air Intelligence Information Report 24) List of radar cases from the Condon Committee (34) OVNI, le plus grand probleme scientifique de notre temps, Dr J. McDonald (303) The UFO Evidence, Richard Hall, NICAP, 1964 (347) Flying saucers from outer space, Major D. Keyhoe, 1953 (M236) MUFON UFO Journal # 236 (410) UFO’s a History : Nov.-Dec. 1952, Loren Gross