◆ CASE FILEThe facts, corroborated
The Silver 'Neon Tube' That Crossed the Carolinas
In the late afternoon of 28 December 1949 people in towns along a straight 200-mile line from Fayetteville in North Carolina to Greenwood in South Carolina watched a silver object drift south-west into the setting sun, and four pilots in light planes failed to catch it. Air Force and weather officials suggested a weather or radiosonde balloon, and no formal evaluation followed. This is the record of what the towns reported, not a verdict on what crossed the Carolinas.
◆ THE SHORT VERSION
- The Silver 'Neon Tube' That Crossed the Carolinas is a reported UAP case in A 200-mile line across the Carolinas: Fayetteville and Hamlet, NC to Pageland, Newberry and Greenwood, SC, 28 December 1949, about 16:30-17:15 EST.
- On 28 December 1949 people in towns along a straight 200-mile line from Fayetteville, North Carolina, to Greenwood, South Carolina, reported a silver object drifting south-west into the setting sun.
- Four pilots who took off in light planes could not catch it; one, Philip Gibbons, said it looked like a large metal ball with no balloon fittings.
- Pope AFB officials suggested a weather balloon and the Charlotte weather station a radiosonde, but the file holds no formal evaluation.
- A tube-like object over Charlotte two days later was identified by the airport tower as a B-36 vapour trail, a separate event.
- For this case Fractured Realities holds 1 distinct source, 1 corroborating primary document and 4 distinct claimants on its resolved list.
- The archive grades it L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it, the top of our scale, though no independent testimony sits beside that record.
Counts are resolved totals of what sources say, computed 2026-10-12; the reported details above are claims in the record, not findings. A record of reports, not a verdict on what happened.
EVENT DATE
28 December 1949, about 16:30-17:15 EST
LOCATION
A 200-mile line across the Carolinas: Fayetteville and Hamlet, NC to Pageland, Newberry and Greenwood, SC · USA
COORDS
34.88°N 79.69°W
INDEPENDENCE
L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD
SOURCES
1 distinct
CLAIMANTS
4
STATUS
Known from released government records
NUMBERS COMPUTED 2026-10-12 · RESOLVED COUNTS, NOT A VERDICT
