A Flight Instructor Films Three Ellipses over Dubuque

Charles Morris flew for a living. He was a commercial pilot and a flight instructor, and at about 17:50 on 4 March 1960 he and his wife watched three objects cross the sky over Dubuque, Iowa. They were luminous and sharply outlined. They were elliptical and flew in formation about 25 degrees above the horizon. Morris judged their speed at about 200 miles an hour. They left no trail and did not change in brightness over roughly four minutes. He shot 8mm colour film of them.

Others in town saw the same passage differently. Mrs H. V. Ludovissy saw three bright metallic objects with the middle one flashing. Ferdinand Nesler and Allan A. Jones were watching through binoculars, and they saw aircraft with tails and contrails. Jones compared them to B-52s.

What is on the record

Project Blue Book holds the case as number 6667, and it sits on the official Unidentified list. The file is unusual because it carries its own likely answer. Air Force examination of Morris's film found "nothing of an unusual nature". The record card says a check for B-52s found none in the area. SAC later stated that three B-52s had flown over Dubuque at 31,000 to 32,000 feet inside the time window. ATIC noted that midwest radars and the Chicago Air Defense Sector had no record of them. A civilian group concluded the objects were probably SAC aircraft, without ruling out unknowns.

Blue Book left the label at Unidentified all the same. Morris's wife saw the objects too, but the file never gives her name. NICAP's catalogue, Hatch's database, Johnson's calendar and Berliner's list of Blue Book unknowns all carry the case. Berliner says the film "showed no images of the objects". The file says only that it was examined and nothing unusual was found.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it. Four names stand on the record: Morris, Ludovissy, Nesler and Jones. Their accounts split between luminous ellipses and aircraft seen through binoculars. Nothing outside Blue Book's pages adds a first-hand account. What Morris filmed over Dubuque is not resolved here.