Griffiss Tower Crew Watch a Light with a Fan-shaped Tail

It was about 18:27 on 27 February 1960. At Griffiss Air Force Base, outside Rome in New York, men on the primary runway, in the control tower and in the Capehart housing area looked up at the same thing. It was a round white light about the size of a large pin head held at arm's length. Behind it spread a fan-shaped streamer of orange-red light. It passed between them and Sirius at about 17 or 18 degrees above the horizon, tracking 140 to 150 degrees. For three or four minutes they followed it with field glasses and measured it with a clinometer. Then it went into cloud.

A civilian at Lake Delta saw it too.

What is on the record

Project Blue Book holds the case as number 6663, on its official Unidentified list. The record names the military observers. Captain James Huey of the 759th Bomb Squadron was the SAC tower officer and Captain Robert H. Reu the airdrome officer. T/Sgt Raymond H. Westgate and A/2C John D. Brasie of the 2019th AACS Squadron were operating the tower. A/1C Edward V. Engquist of the 4th Weather Group's Detachment 15 was the weather observer.

An Air Police officer offered an explanation. It could have been a leaking weather balloon carrying an instrument package, seen at high altitude after dark, and Buffalo and Flint had both released rawinsondes. ATIC asked Syracuse's Hancock Airport whether it had released a balloon and asked Griffiss to confirm the direction and duration. The case stayed Unidentified. Berliner and Sparks, NICAP, Hatch and Johnson all carry it. Johnson describes two UFOs, though the record has one light with a streamer.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it. Five people are named: Huey, Reu, Westgate, Brasie and Engquist. The Lake Delta civilian's name is redacted and is not counted. No outside testimony from the tower crew has reached the archive. What crossed in front of Sirius is not resolved here.