// OPEN INTELLIGENCE — PUBLIC ARCHIVECASE FILE · THE RECORD
FRFRFR
← THE ARCHIVE
◆ CASE FILEThe facts, corroborated

A T-33 Crew Flies Alongside Four Lights from Madison to Racine

At 17:45 on 9 December 1952 two fighter-interceptor officers in a T-33 jet south of Madison, Wisconsin, came on four bright white lights in a diamond, overtook them and flew alongside until fuel ran low west of Racine. Ground radar tracked the jet but never the lights, and the Air Force analysis ruled out balloons and aircraft and concluded Unknown. This is the record of what two pilots reported, not a verdict on what flew across Wisconsin.

◆ THE SHORT VERSION

  • A T-33 Crew Flies Alongside Four Lights from Madison to Racine is a reported UAP case in Airborne from about 10 miles south of Madison past Janesville to west of Racine, Wisconsin, USA, 9 December 1952, 17:45-17:55 CST.
  • Two officers of the 433rd Fighter-Interceptor Squadron reported overtaking four bright white lights in a diamond formation in their T-33 on 9 December 1952 and flying alongside them from south of Madison to west of Racine.
  • They never saw a silhouette, even against the lights of Milwaukee.
  • Ground radar tracked the T-33 throughout but never painted the lights.
  • The Air Force analysis ruled out balloons (too fast) and aircraft (none recorded or on radar) and concluded "Unknown" (Blue Book 2267).
  • For this case Fractured Realities holds 1 distinct source, 1 corroborating primary document and 3 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.

A T-33 Crew Flies Alongside Four Lights from Madison to Racine
A Lockheed T-33A, the type the two pilots were flying, photographed in 1948 · Lockheed Aircraft Corporation · via Wikimedia Commons (CC0) · CC0 ↗
EVENT DATE
9 December 1952, 17:45-17:55 CST
LOCATION
Airborne from about 10 miles south of Madison past Janesville to west of Racine, Wisconsin · USA
COORDS
42.68°N 89.02°W
INDEPENDENCE
L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD
SOURCES
1 distinct
CLAIMANTS
3
STATUS
Known from released government records
NUMBERS COMPUTED 2026-10-12 · RESOLVED COUNTS, NOT A VERDICT
VIEW ON ATLAS →

Captain D. Bridges and First Lieutenant J. B. Johnson flew with the 433rd Fighter-Interceptor Squadron out of Truax Field. At 17:45 on 9 December 1952 they were in a T-33 at about 8,000 feet, ten miles south of Madison. Four bright white lights appeared ahead of them in a diamond formation, heading about 130 degrees at an estimated 400 mph. The pilots followed at 450 mph. Near Janesville they overtook the lights and passed them, then flew alongside. They stayed with them eastward until the fuel ran low and broke off about ten miles west of Racine at 17:55.

In all that time they never made out a silhouette. Even set against the glow of Milwaukee, the four showed no shape.

What is on the record

Project Blue Book holds the case as Unknown 2267. The 755th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron had the T-33 on its radar throughout the chase, but it never painted the lights. The Air Intelligence Information Report worked through the ordinary answers. Balloons were ruled out as too fast. Aircraft were ruled out because none were recorded and none showed on radar. Its conclusion is "Unknown".

The file cites one more witness from outside the base. According to the Wisconsin State Journal of 10 December 1952, a farmer who had been a pilot in the Second World War reported four bright lights in the same area at the same time. The archive has not seen that newspaper report directly. Berliner's list of Blue Book unknowns, NICAP and Hatch's database all carry the case. Planet positions for that evening have not been checked here, though a crew overtaking and flying alongside the lights sits awkwardly with a celestial source.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it. The record puts two names to the sighting: Bridges and Johnson. The radar operators on duty are on record as tracking only the jet. The farmer is unnamed and known only through the file's citation. Nothing first-hand stands outside the file. What the T-33 flew beside is not resolved here.

◆ CORROBORATION
✓BB Unknown 2267 · 1952-12-09 · Madison, Wisconsin, Wisconsin, USA (government primary)
✓3 resolved claimants
◆ SOURCES

Everything this file draws on, in the open — reports, not reality. Check us.

Documents & published sources

Government records, papers and journalism the archive links to this case.

government record · 1
PILOT ENCOUNTERGOVERNMENT RECORD1952USA

CASE FILES STATE THE RECORD AS OUR ARCHIVE HOLDS IT — FACTS, NOT OPINION. REPORTS, NOT REALITY.

◆ CONTINUE READING
If They're Real, Who Are They? A Field Guide to the Visitors◆ BLOG
TAXONOMY

If They're Real, Who Are They? A Field Guide to the Visitors

07 JUL 2026 · 18 MIN READ
The Florence Stadium Sighting
Unknown author · Public domain
▣ CASE FILE
L3 · MULTI-SOURCE

The Florence Stadium Sighting

27 October 1954 · Stadio Artemio Franchi · Italy
Were Alien Abductions Invented Under Hypnosis?▲ STUDY
0.83× · study

Were Alien Abductions Invented Under Hypnosis?

22 SEP 2026
A T-33 Crew Flies Alongside Four Lights from Madison to Racine — Case File · Fractured Realities