Two RCAF Veterans and the Amber Disc That Reversed

Warrant Officer E. H. Rossell was the aircraft maintenance superintendent at RCAF Station North Bay. On the evening of Saturday 12 April 1952 he and Flight Sergeant Reg McRae were driving from the married quarters into town. A bright amber disc, round and with no tail, came in over the airfield from the south-west. They judged it was moving at about twice the speed of an F-86 at low level. It stopped and hovered briefly. Then it reversed direction and climbed away at about 30 degrees at "terrific speed". The whole sighting lasted about two minutes.

What is on the record

The case is Project Blue Book Unknown no. 1108. It reached Blue Book through the US Air Attaché in Ottawa, who forwarded the RCAF statements and press clippings. A State Department despatch noted the press interest. The RCAF said there was no reason to doubt the two veterans, though it treated the report as routine. The record card gives the conclusion as unknown.

The time of the sighting is not settled. The press put it at about 8:30 to 8:50 p.m. The Air Attaché's report gives 22:36 local, and an extract in a status report gives 9:30. All three agree on the evening.

The same Blue Book file holds a separate North Bay sighting from 1 January 1952 with different witnesses. It is a different event.

NICAP lists the April sighting as BB 1108, and Berliner's list of Blue Book unknowns carries it. The Hatch database and Johnson's calendar record it as well. Eberhart's chronology cites the North Bay Nugget of 15 April 1952.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD: a released government record names who saw it. Rossell and McRae, both serving RCAF airmen, are the two it names. Their statements reached the archive through Canadian and American official channels and by no other route. The tier measures sourcing, not truth. What turned and climbed away over North Bay is not resolved here.