◆ CASE FILEThe facts, corroborated
The Cutter Sebago's 27-minute Radar Target over the Gulf
Before dawn on 5 November 1957 the Coast Guard cutter Sebago, about 200 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico, held a strong radar target for 27 minutes and saw a bright point of light for about three seconds. The FBI kept the Associated Press reports in its file with no evaluation of its own, and an astronomer quoted by the AP called the sightings mirages. This is the record of what the cutter's officers reported, not a verdict on what crossed their screen.
◆ THE SHORT VERSION
- The Cutter Sebago's 27-minute Radar Target over the Gulf is a reported UAP case in Gulf of Mexico, about 200 miles south of the Louisiana coast (Eberhart: south of Mobile), USA, 5 November 1957, about 05:10-05:37 CST.
- On 5 November 1957 the Coast Guard cutter Sebago reported a radar target in the Gulf of Mexico that it tracked for 27 minutes and that came as close as two miles.
- Ensign Wayne D. Shockley described a "bright point of light with no definite shape, resembling the planet Venus", seen by eye for about three seconds.
- The account survives as Associated Press clippings in the FBI's flying-disc file, which makes no evaluation of its own.
- Astronomer Donald Menzel told the AP the sightings were mirages from layers of heated air, and the Hatch database tags it a likely misidentification.
- 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.
EVENT DATE
5 November 1957, about 05:10-05:37 CST
LOCATION
Gulf of Mexico, about 200 miles south of the Louisiana coast (Eberhart: south of Mobile) · USA
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
