Pilot Officer Bob Ralph,
115 Portland Place,
Saanichtonfield, Quebec
697-5297 (Htl)
Flight 308-Ath. Position: V300, 45 N.M. east of St. Jean.
Altitude: 12,000 ft. Outside air temp. Standard plus 10.
Magnetic heading: 298 deg. Magnetic track: 281 deg.
True air speed 256 kts. Ground speed: 211 kts.
Time of observation: 19:15 EDT (checked clock)
Flying on top of layered cloud, well below us.
The Captain drew my attention to an unusual set of lights to the south. One large bright white light and 6 small ones. It looked like a large kite about 20 deg. above the horizon at 90 degs to the aircraft. While we were looking at this set of lights we saw a big fire ball that started as a very bright white light and grew into a large red ball. It then turned violet in color then light blue. We saw two of these; I checked the clock. The first one was at 19:19 EDT the second at 19:21. At 19:35 EDT one large pear shape cloud glowing pale blue was drifting slowly eastward.
P/O Bob Ralph who is presently training to become a Captain had written the basic flight informations, time and position on a piece of paper. He also made a diagram at the time, photostat included.
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National Research Council of Canada/
Conseil national de recherches du Canada
RG 77, Vol. 306