Documents / Report

Robertson Panel Report

The Black Vault · 1953 · 29 pages · text from the file's own layer

This declassified CIA document, released through The Black Vault, reports on the meetings of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which the Office of Scientific Intelligence convened on January 14 to 18, 1953. It includes a history of the sessions and the panel's informal comments, and it appends the formal report signed by H. P. Robertson and others. The panel found no evidence of a direct threat to national security. It recommended stripping UFOs of their special status and starting a public education program.

  • p. 3 …Origin Tremonton, Utah, Sighting Potential Related Dangers Geographic Locations of Unexplained Sightings Instrumentation to Obtain Data…
  • p. 5 …In cooperation 1vi th the Air Technical Intelligence Center, case histories of reported sightings and related…
  • p. 6 …For example, case histories involving radar or radar and visual 25X1A sightings were selected for while…
  • p. 7 …instrumentation watches of patrol cameras searching for sightings of U.F.O.'s. At 1615 Brig…
  • p. 10 …Among the case histories of significant sightings discussed in detail "ivere the follmving: Bellefontaine, Ohio (1…
  • p. 11 …objects sighted• Instances of nFoo Fighters 11 were cited• These were unexplained phenomena sighted by aircraft…
  • p. 12 …It was interesting that in at least two cases reviewed that the object sighted was categorized…
  • p. 13 …Hhat they did not find vras any evidence that related the objects sighted to space travelers…
  • p. 14 …However, the Panel could not accept any of the cases sighted by him because they were…
  • p. 15 …representatives that the objects sighted were not birds, balloons or aircraft, were nnot reflections because there…
  • p. 16 …There was no valid reason for the attempt to relate theobjects in the Tremonton sighting to…
  • p. 17 …The Panel believed strongly that the data available on this sighting was sufficient for positive identification…
  • p. 18 …Page noted that more competent screening or filtering of reported sightings at or near the source…
  • p. 19 …On the other hand, there had been no sightings in the vicinity of sensitive related AE…
  • p. 20 …exposure in order to photograph an alleged sighting in a different part of the sky; This…
  • p. 27 …mc;~EfkSE IN NU1".il3F.R OF SIGHTINGS The consensus of the Panel Has, based upon…
.Approved For Rel.e 2001/08/07: CIA-RDP81R00560RO&oo30027-0
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PARr VI: COM~·:lENTS A.TID SUGGESTIONS OF PANEL
GENERAL
The Panel Members -vrere impressed (as have been others, includ-
ing o/SI personnel) in the lack of sound data in the great majority
of case histories; also, in the lack of speedy follovr-up due primarily
to the modest size and limited facilities of the ATIC section concerned.
Among the case histories of significant sightings discussed in detail
"ivere the follmving:
Bellefontaine, Ohio (1 August 1952); Tremonton, Utah (2 July 1952);
Great Falls, Montana (15 August 1950); Yaa..~, Montana (1 September
1952); Washington, D.C. area (19 July 1952); and Haneda A.F.B.,
Japan (5 August 1952), Port Huron, Michigan (29 July 1952); and
Presque Isle, Maine (10 October 1952)•
After review and discussion of these cases (and about 15 others,
in less detail), the Panel concluded that reasonable explanations
could be suggested for most sightings and '~y deduction and scien-
tific method it could be induced {given additional data) that other
cases might be explained in a similar manner •" The Panel pointed
out that because of the brevity of some sightings {e.g. 2-3 seconds)
and the inability 6~ the "iv:i.tnesses to express themselves clearly
{sometimes) that conclusive explanations could not be expected for
every case reported• Furthermore, it was considered that, normally,
it would be a great waste of effort to try to solve most of the
sightings, unless such action would benefit a training and educational
program (see below). The writings of Charles Fort were referenced
~--Approved For Release 20Q;t~560R0001 00030027-0
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Cases discussed

About this file

Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 29 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.