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.

Open the PDF at page 13 Original source ↗

“Sightings”16 pages

  • 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…
25X1A
25X1A
. Approved For Reise 200~~~R00560RAoo030027-0
~~-,~-
It was the opinion of that the "saucer" problem
had been found to be different in nature from the detection and
investigation of German V-l and V-2 guided missiles prior to their
operational use in World War II. In this 1943-1944 intelligence
operation (CROSSBOW), there was excellent intelligence and by June
1944 there "\vas material evidence of the existence of 'trlardware n
obtained from crashed vehicles This evidence gave the
investigating team a basis upon which to operate. The absence of any
"hardware'' resulting from unexplained U.F .o. sightings lends a "will-
of-the-wisp) nature to the ATIC problem. The results of their investi-
gation, to date, strongly indicate that no evidence of hostile act
or danger exists. Furthermore, the current reporting system would
have little value in the case of detection of enemy attack by conventional
aircraft or guided missiles; under such conditions 'trlardware" would
be available almost at once.
ARTJ:F.A.Cl'S OF E:zl!RATERRESTIAL ORIGm
It was interesting to note that none of the members of the
Panel w·ere loath to accept that this earth might be visited by extra-
terrestial intelligent beings of some sont, some day. Hhat they did
not find vras any evidence that related the objects sighted to space
travelers. in his presentation, sh01ved how he had elim-
inated each of the knovm and probable causes of sightings leaving him
nextra-terrestial" as the only one remaining in many cases.
background as an aeronautical engineer and technical intelligence 25X1A
-10-
Approved For Release 2001/08/07: CIA-RDP81R00560R000100030027-0

Cited by

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.