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 Reise 2001/08/07: CIA-RDP81R00560R.100030027-0
THU'RSDAY MORNING
The third and fourth meetings of the Panel were held;Thw.sday,
15 Januaxy, commencing at 0900 with a two-hour break for luncheon.
Besides Panel members.and CIA personnel, Mr. Ruppelt and Dr. Hynek
were present for both sessions. In the morning, Mr. Ruppelt con-
tinued his briefing on ATIC collection and analysis procedures.
The Project STORK support at Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus,
was described by Dr. Hynek. A number of case histories were dis-
cussed in detail and a motion picture film of seagulls was shown.
A two hour break for lunch was taken at 1200.
THURSDAY AFTERNOON 25X1A
At 1400 hours gave a 40-minute briefing of
Project TWINKLE, the investigatory project conducted by the Air
Force Meteorological Research Center at Cambridge, ~~ss. In this
briefing he pointed out the ~~y problems of setting up and manning
24-hour instrumentation watches of patrol cameras searching for
sightings of U.F.O.'s.
At 1615 Brig. Gen. William M. Garland joined the meeting with
AD/SI. General Garland expressed his support of the Panel's
efforts and stated three personal opinions:
a. That greater use of Air Force intelligence officers in
the field (for follow-up investigation) appeared desirable,
but that they required thorough briefing.
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Approved For Release 2001/08/07: CIA-RDP81R00560R000100030027-0

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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.