Incident · 5 March 1954 – 12 March 1954 · Nouasseur Air Depot (later Nouasseur Air Base), near Casablanca, French Morocco
Nouasseur Air Depot radar and aircrew sightings
Also known as Nouasseur 1954, Nouasseur Air Base UFO, Casablanca 1954, French Morocco 1954
Partly explained. Blue Book put the radar returns down to ground reflection and one visual report to insufficient data, but left the three aircrew reports of 1918, 1938 and 1949Z on 5 March as Unidentified. (Project Blue Book case files: Nouasseur, French Morocco, March 1954)
On the evening of 5 March 1954, aircraft returning to Nouasseur Air Depot, the U.S. Air Force's supply base near Casablanca in French Morocco, reported lights making passes at them as they flew the landing pattern: two KC-97 tankers of the 301st Air Refueling Squadron from 1918, then a MATS C-54 whose commander, Capt. William M. Pond, said a light turned onto a collision course with him and then seemed to hover. The same night a ground radar site of the 736th AC&W Squadron tracked a stationary target south of the base, and it was still there on the 6th and 7th. The tower operator, searching visually, saw only the reporting aircraft. A week later, on 12 March, an F-86F pilot at 30,000 feet reported a white object, somewhat like an aircraft in shape, flying level with him for about thirty seconds before it vanished.
The Air Force's Office of Special Investigations interviewed the crews and found ordinary candidates for much of it: the crews themselves thought the lights were jets in formation, a lighted weather balloon had been released at 2130, one reported object was another C-47, the GCA targets were buildings and the radar officer put the site's stationary echoes down to atmospheric effects. Project Blue Book's final card accepted ground reflection for the radar, but kept the three earliest aircrew reports as Unidentified.
Sources: Project Blue Book case files on Nouasseur, March 1954 (NARA IDs 28957771, 28957774, 28957904), including the OSI special inquiry of 15 March 1954
Facts and claims
- documented On the evening of 5 March 1954 the crews of two KC-97s of the 301st Air Refueling Squadron (#6537 and #6529) reported, from 1918, unidentified aircraft or objects “making passes” at them at about 1,500 feet, some six miles south or south-west of the field, according to the Nouasseur control tower log. Source: doc-bluebook-nouasseur-1954.pdf
- claimed Capt. William M. Pond, commander of MATS C-54 #2684, told the OSI that at about 2150, on the downwind leg at 2,000 feet under GCA control, a white light he took for another aircraft's landing light turned and headed directly towards him on a collision course; GCA told him its scope showed no other aircraft. The light vanished for 10–15 seconds, then appeared to hover until he turned onto final approach. His co-pilot agreed; his navigator saw it as amber. Source: doc-bluebook-nouasseur-1954.pdf
- claimed Pond volunteered “that he had eleven (11) years experience as pilot and that he has never had a similar experience to report.” Source: doc-bluebook-nouasseur-1954.pdf
- documented Late that evening Radar Site #1 of the 736th AC&W Squadron reported a target about 25 miles south at about 10,000 feet that appeared stationary, later seen as two or three blips in the same place; the record card notes that the site went on picking up the stationary target on 6 and 7 March. Source: doc-bluebook-nouasseur-1954.pdf
- documented The crews of both KC-97s told the OSI they believed the lights were aircraft in formation (jets, one crew thought), though they could give no size, shape or speed; the weather station had released a white balloon carrying a very bright light at 2130; the pilot of a transient C-47 said the object he reported had been identified as another C-47, #2844; the GCA operator said the GCA targets in the tower log were permanent, known targets (buildings); and the radar officer, Lt. Harry J. Savoy, said the 10,000-foot targets south of the station were “non-existant”, occasionally caused by “atmospheric phenomena”. Source: doc-bluebook-nouasseur-1954.pdf
- documented Blue Book's final record splits the case: “Radar - Ground Reflection”, the 2135Z air-visual report “Insufficient Data”, and the reports of 1918, 1938 and 1949 “UNIDENTIFIED”. Source: doc-bluebook-nouasseur-1954.pdf
- documented On 12 March 1954, 1st Lt. Robert S. Johnson of the 357th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, flying an F-86F at 30,000 feet, saw a white object shaped “SOMEWHAT SIMILAR TO SHAPE OF ACFT.” fly straight and level for about thirty seconds and disappear suddenly; the squadron's report added “IN PAST 7 DAY PERIOD, A NUMBER OF UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS HAVE BEEN REPORTED IN THIS AREA, BOTH VISUALLY AND BY RADAR.” Blue Book filed it as insufficient data, possibly an aircraft. Source: doc-bluebook-nouasseur-1954.pdf
Connected files
Documents
Programs
- Project Blue Book (investigated by) — Record card: “1. Radar - Ground Reflection 2. Air Visual - Insufficient Data (2135Z) 3. UNIDENTIFIED (1918, 1938, 1949”
Mentioned in this file
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)