Richmond, Virginia pibal disk sightings

George A. Wright of the Weather Bureau station (WBAS) at Richmond, Virginia, wrote a memo dated 16 July 1947 to Mr. Moxom at the Regional Office in New York. Wright's memo reported that Mr. Minczewski had seen a strange metallic disk on three occasions through the theodolite during pibal observations over the previous six months, and that Miss Baron had seen it once. Wright wrote that the station hesitated to report it because of national skepticism, and that local newspapers said the U.S. Government admitted no authority for such an object.

According to the memo, Minczewski last saw the disk in April 1947 at the 1100E pibal observation, when the balloon was at 15 thousand feet. He followed it for 15 seconds as it moved level from east to west, far to the north of the station. He described it as metallic like chrome, an ellipse with a flat bottom and a dome-like round top, below the balloon, much larger in the instrument and shining like silver. Height and speed could not be estimated, though it seemed to move rather rapidly. Baron saw it with her balloon at about 27 thousand feet and called the color a dull metallic luster. The memo said the days were clear or nearly so.

The same account appears as Incident #79 in two Air Force compilations. The check-list gave the observer as Mr. Minozewski, the location as "presumably Richmond, Va.", 3-4 separate sightings, 15 seconds in sight, and clear weather. It recorded no sketches or photographs. A second copy carries the same entries, and the narrative page repeats the memo text with one redaction.

Air Intelligence Division Study No. 203, dated 10 December 1948, cited the Richmond reports. Its summary said one well trained observer saw strange metallic disks three times and another once, always with the balloon and the objects in view through the theodolite, several months before flying saucer publicity appeared in a U.S. newspaper. The 1949 cover-dated copy repeats this. The study's Appendix A stated that on the basis of this report the disks appeared not to be balloons, and that the sighting did not seem influenced by foreign reports, newspaper accounts or misidentification of a conventional object. Appendix C described two Weather Bureau employees and placed the reports in April 1947. The study also listed weather balloons among possible domestic explanations in general terms, without tying them to this case.