PURSUE archive · catalogue card
CIA-UAP-D020
Memorandum on Unconventional Aircraft Sightings, 1955
This card reproduces what the official catalogue publishes. Our own analysis (cross-checked sources, timeline and hypotheses) will come when its turn arrives in the weekly review.
- Agency
- CIA
- Incident date
- 1955As the catalogue writes it: “1955”
- Place
- AzerbaijanAs the catalogue writes it: “Azerbaijan”See the area on the globe →
- Published in PURSUE
- Jul 10, 2026
- Records
- 2 records · Document
- Redactions
- Redacted passages in 1 of 2 records
01 Official description
This memorandum summarizes a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) debriefing of a group of four individuals who reported observing a “flying saucer” or “unconventional aircraft” in 1955. The group, which included U.S. Senator Richard Russell, a U.S. military service member, and two U.S. Government officials, reported observing a luminescent “greenish-yellow” phenomenon, as seen from aboard a train while traveling within the Soviet Union, in present-day Azerbaijan, between Baku and Tiflis (Tbilisi, Georgia). The document concludes by stating that the observation can “probably be explained as steep climbing aircraft or missiles,” and that “the evidence does not appear sufficiently firm to warrant the conclusion that the Soviets have developed […] a radically new type of aircraft.” The document “CIA-UAP-D021” contains a contemporary analysis of the incident.
02 Catalogue records · 2
CIA-UAP-D020 · Document · CIA · Jul 10, 2026 · Main record
Memorandum on Unconventional Aircraft Sightings, 1955
1955 · Azerbaijan
CIA-UAP-D021 · Document · CIA · Jul 10, 2026
Analysis of Unconventional Aircraft Sightings, 1955
1955
Official description
Sections 1 and 2 of this memorandum document a 1955 analysis of reports of “flying saucers” or “unconventional aircraft,” referencing the incident described in observer debriefings contained within CIA-UAP-D020. The memo summarizes the incident as consisting of two lights rising vertically, then passing above the observers. The memo contains caveating language that suggests the author concluded that the reports, as described, did not indicate the presence of an “unconventional aircraft.” Section 3 cites a previous finding by Dr. [Howard] Robertson (of the 1953 Robertson Panel) that “almost all the sightings […] represented no threat to the U.S.” Section 4 discusses the state of then-current research into “saucer-like aircraft” under Project “Y,” a contemporary joint U.S.-Canadian aerospace development program.
03 Related cases
Other catalogue cards from the same area or the same decade.
04 Sources
- [1]
Record · U.S. Department of War
Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE)
Card, descriptions and comments: PURSUE catalogue, U.S. Department of War. The files are not hosted here; they open on their official site.
Checked on Oct 4, 2026 · Open the original ↗
May contain errors by the AI and the editor · always check the official source.