Incidents: Berlin’s central air corridor, in the then Soviet zone of Germany, 7–11 August 1953. The principal reports were logged on 10 August; a subsequent check was logged early on 11 August. USAF report dated 11 August 1953; released 23 October 2026. UKPX reference added 6 November 2026.
Two British European Airways crews reported unusual red lights while using the air corridor to Berlin in August 1953. One described what looked like rockets being fired ahead of his aircraft. The other described a stationary red light west of Genthin. A short American intelligence report preserves the traffic-control entries, a message about a Soviet check, and a later pilot’s observation that the area was quiet when he passed through.
The document also records that the later pilot had seen ground-to-air firing there on a previous night. That detail gives the file a possible military-activity context, but it does not identify the stationary light or establish that all the entries describe the same thing.
What survives in the released file
The source is DOW-UAP-D159, a two-page Air Intelligence Information Report numbered 260-53. Captain Fred L. Allen, an Air Intelligence Officer with the 7350th Base Complement Squadron, prepared it on 11 August 1953. Its subject is extracts from air traffic control logs, and it identifies the source as an air traffic controller.
The main page states that the information was extracted from Tempelhof’s logs. It is therefore a contemporary official record of reports passed through the control system. It is not a set of signed statements from each pilot, and the released pages do not include the complete original logbooks or a separate technical investigation.
10 August: apparent rockets ahead of a DC-3
At 19:36Z on 10 August, the log records a British European Airways DC-3 inbound for Tempelhof through the Center Corridor. The crew reported objects that appeared to be red-coloured rockets, being fired approximately one mile in front of the aircraft. Z is the report’s UTC time notation; UKPX retains it rather than silently converting the entries into local clock times.
The description is brief. There is no stated number of rockets, no diagram and no measured trajectory. The wording records what the pilot thought he was seeing. It does not establish what was being fired, where it originated, or whether it presented a verified threat to the aircraft.
A stationary red light west of Genthin
At 22:45Z, Bad Eilsen Air Traffic Control passed another report to Tempelhof. A pilot of a second British European Airways DC-3 had described a stationary red light about 20 nautical miles west of Genthin. Its apparent altitude was approximately 5,000 feet, but not above 5,500 feet.
This entry differs from the earlier rocket-like activity: it describes a stationary light rather than projectiles apparently being fired. The two reports occurred on the same evening in the corridor system, but the surviving text does not demonstrate a shared source. Nor does it provide a measured range to the light or an independently established altitude.
At 23:15Z, the British Berlin Air Safety Center reported that the Soviets had checked the red-light report and could not account for it. This is a message recorded in the American summary. There is no separate Soviet report in the two released pages, so the scope and method of that check cannot be reconstructed from this file.
11 August: no light, but a previous night’s firing
At 02:35Z on 11 August, Pan American pilot Lesser reported to Tempelhof while passing the area about 20 nautical miles west of Genthin, en route to Hanover through the Center Corridor. He saw no light or activity of any description on that passage.
He did, however, say that on Friday night, 7 August, he had seen ground-to-air firing in the same area. According to the entry, the firing stopped as his aircraft approached. He had been unable to determine the type of projectile being fired.
The distinction between the dates matters. Lesser’s earlier account is about 7 August, not an observation of the red light on 10 August. His later quiet passage does not cancel the earlier crews’ reports; equally, it does not corroborate an object that remained continuously in place. It documents a different passage at a different time.
Where the inquiry stops
The second page adds a specific limitation: as of the report’s preparation, the office had been unable to contact Lesser for further information. That note prevents the short summary from being mistaken for a completed follow-up interview.
There are no photographs, radar plots, projectile samples or final identification attached to these pages. The cover’s evaluation field is marked “None”. It would therefore overstate the record to describe it as an official finding of an extraordinary craft. It would also go beyond the file to identify the stationary light as gunfire merely because firing had been reported nearby on an earlier night.
What makes this small file useful is its chronology. It separates two British airline reports, a relayed account of a Soviet check, and a Pan American pilot’s subsequent passage and earlier recollection. Those distinctions preserve more information than a single compressed story about unidentified lights over Germany.
Location and case date
The report supplies Genthin as a geographical reference at 52°24′N, 12°09′E. The UKPX map uses that supplied locality reference, with a note that the stationary-light report was approximately 20 nautical miles to its west. The marker is not an exact light position, a reconstructed flight path or a private address. The rocket-like report is located only to the Center Corridor in the surviving text.
The case is indexed to 1953, the year of the observations. The 2026 date belongs to the public release of the surviving record, not to a new sighting.
Read the original report
Source: United States Air Force, Captain Fred L. Allen, Extracts from Air Traffic Control Logs, report 260-53, 11 August 1953, pages 1–2. Public-release record DOW-UAP-D159, PURSUE Release 07, 23 October 2026. UKPX read both original pages and the official catalogue notes on 6 November 2026. The PDF is an unchanged U.S. federal government document; the reproduced scan’s historical classification markings have been cancelled by declassification markings.
Related reading: Prince George Airport’s separate 1953 light report · UFO / UAP / USO references · Historical Cases.