Incident period: November 1953, Prince George Airport, British Columbia, Canada. The original time group reads 080315Z November 1953, suggesting 8 November at 03:15 UTC; the release summary instead uses 13 November, the date on the report. The uncertainty is retained. Released 23 October 2026; UKPX reference added 6 November 2026.
Two U.S. Air Force airmen guarding a B-29 at Prince George Airport reported a white light with a blue hue that first looked like a falling star. Their written account describes a descent, two apparent pauses at different heights and a westward departure. The report also records a brief humming sound, but no photograph, physical evidence or interception.
The four scans and the source discrepancy
DOW-UAP-D158 preserves a report from Headquarters, 918th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, dated 13 November 1953 and signed by Captain James F. Mitchell, the intelligence officer. The four PDF scans include three substantive numbered pages and a reverse-side image of the first sheet.
The release description calls this a 13 November incident involving three servicemembers. The original, however, explicitly lists two military observers in its witness section and says they were guarding a B-29. No civilian observers are listed. The preparing officer’s signature is not evidence that he also saw the light. UKPX therefore describes the two witnesses documented in the form rather than silently adopting a third.
The date needs similar care. In the time-and-date field, the report gives 080315Z November 1953. Read as a standard day/hour/minute military group, that indicates 8 November at 03:15 UTC. The 13 November date appears at the head of the report. The released file does not explain the difference, so an exact local evening date is not asserted here.
What the airmen reported seeing
The description calls the object round and compares its apparent size with a basketball held at arm’s length. It records a white light with a blue hue, blinking irregularly in roughly one-second bursts. No distinctive surface features, trail or exhaust were discerned. A humming sound was heard for about two seconds.
At first the light resembled a falling star. The account says it came to within an estimated 150 feet of the ground, remained at that level for around thirty seconds, then rose vertically by about 300 feet and appeared motionless for nearly ten seconds. It subsequently departed westward while climbing, becoming lost to sight through distance and height.
Those figures are the observers’ estimates. In particular, rising “for about 300 feet” describes a reported change from the previous position; it should not automatically be rewritten as a final altitude of exactly 300 feet. The release summary simplifies that part of the sequence, while the original wording preserves the distinction.
The stated total viewing time is approximately four minutes. That is separate from the brief pauses and the two-second sound. The form supplies no measured range or instrument track with which to establish physical size, speed or a precise three-dimensional route.
Conditions and the checks recorded
The observation was made visually from the ground without optical aids. The airmen described clear, dark conditions with no Moon and clearly visible stars. More formal meteorological entries—including ceiling, visibility and cloud amount—are marked unknown. The witnesses’ description of the sky should not be expanded into a complete weather-station record.
The report lists no thunderstorm, unusual activity or physical evidence. It records no interception or identification action and no known traffic in the area at the time. Those are the checks and answers in this particular form, not proof that every possible aircraft or atmospheric explanation was subsequently excluded.
The observer location is Prince George Airport, identified with the period’s airport reference. The document gives military ranks and considers the two observers reliable. It does not include their separate interviews, a photograph of the light, a drawing or a later technical analysis reaching an identification.
What remains in the record
This is a contemporary military report of an unusual light and apparent motion, with useful duration and observing-condition details. Its limits are equally specific: a very short-lived sound, visual height estimates, no instrument confirmation and unresolved differences between the original form and the modern catalogue description.
The source does not identify the light as a craft or establish that the humming sound had the same cause. Nor does it reach a final meteor, aircraft or other explanation. Keeping the original wording alongside the date and witness-count discrepancies makes the case more useful for later comparison.
Original PDF, source and map
U.S. Air Force, 918th AC&W Squadron, report dated 13 November 1953. Official PURSUE record DOW-UAP-D158, released 23 October 2026. All four scans and the official description checked 6 November 2026. Federal government text, public domain in the United States; original PDF retained without alteration.
The map uses the Prince George Airport climatological-station reference in the British Columbia government’s climatic-regimes summary, station 12, PDF page 34. It anchors the airport area, not the airmen’s precise position, the guarded aircraft or the reported light.