Incident: 16 December 1953, 17:54Z, at a USAF radar observation site in northern Morocco. Report dated 23 December 1953; released 23 October 2026. UKPX reference added 6 November 2026. The map marks the report’s observation-site grid square, associated with the Saïdia area, rather than the offshore radar returns.
A radar display in northern Morocco showed a changing series of returns on the evening of 16 December 1953. The echoes appeared in shapes compared with the letters V, W and M. Their number changed with successive sweeps, they remained comparatively stationary, and after several minutes they faded.
The surviving USAF report contains more than an unexplained display. It distinguishes the radar-site maintenance staff’s inability to offer a cause from three possibilities suggested by electronics personnel at divisional level. It also gives an important equipment limitation: the height finder was out of operation, so no elevation angle was available.
The original three-page report
DOW-UAP-D160 is Air Intelligence Information Report DI-1-53, prepared by Major Edward O. Wittmer, Director of Intelligence of the 316th Air Division (Defense), on 23 December 1953. The cover dates the information to 16 December and identifies Detachment 2 of the 737th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron as its source.
The form names northern French Morocco and the Mediterranean Sea as the area reported on. “French Morocco” is the document’s contemporary designation. The current release catalogue’s AARO comment identifies the 737th as a radar unit stationed at Saïdia, supporting air warning and defence surveillance in coordination with French forces.
The report refers to a primary teletype message, TWX 12-177. That message is not separately included in these three pages. The released material is the later structured intelligence report, with a summary, numbered observation details, weather information and the preparing officer’s comments.
What appeared on the radar
The observation time is recorded as 16/1754Z/Dec 53, with “Night” entered beneath it. Z denotes UTC. The instrument is identified as a TPS-1D radar; the observation is described as a scope presentation rather than a direct visual sighting.
The number of returns varied from one to twelve with the radar sweep. The report describes a straight-line arrangement at an azimuth of 25 degrees, at ranges from 20 to 40 miles. It gives an angular width of approximately two or three degrees and an approximate grid reference for the returns.
Those details describe what was seen on the display. The V, W and M comparisons are not drawings or photographs of solid aircraft in those shapes. The report says the shapes changed frequently and individual returns were more distinct at some times. It does not supply a physical size for an object.
The course section again gives an azimuth of 25 degrees and calls the returns comparatively stationary. There is no documented chase, rapid turn or measured acceleration. The observation lasted several minutes and ended when the returns faded.
The missing height information
The height finder was out, so information about the elevation angle was unavailable. This is a concrete limit on reconstructing the event: the range and bearing descriptions cannot be combined with a measured elevation from this report to establish a three-dimensional track.
Optical aids are marked not applicable. The physical-evidence section, including photography, is negative. The surviving pages provide no visual confirmation of aircraft corresponding to the returns, no radar photograph and no separate sequence of plotted positions.
Personnel and weather
The identifying-information section lists Airman Third Class V. A. Kay, an air surveillance operator; Captain T. S. White, the detachment commander; and Lieutenant V. Baker, a controller. These names occur within the official report. The release does not include three separate signed witness statements or interview transcripts.
Weather was overcast, with limited visibility but no rain. The form estimates an 8,000-foot ceiling, five miles’ visibility and nine-tenths cloud cover; thunderstorms are recorded as absent. Those observations provide context, but the file does not contain a detailed atmospheric profile or a propagation calculation.
Three possible explanations
The preparing officer says radar maintenance personnel at the observation site had offered no possible cause. He then records the opinion of several qualified electronics personnel at the division: the returns might have resulted from anomalous propagation, ship-borne radar jamming, or geese or storks in flight.
These are different kinds of explanation. The first concerns radar propagation conditions, the second interference from another radar source, and the third biological targets. The report’s summary concludes that one of the listed possibilities is the logical cause. It does not choose one and document a test that establishes it.
That distinction leaves a more specific historical record than either a story of confirmed unusual aircraft or a claim that a single explanation was demonstrated. The radar returns were reported; local staff had no explanation to offer; the division proposed three alternatives. The released file does not take the reader beyond that point.
Locating the observation site
Page 2 gives the observation location as GEOREF MJNF 4105. UKPX checked the notation against the U.S. Army’s FM 3-25.26, pages 4-26 and 4-27. GEOREF identifies a grid area through lettered longitude and latitude bands, then minute subdivisions. This reference identifies a one-minute square bounded by 35°05′–35°06′N and 2°19′–2°18′W.
The map marker uses the centre of that square, approximately 35.0917°N, 2.3083°W. It is a reference for the reported observation site in the Saïdia area, consistent with the official catalogue’s unit-location comment. It is not a surveyed antenna position or the location of a private property.
The report supplies a different approximate GEOREF for the radar returns, MJPF 1535. UKPX keeps the station reference separate from that offshore indication and does not turn the brief bearing, range and grid descriptions into a precise reconstructed track. The source’s minute-sized grid reference and unstated geodetic datum do not support GPS-like positional precision.
Read the original report
Sources: United States Air Force, Edward O. Wittmer, Air Intelligence Information Report DI-1-53, 23 December 1953, pages 1–3; PURSUE DOW-UAP-D160, Release 07, 23 October 2026, including the AARO Saïdia comment; U.S. Army, FM 3-25.26, GEOREF explanation and worked example, printed pages 4-26–4-27. All three report pages, the catalogue notes and the relevant manual pages were read and visually checked. The report PDF is an unchanged U.S. federal government work, reproduced with attribution.
Related reading: The separate Saudi Arabia B-52 radar report of 1957 · UFO / UAP / USO references · Historical Cases.