Minot AFB B-52 radar-visual case (24 October 1968)
Early on 24 October 1968 a B-52 descending toward Minot AFB, North Dakota, a SAC base with nuclear weapons, was paced by an egg-shaped object its crew described as glowing like molten lava, while ground personnel at the base also reported a large glowing object. Physicist Kevin Knuth works from the radar data that the object closed 2 miles in one sweep, about 209 g and Mach 12. The case is in Blue Book, and a DIA contractor's Project Northern Tier list includes it among Minot incidents. It is kept as its own record because it has its own crew, radar and file; case/northern-tier-1966-1977 stays the umbrella.
How plausible · Very high
A SAC bomber crew, its radar and ground personnel at a nuclear base agree; Blue Book filed it and a DIA contractor later listed it as a priority incident.
- ●●Access Aircrew, radar and base personnel.
- ●●No gain sought Nothing to gain.
- ●●Character record SAC aircrew and security personnel.
- ●●Independent convergence About 20 witnesses plus airborne radar.
- ●●Checkable details check out Blue Book file; BAASS lists it.
- ●●Fits the documented skeleton Fits the nuclear-base pattern (Northern Tier, Malmstrom).
Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-24.
On the record
- The Blue Book file for Minot, 24 October 1968.Blue Book
- BAASS D168 and D171 list the B-52 crew and radar event with about 20 witnesses.