# Incident 88: the Hackensack disc, 3 August 1947 > Incident 88 is the Air Force's number for a "flying disc" seen over Hackensack, New Jersey, at about 7:30 to 8:00 pm on Sunday 3 August 1947 by two young… Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88 Publisher: Mysteries Department Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page) Updated: 2026-11-03T00:40:46+00:00 --- **MYS** 0DFY52WTWF8F·Mystery · sighting # Incident 88: the Hackensack disc, 3 August 1947 **0** [Follow][Ask a question](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions/key-questions?mystery=incident-88) Incident 88: the Hackensack disc, 3 August 1947 ![Typed Air Force index card headed Incident #88, dated 3 Aug 47, Hackensack, New Jersey, with most fields marked N/S.](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/folio/incident-88-lead) The 1952 index card for Incident 88 · U.S. Air Force · Public domain When Sunday 3 August 1947, about 7:30 to 8:00 pm EDT (sunset 8:15 pm)⁠[[1]] Where Simons Avenue near Summit Avenue, Hackensack, Bergen County, New Jersey⁠[[1]] Witnesses Charles Casella, Jr.; Pvt. William A. Truex, 47th Infantry, Fort Dix, aged 17; Truex's girlfriend⁠[[1]] Object Round, 'like a flat child's cup', black or silver-blue, apparently revolving, about 200 yards up, moving north for 15 seconds to a minute⁠[[1]] Air Force number Project Sign Incident 88; Blue Book folder of 19 pages, NARA T1206, catalog 28929795⁠[[4]] Hynek's 1949 rating Non-astronomical, no explanation evident: lack of evidence precludes explanation⁠[[5]] Also in the folder Correspondence of the Wildwood case (Incident 50) and the Danforth, Illinois hoax specimens⁠[[4]] Status Unexplained Questions 0 of 5 answered People [**J. Allen Hynek** Ohio State University astronomer and the Air Force's astronomical consultant to Projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/people/FIG0DFY5XAS1N3J/j-allen-hynek)[**Jazz Shaw** Journalist and contributing writer to The Debrief who wrote the only study of the Incident 88 folder.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/people/FIG0DFY5XKS0763/jazz-shaw)[**Alfred C. Loedding** Air Materiel Command aeronautical engineer on Project Sign who, with Maj. M. W. Faulk, interviewed the Wildwood correspondent in February 1948.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/people/FIG0DFY5XV9E66P/alfred-c-loedding)[**Col. H. M. McCoy** Head of intelligence at the Air Materiel Command, Wright Field, who signed the 1947 Danforth letter and the 1948 Langley alert filed under Incident 88.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/people/FIG0DFY5Y3KZPQK/col-h-m-mccoy) Places [All 7](https://mysteriesdept.com/places?mystery=incident-88) [**Wildwood, New Jersey** Shore resort on the Cape May peninsula where the correspondent of Project Sign Incident 50 reported objects over the sea from December 1947 to late 1948; her later letters are in the Incident 88 folder.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/places/PLC0DFY5M7BR48E/wildwood-new-jersey)[**Danforth, Illinois** Village in Iroquois County where a farmer reported a burning 'instrument' in August 1947; the Air Force called the parts a hoax, and a copy of its letter sits in the Incident 88 folder.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/places/PLC0DFY5MDWDZ3M/danforth-illinois)[**Fort Dix, New Jersey** Army post where Pvt. William Truex of the 47th Infantry, 9th Division, was stationed in August 1947.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/places/PLC0DFY5MZ22ERN/fort-dix-new-jersey)[**Simons Avenue, Hackensack, New Jersey** The residential street in north Hackensack where the Incident 88 witnesses stood on 3 August 1947, below the hill at Summit Avenue.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/places/PLC0DFY5K82J33X/simons-avenue-hackensack-new-jersey) Organisations [**Project Sign** The Air Force's first UFO study, run from Wright Field from early 1948 and renamed Grudge in December 1948; it numbered the early reports as incidents, Hackensack as 88 and Wildwood as 50.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/organisations/ORG0DFY5YVJ0XCH/project-sign-air-materiel-command-technical-intelligence)[**FBI Newark Division** The FBI field office that reported the Hackensack disc to Washington and interviewed its witnesses in August 1947.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/organisations/ORG0DFY5YBF15X2/fbi-newark-division)[**U.S. Coast Guard Intelligence and Law Enforcement Division** Coast Guard headquarters division that investigated the Wildwood sightings for the Air Materiel Command and reported on 7 April 1948.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/organisations/ORG0DFY5Z8PN9JS/u-s-coast-guard-intelligence-and-law-enforcement-division)[**New York University balloon group** ](https://mysteriesdept.com/records/ORG0CS50XYT5BYB/new-york-university-balloon-group-project-mogul) Catalog key**MYS** 0DFY52WTWF8F Incident 88 is a small case that became a puzzle because of its paperwork. On the evening of Sunday 3 August 1947, at the height of the first American flying-saucer summer, Charles Casella, Jr., of Hackensack and Private William Truex of [Fort Dix](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/places/PLC0DFY5MZ22ERN/fort-dix-new-jersey) were looking at a ham-radio aerial on [Simons Avenue](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/places/PLC0DFY5K82J33X/simons-avenue-hackensack-new-jersey) when they saw a round object moving north across the sky about 200 yards up; Truex's girlfriend came out in time to see it before it vanished over the horizon⁠[[1]]. Casella telephoned the Hackensack police, the FBI's Newark office sent Washington an urgent teletype the next afternoon, and on 13 August Newark reported separate interviews with all three witnesses and a neighbour who had seen nothing⁠[[2]]⁠[[1]]. The Air Force's [Project Sign](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/organisations/ORG0DFY5YVJ0XCH/project-sign-air-materiel-command-technical-intelligence) gave the report incident number 88, but its check-list holds only the teletype's two lines; every descriptive field is marked "not stated"⁠[[3]]⁠[[4]]. [Hynek](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/people/FIG0DFY5XAS1N3J/j-allen-hynek), reviewing it for the Grudge report, wrote that no astronomical explanation fitted and that the information was "so meager that little else can be said", and filed it under "lack of evidence precludes explanation"⁠[[4]]⁠[[5]]. When the Blue Book files were microfilmed, the folder labelled 88 turned out to hold nineteen pages, of which five concern Hackensack. Ten are letters to and from a woman in [Wildwood](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/places/PLC0DFY5M7BR48E/wildwood-new-jersey), at the southern tip of New Jersey, who reported saucers over the sea in 1948, and four are an Air Materiel Command letter of 25 August 1947 with a photograph of hoax "flying saucer" parts from [Danforth, Illinois](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/places/PLC0DFY5MDWDZ3M/danforth-illinois), notable for stating that they had no connection with the "Mogul" project⁠[[4]]. [Jazz Shaw](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/people/FIG0DFY5XKS0763/jazz-shaw)'s 2022 article in The Debrief drew attention to the mix, identified the Wildwood correspondent as the knitting author Ethel Rodman, writing as "Ethel Evans", and asked whether the Air Force had ever really investigated her⁠[[6]]. The answer is in a different folder: her reports are Project Sign Incident 50, investigated in person in February 1948 and through the Coast Guard in April 1948, then closed⁠[[7]]. Of the 5 questions on this site, 0 are answered. ### Key questionsset by the editors [**Did the Air Force investigate the Wildwood reports filed under Incident 88, and what came of it?** ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/questions/QST0DFY748NX8M2/did-the-air-force-investigate-the-wildwood-reports-filed)No answer ahead yet [**What did the three witnesses see over Hackensack on the evening of 3 August 1947?** ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/questions/QST0DFY739G80E5/what-did-the-three-witnesses-see-over-hackensack-on-the)No answer ahead yet [**Why does the Incident 88 folder hold papers from the Wildwood case and the Danforth hoax?** ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/questions/QST0DFY73MKYJ7H/why-does-the-incident-88-folder-hold-papers-from-the)No answer ahead yet [**Why is the Air Force's record of the Hackensack sighting so much thinner than the FBI's?** ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/questions/QST0DFY73YQ65H3/why-is-the-air-forces-record-of-the-hackensack-sighting-so)No answer ahead yet [All 5 questions ](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions/key-questions?mystery=incident-88) ### Research sessions1 so far · last 3 Nov `S-001`[Incident 88 opened: the three files untangled and the balloon tested](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/sessions/SES0DFY9WVPW4NG/session-1-incident-88-opened-the-three-files-untangled-and) 3 Nov **1** run **11** evidence**5** questions raisedNo question changed standing [All 1 sessions ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/sessions) ## What happened On Sunday 3 August 1947 Charles Casella, Jr., of Euclid Avenue, Hackensack, and William Truex, a private in the 47th Infantry at Fort Dix whose sister was engaged to Casella, were waiting outside the house of Truex's girlfriend on Simons Avenue and looking at a ham-radio rig on a nearby roof⁠[[1]]. Truex remarked that a child had lost its balloon. Casella looked up and saw, a block or half a block away and east of them, a round object moving from south to north about 200 yards above the hill at Summit and Simons Avenues, steadily, too fast for an ordinary balloon, so that they had to keep turning their heads to follow it⁠[[1]]. They called the girlfriend out; she saw it shortly before it disappeared over the horizon⁠[[1]]. Casella later projected its course as a line from the Bendix area, by Teterboro airport to the south, to a point west of [Westwood](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/places/PLC0DFY5KX589TF/westwood-new-jersey) to the north⁠[[1]]. Casella reported it to Sergeant James Perone of the Hackensack police, who took no further action and had no other reports⁠[[1]]. The FBI's Newark office sent an urgent teletype to the Director at 5:36 pm on 4 August, describing an object 'two hundred yds in air, revolving slowly, moving rapidly, and neither a kite nor a balloon'⁠[[2]]. The Bureau was then helping the Army Air Forces collect saucer reports, and Special Agents Arthur F. Williams and T. Howard Waldron interviewed the three witnesses and a neighbour; Newark reported the results on 13 August⁠[[1]]. [![Project Sign check-list for Incident 88](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/folio/incident-88-checklist-c0)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6PPBFWZ4/project-sign-check-list-for-incident-88) Project Sign check-list for Incident 88National Archives microfilm T1206, digitised by the Internet Archive, 1948. Public domain[Artifact ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6PPBFWZ4/project-sign-check-list-for-incident-88) Project Sign, set up at Wright Field in early 1948 to collect and evaluate the reports, gave the sighting incident number 88⁠[[8]]. Its check-list names Casella and Truex, gives the time as 'late afternoon', the distance and altitude as 200 yards, the speed as 'rapid' and the tactics as 'revolved slowly', marks every other field N/S, and copies the teletype's sentence as its remark⁠[[3]]. ### Timeline **Timeline** Squeezed where little happened. Each mark is a published claim, by how it stands:AcceptedMost likelyStill possibleDisputedRuled out ## The accounts The only accounts are the three FBI interviews, made eight to ten days after the event, and they disagree on almost every detail⁠[[1]]. Casella put the time at about 7:45 pm and described a round, black object thirty to forty inches across, which he could not say was a globe or a disc. Truex's girlfriend put it at about 7:30 and called it round, silver-blue and apparently revolving, in view for about a minute; from where she stood, she said, it could not have looked more than six inches across. Truex put it at 8:00 pm and gave two to three feet across, 15 to 20 seconds in sight, no colour, and a shape 'more like a large, flat child's cup than anything else', oval on top and pointed below; he said he first took it for a child's balloon but saw no wind and no string⁠[[1]]. Two of Casella's details were not borne out. He said Truex's girlfriend had remarked that it looked like a bird on the horizon; she did not recall saying so. He said a man on a porch across the street had seen it and pointed it out; the girlfriend saw no one pointing, and the neighbour on that porch said she and her mother had seen nothing and that no man had been there⁠[[1]]. Truex was seventeen, born in April 1930, and had enlisted in May 1947; the teletype gives one witness's age as twenty, and the Air Force card records the source as 'Army EM', an enlisted man⁠[[1]]⁠[[2]]⁠[[4]]. What all three agree on is a single small, round object, moving steadily and fairly fast in a straight line toward the north, silent and with no exhaust, seen against a clear evening sky for between a quarter of a minute and a minute⁠[[1]]. ## What was recorded The Air Force record is the folder for Incident 88 in the Blue Book microfilm, nineteen sanitized pages⁠[[4]]. Five concern Hackensack: an index card on Temporary ATIC Form 329, a form dated 2 January 1952, made when the early files were catalogued; the two-page check-list; Hynek's one-paragraph note; and an extract of his evaluations from the Grudge report's incident index⁠[[4]]. Hynek's note reads, in full: 'It seems clear that no astronomical interpretation can be given to this incident. Information is so meager that little else can be said. If the object observed was only 200 yards away, it would seem that witnesses could have furnished much more detailed information'⁠[[4]]. The index places 88 under 'Non-astronomical, with no explanation evident: a. Lack of evidence precludes explanation'⁠[[5]]. [![Hynek's note on Incident 88](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/folio/incident-88-hynek-note-c0)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6Q0879FB/hyneks-note-on-incident-88) Hynek's note on Incident 88National Archives microfilm T1206, digitised by the Internet Archive, 1948. Public domain[Artifact ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6Q0879FB/hyneks-note-on-incident-88) [![Hynek's evaluations extracted from the Grudge incident index](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/folio/incident-88-hynek-index-c0)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6QB1GN7M/hyneks-evaluations-extracted-from-the-grudge-incident-index) Hynek's evaluations extracted from the Grudge incident indexNational Archives microfilm T1206, digitised by the Internet Archive, 1949. Public domain[Artifact ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6QB1GN7M/hyneks-evaluations-extracted-from-the-grudge-incident-index) The FBI record is fuller than the Air Force's. The Newark teletype of 4 August, recorded as serial 62-83894-49, and the Newark letter of 13 August with the four interviews are in the Bureau's flying-disc file, released through the National Archives and again in PURSUE Release 01⁠[[2]]⁠[[1]]. The Air Force check-list repeats the teletype almost word for word and contains nothing from the interviews: no direction, duration, size, colour or shape, all of which the interviews give⁠[[3]]⁠[[1]]. Nothing in the Blue Book folder shows that the Air Force received the 13 August letter. The weather is on record. Teterboro airport, three kilometres south, reported a clear sky with no ceiling, visibility of 14 km, and a light wind from the south-west, 225 degrees at 2.6 m/s, at 7 pm and 8 pm that evening; the Sun set at 8:15 pm⁠[[9]]. The other fourteen pages of the folder belong to two other cases, described below. Unredacted copies of the check-lists, naming the witnesses, were published by the Department of War on 8 May 2026⁠[[3]]. ## The pages that belong elsewhere Ten pages are correspondence with a woman in Wildwood, Cape May County, redacted except once as 'Mrs. Evans': two handwritten letters, one of 9 April 1948, describing objects over the sea, among them on 2 April a bright metal 'pilot-less plane' that followed the coast north and a second that fell into the water shedding what looked like sheets of metal; and Air Force replies and acknowledgments from 6 April to 29 October 1948, including a covering note of July 1948 in which she reported the saucers back since 1 July and enclosed a Life magazine picture of Mars⁠[[4]]. In November 1948 Air Materiel Command asked the intelligence officer at Langley AFB to investigate at once any future reports from 'the area between Wildwood, New Jersey and the vicinity of Norfolk, Virginia', where numerous sightings were said to have been made in October⁠[[4]]. [![AMC letter to Langley AFB on sightings between Wildwood and Norfolk, November 1948](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/folio/incident-88-langley-letter-c0)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6QRDPQCB/amc-letter-to-langley-afb-on-sightings-between-wildwood-and) AMC letter to Langley AFB on sightings between Wildwood and Norfolk, November 1948National Archives microfilm T1206, digitised by the Internet Archive, 1948. Public domain[Artifact ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6QRDPQCB/amc-letter-to-langley-afb-on-sightings-between-wildwood-and) This correspondence is the tail of Project Sign Incident 50, which has its own 74-page folder⁠[[7]]. The Sign check-lists for Incidents 50 and 50a name the observer as 'Mrs. Ethel Evans', 'authority on knitting', of the Bellvue Apartments, and record that on 10 January 1948 she and a neighbour saw a lamp-sized orange light descend slowly, split in two and fall into the sea⁠[[3]]. Ethel Evans was the name on Macmillan's This Is Knitting of 1948; Shaw, working from unredacted copies, identifies her as Ethel Mary Goetz Rodman, who died in Atlantic City in 1950⁠[[10]]⁠[[6]]. The Incident 50 folder shows that Project Sign took her seriously at first: on 9 February 1948 it requested military air travel for Maj. M. W. Faulk and the engineer A. C. [Loedding](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/people/FIG0DFY5XV9E66P/alfred-c-loedding) to interview her at Wildwood, which they did in mid-February, and it processed her film, which showed nothing⁠[[7]]. In March AMC asked the Coast Guard to investigate; its Intelligence and Law Enforcement Division reported on 7 April 1948 that the tower lookouts of the stations from Wildwood to Atlantic City, the Wildwood police with four patrol cars and a boardwalk watchman, and local American Legion members had seen nothing, and recommended closing the inquiry; AMC wrote that it would abide by the recommendations⁠[[7]]. Hynek judged the one corroborated sighting, of 10 January, most probably a slow-moving fireball⁠[[7]]. The polite letters filed under 88, written after April 1948, are acknowledgments of a closed case⁠[[4]]. Four pages are the Air Materiel Command letter of 25 August 1947, signed for the commanding general by [Col. H. M. McCoy](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/people/FIG0DFY5Y3KZPQK/col-h-m-mccoy), with its photograph⁠[[4]]. It reports on an 'instrument' that a farmer near Danforth, Illinois, said had fallen on his land and burned the weeds around it, sent to Wright Field through the FBI: a plaster-of-paris body with heating wire, an old speaker diaphragm patented in 1910, rewound coil forms and a radio filter condenser. AMC found that the parts had 'no connection whatsoever with the "Mogul" project nor with any other research and development project' and called them a hoax⁠[[11]]. The Danforth case has its own folder, with the original of the same letter and a record card concluding 'Hoax'⁠[[11]]. [![AMC letter of 25 August 1947 on the Danforth 'flying saucer' specimens](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/folio/incident-88-danforth-letter-c0)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6R7641PS/amc-letter-of-25-august-1947-on-the-danforth-flying-saucer) AMC letter of 25 August 1947 on the Danforth 'flying saucer' specimensNational Archives microfilm T1206, digitised by the Internet Archive, 1947. Public domain[Artifact ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6R7641PS/amc-letter-of-25-august-1947-on-the-danforth-flying-saucer) [![Photograph of the Danforth 'flying saucer' specimens](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/folio/incident-88-danforth-photo-c0)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6RMCKMMJ/photograph-of-the-danforth-flying-saucer-specimens) Photograph of the Danforth 'flying saucer' specimensU.S. Air Force; microfilm T1206, digitised by the Internet Archive, 1947. Public domain[Artifact ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6RMCKMMJ/photograph-of-the-danforth-flying-saucer-specimens) ## The explanations For the object, three readings have been offered or are open. A small balloon is the reading Truex himself reached first and then rejected because he felt no wind and saw no string⁠[[1]]. The weather record allows it: at 7 and 8 pm Teterboro had a light, steady south-westerly, and an object carried on it would cross the sky at a steady rate in a straight line, silently and with no exhaust, as all three witnesses described⁠[[9]]⁠[[1]]. The witnesses' estimates of size and distance cannot both be checked; an object of 0.8 m at 200 yards and a toy balloon of 0.3 m at 60 m look the same size, about a quarter of a degree, and the nearer balloon, drifting with the wind, would cross the sky three times faster, enough to make people turn their heads. A balloon lit by a sun only a few degrees above the west-north-west horizon could look silver from one side and dark from another, and turning on its string or neck could look like revolving. Against it, the reported course runs almost due north, 41 degrees left of the downwind direction, and two witnesses, who had first thought of a balloon, judged it too fast for one; neither objection is strong, since the course was reconstructed from street landmarks days later and the wind at 200 yards can differ from the wind at the airport. Session 1 sets out the calculation. A bird, catching the low sun, is the reading Casella attributed to Truex's girlfriend, who did not recall saying it⁠[[1]]. A bird usually shows wingbeats and changes of course, which no witness described. An unidentified craft is the reading the 1947 teletype implies and the one Hynek left open: on the Air Force's information there was nothing to explain it with⁠[[2]]⁠[[5]]. No physical trace, photograph or second sighting exists, and the police received no other report⁠[[1]]. For the folder, the evidence points to misfiling rather than a hidden link. Each of the intruding cases has its own folder with the originals; the Wildwood letters in 88 run from April to November 1948, after her own case was closed, and the Danforth letter is a copy of one in the Danforth folder⁠[[7]]⁠[[11]]⁠[[4]]. Nothing in any of the three files mentions the others. Shaw's suggestion that they were filed together because two are from New Jersey is possible; so is a simple clerical slip when Project Sign's papers were sorted into numbered incidents, or when the files were re-carded in 1952⁠[[6]]⁠[[4]]. ### Published claims **Published claims and their status** | Year | Who | Claimed | Status | Reason | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1949 | J. Allen Hynek⁠[5] | No astronomical explanation fits Incident 88, and the information is too meagre to say more. | Accepted | The meagreness was the Air Force file's: the FBI's interviews of 13 August give direction, duration, size and shape, none of which reached the check-list⁠[1]⁠[3] | | 1947 | Air Materiel Command (Col. H. M. McCoy)⁠[11] | The Danforth 'flying saucer' specimens have no connection with the Mogul project or any AMC project and are part of a hoax. | Accepted | The parts are identifiable commercial radio and electrical components, and the case's own record card concludes 'Hoax'⁠[11] | | 1948 | U.S. Coast Guard Intelligence and Law Enforcement Division⁠[7] | No one but the correspondent and one neighbour saw the Wildwood objects, and the inquiry should be closed. | Accepted | Coast Guard lookouts, police patrols and local inquiries found nothing, and Shaw's newspaper search found no Wildwood reports either⁠[7]⁠[6] | | 1948 | J. Allen Hynek⁠[7] | The orange light seen falling into the sea at Wildwood on 10 January 1948 was most probably a slow-moving fireball. | Most likely | Its colour, splitting and slow fall fit a fireball, but no other observer of a fireball that night has been found⁠[7] | | 2022 | Jazz Shaw⁠[6] | The Incident 88 folder mixes three unconnected cases, and its Wildwood correspondent, 'Mrs. Evans', was the knitting author Ethel Rodman. | Accepted | The unredacted Sign check-list names her as Ethel Evans, an authority on knitting, and her case and the Danforth case have their own folders⁠[3]⁠[10]⁠[7]⁠[11] | | 2022 | Jazz Shaw⁠[6] | It is unclear whether the Air Force really investigated the Wildwood reports or merely humoured the correspondent. | Disputed | The Incident 50 folder records an interview at Wildwood by Faulk and Loedding and a Coast Guard investigation before the case was closed⁠[7] | | 2023 | Ryan Sprague and Jazz Shaw⁠[12] | One of the Hackensack witnesses, elusive to trace, may hold the key to the case. | Still possible | The FBI interviewed all three witnesses within ten days; their accounts are on file and disagree on size, colour and duration⁠[1] | ## Existing inquiry The literature on Incident 88 is thin. Hynek's 1949 evaluation is the only official judgement of the sighting⁠[[5]]. The case is not on Blue Book's list of unidentified cases and is not among the 1947 reports usually discussed. Jazz Shaw's article of May 2022 in The Debrief is the only study of the folder: it describes the three groups of papers, identifies the Wildwood correspondent from unredacted copies obtained through the Center for UFO Studies, reports that newspapers of southern New Jersey and Philadelphia carry no Wildwood saucer reports for 1947 and 1948, and records FOIA requests to the Air Force and the FBI that had produced nothing⁠[[6]]. Shaw discussed the case on the Somewhere in the Skies podcast in February 2023, including his search for one of the witnesses; the episode was re-released in November 2026⁠[[12]]. Neither the article nor the podcast uses the FBI's 13 August interviews or the Incident 50 folder, which answer two of the questions they raise⁠[[1]]⁠[[7]]. ## What would settle it For the sighting: an upper-air wind observation for the New York area on the evening of 3 August 1947 (a pilot-balloon run from Newark or LaGuardia at about 0000 UTC on 4 August) would show which way a balloon at 200 yards would have drifted, and so whether the 41-degree gap between the reported course and the surface wind is real. The Hackensack newspaper, The Bergen Evening Record, for 4 and 5 August 1947 may carry the police report and any other calls. Short of a photograph that does not exist, nothing will identify the object beyond 'probably a small balloon' or 'unknown'. For the file: the Air Force's own copy of the FBI's 13 August letter, if one exists in the Project Sign records at the National Archives, would show whether the interviews ever reached Wright Field. The outcome of Shaw's FOIA requests, and the unsanitized originals of the Incident 50 folder, would complete the Wildwood story. ## Questions 0 of 5 questions are answered. **Key questions** [All 5](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions/key-questions?mystery=incident-88) **0** [Did the Air Force investigate the Wildwood reports filed under Incident 88, and what came of it?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/questions/QST0DFY748NX8M2/did-the-air-force-investigate-the-wildwood-reports-filed) 0 of 0 sub-questions answered·0 Open: 2 answers, none ahead **0** [What did the three witnesses see over Hackensack on the evening of 3 August 1947?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/questions/QST0DFY739G80E5/what-did-the-three-witnesses-see-over-hackensack-on-the) 0 of 1 sub-questions answered·0 Open: 3 answers, none ahead **0** [Why does the Incident 88 folder hold papers from the Wildwood case and the Danforth hoax?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/questions/QST0DFY73MKYJ7H/why-does-the-incident-88-folder-hold-papers-from-the) 0 of 0 sub-questions answered·0 Open: 2 answers, none ahead **0** [Why is the Air Force's record of the Hackensack sighting so much thinner than the FBI's?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/questions/QST0DFY73YQ65H3/why-is-the-air-forces-record-of-the-hackensack-sighting-so) 0 of 0 sub-questions answered·0 Open: 2 answers, none ahead ## Evidence 11 findings [What did the three witnesses see over Hackensack on the evening of 3 August 1947?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/questions/QST0DFY739G80E5/what-did-the-three-witnesses-see-over-hackensack-on-the)4 findings [A small balloon carried on the evening's light south-westerly wind](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/answers/ANS0DFY7GAY22GM/a-small-balloon-carried-on-the-evenings-light-south-westerly)Still possible +[Truex's first remark was that a child had lost its balloon; all three describe a small round object moving silently in a steady straight line with no exhaust, and Teterboro reported a light steady south-westerly and a clear sky.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/evidence/EVD0DFY8Y68Q3JQ/the-witnesses-first-took-it-for-a-balloon-and-it-moved-like)Suggestive [A bird lit by the low sun](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/answers/ANS0DFY7GGKX0DA/a-bird-lit-by-the-low-sun)Still possible −[Every interview describes a rigid round or cup-shaped object on a steady straight course; the 'bird' remark was attributed to the girlfriend by Casella and she did not recall making it.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/evidence/EVD0DFY8YETJ2W7/no-witness-describes-wingbeats-or-turns)Supported [An unidentified flying object that no ordinary cause explains](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/answers/ANS0DFY7H3A68ZE/an-unidentified-flying-object-that-no-ordinary-cause)Still possible +[Casella said it moved too fast to be an ordinary balloon, and Truex rejected his own balloon idea because he felt no wind and saw no string.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/evidence/EVD0DFY8YXCKFJN/two-witnesses-judged-it-too-fast-for-a-balloon-and-saw-no)Speculative −[The Hackensack police had no other reports, no nearby police department reported anything to the FBI, and the neighbour across the street, said by Casella to have pointed at it, saw nothing.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/evidence/EVD0DFY8YNEJVRG/no-one-else-reported-it-and-a-neighbour-on-a-porch-saw)Suggestive [Why does the Incident 88 folder hold papers from the Wildwood case and the Danforth hoax?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/questions/QST0DFY73MKYJ7H/why-does-the-incident-88-folder-hold-papers-from-the)3 findings [Misfiling: the pages belong to other incidents and were put in the wrong folder](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/answers/ANS0DFY7HSVJK47/misfiling-the-pages-belong-to-other-incidents-and-were-put)Still possible +[The Wildwood letters in the 88 folder continue Project Sign Incident 50, which has its own 74-page folder with the check-lists, the interview and the Coast Guard investigation; the ten pages filed under 88 date from April to November 1948, after that case was closed.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/evidence/EVD0DFY7WVM85TG/the-wildwood-correspondent-has-her-own-folder-incident-50)Established +[The Danforth folder holds the dated original of the AMC letter of 25 August 1947 and a record card concluding 'Hoax'; the 88 folder holds an undated copy with the same photograph.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/evidence/EVD0DFY7X94J1BP/the-danforth-letter-in-the-88-folder-is-a-copy-of-one-in-the)Established [A deliberate grouping of related reports](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/answers/ANS0DFY7HZMSKXZ/a-deliberate-grouping-of-related-reports)Still possible −[No document in the Hackensack, Wildwood or Danforth records mentions either of the other cases, and Shaw found no connection between the Hackensack witnesses and the Wildwood correspondent's family.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/evidence/EVD0DFY7XJN4QW7/nothing-in-the-three-files-refers-to-the-others)Supported [Why is the Air Force's record of the Hackensack sighting so much thinner than the FBI's?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/questions/QST0DFY73YQ65H3/why-is-the-air-forces-record-of-the-hackensack-sighting-so)1 finding [The Air Force received only the FBI's two-line teletype](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/answers/ANS0DFY7J79XBAR/the-air-force-received-only-the-fbis-two-line-teletype)Still possible +[The check-list remark for Incident 88 repeats the 4 August teletype almost word for word, and its fields for direction, duration, size, colour and shape are 'N/S', although the FBI's 13 August interviews give all five.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/evidence/EVD0DFY7XYZ2YY9/the-air-force-check-list-repeats-the-fbi-teletype-and)Supported [Did the Air Force investigate the Wildwood reports filed under Incident 88, and what came of it?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/questions/QST0DFY748NX8M2/did-the-air-force-investigate-the-wildwood-reports-filed)2 findings [Investigated in person and through the Coast Guard, found uncorroborated and closed](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/answers/ANS0DFY7JK5NJEF/investigated-in-person-and-through-the-coast-guard-found)Still possible +[The Incident 50 folder holds the 9 February 1948 request for military air travel for Maj. M. W. Faulk and A. C. Loedding to interview her at Wildwood, their visit report, the processing of her film, and the Coast Guard's report of 7 April 1948 finding no corroboration from tower lookouts, police patrols or local inquiries, with AMC's letter accepting its recommendation to close the case.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/evidence/EVD0DFY7Y7RKED1/project-sign-interviewed-her-at-wildwood-and-had-the-coast)Established [Only humoured: the Air Force answered her letters without investigating](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/answers/ANS0DFY7JXT0BTB/only-humoured-the-air-force-answered-her-letters-without)Still possible −[The interview by Faulk and Loedding and the Coast Guard inquiry are documented, so the Air Force did more than answer her letters; the courteous replies filed under 88 came after the case was closed.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/evidence/EVD0DFY7YK225XA/investigative-records-for-wildwood-exist-in-the-incident-50)Established [Do the object's reported course, size and motion fit a small balloon drifting on that evening's wind?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/questions/QST0DFY75MM5T34/do-the-objects-reported-course-size-and-motion-fit-a-small)1 finding [Yes: within the error of a course rebuilt from landmarks days later](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/answers/ANS0DFY7HBAXAND/yes-within-the-error-of-a-course-rebuilt-from-landmarks-days)Still possible +[At 7 and 8 pm Teterboro's wind was from 225 degrees at 2.6 m/s under a clear sky; the course Casella described, Bendix to west of Westwood, bears 4 degrees, 41 degrees left of the downwind direction of 45 degrees; a 0.3 m balloon at 60 m gives the same angular size, about 0.3 degrees, as the witnesses' 30-40 inches at 200 yards, and would cross the sky at about 3.8 degrees a second.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/evidence/EVD0DFY8Y0RC6PS/the-reported-course-is-41-degrees-left-of-downwind-and-a)Suggestive ## Artifacts The films, photos, papers and objects this mystery rests on, each with its own key and its distance from the original. **Artifacts** Document1 step from object [Project Sign check-list for Incident 88](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6PPBFWZ4/project-sign-check-list-for-incident-88) National Archives (Project Blue Book, T1206); unredacted copy in PURSUE Release 01 Document1 step from object [Hynek's note on Incident 88](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6Q0879FB/hyneks-note-on-incident-88) National Archives (Project Blue Book, T1206) Document1 step from object [Hynek's evaluations extracted from the Grudge incident index](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6QB1GN7M/hyneks-evaluations-extracted-from-the-grudge-incident-index) National Archives (Project Blue Book, T1206) Document1 step from object [Index card for Incident 88 (Temporary ATIC Form 329)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6QJ7T2EG/index-card-for-incident-88-temporary-atic-form-329) National Archives (Project Blue Book, T1206) Document1 step from object [AMC letter to Langley AFB on sightings between Wildwood and Norfolk, November 1948](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6QRDPQCB/amc-letter-to-langley-afb-on-sightings-between-wildwood-and) National Archives (Project Blue Book, T1206) Document1 step from object [AMC letter of 25 August 1947 on the Danforth 'flying saucer' specimens](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6R7641PS/amc-letter-of-25-august-1947-on-the-danforth-flying-saucer) National Archives (Project Blue Book, T1206) Document1 step from object [Photograph of the Danforth 'flying saucer' specimens](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6RMCKMMJ/photograph-of-the-danforth-flying-saucer-specimens) National Archives (Project Blue Book, T1206) Document1 step from object [FBI Newark letter of 13 August 1947 with the Hackensack interviews](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/incident-88/artifacts/ART0DFY6RXJV0MV/fbi-newark-letter-of-13-august-1947-with-the-hackensack) National Archives, RG 65 (FBI file 62-HQ-83894, Section 2) ## See also [ **Roswell, 1947** Debris found near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 and announced as a flying disc. ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/roswell) [ **Phoenix Lights, 13 March 1997** A V of lights and a row of flares seen by thousands over Arizona on 13 March 1997. ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/phoenix-lights) [ **Marfa lights** Lights seen at night over Mitchell Flat, east of Marfa in west Texas, reported since at least 1945. ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/marfa-lights) [ **Loch Ness** A Scottish loch where over a thousand people have reported a large animal since 1933. ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/loch-ness) ## References 1. 1.[Federal Bureau of Investigation, Newark Division 1947. SAC Newark to Director, FBI: Flying disc reported at Hackensack, New Jersey, August 3, 1947 – Miscellaneous (FBI file 62-HQ-83894, Section 2).](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFY3NXV9HJ2/sac-newark-to-director-fbi-flying-disc-reported-at)cited 16 times here**SRC** 0DFY3NXV9HJ2 1. 2.[Federal Bureau of Investigation, Newark Division 1947. Teletype, SAC Newark to Director: Flying disc reported at Hackensack, NJ, August three, 1947.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFY3NNGPV7K/teletype-sac-newark-to-director-flying-disc-reported-at)cited 5 times here**SRC** 0DFY3NNGPV7K 1. 3.[Air Materiel Command, Project Sign 1948. Check-List – Unidentified Flying Objects, Incidents 1–100 (38_143685, box 7), PURSUE Release 01.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFY3NCT8C5M/check-list-unidentified-flying-objects-incidents-1100-38)cited 9 times here**SRC** 0DFY3NCT8C5M 1. 4.[U.S. Air Force, Project Blue Book 1947. Location: Hackensack, New Jersey – Date: August 1947 – Incident Number: 88 (Project Blue Book case file).](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFY3MDQGA59/location-hackensack-new-jersey-date-august-1947-incident)cited 17 times here**SRC** 0DFY3MDQGA59 1. 5.[Air Materiel Command, U.S. Air Force 1949. Unidentified Flying Objects: Project "Grudge" (Technical Report No. 102-AC-49/15-100).](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFY3W8N6XV5/unidentified-flying-objects-project-grudge-technical-report)cited 4 times here**SRC** 0DFY3W8N6XV5 1. 6.[Jazz Shaw 2022. The Curious Case of Project Blue Book Incident 88.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFY3WTTD70Y/the-curious-case-of-project-blue-book-incident-88)cited 4 times here**SRC** 0DFY3WTTD70Y 1. 7.[U.S. Air Force, Project Blue Book 1948. Wildwood, N.J. – January 1948 – Incident 50 (Project Blue Book case file).](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFY3MPBT6DN/wildwood-n-j-january-1948-incident-50-project-blue-book-case)cited 11 times here**SRC** 0DFY3MPBT6DN 1. 8.[U.S. Air Force, Project Blue Book. Project Blue Book (history of the Air Force UFO projects).](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFY3WKAF2FV/project-blue-book-history-of-the-air-force-ufo-projects)cited 3 times here**SRC** 0DFY3WKAF2FV 1. 9.[NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information 1947. Global Hourly – Integrated Surface Database: Teterboro Airport, NJ (station 99999994741), 1947.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFY3XPMYC8H/global-hourly-integrated-surface-database-teterboro-airport)cited 4 times here**SRC** 0DFY3XPMYC8H 1. 10.[Ethel Evans 1948. This Is Knitting.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFY3XFP96A7/this-is-knitting)cited 1 time here**SRC** 0DFY3XFP96A7 1. 11.[U.S. Air Force, Project Blue Book 1947. Danforth, Illinois – August 1947 (Project Blue Book case file).](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFY3MX2ZGRA/danforth-illinois-august-1947-project-blue-book-case-file)cited 8 times here**SRC** 0DFY3MX2ZGRA 1. 12.[Ryan Sprague, Jazz Shaw 2023. The Curious Case of Project Blue Book "Incident 88" (Somewhere in the Skies, episode 303).](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DFY3X6B8TSA/the-curious-case-of-project-blue-book-incident-88-somewhere)cited 2 times here**SRC** 0DFY3X6B8TSA Last edited 3 Nov 2026