# Mansfield 1980: The South Atlantic Mystery Flash: Nuclear or Not?

> John E. Mansfield, Houston T. (Defense Intelligence Agency) Hawkins, 1980. 6 records on Mysteries Department cite it. The main internal rebuttal of the…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0CW4WK7W0YTX/the-south-atlantic-mystery-flash-nuclear-or-not  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Sources](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources)[1979 Vela incident](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vela-incident)Mansfield 1980

**0**

# The South Atlantic Mystery Flash: Nuclear or Not?

John E. Mansfield, Houston T. (Defense Intelligence Agency) Hawkins, 1980. _National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book 190, Document 10_.

DIA paper of 26 June 1980. Explains how radioactivity might have gone undetected, puts the chance of a coincident northward ionospheric disturbance at no more than 0.02, and, from the SRI calculation, the chance of a single meteoroid producing the signal at under one in a hundred billion.

**1979 Vela incident** ReportCopy of **["The South Atlantic Mystery Flash: Nuclear or Not?" (DIA paper)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vela-incident/artifacts/ART0CW4XDVE25J6/the-south-atlantic-mystery-flash-nuclear-or-not-dia-paper)** Checked against the original0

## What it's used for here

The main internal rebuttal of the Ruina panel.

## The document 54 pages

[Pages]Page 1 of 54

[![Page 1](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/v/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723/p1)1][![Page 2](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/v/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723/p2)2][![Page 3](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/v/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723/p3)3][![Page 4](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/v/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723/p4)4][![Page 5](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/v/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723/p5)5][![Page 6](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/v/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723/p6)6][![Page 7](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/v/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723/p7)7][![Page 8](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/v/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723/p8)8][![Page 9](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/v/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723/p9)9][![Page 10](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/v/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723/p10)10][![Page 11](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/v/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723/p11)11][![Page 12](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/v/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723/p12)12]

![Page 1 of The South Atlantic Mystery Flash: Nuclear or Not?](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/v/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723/p1)

The first 12 pages are shown; the rest are in the file. Pages from the file we keep.

## Cited by on this site 6 records

["The South Atlantic Mystery Flash: Nuclear or Not?" (DIA paper)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vela-incident/artifacts/ART0CW4XDVE25J6/the-south-atlantic-mystery-flash-nuclear-or-not-dia-paper)

ART

["The South Atlantic Mystery Flash: Nuclear or Not?" (DIA paper): scan](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vela-incident/copies/CPY0CW4XE384EP8/the-south-atlantic-mystery-flash-nuclear-or-not-dia-paper)

CPY

[The DIA put the chance of a single-meteoroid cause at under one in a hundred billion.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vela-incident/evidence/EVD0CW4X1WM3DAY/the-dia-put-the-chance-of-a-single-meteoroid-cause-at-under)

Evidence

EVD

[DIA paper "The South Atlantic Mystery Flash, Nuclear or Not?"](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vela-incident/events/EVT0CW4WVHG5FGR/dia-paper-the-south-atlantic-mystery-flash-nuclear-or-not)

EVT

[The 1979 Vela incident](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vela-incident)

The mystery article

MYS

[Was the signal of 22 September 1979 a nuclear explosion?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vela-incident/questions/QST0CW4WXZM2TV0/was-the-signal-of-22-september-1979-a-nuclear-explosion)

Question

QST

## Cite it

```
Mansfield, J. E., & Hawkins, H. T. (. I. A. (1980). The South Atlantic Mystery Flash: Nuclear or Not?. National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book 190, Document 10. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB190/10.pdf
```

[Read it free at nsarchive2.gwu.edu](https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB190/10.pdf)[Download PDF · 1.4 MB](https://mysteriesdept.com/files/d/e73ec49d4a4cd51b439b7d09f04cdef67a99cb005fea7b0d2faf109130d1f723)

Anyone can read it here; members can download it.

Key

**SRC** 0CW4WK7W0YTX

Kind

Report

Rights

public-domain

Kept

26 Oct 2026

Checked

Against the published original

Added by

[apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo)

The record

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