Disputed claim that a UAP was knocked down by the Bluegill Triple Prime high-altitude nuclear test
October 26, 1962 · Johnston Atoll, Pacific Ocean · Sighting · Secondary sources only
On 26 October 1962 (UT) the United States launched a Thor missile from Johnston Island and detonated a warhead at about 48 km altitude in the Bluegill Triple Prime test of Operation Fishbowl. Beginning around 2023, a former Australian intelligence officer, Geoff Cruikshank, argued that declassified film shows an object tumbling out of the fireball and that a white triangle masks a second film. He proposes that a UAP was disabled by the blast. The footage is on the Internet Archive; the segment the claim concerns is reported at about 50:00 in the linked video.
Why it matters (2/5)
A claim from film analysis made decades later; disputed and without contemporaneous reports of any object.
Caveats
Skeptical analysts say the falling object is the roughly 65-foot Thor booster and that the white triangle is part of the original photography. They found no 'anomalous' wording in the ship logs. The claim rests on the claimant's reading of film, not on contemporaneous documents. The National Archives record cited by the claimant could not be opened. The linked video's title names a different test.
Sources
- Starfish Prime Interim Report by Commander JTF-8 (Fishbowl films, 1962) (U.S. Department of Energy films, uploaded by an individual), context
- Geoff Cruikshank's recent updates on the 1962 Bluegill Triple Prime nuclear test (Medium (EscapeVelocity1)), context
- Ross Coulthart interview with Geoff Cruikshank (video) (YouTube), context
- Australian intelligence officer argues large UFO knocked down by the Bluegill Triple Prime nuclear test (Metabunk), criticism
- Operation Fishbowl (Wikipedia), context