Minneapolis Structure Fire — USAF Jets Chase 1957

In early November 1957, coinciding with the Levelland UFO wave in West Texas and a global spike in UAP reports, Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth, Texas was involved in one of several radar-confirmed intercept attempts that week. Air Defense Command radar tracking stations detected a large unidentified object over Fort Worth-Dallas area airspace. F-86 Sabre interceptors were scrambled from Carswell. Pilots in the interceptors reported visual contact with a large bright luminous object that exceeded the F-86's maximum speed and altitude ceiling. FAA radar tracking simultaneously confirmed the contact. As with many intercept attempts of the period, the object maintained a consistent lead distance and eventually departed at speeds well beyond the interceptors' capabilities. The wave of similar incidents that week — Levelland, Carswell, the RB-47 case, and multiple additional reports — prompted significant Congressional attention to the adequacy of Project Blue Book and contributed to the establishment of the Condon Committee investigation into the UFO phenomenon at the University of Colorado in 1966.