07/16/2026
On July 16th, 1952, U.S. Coast Guard photographer Shell Alpert captured one of history’s most famous UFO photos from the Salem Coast Guard Air Station in Massachusetts. The photograph shows four luminous objects in a tight V-formation hovering above local power plant smokestacks. Though the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book thoroughly analyzed the negative—testing theories ranging from double exposures to window reflections—they could never prove a hoax or find a definitive natural explanation, ultimately leaving the Salem UFO photo officially categorized as “unexplained.” 🛸
• Date: July 16th, 1952, around 10:00 A.M.
• Location: U.S. Coast Guard Air Station, Salem, Massachusetts.
• Witness: Coast Guard photographer Shell R. Alpert.
• Alpert photographed four bright objects in a V-formation above the Salem Harbor power plant.
• Fellow Coast Guardsman Thomas E. Flaherty also witnessed the objects.
• The image became one of the most widely published UFO photographs of the 1952 UFO wave.
• The original negative was sent to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for analysis after passing through Coast Guard Headquarters.
• Air Force investigators examined possible explanations, including window reflections and double exposure, but no theory was conclusively proven.
• The case was ultimately left unexplained, making the Salem photograph one of the most enduring UFO images in history.