Project Blue Book Case #1270. On June 12, 1952, an unidentified object was observed over Marrakech, Morocco. The United States maintained several Strategic Air Command bases in French Morocco during the 1950s, including Ben Guerir, Sidi Slimane, Boulaoud, and Nouasseur — forward-deployed bomber bases that extended SAC's nuclear strike capability toward the Soviet Union.
Marrakech, the ancient imperial city at the foot of the Atlas Mountains, was surrounded by this American military infrastructure. SAC's Moroccan bases hosted B-47 and later B-52 bombers on rotational deployments, and the aircrews and support personnel constituted a significant American presence in the region.
The North African sighting extended the geographic reach of the 1952 wave to yet another continent. Blue Book cases from Morocco, combined with those from Germany, Iceland, Japan, and Greenland, demonstrated that the phenomenon was truly global — not confined to North American airspace.
The case was classified "Unknown."