Twenty-two days of data from the Lochkeed ion mass spectrometer aboard the Scatha satellite were used to perform a statistical study of short-lived H+ and O+ bursts observed in the equatorial magnetosphere. The results of the study indicate that the ion bursts were transient phenomena occurring primarily in the nighttime sector during periods of enhanced geomagnetic activity. The average energy of the bursts ⟨W⟩, was 1 keV, although the bursts were found to occur over any portion of the instrument's 100-eV to 32-keV energy range. Over one third of the observed bursts were associated with field-aligned electrons flowing from the same hemisphere as the bursts. The energy width (ΔW/⟨W⟩?1) and the pitch angle width (as great as 30¿) of the bursts suggest that the ions had undergone substantial velocity space diffusion closest to the geomagnetic equator.