UFOs Over Washington DC 1952
UFOs Over Washington DC 1952
One of the most witnessed UFO sightings took place in one of the last places you would think. Right over Washington, DC in restricted air space seen by thousands of people.
The sightings occurred not just once, but over a period of two weeks. The first sighting occurred on July 19/20 1955 and the second on July 26/27 1955 a week later. The sightings were confirmed by many reputable sources including pilots, radar operators and endless civilian witnesses. There were many photos and video taken of the UFOs that further substantiate the evidence of the event.
Radar operators first reported seeing the unidentified objects at 11:40 p.m. on Saturday, July 19, 1952. At the time there were no established flight plans heading in that direction or reported aircraft in the area. The "UFO fleet" were said to be moving between 100 mph and over 7,000 mph at times and moving in sporadic patterns that were not common for aircraft.
"We knew immediately that a very strange situation existed . . . their movements were completely radical compared to those of ordinary aircraft" said Harry Barnes, a senior air-traffic controller at Washington National Airport.
Even the air traffic controllers could visually see the objects in the sky and confirmed that they were actually there.
When the UFOs started to approach the White House Harry Barnes called for jets to be scrambled from nearby Andrews Air Force Base. Staff Sgt. Charles Davenport was quoted seeing an orange, reddish light that "would appear to stand still, then make an abrupt change in direction and altitude . . . this happened several times"
The jets that were scrambled were delayed and never visually came in contact with the supposedly alien visitors in the air. Although when they landed the ships were back on the radar almost as if they were taking precautions or perhaps even taunting the fighters. For all we know they may have still been there, just using some sort of cloaking type technology.
After this, the ships disappeared off of the radar and out of site and weren't seen again for a week.
The UFOs Came Back
At 8:15 p.m. on Saturday, July 26, 1952 a pilot and a stewardess were the first to spot something strange in the air above Washington and within seconds these objects were back on the radar at Andrews Air Force Base exhibiting the same erratic movements as before.
A master sergeant was quoted later saying "these lights did not have the characteristics of shooting stars. There was no trails . . . they traveled faster than any shooting star I have ever seen"
The decision was made to scramble jets again and hunt down the unidentified flying objects but the same thing happened as before. As soon as they got close enough for visual confirmation they would zig and zag and simply disappear.
Lt. William Patterson, a wingman, was one of the only fighters in the air that saw the objects. In fact, he stated that four white "glows" followed his jet and eventually ended up surrounding it before taking off in all directions.
After this, the objects did not return to Washington and no one really knows what they were or what they were doing there.
The Official Government Response
Not surprisingly the official Government response was that the sightings were not aliens from outer space but a weather phenomenon known as temperature inversion. The idea is that lights from the ground bounce off of clouds and moisture in the air and create the illusion from the ground that there are craft flying in the air.
This, however, does not explain the sighting in the air by Lt. William Patterson whos jet was eventually surrounded by the crafts and the multiple radar blips following them making strategic turns and moving at substantially different speeds.
The National Weather Bureau seems to completely disprove the Governments statement as well stating "such an inversion ordinarily would appear on a radar screen as a steady line, rather than as single objects as were sighted on the airport radarscope." This makes the claims by the Government very suspect.
UFOs Over the White House
Video of UFOs Over the White House
Harry G Barnes on Radar and Government Lies
"..become most active around the planes we saw on the scope. . . . They acted like a bunch of small kids out playing. It was helter-skelter as if directed by some innate curiosity. At times they moved as a group or cluster, at other times as individuals over widely-scattered areas. . . . There is no other conclusion I can reach but that for six hours on the morning of the 20th of July there were at least 10 unidentifiable objects moving above Washington. They were not ordinary aircraft. I could tell that by their movement on the scope. I can safely deduce that they performed gyrations which no known aircraft could perform. By this I mean that our scope showed that they could make right angle turns and complete reversals of flight. Nor in my opinion could any natural phenomena account for these spots on our radar. Neither shooting stars, electrical disturbances nor clouds could either. Exactly what they are, I don’t know".
Washington Post Article Transcript July 28, 1952
Military secrecy veils an investigation of the mysterious, glowing aerial objects that showed up on radar screens in the Washington area Saturday night for the second consecutive week.
A jet pilot sent up by the Air Defense Command to investigate the objects reported he was unable to overtake the glowing lights moving near Andrews Air Force Base.
The CAA reported reported the objects traveled at "predominantly lower levels"-about 1700 feet. July 19.
Air Force spokesmen said yesterday only that an investigation was being made into the sighting of the objects on the radar screen in the CAA Air Route Traffic Control Center at Washington National Airport, and on two other radar screens . Methods of the investigations were classified as secret, a spoken said.
" We have no evidence they are flying saucers; conversely we have no evidence they are not flying saucers. We don't know what they are," a spokesman added.
The same source reported an expert from the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton Ohio, was here last week investigating the objects sighted July 19.
The expert has been identified as Capt. E. J. Ruppelt. Reached by telephone at his home in Dayton yesterday, Ruppelt said he could make no comment on his activity in Washington.
Capt. Ruppelt confirmed he was in Washington last week but said he had not come here to investigate the mysterious objects. He recalled he did make an investigation after hearing of the objects, but could not say what he investigated.
Another Air Force spokesman said here yesterday the Air Force is taking all steps necessary to evaluate the sightings. "The intelligence people," this spokesman explained, "sent someone over to the control center at the time of the sightings and did whatever necessary to make the proper evaluation.
Asked whether the radar equipment might have been mis-functioning, the spokesman said, "radar, like the compass is not a perfect instrument and is subject to error." He thought, however,the investigation would be made by persons acquainted with the problems of radar.
Two other radar screens in the area picked up the objects.An employee of the National Airport control tower said the radar scope there picked up very weak "blips" of the objects. The tower radar's for "short range" and is not so powerful as that at the center. Radar at Andrews Air Force Base also registered the objects from about seven miles south of the base.
A traffic control center spokesman said the nature of the signals on the radar screen ruled out any possibility they were from clouds or any other "weather" disturbance.
"The returns we received from the unidentified objects were similar and analagous to targets representing aircraft in flight," he said.
The objects, "flying saucer or what have you, appeared on the radar scope at the airport center at 9:08 PM. Varying from 4 to 12 in number,the objects appeared on the screen until 3:00 AM., when they diappeared.
AT 11:25 PM., two F-94 jet fighters fro Air Defense Command squadron, at New CAstle Delaware, capable of 600 hundred mph speeds, took off to investigate the objects.
Airline, civil and military pilots described the objects as looking like the lit end of a cigarette or a cluster of orange and red lights.
One jet pilot observed 4 lights in the vicinity of Andrews Air Force Base, but was not able to over-take them, and they disappeared in about two minutes.
The same pilot observed a steady white light in the vicinity of Mt Vernon at 11:49 PM. The light, about 5 miles from him, faded in a minute. The lights were also observed in the Beltsville, MD., vicinity. At 1:40 AM two-other F-94 jet fighters took off and scanned the area until 2:20 AM., but did not make any sightings.
Visible Two Ways
Although "unidentified objects" have been picked up on radar before, the incidents of the last two saturdays are believed to be the first time the objects have been picked up on radar-while visible to the human eye
Besides the pilots, who last saturday saw the lights, a woman living on Mississippi Ave., told the Post she saw a very "bright light streaking across the sky towards Andrews Air Force Base about 11:45 PM. Then a second object with a tail like a comet whizzed by, and a few seconds later, a third passed in a different direction toward Suntland, she said.
Radar operators plotted the speed of "saturday night's visitors" at from 38 to 90 mph, but one jet pilot reported faster speeds for the light he saw.
The jet pilot reported he had no apparent "closing speed" when he attempted to reach the lights he saw near Andrews Air Force Base. That means the lights were moving atleast as fast as his top speed-a maximum of 600 mph.
One person who saw the lights when they first appeared in this area did not see them last night. He is E.W. Chambers, an engineer at Radio Station WRC, who spotted the lights while working early the morning of July 20 at station's Hyattsville tower.
Chamber's said he was sorry he had seen the lights because he had been skeptical about "flying saucers" before. Now he said, he sort of "wonders" and worrys about the whole thing.
Leon Davidson, 804 South Irving St. Arlington, a chemical engineer who made an exhaustive study of "flying saucers' as a hobby, said yesterday reports of saucers in the East, have been relatively rare.
Davidson has studied the official report on the saucers, including some of the secret portions never made public, and analyzed all the data in the report.
Davidson, whose study of saucers is impressively detailed and scientific, said he believes the lights are American "aviation products"-probably "circular flying wings," using new type jet engines that permit rapid acceleration and relatively low speeds. He believes, they are either "new fighter," guided missiles, or piloted guided missiles.
He cited some of the recent jet fighters, including the Navy's new " F-4-D, which has a radical "bat-wing," as examples of what the objects might resemble.
Davidson thinks the fact that the lights have been seen in this area indicates the authorities may be ready to disclose the "new aircraft" in the near future. Previously, most of the "verified saucers" have been seen over sparsely inhabited areas, Davidson explained, and now, when they appear here, it may indicate that "secrecy" is not so important any more. _____
