UFOs over DC in 1952, Jets Scrambled

One little tidbit about the 1952 D.C. case: A private pilot told me years ago that after the press conference that got the media to back off all the FBOs (a fixed-base operator is the section at an airport for private planes) in the U.S. took down their safety-oriented UFO warning posters.

I suppose Captain Ruppelt’s efforts regarding this case, the U.S. Weather Bureau’s denial of the official explanation, and the situation of that famous photo (how the “UFOs” match up with the lower windows of the Capitol Building, which is not so obvous in the popular cropped version) are already well known around here. (Many newpaper editors must have realized that, since the cartoon version of that photo appeared a lot.)

Good article on the events from Nick Redfern.

The report continues:

“Varying numbers (up to 12 simultaneously) of u/i targets on ARTC radar scope. Termed by CAA personnel as ‘generally solid returns’, similar to a/c except slower. Mr. Bill Schreve, flying a/c NC-12 reported at 2246 EDT that he had visually spotted 5 objects giving off a light glow ranging from orange to white; his altitude at time was 2,200’. Some commercial pilots reported visuals ranging from ‘cigarette glow’ to a ‘light…”

And the deep strangeness only continued, as the USAF noted:

“ARTC crew commented that, as compared with u/i returns picked up in early hours of 20 July 52, these returns appeared to be more haphazard in their actions, i.e. they did not follow a/c around nor did they cross scope consistently on same general heading. Some commented that the returns appeared to be from objects ‘capable of dropping out of the pattern at will’. Also that returns had ‘creeping appearance’. One member of crew commented that one object to which F-94 was vectored just ‘disappeared from Scope’ shortly after F-94 started pursuing. All crew members emphatic that most u/i returns have been picked up from time to time over the past few months but never before had they appeared in such quantities over such a prolonged period and with such definition as was experienced on the nights of 19/20 and 26/27 July 1952.”

UFOs: A True Unknown