What was the 1952 Washington DC UFO Incident?

What was the 1952 Washington DC UFO Incident? In the summer of 1952 in Washington, DC there would be a flurry of UFO sightings seen in and around the city including the airport, capital building and the White House. These events would gain worldwide attention and be the subject of much debate. The primary events would take place on consecutive Saturday nights sparking much attention from the White House, CIA and the Air Force. Many look at the events that happened that summer and ask what would happen if this occurred in present day? Would this give UFO believers the smoking gun proof needed and finally allow UFO disclosure? In this post, we will examine the Washington UFO incident, and the summer of 1952, sometimes called the Washington Flap. 

While UFO sightings took place over a three-week span, the most famous and publicized sightings occurred on the nights of July 19-20 and July 26-27. 

What happened the night of July 19th?

On the night of July 19th, at 11:40 pm, air traffic controller Edward Nugent who worked at Washington National Airport saw seven strange objects on his radar. The objects were around 15 miles southwest of the city. Nugent knew immediately that something strange was going on. The movements of the objects were radical, and they didn’t appear to be following any flight pan. 

Nugent contacted his supervisor, Harry Barnes who had two other air traffic controllers check Nugent’s radar to make sure it was working properly. 

Barnes phoned controllers Howard Cocklin and Joe Zacko who worked at National Airport’s radar-equipped control tower. They said they saw a strange bright light on the radar shooting across the screen.  Cocklin went to look at the window and saw a bright object hovering in the sky. It then suddenly flew away at a lighting speed. Cocklin says he remember saying, “what the hell was that”?

As more objects appeared, and some appeared to head over the White house and capitol building, Barnes called Andrews Airforce Base. The situation had become much more serious. Initially, Andrews Air Force Base didn’t see the objects, but soon they did. The radar operators at Andrews Air Force Base saw the strange blips. Objects appeared on the screen and then quickly zipped away at speeds exceeding 7,000 mph.

As the blips on the radar screen had floated over the white house, a call was placed to get fighter jets in transit to DC. 

During this time, S.C Pierman, a capital pilot, spotted what he thought was a meteor. His tower informed him they had spotted six unknown objects close to his position. Pierman would see the objects and describe them as white, tailless and fast moving. He saw them over a 14-minute period. He reported that the lights took off at incredible speeds. 

Around 3 am two Air Force F-94 Starfire jet fighters arrived over Washington DC. Almost as soon as they arrived, the UFOs vanished off radar and disappeared. The fighter pilots circled around looking for the UFOs but they could not be found. As the jets ran low and had to return to base, the UFOs returned. This had led many to speculate that the UFOs were monitoring our radio traffic. That night, the UFOs were last detected by radar around 5:30 am. 

These sightings attracted much attention in the press the following days. Coincidentally, Edward Ruppelt, the head of Project Blue book, was in Washington DC. Project blue book was the US Airforce’s investigation into UFOs. Ruppelt heard about the UFO sightings but interestingly was somewhat stonewalled in trying to investigate the matter. For example, he wanted to travel around the city and investigate witnesses. However, the government wouldn’t provide him a car and he was told to pay for it out of pocket with a taxi. As a result, Ruppelt didn’t thoroughly investigate the July19-July 20 sightings due to his frustration. 

What happened the night of July 26th? 

One week later, Saturday July 26, more sightings would occur. Around 8:15 pm a pilot and flight attendant working for National Airlines would spot strange lights over their plane. Radar at both the National airport and Andrews AFB picked up the unknown objects too. 

During this time, Albert Chop, a spokesman for Project Blue Book came to National Airport. He joined with radar personnel around 9:30 and at this time radar was picking up multiple objects. The UFOs sometimes moved slowly; other times they moved extremely fast being clocked at over 7000 mph. 

At 11:30 pm, two fighter pilot jets arrived over Washington again. The two pilots were John Mchugo and William Patterson. Mchugo was given the location of the objects but when he arrived, he found nothing. Patterson did spot the crafts though. He saw four white glows and began chasing them. However, he was no match for the incredible speeds the crafts flew at. 

More commercial aircrafts would see bright lights as well that night. 

What Was the aftermath of the sightings? 

Both nights produced headlines around the country of the UFO sightings. It’s important to remember the summer of 1952 was an extremely popular year for UFOs in the United States. In April of 1952, an article in Life magazine indicated that the government was taking UFOs seriously. Life was the first well respected news outlet to take UFOs seriously in its writing. The summer of 1952 had become to be known as the “UFO Flap” due to the rash of sightings and widespread media attention. For example, the Air Force had 717 UFO reports during the UFO flap; the four years prior the Air Force had a total of 615 reports. Its estimated 16,000 news articles were written about UFOs during the UFO flap. 

With so much attention and objects coming into restricted air space, it garnered the attention of the White House and CIA. President Harry Truman listened to calls on the matter with his liaison and Project Blue Book Leader, Edward Ruppelt. Ruppelt indicated that the sightings could have been the result of a temperature inversion. A temperature inversion is when a layer of warm, moist air covers a layer of cool, dry air closer to the ground. It’s said this can cause radar signals to bend and give false readings. However, it’s important to point out that Ruppelt hadn’t discussed this theory with any of the radar operators that saw the objects. 

The Air Force would come out with an explanation as well. John Samford a spokesman for The Air Force, would state that the UFO sightings over Washington were misidentified aerial phenomena like stars or meteors that people saw. The unknown radar objects were the result of temperature inversion, which was present both nights. Samford reiterated that solid materials did not appear on the radar and there was no threat to national security. 

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One witness the night of July 19th claims there was no objects in the sky. 

Air Force Captain Harold May was in the radar center at Andrews AFB. Once he heard an unknown object was in the sky he went outside.

May said he saw “a light that was changing from red to orange to green to red again…at times it dipped suddenly and appeared to lose altitude.” 

In time, May says he realized that he was seeing a star that was distorted by the atmosphere, and that the movement was an illusion.

It is important to note here though that May was testifying on behalf of his employer, the Air force, and he might have been persuaded to give this testimony for fear of reprisal. 

Debate over findings

Since these statement s there has been much debate over the findings. 

Many skeptics point out that radar systems back in 1952 had many flaws. They say that in 1952, radar wasn’t sophisticated enough to filter out many ordinary objects, like flocks of birds, weather balloons, or a temperature inversion. However, many argue with this claim and point out that controllers that night were seasoned radar experts and would have been able to identify a solid metallic object versus false targets. In 2002, Howard Cocklin told the Washington Post that he was still convinced that he saw an object that night. Cocklin stated “I saw it on the [radar] screen and out the window” over Washington National Airport.”

While the debate goes on over the incident, perhaps the most relevant event to come from the sightings was the Robertson Panel. 

What was the Robertson Panel? 

With such a high number of UFO reports in 1952, both the CIA and Air Force became concerned an enemy could flood the country with false UFO reports and surprise attack the US. In January 1953 , the Robertson Panel was formed. The panel was composed of leading scientists and led by physicist Howard P. Robertson. The panel spent four days looking at the best UFO cases provided by Project Blue book. Afterward, they recommended that Project blue book shouldn’t publicize UFO cases that went unsolved. The goal was to try and take the mystery and popularity out of the UFO phenomena. This decision would have a major impact on UFO disclosure up to present day. 

Concluding thoughts

So, what can we make of these sightings in Washington DC in 1952? It seems more likely than not something was in the sky those nights. Objects were seen by multiple witnesses from a variety of vantage points and also seen by multiple radars on several nights. It’s tough to imagine so many people falsely identified a UFO as a planet and that experienced radar operators couldn’t filter out spurious objects. We also have to remember in modern day, we’ve seen similar reports from the US military. Numerous reports detail unknown objects zipping thousands of miles an hour and being seen by both pilots and radar. 

One can only wonder what would happen in present day if this were to occur again? Perhaps though, the visitors are aware of our technological capabilities and know what they can and can’t get away with.