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The Washington D.C. UFO Incident (1952): A Capital Close Encounter
In the summer of 1952, the skies over Washington D.C. became the stage for one of the most significant and well-documented UFO incidents in history. For two consecutive weekends in July, unidentified flying objects were detected on radar and visually confirmed by multiple credible witnesses, leading to national panic and direct intervention from President Truman.

The First Wave: July 19, 1952
The first wave of sightings began just before midnight on Saturday, July 19, 1952. Air traffic controller Edward Nugent at Washington National Airport (now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) noticed seven slow-moving targets on his radar scope, flying over restricted airspace. These were unlike any known aircraft, displaying incredible speeds and erratic movements.

Simultaneously, at Andrews Air Force Base, radar operators also picked up the strange blips. Visual confirmation soon followed when pilots in commercial airliners, including Captain S.C. Pierman of Capital Airlines Flight 610, reported seeing "eight bright objects" moving at impossible speeds. Pierman described them as "bright-yellowish white" and "flickering like burning embers." Another pilot, Captain Casey Pierman, confirmed seeing "six bright lights" flying in formation.

The radar targets moved at estimated speeds ranging from 100 mph to over 7,000 mph, with instantaneous accelerations that defied conventional physics. They would hover, then dart away, sometimes disappearing and reappearing at different locations on the scope. Air Force scrambled F-94 jet interceptors from Newcastle, Delaware, but by the time they arrived, the objects vanished, only to reappear once the jets had to refuel.

The Second Wave: July 26, 1952
One week later, on Saturday, July 26, 1952, the UFOs returned, making an even bolder appearance. This time, numerous sightings were made over the White House, the U.S. Capitol, and the Pentagon. The objects were again detected by multiple radar units at Washington National Airport and Andrews Air Force Base.

Eyewitnesses, including military personnel and civilians, described bright, disc-shaped objects hovering silently, some emitting a reddish-orange glow. Sergeant Charles Plonk of the Air Force and Master Sergeant John Acord were among those at Andrews Air Force Base who visually confirmed the objects. Acord stated they looked like "big, orange-coloured balls, flying very slowly."

Once again, Air Force F-94s were scrambled. As Lieutenant William Patterson and First Lieutenant Donald Joerger approached the objects, the UFOs seemed to surround their aircraft, making their pursuit impossible. Patterson later reported, "I tried to make contact with them. I tried to chase them, but I couldn't. They were flying so erratically that I couldn't get a bead on them." He described them as "circular, about 100 feet in diameter, and gave off a reddish glow."

Official Response and Explanations
The widespread radar and visual sightings, coupled with the proximity to the U.S. capital and the President, created a national sensation. President Truman personally contacted his Air Force aides for explanations. The Air Force, under immense public pressure, held a press conference on July 29, 1952, led by Major General John Samford, Director of Intelligence for the Air Force, and Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, head of Project Blue Book, the official Air Force study of UFOs.

General Samford attributed the radar contacts to a "temperature inversion" – a weather phenomenon where a layer of warm air traps cooler air below it, causing radar signals to bend and produce false returns. He suggested the visual sightings were either misidentifications of stars, meteors, or an illusion caused by the "radars being fooled."

However, this explanation was met with scepticism. Radar experts pointed out that temperature inversions typically produce diffuse, fuzzy returns, not the sharp, distinct targets observed. Moreover, the objects' intelligent, evasive manoeuvres and simultaneous visual confirmations by experienced pilots and ground personnel made the "temperature inversion" theory difficult to fully accept.

Legacy of the Incident
The Washington D.C. UFO Incident remains a cornerstone of UFO lore. It highlighted the limitations of the official explanations and raised questions about transparency regarding government knowledge of unexplained aerial phenomena. The incident also played a significant role in increasing public awareness and interest in UFOs, solidifying the idea that something truly inexplicable had occurred in the nation's capital. While the Air Force officially closed the case, many still believe that the "Capital Close Encounters" of 1952 represented genuine, unexplained aerial phenomena.