Radar tracks unidentified objects over Washington, D.C.
Across two consecutive weekends, multiple radar installations and visual observers track unidentified objects above the restricted airspace surrounding the U.S. Capitol and White House. The Air Force convenes its largest press conference since World War II to address the events.
On the night of 19 July 1952, air traffic controllers at Washington National Airport observed unidentified targets on radar within the prohibited airspace above the U.S. Capitol and White House. Targets were also observed by radar at Andrews Air Force Base and visually by airline crews and ground observers. Two F-94 Starfire interceptors were scrambled but reported no contact.
A second wave of similar events occurred the following weekend on 26 July 1952. On 29 July, Maj. Gen. John Samford, the Air Force Director of Intelligence, held what was at the time the largest Pentagon press conference since the Second World War, attributing the radar returns to temperature-inversion–induced anomalous propagation while acknowledging that a small fraction of UAP reports could not be explained by conventional means.
The events were widely covered on the front pages of major American newspapers and contributed directly to the formation of the CIA's Robertson Panel, convened in January 1953 to review the national-security implications of UAP reports.
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