Initial radar contacts
At 23:40 on 19 July 1952, controller Edward Nugent at Washington National Airport observed seven unexplained blips fifteen miles south of the city. Senior controller Harry Barnes confirmed his radar was functioning normally and asked Andrews Air Force Base to check its sets. Both National and Andrews scopes showed the same tracks while tower personnel at Andrews reported an orange light zig-zagging in the sky.123
Pilot sightings and intercept attempts
Airline captain S.C. Pierman radioed that bright, maneuvering lights were visible from his cockpit, matching pips on Barnes’s scope. Between 02:00 and 03:00, two F-94 interceptors vectored toward the targets saw white lights reverse course and disappear. The radar blips faded whenever jets closed in and returned when they departed, persisting until dawn.45
Renewed activity and press uproar
A second wave began on 26 July with multiple returns moving erratically above the capital. Controllers Howard Cocklin and Joe Zacko described lights accelerating like meteors as radars tracked speeds over 7,000 miles per hour. Another scramble failed to intercept. The events provoked the largest Pentagon press conference since World War II where officials blamed temperature inversions for phantom targets.678
Continuing debate
Project Blue Book labeled the case "Insufficient Data—Temperature Inversion," yet many controllers rejected that explanation. Declassified CIA memoranda show concern that mass UFO reports might overwhelm air defense rather than evidence of hostile craft. The Washington radar wave remains a benchmark case for unresolved multi-sensor UFO encounters.910