The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (Nicap)

# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0

# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 Washington, D.C.

The first of several well-publicized nights of radar-visual sightings in the Washington, D.C., area began about 11:40 p.m., July 19, at National Airport. Ground observers and military and civilian pilots observed unidentified lights while as many as ten strange blips were on radar scopes. Radar indicated hovering, sudden accelerations and great speeds until near dawn. Objects followed and passed incoming airliners, often seen by pilots and crews. USAF F-94 interceptors arrived at 3 a.m., after reportedly being delayed to check on UFOs over New Jersey, but the objects had left the scene (confirmed by radar), returning when the jets departed.

About 1:00 a.m., July 20, Capt. S.C. (Casey) Pierman, piloting Capital Airlines Flight #807 had just taken off from Washington National Airport and was swinging around to head south. At the airport, radar controllers had been noticing unidentified targets on the sets for some time. They had recalibrated the sets and were now convinced the targets were legitimate. Chief Controller Harry Barnes called Capt. Pierman and asked him to check for objects. Pierman, in the vicinity of Martinsburg, W. Va., agreed and quickly called back: "There's one, and there it goes!"

In a detailed interview published later, Barnes stated: "His [Pierman's] subsequent descriptions of the movements of the objects coincided with the position of our pips [radar targets] at all times while in our range."

In the next fourteen minutes, Capt. Pierman reported six such lights, "like falling stars without tails" which "moved rapidly up, down, and horizontally. Also hovered." [C.A.A. Report. See Section VIII; Radar.]

Two hours later, Capt. Howard Dermott on incoming Capital Flight #610 reported that a light followed his aircraft from the vicinity of Herndon, Va., to 4 miles west of the airport. Radar sets both in the control center and the tower at National Airport showed the object.

Again the following weekend, radar targets and maneuvering lights appeared. On the night of July 26/27, from 4 to 12 objects were tracked at various times between 8:00 p.m. and 1:20 a.m. on radar sets at the CAA control center, Washington National Airport tower, and Andrews AFB, Md. Lights were seen individually and in groups, both from the air and the ground.

Air Force interceptors were called in, and criss-crossed the area from 10:25 p.m. to 1:20 a.m. The pilots observed fast-moving lights where radar told them to look. One, Lt. William Patterson, was badly frightened when a group of glowing objects surrounded his interceptor. As the CAA radar operators watched the blips on the scope cluster around his plane, the pilot asked them in a scared voice what he should do. There was a stunned silence; no one answered. After a tense moment, the UFOs pulled away and left the scene. (Incident confirmed by Al Chop, then Air Force spokesman on UFOs. Taped statement on file at NICAP).

The dramatic visual sightings of unexplained lights in the same places that radar showed unexplained objects were later attributed to unusual weather conditions. Ground lights refracted by inverted layers of cool and heated air (temperature inversions) were said to account for the visual sightings. The same conditions were said to cause refraction of the radar beams causing simultaneous false radar targets. Unfortunately for this theory, the stable air conditions required to produce persistent light (refracted from a ground source) are inconsistent with the reported rapid motions of the observed lights across the sky and large angular displacements. [See Radar analyses, Section VIII.]

At the time of the Washington radar-visual sightings, the NICAP Director consulted both a civilian scientist and an Air Force radar expert about the degree of temperature inversion necessary to produce false radar targets. The scientist stated the inversion would have to be 10 degrees Fahrenheit (about 6 degrees Centigrade), and much larger to produce strong radar effects. The Air Force expert, who had made a special study of temperature inversions, stated it would take an inversion of 5-10 degrees Centigrade.

The following weather information was obtained from the National Weather Records Center by the New York City NICAP Affiliate (photo-copy on file at NICAP).

"For the dates of interest to you, upper air observations were made at Silver Hill Observatory, Maryland rather than at Washington National Airport, but these locations are sufficiently near each other for Silver Hill to be representative of the general area of interest.

"In the data which follow, local time is given, temperature difference is given in degrees Centigrade and altitude is given as altitude above mean sea level. To convert to altitude above station level, 88 meters would be subtracted from the metric altitudes given below.

"July 18, 1952, 10 P.M. observation: An inversion from the surface to 210 meters. Temperature at top of inversion was 1.7 degrees warmer than at base of inversion. No other significant inversion below 20,000 feet.

"July 19, 1952, 10 A.M. observation: No significant inversion below 20,000 feet.

"July 19, 1952, 10 P.M. observation: An inversion from the surface to 340 meters. Temperature at top of inversion was 1.7 degrees warmer than at base of inversion. There was an isothermal condition (no temperature change) between 2,780 and 3,100 meters.

"July 25, 1952, 10 P.M. observation: An inversion from the surface to 320 meters. Temperature at top of inversion was 4 degrees warmer than at base of inversion. There was another inversion between 1,700 and 1,940 meters and in this case the temperature at top of inversion was 8 degrees warmer than at base of inversion.

"July 26, 1952, 10 A.M. observation: Two minor inversions. One between 1,060 and 1,230 meters, temperature at top 0.8 degree warmer than at base. One between 2,370 and 2,530 meters, temperature at top 0.9 degree warmer than at base.

"July 26, 1952, 10 P.M. observation: An inversion from the surface to 360 meters. Temperature at top of inversion was 1.1 degrees warmer than at base of inversion. There was another inversion between 1,310 and 1,370 meters where the temperature at top was 0.7 degree warmer than at base of inversion . . . "

/s/ Roy L. Fox Director "

The unusual concentration of UFO activity in the Washington, D.C. area continued on July 29, as radar tracked unidentified targets for almost six hours. Unlike the first two nights, there were few visual sightings of these objects.

During the afternoon of July 29, the Air Force attempted to quiet the national concern which by now had grown to unprecedented proportions. In the heaviest attended Washington press conference since World War II, USAF Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen. John A. Samford explained that the UFOs tracked and seen in the Washington area were the result of the refraction of light and radar waves by atmospheric temperature inversions. (Transcript on file at NICAP.) Weeks later, after scientists had made it clear that the inversions on the nights of the Washington sightings had been grossly insufficient to cause highly qualified radar observers to err so drastically, the Air Force re-classified these objects as "unknown."

Although they received less publicity after the Air Force press conference, UFO sightings continued at a high rate throughout August.

As the flood of reports was beginning to wane, late in the month, an Air Force Colonel, flying an F-84 between Hermanas, N. Mex., and El Paso, Tex., on the morning of August 24, saw two round, silvery objects flying abreast. One made a right turn in front of the jet, then both disappeared over Hermanas. They reappeared over El Paso. One was seen to climb straight up for several thousand feet.

The Colonel stated, "From their maneuvers and their terrific speed, I am certain their flight performance was greater than any aircraft known today." (Statement from Air Force Intelligence Report.)