What was the 1952 Washington DC UFO incident?
“On July 19 and July 26, 1952, multiple unidentified radar targets were tracked over restricted airspace around Washington DC — including the White House and the Capitol — by Andrews AFB, Bolling AFB, and Washington National air-traffic-control radar.”
The 1952 Washington DC UFO incident — sometimes called the "Washington flap" or the "Invasion of Washington" — is one of the most-documented mass radar-and-visual UAP events in U.S. history. On the nights of July 19-20 and July 26-27, 1952, multiple unidentified objects were tracked on radar by air-traffic controllers at Washington National Airport, Andrews Air Force Base, and Bolling Air Force Base. The objects appeared to violate restricted airspace over the White House and the U.S. Capitol; F-94 Starfire interceptors were scrambled in response. The incident received front-page coverage in the Washington Post and prompted the largest U.S. Air Force press conference held to that point in history. Project Blue Book later attributed the radar returns to temperature inversions and the visual sightings to atmospheric phenomena, though many witnesses disputed the explanation. The case is referenced in AARO's 2024 Historical Record Report as one of the foundational pre-1969 mass-sighting events.