[music playing]
1952 was one of
the biggest years
of UFO sightings in US history.
The culmination of that year
was incredible sightings
over the weekend of
July 19, 20, and 26, 27.
REPORTER (ON TV):
Washington International
was picking up UFO returns.
People were reporting sightings
of strange lights in the sky.
You've got these reports
of these objects flying
over the nation's capital.
A week later, this situation
essentially repeats itself.
REPORTER (ON TV): The press,
having gone through this thing
the week before,
were better prepared.
And they were down at the
Washington International
Airport asking what these
things were that were
being picked up by radar.
We were getting into the
target returns on the ground.
About 2:00 or 3:00
in the morning,
we were still getting
these returns.
Andrews Air Force
Base scrambles
two F-94 jet interceptors to
investigate what was going on.
REPORTER (ON TV): This
time, one of the pilots
reported that he did
see a group of lights.
And he flew towards them.
And they appeared to
be all around him.
Then they moved off,
according to the ground
radar and his report.
Harry Truman made
some phone calls
to try to get some information
on what was going on.
Government people coming
out of their offices
saw these objects.
And you couldn't tell them
that it hadn't happened.
The Air Force really
had to say something.
So they held the
largest press conference
since the end of the
Second World War,
run by the head of Air Force
Intelligence, General Samford.
I am here to discuss the
so-called flying saucers.
General Samford and the
rest of the Air Force brass
believe that these
lights were caused
by temperature inversions.
And when that
happens, that can
cause anomalies in the radar.
Radar signals can bounce
and cause all kinds
of mirages and illusions.
I can't think
that that explains
the lights that these
pilots have reported.
The senior traffic
controller, Perry Barnes,
said not a chance.
We know through
declassified literature,
no one was really taking this
weather explanation seriously.
Nobody thought that was
true because the Air Force
had been chasing those objects.
The Air Force baked it.
The press served it.
And the public ate it.
That's really what happened.
