The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1952-07-22
AZ investigating Reports OF
Radar Spotted Flying Saucers
Flying Saucers
Reports Placed
Them Over Capitol
Yesterday PM.

WASHINGTON "a - The All
Force today investigated reports
that several Flying saucers'' had
been spotted by radar virtually III
its own back yard on the outskirts
|of the nations capital.
Not only were unidentified OBJ
ljects seen on adar-indicating ac-
ltual substance instead Of mere
Ilight-but two airline pilots and q
Inewsman saw eerie lights fitting
1.-THE general description Of flying
saucers the same night.
Officials could not Immediately
Iagree on whether this was the
flying saucers. Some said It was.
AL agreed 1t was unusual.
The objects also were different
first time radar has picked up
from the average reported saucer
lin that they rraveled at 1 relative
Ily slow speed, as well as later
disclosing the customary burst that
far outspeeds normal airplanes.
One thing was certain: A
thorough investigation Is being
made by the Air Technical Intelli-
gences Center. Wright Patterson Al
Force Base. Dayton, o., which has
been set up to look into flying
saucer reports.
Such reports. officials had said
earlier Monday, are coming In
faster than at any time since the
initial flood in 10l7. The current
average 10 about 100 sightings Z
month.
The flying saucers over the CAPT
tai were reported late Monday,
about IS hours after the incident
actually occurred.
This Is the story as pieced To-
gether from Air Force reports, per.
sons involved, and other sources:
An operator at the Air Traffic
Control Center at Washington Ma
tional Airport, across the Potomac
from the capital, spotted eight un-
identified images on one Of his
radars - the area surveillance
scope. with . range Of possibly
40 miles.
The images were slow-moving,
going probably 100 to 100 miles an
hour. And they were flying in the
vicinity Of nearby Andrews Air
Force Base.
The control center, operated by
the Civil Aeronautics Administers
ton, notified the Air Force and
also asked planes In the air II they
could see anything.
That was around midnight.
Capt. S. c. Casey" Pierman,
Detroit, plotting Capital Airlines
Flight ST., southbound from Ma
tional Airport, soon reported seeing
seven objects between Washington
and Martinsburg, w. Va. He said
they changed pace, sometimes
moving at tremendous speed, at
other times hanging almost motion
less.
He was careful in his report,
and later in an interview, not TO
identity the objects as flying
saucers. He described them Is
like falling stars without tails"
but added:
I'm my years Of flying I've seen
IN lot Of falling or shooting stars
but these were much faster.
!. They couldn't have been air
craft. They were moving too fast
for that. They were about the same
sire a. the brighter stars, and
were much higher than our 5000
foot altitude"
Another airiiner, Capital Nation
al Airlines Flight $40. also reported
seeing . light following Il from
Herndon. Va. TO within four miles
|of Washington.
Sanl Pett, an Associated Press
Inewsman, said he saw Z flying
saucer" that same night near his
home at River Edge. N. j., outside
,of New York. He said the weather
was clear and calm, and what he
saw wasn't m optical iIlusion--it
was orange colored. round. moved
swiftly and soundlessiy. and he did
not think II could have been 3
plane, balloon. or meteor.