In July of 1952 Washington DC was visited by at least seven unknown craft. Capital Airlines Flight 807 says that they spotted seven objects flashing across the sky. Also on the same evening Capital flight 610 reported unidentified craft flying across the sky.

Both of these sightings were confirmed by Washington National Airport and Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Sometime later Operators at Washington National Airport reported a group of Unidentified objects in the sky again. The Air Traffic Controller said after looking at the radar info

“The objects are spread in an arc that encircles Washington. We better alert the military.” The senior air controller notified the U. S. Air Force: “Remember those UFOs? Well, they’re back!”

The controllers watched the objects for over one hour.Then Major Dewey Fournet requested jet interceptors.

“There’s something up there! Request jet interceptors.”

The Airforce scrambled two F-94 Aircraft to intercept the images seen on the radar. One of the pilots of the F-94 said

“I see several unknowns! Some are flying at over 1,000 miles per hour.” A little later he said, “We’re closing in at five miles,” It looks like a lit cigar. As soon as we started to gain on them, they vanished!”

Later the Airforce scrambled two more F-94’s but the pilots didn’t repor seeing any craft. So on two different ocassions there were unidentified flying objects seen by F-94 pilots and radar operators at Andrews Airforce Base and Washington National Airport.

The Air Force held a press conference in the Pentagon on July 30, 1952. Major General Roger M. Ramey (remember him from the Roswell incident?), Director of Operations, and Major General John A. Samford, Director of Intelligence The official story given by the Airforce was:
1)The Blips were possible Weather Inversions
2)Misidentified aerial phenomena like the moon, stars or a planet.

So what was over Washington DC in 1952? we will never know.

The US Airforce had the largest press conference since World War II.

You can read the transcript here.