The article below was published in the daily newspaper Feuille d'Avis, Neuchatel, Switzerland, page 5, July 30, 1952.
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WASHINGTON, 29 (AFP). - Radar screens in the Washington area reported, in the early hours of yesterday morning, numerous flying objects in the skies over the American capital. However, no visual observations of these phenomena could be made.
A transport aircraft headed to a point where one of these objects had been spotted, searched in vain for several minutes without seeing anything.
None of the jet fighters kept on alert 24 hours a day, however, took to the air. These flying objects appeared to be moving, according to radar screens, at a speed varying from 150 to 200 km per hour.
The secret of the apparitions has not yet been discovered
WASHINGTON, 30 (A.F.P.). - The information obtained on the heterogeneous objects, flying saucers and others, on the inexplicable phenomena observed in the air during the last years and two days ago, in the skies of Washington, indicate that it is not a threat to the security of the United States.
The indications obtained on the alleged "flying saucers" detected by radar above the American capital, do not allow us to affirm that they are "vehicles, projectiles or material objects" directed against the territory of the United States.
Such is the substance of the declarations made during a press conference given Tuesday at the Pentagon by General Sanford [Sic, Samford], head of the intelligence services of the United States Air Force, assisted by General Ramey, head of the office of air operations of the Department of Defense.
General Sanford, having pointed out for more than six years the reports concerning the appearances in the sky of mysterious phenomena such as those known as "flying saucers", implicitly indicated that the secret of the apparitions was not yet unraveled.
General Sanford pointed out that the "mysterious" phenomena occurring on radar screens often had very natural causes, such as the refraction, through the layers of warm air in the atmosphere, of light rays emanating from an earthly object. The general cited, among other causes of surprise for radar operators, the flight of birds, and even more simply, the tracks left by a jet aircraft.
General Sanford stated that so far, none of the reports received from visual observers of unusual phenomena in the sky, flying saucers or otherwise, contained information as to the size, nature, color, and speed of the objects or phenomena reported.
This lack of information, General Sanford emphasized, precludes any truly scientific assessment, although these reports sometimes come from observers as reliable as pilots with 20 years of experience.
With regard to the phenomena recently observed in the skies over Washington, General Sanford believes that they were luminous reactions resulting from the alternation in the atmosphere of layers of warm and cold air.
That being the case, continued the General Sanford, the US Air Force plans to continue its studies and acquire for this purpose about 200 special cameras to photograph the sky at regular intervals.
