Inconvenient questions of the "Blue book" - Nash-Fortenberry UFO sighting

On July 14, 1952, pilots William Nash and William Fortenberry observed eight disc-shaped UFOs glowing with red-orange light, which approached their plane at a speed of almost 20,000 km/ h, turned at an acute angle of 30 degrees and disappeared again. The officers from the Blue Book, after interviewing the pilots in detail, came to the conclusion that the objects they saw should be classified as unidentified.

On the night of July 14, 1952, we were flying on a DC 4 plane from New York to Miami. There were 3 crew members and 10 passengers on board. The night was clear, visibility unlimited. Almost invisible to us, thin clouds were at an altitude of 6100 m. We were flying at an altitude of 2400 m and were approaching Norfolk (Virginia). The sun had set an hour ago and the night was dark, although we could see the shoreline. The lights of the city of Newport News were visible to our right. Suddenly, in the direction of this city, Newport News. Suddenly, something glittering red appeared in the direction of this city. We saw 6 large objects flying towards us with increasing speed, and it seemed that they would fly under us. They looked like glowing coals, but their light intensity was 20 times greater than that of the city lights, the edges of the round silhouettes were clearly visible, and a smooth red-orange glow was distinguished above each object

told by William Nash:

In the few seconds it took the objects to cover half the distance to the plane, we saw. that they are flying in a stepped formation. forming an inclined line, with the head object flying lower than the others. Then it seemed to us that the leading object slowed down, because the second and third objects slipped past it. It seemed that some mistake had been made, since these two objects did not react quickly enough to the deceleration of the leading object and missed it.

Observation of Nash and Fortenberry (sketch from the APRO archive)

We estimated the diameter of the objects at 30 meters and the flight altitude at 1000 m above the ground (1500 m below us). When a group of objects appeared below us and slightly ahead of us, they surprisingly changed the direction of their flight. All the disks flew "on the edge" with the left side up, and since their lower part was not clearly visible, we had the impression that it was dark. The objects were shaped like coins, and their thickness was about 4.5 meters.

Moving "on the edge", five objects slipped past the head one so that the whole squadron took the form of a wedge, and the first and last were not far from us. Then they dropped lower and suddenly rushed back at an acute angle. It could be compared to balls bouncing off a wall. Immediately after these six objects, two more appeared, which began to catch up with the main group. All eight glowing objects flew in a line and began to rise up in a smooth arc, and then disappeared one after another, becoming dark. There must have been a definite connection between the glow and the speed of these objects. Before making a turn at an acute angle, six objects significantly darkened, and then became lighter. The two pursuing objects also brightened when they caught up with the others.

We watched them closely and hoped that more such objects would appear, but nothing happened. They were flying disks, and we saw them. It was all so unusual and amazing that it's hard to believe. If only one of us had seen it, we would have hesitated whether to report it, but there were two of us. All this happened at 8.12 and lasted about 12 seconds.

We decided to check if anyone else on board had seen them, and the co-pilot asked the passengers a cautious question, whether they had observed anything unusual, but did not receive confirmation.
Then we called Norfolk on the radio, reported the location and added: "Two pilots of our flight near Langley Field observed 8 UFOs flying at a speed of more than 1600 km/ h at an altitude of about 1000 meters." Then we told the commander of the ship about everything, and he took control, and we began to prepare a description of what happened.

We have calculated the angle at which the UFO made a turn. It turned out that they turned 150 degrees. We could not imagine what effect of the inertia force they experienced at the same time. We determined that the distance between the point over which we noticed the objects and the point over which they disappeared was about 80 km. It took them 12 seconds to overcome it, completing a 150-degree turn. Taking the time with a margin of 15 seconds, we got that the objects were flying at a speed of 320 km/min, or 19200 km/h. Even if we are even more careful and cut the distance in half, the speed will still be very high…

Since we don't know who they were, what they were doing, or where they came from, we believed our assumption that these are intelligently controlled machines of extraterrestrial origin. We are sure that no pilot can imagine an Earth plane that develops such speeds and accelerations with an unexpected change of direction and that could withstand the heat from friction during a fast flight at low altitude through the dense layers of the atmosphere. And although we do not know whether they are controlled from inside the objects or remotely, we cannot imagine that people consisting of flesh and blood could withstand the shocks and overload from such abrupt changes of course to the opposite. We are also sure that this is not a remotely controlled secret weapon. One thing we know is that humanity still has a lot to learn from someone."

The observation of the pilots was confirmed by seven witnesses who were on the ground. Air Force Major Davey Fournet, who was in charge of the Blue Book project at the time, described Nash and Fortenberry's message as the most accurate and reliable of all received by the military. In addition, it turned out that the Navy officer also saw eight UFOs from aboard the light cruiser Roanoke fifteen minutes before they caught the eye of Nash and Fortenberry.

You think that civil aviation pilots have a great power of imagination, that they are easily fooled by various things. No, driving $5 million planes from one airport to another is not based on assumptions. We are constantly checking and rechecking. Every month we spend 120 hours in the air and therefore we can be considered the most experienced observers of objects that are visible from the cockpit of the aircraft. Can you imagine, Dr. Menzel, that we have seen and studied thousands of different reflections? Do you think we haven't seen thousands of meteorites? I've been watching them all night.

Do you think we can't distinguish reflections from an ordinary airplane and have never seen the northern lights? You claim that we were so excited that we couldn't do basic scientific checks. But pilots don't get excited so fast, otherwise they wouldn't have been pilots for long… You make fun of us and say that it is impossible to get clear impressions in 12 seconds. While serving in the army, Fortenberry and I, like all military pilots, were trained to assess the situation. We had to remember the silhouettes of all the ships of the German and Japanese navies and all enemy aircraft.

It goes without saying that we also had to be able to identify all our ships and planes quickly and confidently. In the exams, we had to draw their silhouettes. In addition, we were shown drawings on the screen first for 1/10, and then 1/100 of a second and we had to name the type, nationality and number of ships or aircraft. So we even had too much time to observe UFOs.

Nash replied to Donald Menzel, who considered the July 14 observations an optical illusion:

Knowing that they would be questioned by the military, the pilots agreed to ask the representatives of the Air Force if there was any truth in the persistent rumors that one or more crashed "plates" are stored at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. But when they were interviewed separately, in his excitement, Nash forgot to ask a question. Fortenberry, however, did not forget, and one interrogator replied: "Yes, it's true."

When the two pilots and the interrogators met together, Nash suddenly remembered what he wanted to ask. When the question came out, "they all opened their mouths to answer, and then Major John Sharp looked at them, not at me, and very quickly said, 'No!' It looked like he was telling them to shut up, not answering me." Subsequently, Nash spoke at the WJZ television studio in New York, where he argued with three scientists who were convinced that UFOs did not exist. Before the show started, he went out into the corridor to drink water.

William couldn't find a drinking fountain until he met a man who apparently knew where to go and led him down a difficult path.

According to Nash, "judging by the timbre of his voice, he could have been a commentator, however, he said that he did not want to identify himself, although I specifically asked what his name was. He was about 6 feet 1 inches tall, weighing 200 pounds. intelligent in appearance. He said he had just returned from Washington, where he found out everything. According to him, the mass surveillance of Washington was caused by the manipulation of the military with the radio, which was found in the plate…

There is indeed a flying saucer stored at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; he, a New England journalist and a reporter from Life Magazine were recently briefly told about it, warning that they should remain silent until they get permission to talk about it. He seemed very excited and sincere

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About author:

Serg Toporkov Ufologist, Ph.D., blogger, I go on my own expeditions for UFOs. I use scientific methods to investigate the UAP phenomenon. Write to me

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Nash-Fortenberry UFO sighting  UFO  sightings  UFOs  pilots  1952  Virginia  USA