The Nash-Fortenberry UFO sighting was an

unidentified flying object An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are ide ...

sighting that occurred on July 14, 1952, when two commercial pilots (William B. Nash and William H. Fortenberry) claimed to have seen eight UFOs flying in a tight

echelon formation An echelon formation () is a (usually military) formation in which its units are arranged diagonally. Each unit is stationed behind and to the right (a "right echelon"), or behind and to the left ("left echelon"), of the unit ahead. The name of ...

over

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...

in the state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

UFOlogists This is a list of notable people who are Ufology, ufologists (UFO researchers). Argentina * Juan Posadas, (1912–1981), Trotskyist theorist who blended together Trotskyism and Ufology. Posadas' version of Trotskyism is regarded as its ...

say the pilots observation allowed for relatively precise measurements of the objects' motion and size when compared to known landmarks, and that the encounter was corroborated by several groups of independent ground witnesses. The case was listed in the U.S. Air Force's

Project Blue Book Project Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on December 17, 1969. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, O ...

as an "unknown." Donald Howard Menzel in his book ''The World of Flying Saucers'' (1963) suggested some possible naturalistic explanations. He suggested that the pilots may have seen lights on the ground that were distorted by

haze Haze is traditionally an atmospheric phenomenon in which dust, smoke, and other dry particulates suspended in air obscure visibility and the clarity of the sky. The World Meteorological Organization manual of codes includes a classificati ...

. He later suggested they may have seen

fireflies The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

that were trapped between the panes of glass in their cockpit window. Skeptical researcher Steuart Campbell suggested the pilots UFO sighting was a mirage of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

. Campbell, Steuart. (1994). ''The UFO Mystery Solved''. Explicit Books. pp. 70-71 .

References

External links

The Pilots' Tale
at Saturday Night Uforia
"We Flew Above Flying Saucers"
by William B. Nash and William H. Fortenberry, from ''True'' magazine, 1967 Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-4 Alleged UFO-related aviation incidents Government responses to UFOs 1952 in Virginia {{UFO-stub

References

Further reading

External links