Four documented cases from the first half of May 1952.
1952: May 1st–15th
UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
The opening half of May 1952 finds the year’s “great flap” already gathering pace — AEC and Air Force personnel watching discs over sensitive nuclear and military facilities from Hanford to the Savannah River Plant, radar-confirmed pursuits over Korea and the Atlantic, and a Cyprus sighting witnessed by a British scientist. Given the volume of cases this month, May has been split into two archive pages; this page covers May 1st through 15th.
Date: May 1952: Allyn, West Virginia Abduction
Date: May 1952: UFO with Humanoids in Prospect Heights Illinois
Date: May 1952: Canadian Naval Officer Has Close Encounter In Hawaiian Waters
Date: May 1, 1952 (BBU1174)
Location: Moses Lake, Washington (Hanford area)
Time: 0532 PST
Summary: Civilian AEC employees observed a slow-moving, wingless silver object at 5,000 feet altitude. Sighting lasted 1½ minutes.
Source: Unknown
Date: May 1, 1952: Air Force Bomber Encounter’s Discs
Date: May 1, 1952 (BBU 1176)
Location: George AFB and Apple Valley, California
Time: 10:50 a.m.
Summary: Three men on the arms range, plus Lt. Col. Lyle Albert Silvernail four miles away in Apple Valley, saw five flat-white discs — roughly the diameter of a C-47’s wingspan (95 ft) or the length of a P-51 (32 ft) — flying about 1,000 mph at roughly 4,000 ft, making a 90° turn in a 3-front/2-behind formation before darting around. Silvernail reported the sighting and was told radar was tracking the object(s) and fighters were being scrambled; more recent information suggests Silvernail did confirm a radar track. 15–30 seconds, 5+ witnesses.
Source: Berliner; NICAP
Date: May 5, 1952 (BBU 1183)
Location: Tenafly, New Jersey
Time: 10:45 p.m.
Summary: Mrs. M. M. Judson saw six to seven translucent, cream-yellow objects; one moved in an ellipse while others moved in and out. Observed for approximately 4–5 minutes.
Source: Berliner
Date: May 7, 1952: Barra da Tijuca, Brazil Photos
Date: May 7, 1952 (BBU 1185)
Location: Keesler AFB, Mississippi
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Summary: Capt. Morris, a Master Sergeant, a Staff Sergeant, and an Airman First Class saw an aluminum or silver cylindrical object dart in and out of the clouds ten times.
Source: Berliner
Date: May 8, 1952
Location: Atlantic Ocean, 600 miles east of Jacksonville, Florida
Time: 2:27 a.m.
Summary: Pan Am Flight 203 pilot Capt. Cent and copilot 1st Officer Gallagher, flying a DC-4 at 8,000 ft from New York to San Juan, saw a brilliant white light approach from below the overcast (10,000 ft) and streak past at ⅛ to ¼ mile, followed by two smaller orange balls of fire.
Source: NARCAP; McDonald list; Project 1947; Ruppelt pp. 133–4
Date: May 9, 1952 (BBU 1194)
Location: George AFB, California
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Summary: Two USAF F-86 pilots and a witness on the ground saw a round silver object.
Source: Berliner; FUFOR Index
Date: May 10, 1952
Location: Paphos, southwest Cyprus
Time: 8:30 p.m.
Summary: A British scientist and others saw a luminous circular object rise from sea level, waver back and forth overhead for an interval, then fade from sight. (This case appeared as a duplicate entry on the original page; consolidated to one here.)
Source: Jan Aldrich
Date: May 10, 1952
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 2 [or 3?] p.m.
Summary: Unknown
Source: McDonald files; Jan Aldrich; FUFOR Index
Date: May 10, 1952 (BBU 1198)
Location: Ellenton, South Carolina (Savannah River Plant, Atomic Energy Commission)
Time: 10:45 p.m.
Summary: DuPont Corporation employees at the Savannah River Plant saw luminous yellow-gold disc-shaped objects approach at high speed and weave left to right while holding a steady course; one disc flew low enough that it had to rise to clear tall tanks at the facility. The FBI-sourced version of this report describes four discs approaching with two more passing high overhead from different directions (six total); a separate Look Magazine account of the same date and location describes eight discs. Both figures are preserved here rather than treated as separate incidents, since they describe the same event at the same plant on the same night.
Source: FBI report; Look Magazine, June 24, 1952, “Hunt For The Flying Saucer”
Date: May 11, 1952
Location: George AFB, California
Time: Unknown
Summary: Grendilund. No further detail in surviving files.
Source: McDonald list; FUFOR Index
Date: May 12, 1952
Location: 40 miles west of Roswell, New Mexico
Time: 9:45 p.m.
Summary: A restricted Air Force document records a blue-green object sighted at an estimated altitude of 30,000–40,000 feet, traveling faster than jet aircraft over the same triangular course three times; brightness varied with altitude.
Source: AF Form 112, Fran Ridge
Date: May 13, 1952
Location: El Centro Naval Air Station, California
Time: 3:15 a.m.
Summary: An F9F pilot taking off from El Centro NAS saw what appeared to be a shooting star diving at a 60° angle. Around the same time, the El Centro Sheriff’s Office separately reported five “flying saucers” as large as B-36s with a light underneath, which disappeared to the southwest at terrific speed. Four separate unidentified aerial object reports were logged in the El Centro area this date.
Source: Blue Book docs, Dan Wilson
Date: May 13, 1952
Location: George AFB, California
Time: 2:25 p.m.
Summary: A pilot and observer in a T-6G at 10,500 ft saw a white or silver round object at an estimated altitude of 45,000 ft, nearly overhead, for about 30 minutes, before it vanished almost instantly, “like a light being turned off.”
Source: BB files, Dan Wilson
Date: May 13, 1952: Engineer observes object over National City, California
Date: May 13, 1952 (Blue Book Chop Clearance List Item #15) — originally also misdated on some records as May 18, 1952; both entries describe the same case and are consolidated here under the correct date
Location: Greenville, South Carolina
Time: 10:33 p.m.
Summary: Richardson and three other amateur astronomers, telescopes set up at a dark area of Furman University, saw a diamond formation of four oval reddish-yellow or reddish-brown luminous objects nearly overhead, which disappeared after 3 seconds of motion through a 12° arc. Apparent size of a half dollar at arm’s length, wobbling and rotating ¼ turn in flight.
Source: BB Status Rpt; FUFOR Index
Date: May 14, 1952
Location: George AFB, California
Time: 1:05 p.m.
Summary: Possibly the same case as May 13 George AFB; noted as such in the original sourcing rather than resolved.
Source: McDonald list; FUFOR Index
Date: May 14, 1952 (BBU 1213)
Location: Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
Time: 7 p.m.
Summary: Attorney and ex-USAF pilot Mr. Stipes and Sr. Garcia-Mendez saw two shining orange spheres; one stationary while the other darted away and back for 30 minutes.
Source: Berliner
Date: May 15, 1952
Location: South of Changsong-ni and north of Nangnim Mountain, North Korea
Time: 11 a.m.
Summary: USAF Lt. McCarthy and another pilot flying two F-86E jets (51st Fighter Interceptor Wing, 25th FI Sq) at 30,000 ft sighted a silvery, oval-shaped object larger than a MiG, at an estimated 8,000–10,000 ft altitude, roughly 1,200–1,500 mph, about 20 miles away, executing a rolling maneuver before disappearing to the north.
Source: Jan Aldrich
Date: May 15, 1952
Location: South of Changsong-ni and north of Nangnim Mountain, North Korea
Time: 6:35 p.m.
Summary: A USAF F-51 fighter pilot of the 18th Fighter Bomber Group, flying at 9,000 ft, sighted a 50-ft-diameter silver object moving at roughly 1,000 mph, which climbed steeply, leveled off at the top of the loop, wavered, then descended and vanished into haze around 7,000–8,000 ft.
Source: Jan Aldrich
Date: May 15, 1952
Location: Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Time: 10:25 p.m. (or possibly 9:35 or 9:50 p.m.)
Summary: USN Lt. H. W. Taylor, Lt. P. G. R., and two others saw a soft golden glowing oval object on a straight, level southward path, moving through a 70° arc.
Source: McDonald files; Jan Aldrich; FUFOR Index
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Nuclear Facilities, Korean Combat Air Patrols, and the Opening of a Major Flap
The first half of May 1952 sets the tone for what would become one of the most intense stretches of Blue Book’s history. Two separate sightings over the AEC’s Savannah River nuclear facility, a formation of discs witnessed and radar-tracked near George AFB, and repeated Korean-theater intercepts by F-86 and F-51 pilots all point to a month where military and nuclear-security personnel, not just civilian witnesses, were doing the reporting. Several entries carry documented dating or duplication problems in Blue Book’s own record-keeping — corrected and consolidated here rather than left as separate, confusing incidents.
“It appeared to disappear very fast, almost like a light being turned off.”
— T-6G observer, George AFB, California, May 13, 1952
