July 14, 1952 — above the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland/Virginia
9:12 p.m. Some 8,000 feet above the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland/Virginia, Capt. William B. Nash and copilot First Officer William H. Fortenberry, flying a Pan American Airways DC-4 from New York City to Miami, Florida, with an off-duty crew, see six crimson dots at 30°. The dots are streaking in their direction like tracer bullets. As they get closer, they resolve into reddish-orange circles, about 100 feet in diameter and 15 feet thick, with sharply defined edges. Nash says they are holding a “narrow echelon formation” at 2,000 feet, below the airplane’s own altitude. When they are nearly underneath the aircraft, “they flipped on edge, the sides to the left of us going up and the glowing surfaces facing right. While all were in the edgewise position, the last five slid over and past the leader so that the echelon was now tail foremost.” Then they all flip over again into a flat attitude. Two new, brighter UFOs join the formation, and the lights of all eight objects blink out then come on again. They all speed westward (Nash estimates 6,000–12,000 mph) and climb in a graceful 45° arc. The entire sighting lasts only 15 seconds. The crew in the passenger area does not see the objects. Possible corroboration comes from a sighting in Camden, New Jersey, although the date is uncertain. Intelligence agents in Miami promptly interview Nash and Fortenberry separately. [Eberhart]
BB Summary:
OSI Telex:
AF-112 ATIC Report:
Sources:
“Miami Pilots Spot 8 Saucers Flying in Formation,” Miami (Fla.) Herald, July 16, 1952, pp. 1A, 8A;
“Two Pilots Add To Flying Saucer Lore,” Washington (N.C.) Daily News, July 16, 1952, p. 1;
“Pilots Spot 8 Saucers Flying in Norfolk Area,” Washington (D.C.) Daily News, July 16, 1952, p. 7;
“Flying Saucers Are Joined By Ice Cream Cone,” Statesville (N.C.) Daily Record, July 17, 1952, p. 1;
“More Saucers,” Burlington Daily Times News, July 17, 1952, p. 1;
“Rockets, Tracers or Them Devilish Flying Saucers,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, July 17, 1952, pp. 36, 30; [In that order]
The Witness: “A Precise Report on Flying Saucers—Or Something,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, July 20, 1952, p. 6;
William B. Nash and William H. Fortenberry, “We Flew Above Flying Saucers,” True, October 1952, pp. 65, 110–112;
Donald Keyhoe, Flying Saucers From Outer Space, 1953, pp. 57-58;
Weird Science-Fantasy (EC, 1954 series) #26 (December 1954);
William B. Nash, “Does the Air Force Have ‘Hardware from Outer Space’?” The Saucerian 3, no. 1 (January 1955): 29–31;
“An Airline Captain Speaks Out.” The U.F.O. Investigator 11, no. 6 (October/November 1962): 5–6;
Donald H. Menzel and Lyle G. Boyd, The World of Flying Saucers, Doubleday, 1963, pp. 260–265;
Richard H. Hall, ed. The UFO Evidence. Washington, DC; National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, 1964, pp. 13, 38–39;
Loren E. Gross, UFOs: A History—1952: June–July 20th. Fremont, CA: The Author, 1986, pp. 55-56;
Timothy Good, Above Top Secret, pp. 269–270;
Brad Sparks, Blue Book Unknowns Catalogue, Case 679, p. 150;
Steuart Campbell, The UFO Mystery Solved, Explicit Books, 1994, pp. 70-71;
Michael D. Swords, “Classic Cases from the APRO Files,” IUR 24, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 21–22;
Thomas Tulien, “The 1952 Nash/Fortenberry Sighting Revisited,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 20–23, 27–28;
Frank C. Feschino Jr., Shoot Them Down! The Flying Saucer Air Wars of 1952. Lulu.com, 2007, pp. 22–24;
Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33, no. 1 (March 2010): 11, 15;
Michael Swords, et. al, UFOs and Government, pp. 149–150;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., p. 791;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 4th Ed., pp. 871–872;
Robert Powell, UFOs: A Scientist Explains What We Know (And Don’t Know), 2024, p. 49;
Wikipedia, “Nash-Fortenberry UFO sighting”;
William H. Fortenberry was Second Officer on Pan Am Flight 7 that went down in the Pacific Ocean on November 8, 1957
NICAP, “Nash / Fortenberry Case”;
James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 47;
“The Pilot’s Tale,” Saturday Night Uforia;
Thomas Tulien, “The 1952 Nash/Fortenberry Sighting Revisited,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 20–23, 27–28, reprinted in Project 1947;
[Tom and Jan Aldrich interviewed Nash for the Sign Oral History Project]
William B. Nash Bio/Obit:
“1952 UFO case: Nash - Fortenberry incident over Chesapeake Bay.” UFOB Your UAP Library Youtube channel, August 10, 2020;
Fortenberry’s son was on Podcast UFO with Martin Willis 3 years ago talking about his book “Flight 7 Is Missing: The Search for My Father”:
Clip from UFO Hunters about the Nash-Fortenberry sighting [History Channels website makes you watch an ad, and disable any ad-blocker, in order to see this 1minute clip]