Four documented cases from September 1–16, 1952.
1952: September 1st–16th
UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
September 1952 keeps the year’s flap at full intensity — a mass radar tracking of 40 targets over Chicago’s Midway Airport, a translucent daylight disc over an Okanagan Lake ferry crossing, and, within a single 48-hour window, two of West Virginia’s most striking entity encounters: the famous Flatwoods Monster and its lesser-known neighbor at Frametown. Given the volume, September has been split into two archive pages; this page covers the 1st through the 16th.
Date: Fall 1952: Aliens and Abduction in Redding, California
Date: Fall 1952: Lost River Sinks, Idaho
Date: September 1952: Pointy-Head Alien in Sutton, West Virginia
Date: September 1952: 3 white, odd shaped forms seen in Central Point, Oregon
Date: September 1952 (exact date unknown)
Location: Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: Afternoon
Summary: Radar detected a target moving at 700 mph near Kirtland AFB, which then slowed to 100 mph. Two F-86s were scrambled; one pilot fired on the object. The official report was reportedly ordered destroyed.
Source: Ruppelt
Date: September 1952 (exact date unknown)
Location: Summerland, British Columbia, Canada
Time: Morning
Summary: Three relatives waiting at the Okanagan Lake ferry slip watched a translucent, dome-shaped object — initially mistaken for a boat — lift off the water and approach to within 100 feet of their car, hovering silently before crossing the lake and departing. [Full Report]
Source: Witness account (source citation uncertain — see full report)
Date: Sept. 1, 1952
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Time: 9:43 p.m.
Summary: Mrs. William Davis and 9 others saw a light, similar to the evening star, move up and down for a long period.
Source: Berliner
Date: Sept. 1, 1952 (BBU 2022)
Location: Marietta, Georgia
Time: 10:30 p.m.
Summary: Mr. Bowman, an ex-artillery officer, and 24 others saw a red, white, and blue-green object which spun and shot off sparks. A separate witness using binoculars saw two large objects shaped like spinning tops, in the same colors, flying side by side and leaving a sparkling trail for 30 minutes.
Source: Berliner
Date: Sept. 1, 1952
Location: Marietta, Georgia
Time: 10:50 p.m.
Summary: A former USAAF B-25 gunner saw two large white disc-shaped objects with green vapor trails fly in trail formation, merge, then fly away very fast.
Source: Berliner
Date: Sept. 1, 1952 (BBU 2023)
Location: Yaak, Montana
Time: 4:45 a.m.
Summary: Visual sighting by two USAF enlisted men, with radar tracking by three men using an FPS-3 set. Two small, varicolored lights became black silhouettes, possibly of a dark, cigar-shaped object, at dawn, flying erratically. Duration about 1 hour.
Source: Berliner; cf. Ruppelt p. 194
Date: Sept. 2, 1952
Location: Tokyo, Japan (Haneda AFB / Shiroi AFB)
Time: Beginning 2015 hours
Summary: Unidentified flying objects were picked up by the GCA unit at Haneda AFB and later contacted by GCI at Shiroi AFB. The target first appeared 9 miles north of Haneda, traveling 40–60 mph on a heading of 90°. Over the next hour, radar sightings ranged from 1 to 3 targets, producing a clearly visible echo roughly the size of a C-124 aircraft on the PPI scope.
Source: McDonald list
Date: Sept. 2, 1952 (BBU 2025)
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Time: 3 a.m.
Summary: GCA radar controller Turason at Midway Airport tracked 40 targets flying in miscellaneous directions at speeds up to 175 mph; two targets appeared to fly in formation with a DC-6 airliner. Total tracking period about 8 hours.
Source: Dan Wilson, Berliner
Date: Sept. 3, 1952
Location: Tucson, Arizona
Time: 9:00 a.m.
Summary: Instructor pilot Donald L. McCraven of Marana Air Base, with Mr. N. D. Thomas, observed a dark, elliptical object that freely reflected sunlight. It made three well-coordinated turns with no perceptible sound, showing tremendous speed while in a slight climb. Observed for about 1.5 minutes. Project Blue Book evaluation: Unidentified.
Source: Berliner, Dan Wilson
Date: September 4, 1952: Sighting in Anost, Saône-et-Loire, France
Date: Sept. 6, 1952 (BBU 2045)
Location: Lake Charles AFB, Louisiana
Time: 1:30 a.m.
Summary: T/Sgt. J. E. Wilson and two enlisted men saw a bright, star-like light move about the sky. Duration about 2 hours.
Source: Berliner
Date: Sept. 6, 1952 (BBU 2048)
Location: Tucson, Arizona
Time: 4:55 p.m.
Summary: Former U.S. Congresswoman Isabella King and Bill McClain saw an orange, teardrop-shaped object whirl on its vertical axis, descend rapidly, stop, then retrace its path upward while whirling in the opposite direction. Duration about 1.5 minutes.
Source: Berliner
Date: Sept. 7, 1952 (BBU 2049)
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Time: 10:30 p.m.
Summary: Chemist J. W. Gibson and others saw an orange object or light, estimated at a color temperature of 2,000°F, explode into view. Duration 3–20 seconds.
Source: Berliner
Date: Sept. 7, 1952 (BBU 2052)
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Time: Unknown
Summary: Unknown — no further detail survives in the sourced record.
Source: NARA
Date: Sept. 9, 1952 (BBU 2062)
Location: Rabat, French Morocco
Time: 9 p.m.
Summary: USAF Intelligence civilian illustrator E. J. Colisimo saw a disc with lights along part of its circumference, flying twice as fast as a T-33 jet trainer on a slightly curved path. Duration about 5 seconds.
Source: Berliner
Date: Sept. 9, 1952
Location: Portland, Oregon
Time: Unknown
Summary: Two oval objects were observed caught in a searchlight beam.
Source: UFOE, XII
Date: September 12, 1952: Creature in Weston, West Virginia
Date: Sept. 12, 1952 (BBU 2077)
Location: Allen, Maryland
Time: 9:30 p.m.
Summary: Ground Observer Corps observers Mr. and Mrs. David Kolb, using binoculars, saw a white light with red trim and streamers fly northeast. Duration 35 minutes.
Source: Berliner
Date: September 12, 1952: The Flatwoods Monster
Date: September 13, 1952
Location: Frametown, West Virginia
Time: 2000 (8:00 p.m.)
Summary: One day after the Flatwoods Monster encounter in a neighboring county, Mr. and Mrs. George Snitowski’s car stalled near Frametown amid a sulfurous smell; George found a glowing violet globe hovering nearby, then an 8-to-9-foot, spindly-armed entity glided toward the family’s car before both the entity and the globe departed, leaving a V-shaped burn on the car’s hood. [Full Report]
Source: Paul Lieb; Jacques Vallée and Mark A. Hall
Date: Sept. 13, 1952 (BBU 2085)
Location: Near Allentown, Pennsylvania
Time: 7:40 p.m.
Summary: Private pilot W. A. Hobler, flying a Beech Bonanza at 10,000 ft, saw a 3-ft, flaming orange-red object shaped like a fat football at his 11 o’clock high position, about 450–600 ft away, descend at a 30° angle on a collision course. Hobler climbed sharply to avoid it; the object pulled up in a 65° climb in front of his aircraft. He made a rapid 180° turn but lost sight of the object, which he estimated at roughly 700 mph. Duration about 15 seconds.
Source: Berliner; NARCAP
Date: Sept. 14, 1952 (BBU 2086)
Location: Santa Barbara, California
Time: 8:40 p.m.
Summary: USAF C-54 transport pilot Tarbutton saw a blue-white light travel straight and level, then fly upward. Duration about 30 seconds.
Source: Berliner
Date: Sept. 14, 1952 (BBU 2087)
Location: North Atlantic, between Ireland and Iceland
Time: Unknown
Summary: Military personnel from several NATO countries aboard ships participating in Operation Mainbrace reported sightings including a blue-green triangle flying at roughly 1,500 mph, and three objects in triangular formation giving off a white light exhaust, also at roughly 1,500 mph.
Source: Berliner, Wilson, Ridge, BB files
Date: Sept. 14, 1952 (BBU 2089)
Location: White Lake, South Dakota
Time: 7 p.m.
Summary: GOC observer L. W. Barnes, using binoculars, saw a red, cigar-shaped object with three puffs trailing behind it fly west, then south, then vanish. Duration 30–40 minutes.
Source: Dan Wilson, Don Berliner
Date: Sept. 14, 1952 (BBU 2093)
Location: Olmsted AFB, Pennsylvania
Time: Not known
Summary: The pilot of Flying Tiger Airlines aircraft N67977 saw a blue light fly very fast on a collision course with the airliner. The case file’s attached summary card reportedly showed completely different information from the narrative account, a discrepancy noted but not resolved in the surviving record.
Source: Berliner
Date: Sept. 14, 1952 (BBU 2092)
Location: El Paso, Texas
Time: 11:30 p.m.
Summary: Three civilians, including an engineer, observed six groups of luminous spherical or disc-shaped objects traveling in an arc to an inverted “Y” formation at an estimated speed of 4,000 mph and altitude of 10–12 miles. Maneuvers were erratic, including hovering and extremely high speed. Project Blue Book evaluation: Unidentified.
Source: Unknown
Date: September 14, 1952: Remedios, Santa Clara, Cuba
Date: Sept. 14, 1952: Charleston, West Virginia Sighting
Date: September 15, 1952: Wheeling, West Virginia Monster
Date: Sept. 14–15, 1952
Location: Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
Time: 11:30 p.m.–1:20 a.m.
Summary: Consulting engineer R. J. Portis and three others saw six groups of 12–15 luminous spheres or discs, flying in formations varying from arcs to inverted-Ys, at very high speed. Duration 1 hour 50 minutes.
Source: Berliner
Date: Sept. 16, 1952 (BBU 2099)
Location: Portland, Maine
Time: 6:22 p.m.
Summary: The crew of a U.S. Navy P2V Neptune patrol plane saw a group of 5 lights in circular formation while a long, thin blip was simultaneously tracked on radar. A note in the file suggests possible involvement of USAF KC-97 aircraft on a refueling operation. Duration 20 minutes.
Source: Berliner
Date: Sept. 16, 1952 (BBU 2100)
Location: Warner Robins AFB, Georgia
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Summary: Three USAF officers and two civilians saw white lights flying abreast at 100 mph. Duration 15 minutes.
Source: Berliner
Date: Sept. 16, 1952
Location: Belle Glade, Florida
Time: Unknown
Summary: A circular object with a row of lights on its underside passed low overhead; nearby cattle bolted.
Source: UFOE, XII
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A Mass Radar Tracking, a Lake Sighting, and West Virginia’s Extraordinary 48 Hours
The first half of September 1952 opens quietly enough with a routine spread of pilot and radar reports before delivering two of the month’s genuine standouts. Midway Airport’s GCA radar tracked forty separate targets over Chicago for eight hours on September 2 — one of the largest mass-target counts in this archive’s 1952 record. Then, on September 12 and 13, West Virginia produced back-to-back entity encounters in neighboring counties: the internationally famous Flatwoods Monster, and the far less-known Frametown case, newly promoted to its own standalone report this session, in which the Snitowski family’s stalled car became the site of a close encounter with an eight-foot, spindly-armed figure. A translucent daylight disc over an Okanagan Lake ferry crossing in British Columbia — also newly given its own standalone treatment — rounds out the month’s strongest entries.
“A figure about eight or nine feet tall, with a big head, bloated body, and long, spindly arms, gliding rapidly.”
— George Snitowski, Frametown, West Virginia, September 13, 1952
