Mass Sightings

Washington, 1952: objects over the Capitol two weekends running, on radar, in daylight.

The multi-witness events form the phenomenon's strongest evidentiary class: Washington 1952 (radar-visual), the 1966 Michigan swamp-gas wave (which made a young Gerald Ford demand hearings), Belgium 1989-90 (F-16 locks), Phoenix 1997 (thousands, governor included), the Hudson Valley boomerang (5,000+ reports, 1982-86). Each produced official explanations contested by its own witnesses. The class matters because it resists the psychological explanations that cover single-witness cases — hence its hub position linking the era files.