Sighting record / 1952
December 10, 1952. Eastern Washington, after dark. An F-94 interceptor from Moses Lake is on air-defence patrol at 26,000 feet when its crew spots a light ahead. Ground control knows of no aircraft in the area. The jet closes in. Out of the night comes a large, round, white shape, with a dim reddish light glowing from two "windows." Visual contact is lost. The radar locks on. For about 15 minutes the pilot and the radar observer give chase. The object reverses. It dives away. It comes at them on a collision course. Project Blue Book called it a possible balloon. Others were never convinced.
The Hanford plant was an atomic installation in the desert of Washington state. Fighter crews from Moses Lake AFB flew air-defence patrols over the region. When Edward J. Ruppelt told this story in his 1956 book The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, he placed it "near the Hanford plant in Washington." The Blue Book records put it somewhere else. Over Odessa, Washington, more than 50 miles north-east of the Hanford reservation.