Project Blue Book Case #2246. On November 24, 1952, witnesses in Annandale, Virginia — a community in Fairfax County just 15 miles from downtown Washington, D.C. — observed a bright object in the sky. Annandale's significance extends beyond its suburban character: the CIA's new headquarters complex at Langley was under construction just a few miles to the north, and the community was home to many intelligence and defense professionals.
The Washington, D.C., metropolitan area had been the stage for the most famous UFO events in history just four months earlier, when unknown objects were tracked on radar over the capital on July 19-20 and July 26-27. The appearance of another unknown in the D.C. suburbs extended the pattern of anomalous activity in the nation's most sensitive airspace.
Annandale sat beneath the restricted airspace zones protecting the White House, Capitol, and Pentagon. Every aircraft in this area was tracked and identified as a matter of national security. The failure to identify the November object — despite the comprehensive radar and air traffic control coverage — was particularly noteworthy.
The Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington housed the nation's intelligence community. Residents of Annandale in 1952 included CIA, NSA, and military intelligence personnel — observers with security clearances and trained analytical minds.
No conventional explanation was found. The case was classified "Unknown."