It was the summer of 1952, and it was hot. But despite the sweltering temperatures, people were still enjoying the outdoors, and they began to notice something amiss: there were strange things in the sky. Multiple reports were made in the few weeks leading up to July 27, when the sightings would culminate into one of the strangest things to ever be seen in the skies over Indiana. It was, and still is, one of the most notorious UFO sightings in Indiana, and it was witnessed by hundreds of people, including police officers and military personnel.
The objects were described by panicked residents as being egg-shaped, and as large as a house.
There were three of them in the early-morning sky, and for the life of them, nobody could figure out what on earth (or, perhaps, not-from-earth) they were. They were glowing a blue-grey color, and each had a long, brilliant "tail" extending from the back of it, kind of like that of a meteor.
Reports poured in from concerned citizens all over Indiana and, as it turns out, we weren't the only ones.
There were bizarre sightings of objects in the sky all over the United States during July of 1952. A wave of UFO sightings during a short period of time is called a "flap", and this particular instance would come to be known as the Washington Flap.
Residents of Franklin, Indiana, reported that these bizarre objects seemed to be "dog fighting" each other over the town.
They would rush and chase one another, moving in very strange, unnatural ways. One witness described it as being similar to the movement created when a child jerks several balloons around on their strings.
The sightings garnered national attention, and The Indy Star published a piece on July 28, 1952, detailing the accounts of terrified Hoosiers.
The three objects were reported to have moved along, according to the papers, and hovered for a while over the Naval Armory in Franklin before flying off toward Martinsville, located a half-hour west.
They continued to move at speeds and in ways that no aircraft could at that time, like figure-eight patterns with odd, jerky motions.
It's said that Indiana State Police kept eyes on the objects for more than five hours that morning, and one was reported as saying "Those things were so weird that I hesitate to talk about them."
Interestingly, several airports around the county reported bizarre blips on radar that they could not account for. The Air Force, however, sternly denied that there was anything at all on their own radar. It is unknown why they so vehemently denied the reports, considering the objects had hundreds of witnesses spanning across numerous states.
To this day, it is not known what the objects were, where they were from, or what they were doing.
The simplest and most rational explanation is that they were man-made crafts of some sort. Perhaps they were military experiments or Air Force drills with technology unknown to the public at that time. Unfortunately, we won't likely ever know, but that's a part of what makes the mystery fun.
So, what do you think about these bizarre UFO sightings in Indiana? Have you ever seen something in the sky you just couldn't explain? Tell us all about it in the comments... if you dare.
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