File 100 · 14 July 1952
Nash–Fortenberry, Virginia
Over Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, United States
Opened 9/4/2026
Ledger illustration of the file — not a photograph of the object. Ledger illustration of the report. Coastal night under an airway. — Night Ledger illustration of the file
Standing
Unidentified
On the public record, and still open. A claim, paper, or film — not a finding that it was ours, and not a finding that it was not.
What was claimed
A Pan Am DC-4 crew watched eight disks in a line reverse formation and streak away. Several ground witnesses agreed on the time.
What is on the record
This file is a working record — a report, not a verdict. Official paper, if any, is linked where we have it.
First Officer William Nash and Second Officer William Fortenberry, flying Pan Am Flight 250 at 8,000 feet, saw six amber disks in a stepped-up echelon below them, joined by two more, then watched the line flip arrangement and accelerate out of sight in a matter of seconds. They estimated diameter, speed, and altitude on the cockpit pad before landing.
Ground observers in Virginia and the Carolina coast reported lights at the same minutes. Blue Book carried the case as unidentified. Two airline officers, a clear night, and a formation that did not fly like aircraft.
Could this have been ours?
The known sky, that night.
Before Sputnik the known lights were planets, meteors, aircraft, and balloons. No station. No Starlink.
Always
Aircraft, balloons, meteors
Landing lights, flares, lanterns, reentries, fireballs. They are on the known sky. They do not close a file by themselves — they are what a serious look has to hold the claim against.
Orbit · Space — the desks for lights that are already named.
Sources
Related files
Same craft, same place, same years. A neighbor in the catalogue — not a conclusion.
Same craft · Same country · 14 August 2026
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Same craft · Same country · January 21, 2015
GIMBAL
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Same craft · Same country · 7 November 2006
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Unidentified
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Same craft · August 6, 2026, evening
Disk shoots across sky leaving trail, photographed
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Unidentified
While photographing an unusual storm, the witness and family saw a disk zoom across the sky at hypersonic speed with no sound. The long-exposure photo captured the metallic disk with a visible trail and possible greenish cloud/wormhole above it.
Same craft · May 2026 (circulated September 2026)
Glowing disc over a bowling-alley lot, Argentina
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Young people outside a bowling alley later found a luminous disc in their night video; Argentine researchers circulated the clip in September.
Same craft · Mid-April 2013
Collahuasi Mine Disk Photos
Collahuasi Copper Mine, Tarapacá Region · Chile
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Multiple mine workers observed and photographed a bright, flattened silvery disk performing vertical and horizontal maneuvers at about 600 meters altitude for roughly two hours in clear skies. CEFAA analyzed the images and concluded it was a genuine UFO after ruling out conventional explanations.