Report on Sighting of July 26, 2002,
Waldorf/Andrews AFB area, MD

Background Information

• GPS reading for Waldorf site: 38 degrees, 37'24"; 076 degrees, 55'46". Directions indicated below were read from a compass during reenactment of the events.
• Time of sighting was between 1-2 am EDT.
• Witness: Renny Rogers, Waldorf MD. Renny is a Government employee in his early 30's and lives with his wife and 2 collies in a townhouse development in Waldorf, located about 11 miles south of Andrews AFB. His job involves working a late shift, and he is a self-admitted night owl. He was in his living room when the events below began. He has always lived near Andrews AFB and is very familiar with aircraft that fly in and out. His current townhouse is under a flight path for Andrews, and he states that he has never seen the kind of activity before in his life that occurred in the early morning of July 26. His time and spatial estimates are unusually accurate. He has a good eye for spotting aircraft. Although he has a strong interest in the UFO field, this is his first sighting. After the sighting was over, he reported it to WTOP radio, in Washington, D.C., and the Fund for UFO Research. He has extremely strong feelings about pursuing to a final answer the riddle of what he saw and what the military know about it.
• Weather conditions: Few scattered clouds at 3500' with an overcast at 5500-6000'.
• Temperature at Reagan-National Airport, 15 miles NW of Waldorf, was 70 degrees, relative humidity 76%; wind was 5-6 mph from the ESE. (Humidity numbers look a little high, so they need to be checked after corrected data is out.) Visibility was 10 statute miles.

Sequence of Events

1. Witness heard aircraft taking off from Andrews AFB.
2. Jet aircraft rattles his house, afterburner on.
3. Witness sights a blue light being pursued by a fighter.

1. Aircraft take off from Andrews AFB.-- Rogers heard planes take off from Andrews (estimates the time as 1:30-2 am but he is not sure of this), and he estimates that in 5-7-10 minutes they were in his immediate area. After take off, there may have been a very short period with no aircraft noise, but aircraft sounds got louder and louder and sounded as though the jets were circling in his area and not leaving. The noise made him think there were multiple jets in the area. He felt there were more than 2.
2. The aircraft noise level brings Rogers outdoors.-- The noise was rattling the house and was so great that Rogers went outdoors, turning to his right (S) and walking a few steps so he could get away from trees and see the sky. He saw a military fighter flying directly away from him going SSE about 35-45 degrees above the horizon. He was looking directly at the tail end of the aircraft, and its afterburner (orange-white plume of fire) was on and remained on for 2-3 seconds before reducing to a residual short plume for the remainder of the viewing time. No sonic boom was heard. The fighter was in level flight at an estimated altitude of 3000' (broken clouds at 3500' from weather report) and was in view for about 11 seconds*. Rogers goes back indoors.
3. Sighting.-- For approximately 3-5 minutes it was quiet with no jet noise or distant jet noise. Then the noise level increased again to near the previous levels. Rogers goes back outside to see what was happening. He goes out the door to the right (S), and sees nothing this time, though he hears loud jet noise. The he goes to the left of his front door (N). At this point he sees a pale bluish light moving at a phenomenal rate of speed. His sense is that the light is moving in an effortless almost floating manner but at high speed, but not at meteoric speed. When first seen, the light was estimated to be 35 degrees above the horizon in the NE sky above the treeline. When first seen, its path dipped and came back up like a dip in a roller coaster. Rogers estimated that the light dropped 2000' in 1 second, from an altitude of 5000' to 3000' and then a slight rise to perhaps 3500'. It then flew at the estimated 3500'in a straight line to about 85 degrees from the horizon in the ESE sky, where it was obscured by a mature deciduous treeline about 30' from Rogers. The estimated time from first sight to treeline interference was 3-4 seconds.* Speed was constant, straightline, and there was no sound associated with the light. At this point, no aircraft was in view, and although jet noise could be heard, it was not in the immediate vicinity.


Rogers ran to the S and picked up the light again at about 45 degrees from the horizon in the SW sky and moving away from him. About 3 seconds* after finding the light again, a military aircraft flew over his house, which was behind Rogers, coming from the N and straightlining after the blue light. Light and aircraft are now on the same path going SW. Rogers was moving out into the street to keep them in view as long as possible. The aircraft was in sight about 22 seconds* before it could no longer be seen. The blue light was in sight for about 5-6 seconds* before it could no longer be seen (the aircraft could be seen much longer because it was so much bigger than the light). Both the light and the aircraft were lost in the distant sky. Rogers did not know when the aircraft began its pursuit of the light, but when it appeared over his house, he is sure it was then in pursuit of the light but that it had no chance of catching it as the blue light was much faster than the pursuing jet. The aircraft used no afterburner and followed the blue light's path until they both disappeared in the SW sky. Rogers estimates they were between 1000-2000' apart, and he thought they were at about the same altitude. (This may be the most iffy estimate because of viewing angles--JW.)

As the aircraft pursued the light in level straightline flight, it was tipping its wings from side-to-side constantly, at least 4 times to each side. In the partly cloudy sky, the blue light was sometimes briefly obscured or partly obscured by clouds. Because the fighter was so much larger than the light, visual was not lost when broken clouds were between it and the witness.

Description of the light: A constant pale blue in color and starlike, about 2 or 3 times the size of the red wing tip lights of the jet pursuing it. He could see no hard edge to where the light, any more than a hard edge could be seen on a airliner beacon light or radio tower light. The entire light flickered from: light-to-faded-to-light on a cycle of about 1.5 seconds throughout the time it was visible. The brightness of the light was unchanging. He compared the flicker to a high flying airplane beacon light but with different timing. Rogers compared the quality (not the behavior) of the light to "blue" (rather than green) glow sticks held aloft by a helium balloon. He felt the light was not attached to anything. He thought if it were attached to any structure or dark body, he would have seen it, and he did not. It was just a light.

*All times were estimated by re-enactment against a stopwatch.

Investigation to This Point

I interviewed Renny Rogers 3 times by phone, on the July 26, 27, and 29th, and did an in-person interview at his house on July 31, 2002.

NORAD

I spoke with Maj. Barry Venable on July 26. He said that two F-16's were scrambled from Andrews about 1 am to investigate "suspicious air activity over D.C." They found nothing and returned to Andrews.

I asked about the activity over Waldorf, and he said that was close enough to Andrews that they might well fly over the area on return, and it's possible they may have hotdogged to burn up some fuel.

I asked if there was any mechanism whereby the F-16 could project a light ahead of itself. He said no, but at certain angles and in misty weather, an afterburner could appear blue.

He had no information beyond "suspicious air activity" in terms of what initialed the scramble.

I again spoke with Maj. Venable on July 29, when he asked me to email him about what had occurred and what questions I had. But the only information that came forth was: "Two F-16 jets from Andrews Air Force Base were scrambled approximately 0100 hours 26 Jul 02 after radar detected an unknown aircraft. The unidentified aircraft's track subsequently faded from the radar. The F-16s investigated, found nothing out of the ordinary, and returned to base." For operational security reasons, other details would not be discussed.

Radar Tracks

I contacted an acquaintance who is a top notch radar engineer for his thoughts on NORAD's radar comments, particularly asking if the fact that NORAD referred to radar detecting an unknown aircraft meant the target had a transponder. His comments follow:

• Ground movers can often generate radar returns, as can wind blown rain, trees, birds, insect swarms--anything with motion can create a Doppler return that might appear as slow low aircraft.
• The term "aircraft" is probably not enough to infer that they had a transponder return.
• Keep in mind that combat aviation annals are rich with examples of intercept controllers sending fighters in hot pursuit of nothing.

What were the F-16's doing?

F-15 Pilot's Thoughts

Jim Canan asked a former F-15 pilot about his impressions of what these F-16 pilots were doing. His thoughts follow:

• If a fighter is on "max burner," the plume extends outside the "burner can" and is highly visible from the ground. If the fighter is on "min burner," the plume stays inside the can and can only be seen from the ground when the aircraft is moving away from the onlooker. It sounds as if the F-16 in this case was on both max-burn and min-burn.
• If one fighter goes on afterburner and the other does not, it is usually because they want to adjust their relative speeds and change the distance between them.
• Using the afterburner to expend fuel prior to landing is not normal procedure.
• Wing-tipping is sometimes a signal to the wingman who is trailing or abreast, or it is done when the pilot wants to make a minor turn adjustment. Wagging the wings several times may indicate that the pilot was not sure which way to turn and was feeling his way. The latter possibility sounds the most feasible explanation in this case.

Don Ledger's Thoughts

Don Ledger, who has for 20 years owned and flown a Cessna 172, as well as other types of light aircraft, and who has worked with the Air Force over the years in the capacity as a Zone Commander for Civil Air Search and Rescue, also had some thoughts about the F-16 pilots behavior. His comments are summarized below:

• If the F-16 was in afterburner, then it would have been going flat out, usually either climbing or trying to catch up. When the afterburner is cut in, there is a boom associated with the sudden addition of raw fuel in the exhaust pipe and this shows up hot orange to red, while a straight non-afterburner burn is bluer in color at the corona of the flame and more yellow inside. (Rogers did not hear a "boom, but a second witness, Dillman located between Rogers and Andrews AFB did."--JW.)
• On the wing-tipping, if the pilot was following another aircraft close enough or back a bit further in steady air, the vortices that flow back from the lead craft can throw a following aircraft around. It does not take much to create this turbulence.
• Then the question becomes, if the F-16 was responding to turbulence of the lead craft, what does this indicate about the lead craft's configuration, if anything. Vortices usually result as a combination of high pressure (underwing) and low pressure (overwing) combining as they meet at the trailing edge of the wingtips. It would make one wonder if the F-16 was following a conventional aircraft. But if it were an unconventional aircraft, who can say for sure. Just about any body moving through the air creates a vortice.

(A thought that kept occurring to me as I did this investigation: was it possible that the F-16's have some sort of targeting or range-finding equipment that can project a hologram-like image ahead of the craft?--JW.)

Other Witnesses?

Amy Morris, WTOP radio reporter on duty in the early morning hours of July 26, says that the radio station received two phone calls that morning. Once was from Renny Rogers, and it came in between 1:30 and 2 am.

The second, also between 1:30 and 2 am, was a caller who said he saw a bright orange smooth sphere, hovering. When the jets pursued it, it took off and was silent and fast. This second caller was Gary Dillman, the same person whose sighting was covered in the newspaper article referenced below.

A newspaper article (Maryland Independent, Wednesday, July 31, 2002, pages A-1 and A-9) reported on Rogers' sighting and another independent sighting by Gary Dillman, a retired police officer who was working a security job in Brandywine, MD. Brandywine is roughly 6 miles SSE of Andrews AFB and roughly 5-6 miles NNE of Waldorf, almost centered between the two. Dillman, a MUFON member, was aware of jets scrambling at 1 am, and reported they were flying over low and were not in an organized flight pattern. Then while watching the jets, Dillman saw an orange glowing ball over Waldorf. The ball moved in his direction, getting brighter as it moved out of the clouds. The fighter banked toward the orange ball and it banked hard away from the jet, maintained steady speed, and was silent.

Again at about 1:40 am, Dillman saw more of the chase, and then by about 1:55am he saw the fighters heading back to Andrews. Gary's sighting is presented in detail, but separately, on this web site.

On July 26, the day of the sighting, Kenny Young called the Charles County Sheriff's headquarters and spoke with the duty officer, who was not on duty during the time of interest, but who undertook a brief search of the records and did not find any reference to reports of unusual lights.

Kenny also checked with the Charles County office of the Maryland State Police. The dispatcher he spoke with had been on duty during the period of interest, but received no reports about unusual lights, and no police officers reported anything similar.