◆ CASE FILEThe facts, corroborated
The Yellow Sphere over Anacostia
On the morning of 30 April 1948 a Navy pilot flying just south of Anacostia saw a yellow sphere 25 to 40 feet across heading north, against the upper wind, into the prohibited airspace over the Capitol and the White House. He wrote it up four days later and said it looked like a balloon. This is the record of what one pilot reported, not a verdict on what flew over Washington.
◆ THE SHORT VERSION
- The Yellow Sphere over Anacostia is a reported UAP case south of Naval Air Station Anacostia, Washington, D.C., 30 April 1948.
- A Navy lieutenant commander reported a yellow sphere 25 to 40 feet across flying north against the upper wind into the prohibited airspace over the Capitol and the White House.
- He did not follow it, his memo says, because it was entering that prohibited area.
- The pilot himself wrote that it appeared to be a yellow balloon and drew his attention mainly because of its flight path.
- J. Allen Hynek's evaluation in the Blue Book file reads: it appears to have been a balloon.
- For this case Fractured Realities holds 3 distinct sources, 3 corroborating primary documents and 1 claimant on its resolved list.
- The archive grades it L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it, the top of our scale, though no independent testimony sits beside that record.
Counts are resolved totals of what sources say, computed 2026-10-03; the reported details above are claims in the record, not findings. A record of reports, not a verdict on what happened.
EVENT DATE
30 April 1948
LOCATION
south of Naval Air Station Anacostia, Washington, D.C. · USA
COORDS
38.83°N 77.02°W
INDEPENDENCE
L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD
SOURCES
3 distinct
CLAIMANTS
1
STATUS
Known from released government records
NUMBERS COMPUTED 2026-10-03 · RESOLVED COUNTS, NOT A VERDICT
