Harry Barnes

Senior Air Traffic Controller

Air traffic controller who observed and tracked unusual radar targets during the Washington D.C. incidents.

Harry G. Barnes was the senior air traffic controller at Washington National Airport (now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) during the 1952 Washington, D.C., UFO incident. On the night of July 19, 1952, he oversaw the tracking of unidentified objects on radar that exhibited movements "completely radical compared to those of ordinary aircraft," including hovering and rapid direction changes over the White House and the United States Capitol.