among the witnesses who supported samford's explanation was the crew of a b-25 bomber, which had been flying over washington during the sightings of july 26–27. the bomber was vectored several times by national airport over unknown targets on the airport's radarscopes, yet the crew could see nothing unusual. finally, as a crew member related, "the radar had a target which turned out to be the wilson lines steamboat trip to mount vernon... the radar was sure as hell picking up the steamboat." air force captain harold may was in the radar center at andrews afb during the sightings of july 19–20. upon hearing that national airport's radar had picked up an unknown object heading in his direction, may stepped outside and saw "a light that was changing from red to orange to green to red again...at times it dipped suddenly and appeared to lose altitude." however, may eventually concluded that he was simply seeing a star that was distorted by the atmosphere, and that its "movement" was an illusion. at 3 a.m. on july 27, an eastern airlines flight over washington was told that an unknown object was in its vicinity; the crew could see nothing unusual. when they were told that the object had moved directly behind their plane, they began a sharp turn to try to see the object, but were told by national airport's radar center that the object had "disappeared" when they began their turn.