This Air Force Jet Was Scrambled to Intercept a UFO—Then Disappeared

The night an Air Force jet mysteriously disappeared over Lake Superior—November 23, 1953—was a stormy one. Near the U.S.-Canadian border, U.S. Air Defense Command noticed a blip on the radar where it shouldn’t have been: an unidentified object in restricted air space over Lake Superior, not far from Soo Locks, the Great Lakes’ most vital commercial gateway. An F-89C Scorpion jet, from Truax Air Force Base in Madison, Wisconsin, took off from nearby Kinross AFB to investigate, with two crew members on board. First Lieutenant Felix Moncla—who had clocked 811 flying hours, including 121 in a similar aircraft—took the pilot’s seat, while Second Lieutenant Robert Wilson was observing radar. The men would not return from their intercept mission. What followed, according to Donald Keyhoe, the former Marine Corps naval aviator and UFO researcher who wrote about the incident in his 1955 book The Flying Saucer Conspiracy—was “one of the strangest cases on record.”

The two radar blips ‘converge’

Once airborne, Lieutenant Wilson had difficulty tracking the unknown object, which kept changing course. So with ground control directing the aviators over the radio, the Scorpion gave chase. The jet, traveling at 500 miles per hour, pursued the object for 30 minutes, gradually closing in.On the ground, the radar operator guided the jet down from 25,000 to 7,000 feet, watching one blip chase the other across the radar screen. Gradually, the jet caught up to the unknown object about 70 miles off Keweenaw Point in upper Michigan, at an altitude of 8,000 feet, approximately 160 miles northwest of Soo Locks.

At that point, the two radar blips converged into one—“locked together,” as Keyhoe would put it later. And then, according to an official accident report, the radar return from the F-89 simply “disappeared from the GCI [ground-controlled interception] station’s radar scope.” And then the first radar return, indicating the unidentified object, veered off and vanished too. The United States Air Force, United States Coast Guard and Canadian Air Force conducted an extensive search-and-rescue effort. No wreckage, or sign of the pilots, was ever found.

The Air Force flip-flops in its explanation

The Air Force’s official news release about the disappearance, delivered to the Associated Press, stated that the vanished jet “was followed by radar until it merged with an object 70 miles off Keweenaw Point in upper Michigan.” The statement appeared in a story in the Chicago Tribune with the headline, “JET, TWO ABOARD, VANISHES OVER LAKE SUPERIOR.”

The Air Force soon retracted the statement and changed its story: According to the new statement, the ground control radar operator had misread the scope. In fact, the F-89 had successfully completed the mission, intercepting and identifying the UFO as a Dakota—a Royal Canadian Air Force C-47 aircraft—flying some 30 miles off course. Lieutenant Moncla, probably stricken with vertigo, crashed into the lake during the return to base. Canadian officials refuted the account—no flights had taken place in the area that night. According to Keyhoe, who would write about the Kinross Incident again in his 1973 book Aliens From Space, two separate Air Force representatives provided Lieutenant Moncla’s widow with contradictory explanations of the incident. In one version of events, the pilot had crashed into the lake while flying too low. In the other, the jet exploded at a high altitude.

The investigators’ take

The case file from Project Blue Book, the Air Force’s own UFO investigatory team, reiterated the Air Force assertion that the jet “successfully accomplished its mission,” and that the crash was an accident, “probably” caused by an “attack of vertigo.” It attributed the abnormal radar behavior to unusual “atmospheric conditions” and deemed the inability to recover wreckage as understandable, given the deep water.

Meanwhile, investigators from the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) discovered that any mention of the mission had been expunged from official records. And the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center’s official line on the case was: “There is no record in the Air Force files of sighting at Kinross AFB on 23 November 1953… There is no case in the files which even closely parallels these circumstances.”

In the absence of a thorough and satisfying official explanation, “civilian saucer groups,” as Project Blue Book would call them, developed their own theories. According to one, the jet had crashed into the UFO’s protective beam like a “concrete wall.” Others speculated that the jet may have been “scooped” out of the air and taken aboard the spacecraft—perhaps so the captured men could teach their alien captors the English language.

In 1968, there were local newspaper reports of military jet fragments discovered near the shore of Lake Superior, but the find was never verified. In 2006, Adam Jiminez, claiming to be a representative of the Great Lakes Dive Company, corresponded with UFO bloggers and members of the UFO community. He claimed that not only had an airplane wreck been discovered in the area, but a metallic object resembling a chunk of a flying saucer as well. UFO researchers soon exposed inaccuracies in Jimenez’s story, and concluded that the Great Lakes Dive Company did not exist. Eventually, Adam Jimenez, too, vanished without a trace.

Source: https://www.history.com/news/ufo-fighter-jet-disappears-over-lake-superior-kinross-incident

Pilot David Hastings took a photo of a UFO while flying over the Mojave Desert, September 9, 1985

UK pilots have reported a number of chilling near-misses with UFOs.

One incident involved David Hastings, a British pilot pictured to the left, who, along with his co-pilot, David Paterson, was flying a Cessna Skymaster plane over the Mojave Desert in America on Sept. 9, 1985. "We were sitting there enjoying the sunshine when we both suddenly saw this speck out on the horizon at our 12 o'clock position," Hastings told HuffPost. "This speck suddenly grew extremely quickly until we saw this huge shadow go over the top of us," he recounted. "But the most amazing thing about it was there was no noise and absolutely no movement or turbulence at all. We looked at each other, saying, 'What the hell was that?'"

In 2003, Captain Kiriazes says he had a UFO encounter that would haunt him for years

NARRATOR:  After interviewing an airline pilot who had to take evasive action to avoid hitting a UFO, Lue Elizondo meets a new pilot who claims a UFO intercepted his plane in one of the closest alleged encounters on record.  Peter Kiriazes flew multiple aircraft from fighter jets to the Boeing 777 for more than 30 years.

LUE:  Pete is one of those guys who's trained to actually go into combat and look for trouble.

NARRATOR:  In 2003, Captain Kiriazes says he had a UFO encounter that would haunt him for years and underscore what's at stake for millions of passengers.

PETE:  It was a little bit after 9/11; everybody was, uh, a little sensitive.  It was a beautiful night; no clouds, smooth air.  We blasted off from Dallas-Fort Worth; we had one leg left, to Charlotte.  The airplane was functioning perfectly.  We got up to 35,000 feet and started cruising, and everybody just relaxed.  And then all of a sudden I get a radar altimeter display.  And it immediately just pops on.  It's a simple system; it's just emitting a straight vertical radar beam.  It has to bounce off something.  It can't just generate.

NARRATOR: Captain Kiriazes is shocked. The altimeter is telling him something is only 2500 feet directly below his plane.

PETE: I'm thinking it's got to be erroneous. It's got to be just a mistake. 

NARRATOR: But then the situation becomes much more serious.

PETE:  So then it goes 2200, 2300, 2000, 1800, 1700, and then it stops.  Some object was coming up underneath me, unverifiable, unidentifiable, but undeniable.

LUE:  They call the tower; the tower sees nothing.  There's nothing on radar.

NARRATOR:  Then, as the captain and his copilot continue to monitor the radar altimeter, the mysterious object makes moves again.

PETE:  And then [the altimeter] goes 1800, 1700, 1500, 1200; it went to 1000 feet.  It was behaving in a way that wouldn't really be logical if it was broken.

PETE:  So we made some shallow S-turns and, you know, we're trying to look over our wing and below us and behind us, and we couldn't see anything.  And then it went 800, 700, 500, 400, 300, and it stopped.  I mean, the worst possible situation to be in as a captain.  Your brain says this can't be happening, but you have to deal with it in the here and now, in the present.  So then it goes 200.  Then it goes 100.

 LUE: How close is 100 feet when you're flying an aircraft? It's a thumbnail away from where you're at, and that distance can be closed in literally a fraction of a second.

PETE:  It's the worst-case scenario; it's not even thinkable.  You have the responsibility of all these lives.  You have to make a split-second decision coming soon, and you have nothing to base it on but one bit of information.

NARRATOR:  If Captain Kiriazes' readings are correct, something is flying directly under his plane and closing in.  He readies himself to take control.

PETE:  My thumb was hovering over the autopilot button.  I said, if it gets inside 100 feet, I'm going to maneuver [evasively, by climbing to a higher altitude].  It just stayed there, it seemed just eternal; it was just so long.  And then it just — it just went away!  And at that point our heart rate's going pretty fast, and we thought, what the heck just happened?

NARRATOR:  A short time later, the flight lands in Charlotte, and Captain Kiriazes begins looking for answers.

PETE:  I checked the log book on that airplane.  It never had happened before.  And in all the 30 years of flying with a radar altimeter, that has never happened.  With anybody I've ever talked to, it's never happened.

NARRATOR:  Experts are at a loss as to what could have been beneath the plane.

PETE:  I've talked to some very brilliant pilots, and I've posed this to them many times, and no one can really give me a good answer.

PETE:  And so the conclusion is there's Something Else with the technology that's much more sophisticated than ours, that's operating with an additional set of physical laws and rules.

Voici donc son témoignage

« A cette époque, le ciel de l’Etat de Michigan est régulièrement traversé par des « ballons » d’origine inconnue. Le traumatisme de Pearl Harbour étant encore très vivace dans les esprits yankees, ils sont considérés par beaucoup comme des engins d’observation et d’espionnage venus du Japon. A la demande du commandant de la base de Selfridge et en l’absence d’autres candidats, compte tenu des issues tragiques de certaines tentatives récentes, je me porte volontaire pour intercepter les « ballons » et décolle en urgence.

A bord de mon P47 j’ai beau monter pour atteindre mon objectif, de façon surprenante, entre mon appareil et ces ballons la distance demeure inchangée ! Arrivé à près de 55 000 pieds, malgré les difficultés de pilotage – froid et altitude – je réussis à lâcher une longue rafale de mes 8 mitrailleuses calibre 12,7 mm en direction des ballons. A ma grande surprise, ces ballons se transforment alors en soucoupes volantes, s’éloignent et disparaissent à une vitesse exceptionnelle, laissant derrière elles des traces semblables à celles d’avions à réaction à haute altitude.

Au sol, le « combat aérien » a été suivi avec attention par plus de 1 000 témoins oculaires, à l’aide de jumelles de fort grossissement, de télescopes (ou de ce qui à l’époque en tenait lieu) pour certains, et des traînées laissées dans le ciel par les protagonistes. Les militaires de la base de Selfridge ont pu ainsi constater qu’il ne s’agissait aucunement de simples ballons d’observation.

A mon retour sur terre, je suis fêté comme un héros par le Colonel commandant de la base. Le rapport de débriefing est envoyé au Pentagone. Il n’y aura de la part des autorités aucun retour concernant cet « incident ».

Peu après la fin des hostilités en 1947, Jean KISLING entre à Air France où il officie comme jeune copilote sur les avions de ligne de type « Constellation ».

Il nous raconte

« En 1952 ou 1953, lors d’une escale à New-York / Ildlewild, nous sommes informés par le Directeur de l’aéroport que notre Superconstellation va faire l’objet d’une attention toute particulière de la part d’une escorte de gardes armés déployés sur le tarmac. Il nous explique que nous allons prendre en charge une délégation d’une dizaine de personnes en bordure de piste qui seront les seuls passagers à bord. Et de fait, je remarque que l’escorte surveille soigneusement l’embarquement en veillant à ce qu’aucun regard indiscret ne puisse épier le groupe en partance.

Le vol à cette époque étant long (environ 12 heures), je vais me détendre à un moment donné à l’arrière de l’appareil réservé à la délégation et me retrouve assis à côté d’une personne d’une soixantaine d’années. La conversation s’engageant curieusement sur la question des UFOs, je relate ce que j’ai vécu dans le Michigan.

Mon interlocuteur m’indique alors que la délégation qu’il conduit, une fois arrivée à Orly, doit prendre la correspondance en direction de l’Europe de l’Est pour discuter – entre autres choses – de cette sulfureuse question avec ses homologues soviétiques.

Il m’affirme en plus qu’ils – les Américains – savent parfaitement qui je suis. La CIA déjà… Il mentionne dans la foulée qu’il existe au Pentagone un bureau dédié à l’étude des « Flying discs » et révèle qu’ils ont récupéré quelques années auparavant une soucoupe volante, qui s’est écrasée du côté de El Paso (Texas) et dont tous les occupants étaient décédés.

A ma question : « Pourquoi n’en informez-vous pas les citoyens américains ? », il me répond qu’il leur est impossible de révéler la vérité, car cela entrainerait une panique généralisée sur toute la planète !

Plus tard, dans les années 60, j’ai eu à nouveau l’occasion d’être confronté au phénomène OVNI en Argentine où l’observation de tels phénomènes aériens n’était pas rare. »

Plus de 63 ans après ces événements, quel est le sentiment de Jean KISLING sur cette énigme ?

Voici sa réponse

« Pour moi, il n’existe pas le moindre doute, les soucoupes volantes existent et viennent d’un autre système solaire. Je suis extrêmement étonné que de soit-disant grands scientifiques refusent encore obstinément à l’heure actuelle d’accepter l’idée de l’existence d’une vie E.T. intelligente à travers le cosmos et par là-même d’extra-terrestres. Face à ce défi posé à notre humanité, j’estime que nous sommes encore à l’époque de Galilée !... »

ANALYSE DE SON TÉMOIGNAGE:

Compte tenu de la personnalité et de la carrière de Jean KISLING, il paraît difficile de mettre en doute la sincérité et l’authenticité de son témoignage concernant un événement également observé par un millier de témoins oculaires.

Ce témoignage, exceptionnel à plus d’un titre, soulève un certain nombre de questions concernant la position officielle des autorités américaines face au phénomène OVNI d’une part, et leurs actions officieuses dans ce domaine d’autre part :

1. Le survol du territoire américain par des objets non identifiés durant l’été 45 n’était pas une réelle surprise pour les autorités américaines : des opérations de défense aérienne avaient été engagées, justifiées par la situation de guerre avec le Japon et le traumatisme de Pearl Harbor et un certain nombre d’avions perdus pour des causes non entièrement élucidées ;

2. Contrairement à la position officielle classique des autorités consistant à affirmer la non existence du phénomène OVNI, les autorités américaines avaient parfaitement identifié Jean KISLING en tant qu’ancien pilote de chasse aux USA et copilote à Air France;

3. Ils ne pouvaient donc pas ignorer son engagement aérien face aux « ballons » du Michigan. Le fait qu’aucun RETEX n’ait été renvoyé du Pentagone au Colonel dirigeant la base de Selfridge pose une véritable question. Il peut aussi constituer une vraie réponse en soi… ;

4. Il est étonnant que le chef de la délégation ait lié conversation aussi facilement avec Jean KISLING. Il mentionne que les autorités américaines ont récupéré un objet matériel avec des EBEs (Entités Biologiques Extraterrestres) décédées; dans quel but ? Il mentionne également – toujours dans quel but ? – comme objet du déplacement de la délégation, des discussions entre autorités russes et américaines sur la question OVNI, ce qui témoignerait d’une certaine entente tacite dès cette époque entre les deux superpuissances.

Alain BOUDIER, Pierre BESCOND,

Khoa DANG-TRAN, membres

de la Commission 3AF-PAN

LA VIE DES COMMISSIONS

Captain Gibian reported that Harvey had called his attention to the object "as he would have done if it had been an airplane." The co-pilot had asked, "Is that plane going east or west?" When the object began to diminish rapidly in size, it appeared to be going toward the northwest at very high speed. Gibian described it as "going like hell when it disappeared." Both men watched it vanish from view. Gibian said the object appeared to be at 9,000 feet as their airliner began descending from an 8,000-foot altitude. It also appeared to be "weaving," as if "it were going through choppy air." Gibian said that the air at that time was somewhat bumpy. He was convinced the object was no airplane. Although he couldn't estimate its distance, he said that if it was "40 miles or so distant from the airliner, it was as big as an airplane." Both pilots agreed that they had never seen such a thing before, and they expressed their concern over possible military experiments being carried out in commercial air lanes.

At least two newspapers dedicated a short article to the case. Below is the most detailed one of the two, published in the Vallejo News Chronicle of July 29, 1947.

On the evening of July 4th at Boise, Idaho, Captain Smith was walking up the ramp to board his plane, flight 105, for a trip to Seattle when someone mentioned the massive wave of saucers taking place all day over the northwest. Captain Smith joked: "I'll believe in those discs when I see them." Shortly after takeoff five disc-like objects, one larger than the rest, approached Captain Smith's DC-3 head on.

Source: James McDonald, Statement to US Congressional Hearings/UFO Symposium, 1968 

[go to original source]

From Dr. Richard Haines: 

"Captain Smith stated that he knew what they saw were not reflections, smoke, fireworks, nor airplanes."

Pilots interviews:

The eye-witness account below is from a US Navy interrogation conducted with Capt. Emil J. SMITH on July 9, 1947. The interview is quoted in : GROSS, Loren E., The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse, UFOs: A History, 1947 June 24th - July 6th, Supplemental Notes, private publication Fremont, CA (2000).

We left Boise, Idaho, at 2004 Pacific Standard Time. At approximately 2015, the co-pilot, Ralph Stevens, called my attention to the first object [seen? Not clear]. We were then in the vicinity of Emmet, Idaho, our altitude was approximately 6500, and we were climbing to our proposed cruising altitude of [not clear] from there to Pendleton, Oregon. The heading of the plane at that time was 300 degrees Magnetic North, and the object (one) was sighted at approximately 290 degrees, or ten degrees to our left. Then an additional four objects appeared to the left of the main, or first, object. These four objects appeared slightly smaller than the first object sighted, but all of the objects appeared on the same plane. I estimated the altitude of the objects to be about 8500. They were within our sight for approximately [not clear] minutes, then they disappeared.

Shortly after the first group disappeared, probably one or two minutes later, the second group appeared about 310 degrees, or to the right of the plane. Their altitude was the same as the first group. Three of the objects appeared to be on the same plane, and one object appeared slightly higher and to the right of the others. The second group stayed within our sight twelve to fifteen minutes, then disappeared. We had levelled off by the time the second group disappeared.

The objects were flat on the base, the top slightly rough in contour. The dimensions appeared the same as a DC-3 approximately five miles from us. In other words, it could have been ninety miles away if it would be possible for an object as large as that would have to be flying, but since we didn't know what we were looking at or how large it was, we decided that if it were the size of a DC-3 wing span (90 feet), it was about five miles distant. Actually, we have no idea just how large it was since we could not determine its distance from us. When we first sighted the objects, we decided they were either going away from us or coming towards us. After a short while, however, we knew they couldn't be coming towards us, because we never approached them. I don't believe they could have been going a reat rate of speed and still stayed in sight for as long as they did. I would judge they might have been travelling about 300 miles per hour.

My personal opinion regarding the objects are - that their speed varied, was not constant. When first sighted, they were going slow and stayed within sight for quite some time. However, when we lost sight of them, they seemed to disappear practically immediately. I think they either put on a tremendous burst of speed and disappeared from sight, or else they dissipated. Also, it appeared that only one object, the large one, was controlled, and it in turn controlled the other objects, and I think they were ground controlled.

In both instances, the co-pilot sighted the objects first and called my attention to them. The weather was clear and unlimited, with not a cloud in the sky. We checked the wind, and it was 230-10, or out of the Southwest at ten miles per hour. The air speed of the ship was about 185 MPH. The sun was below the horizon and the objects were silhouetted against the sky, hence we could distinguish no color or reflection.

Ralph STEVENS, co-pilot of the plane, was interviewed separately on the same day as Capt. SMITH (July 9, 1947). STEVENS stated substantially as follows:

I was flying the plane when I spotted the first object at 2012 on the 4th of July, eight minutes after departure from Boise, Idaho. I thought it was an oncoming aircraft similar to ours (DC-3) about five miles away, so turned on our landing lights, which is the usual signal to another plane to let it know you're in the vicinity. I mentioned this fact to Smith, and he watched the object also. While we were both watching, four more objects appeared at the same altitude as the first. They seemed to be at the same altitude as our plane, about 6,000 feet. They were heading about 290 degree magnetic North, so I turned to follow them. We watched them for four or five minutes, then they all merged as one and disappeared. I don't know whether they merged in line of flight or not, nor do I know whether they went beyond our vision or whether they dissipated.

Two minutes later, the large object reappeared with three smaller ones on its left and one smaller one a great distance to the right. We had the second group in sight for about twelve minutes. The last time seen, they were still in that formation and disappeared into the sunset. Also, when we last saw them, they seemed to have continued climbing after we levelled off and were about nine or ten thousand feet.

At the time we saw the objects, the sun was below the horizon, but there was quite a bright red glow above the horizon from the sunset. I couldn't really say what distance they were from us, not knowing what they were or how large they were. However, while we were watching them we radioed ahead to Ontario, Oregon, about thirty miles distant, to the weather station there, and told them what we were seeing and asked them to go outside and see if they could see them. They radioed back and said they could see nothing, so the objects could have been beyond Ontario, since we had told them that they were between our plane and Ontario. It should also be [said? Not clear] that the personnel at Ontario would be looking at a dark sky and not be likely to be able to see them anyway.

I can't say whether are man-made disks or not, whether they are radio controlled or not, or anything about them. They did not maneuver much at all, except when the first group merged. All I can say is that they were going our direction and were climbing. I don't think they were clouds, as there hadn't been a cloud in the sky, and it would have been quite a phenomenon as it was like nothing I had ever seen before. There was a big difference in the size of the objects. The smaller ones were hard to distinguish as to shape, they were not shiny, nor did they "flip". I couldn't swear on a [bible? Not clear] they were not clouds, but I think it impossible. Had they been clouds, they wouldn't have appeared and disappeared so suddenly, and we [could? Not clear] have approached them.

As we were taxiing out to take off from Boise, the tower called us and asked us if we had seen any disks lately. As a consequence, we were and had been talking about the flying disks when we sighted them. I don't believe, however, that it was a figment of the imagination, as Smith and I were seeing the same things, even the object far off to the right in the second group. We also called the stewardess, who had not been in on the conversation, and without mentioning "disks" asked her what she saw. She stated that she saw the same things we did, which seemed to prove to us that it was not our imagination.

Date: February 10, 1951 - Location: Gandor, Newfoundland, Canada

US Naval Reserve Lieutenant Graham Bethune, copilot of Flight 125, first sighted a huge object [at least] 300 feet in diameter on a near collision course with their aircraft. "A rough estimate would be at least 300 feet in diameter, over 1,000 miles per hour in speed, and approached to within 5 miles of the aircraft."

Graham Bethune presenting testimony about his 1951 UFO encounter, during the Disclosure Project Press Conference in Washington, D.C. on May 9, 2001. (credit: Disclosure Project)

This is an annotated drawing by Graham Bethune explaning the movements and changes of aspect of the flying disk during the whole observation. (Credit: ufologie.net)

One of the Best UFO story's of all time is the Bethune/Gander incident of February 10, 1951 and this case involved credible qualified observers that were U.S. Navy personel Flying in a C-54 Aircraft at 10,000 ft. that observed an unidentified object over the Atlantic Ocean, near Newfoundland Canada for about 8 minutes.

Flight crew members said an orange rimmed with dark center UFO was approximately 300 ft. in diameter and was first spotted hovering over the water. As their plane approached and got closer to the object the UFO must have been startled by the unexpected visitors and began to change colors and grow in size and made an advancement towards their position.

The giant UFO shot up towards them and the startled crew members banged their heads during an effort to try and duck for cover. the object then paced the Airplane and positioned itself about a hundred feet below and about 2 hundred feet ahead. after a short peroid the UFO reversed direction at a very sharp angle and disappeared over the horizon.

Although there is no picture of the object, there was enough witness testimony along with the object being tracked on DEW line ground radar at the base in Goose Bay, Labrador to validate the sighting. crew members upon landing were interrogated by Air Force intelligence officers and later interrogated by Naval intelligence. the entire crew was instructed to fill out reports about the incident. this event was registered in the project blue book records and the project card lists this sighting as an Aurora display !

On February 10, a US Navy flight, Atlantic/Continental Air Transport Squadron one, located at USN Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland, was out of Keflavik, Iceland at 49-50 degrees north latitude and 50-03 degrees west longitude about 150 kilometers [90 miles] west of Gander, Newfoundland out over the Atlantic Ocean. The aircraft was probably bound for Gander to refuel judging by its position and course of 230 degrees true, though the report does not mention this. US Naval Reserve Lieutenant Graham Bethune, co-pilot of Flight 125, was occupying the captain¹s seat on the left side of the cockpit in the passenger plane when he first sighted a huge object [at least] 300 feet in diameter on a near collision course with their aircraft.

The copilot stated in his official report, "...I observed a glow of light below the horizon about 1,000 to 1,500 feet [330-470 meters] above the water. We both [the pilot as well] observed its course and motion for about 4 or 5 minutes before calling it to the attention of the other crew members. ...Suddenly its angle of attack changed. Its altitude and size increased as though its speed was in excess of 1,000 miles [1,670 kilometers] per hour. It closed in so fast that the first feeling was we would collide in mid air. At this time its angle changed and the color changed. It then [appeared] definitely circular and reddish orange on its perimeter. It reversed its course and tripled its speed until it was last seen disappearing over the horizon."

The copilot¹s report goes on to say that the object came within five miles of their aircraft which was borne out by radar evidence of the encounter because the object had been tracked by DEW Line Ground Radar at the base in Goose Bay, Labrador.

Years later Bethune was able to retrieve the reports from the National Archives and confirmed that the UFO they encountered that night had traveled 10,000 feet straight up in a fraction of a second and was tracked on radar at 1,800 miles per hour, well exceeding the 500 miles-per-hour capacity of the most advanced man-made craft at that time.

Bethune noted that his onboard magnetic compasses were spinning wildly while the mystery craft was nearby.

We had 31 people on board and a psychiatrist ­ we all witnessed it," he said, before adding to raucous applause: "I will testify under oath before Congress that everything I have said is true.

Weather clear, visibility from 15 miles to unlimited, no other weather information available. No unusual meteorological activity known to exist and having any in-fluence on the sighting. This object could not have been a comet as the object was below and between the aircraft and ocean.

Référence: Gandor Case Synopsis - February 10, 1951, Off Newfoundland, Canada

The Milton Torres 1957 UFO Encounter is a case reported by a former jet pilot in the United States Air Force, Milton John Torres, of Miami, Florida. On May 20, 1957, the 25-year-old Torres was ordered on a mission to intercept and shoot down a large UFO that had been picked up by radar in the skies over East Anglia, United Kingdom. Torres, flying a North American Aviation F-86D Sabre jet approached the object and prepared to fire upon it.

As he locked on his weapons, the UFO suddenly zoomed away at a high rate of speed. The details of this case were first made public in a release of UFO-related case files by the British government in October 2008.[1]

This case shares some similarities with the Del Rio, Texas UFO Crash of 1955, which also involved an aerial encounter between an F-86 Sabre and a UFO.

Events Prior to Sighting

On May 20, 1957, Milton Torres was a 25-year-old lieutenant with the 514th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in the 406th Air Expeditionary Wingbased at RAF Manston in Kent. Torres was the pilot of one of two North American Aviation F-86D jets that were on five-minute alert at the end of the runway at RAF Manston airfield, awaiting the signal to scramble. The two American pilots were on standby and their jets were fully powered for immediate take-off. The exact time of the incident is not known, but it occurred late in the evening on May 20.[2]

Torres was given a final turning maneuver to execute and was told to look 30 degrees to port. His radar screen displayed the UFO at 30 degrees and about 15 miles distant. "The blip was burning a hole in the radar with its incredible intensity. It was similar to a blip I had received from B-52s and seemed to be a magnet of light."[2]

According to Torres, the radar return "had the proportions of a flying aircraft carrier." He added, "By that I mean the return on the radar was so strong that it could not be overlooked by the fire control system on the F-86D... The larger the airplane the easier the lock on. This blip almost locked itself... it was the best target I could ever remember locking on to. I had locked on in just a few seconds, and I locked on exactly 15 miles, which was the maximum range for lock on."[2]

Suddenly, he noticed that the object on the radar screen was moving. "Do you have a Tally Ho?" Ground control radioed, wanting to know if he had made visual contact with the UFO. Torres replied that he was still "in the soup" and could see nothing.[2]

"By this time, the UFO had broke lock, and I saw him leaving my 30 mile range. Again I reported that he was gone, only to be told that he was now off their scope as well. With the loss of the blip off their scope, the mission was over. We were vectored back to home plate (Manston) and secured our switches. My last instructions were that they would contact me on the ground by land line."[2]

Torres was left with the impression that the UFO was moving at no less than Mach 10 (over 7,000 miles per hour) when it disappeared.[2] "This thing had to be going double-digit mach making turns that I didn't think were possible, breaking all the rules of physics," Torres said.[4] According to Torres, the UFO "didn’t follow classic Newtonian mechanics. It made a right turn almost on a dime. The (Royal Air Force radar) scope had a range of 250 miles. And after two sweeps, which took two seconds, it was gone. And I was flying almost at Mach 1, at .92."[5]

Radar Anomaly?

Since Torres never saw the UFO with his own eyes, some have suggested that what he and the ground radar observers saw was only a radar anomaly. According to inquiries by the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1988, a possible explanation for the blip on Torres' radar screen is that "an experiment in 'electronic warfare' was taking place by means of a bogus radar pulse being transmitted to create an illusion on the Pilot's radar of a solid moving target and that at the last minute before the Pilot was due to release his salvo of rockets the target was very swiftly removed off his radar screen by some technical means creating the further illusion that the target had outrun the Pilot."[2]

According to the online edition of the British newspaper The Times, the experiment may have been part of a secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program codenamed Palladium. The program used advanced electronic equipment to create simulated radar blips close to Soviet airspace.[6] However, recently released CIA documents show that the Palladium program did not actually begin until the early 1960s.[7]

Case Files Released

The MoD began releasing declassified UFO-related files in 2005 as requests were made under Britain's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). According to the British National Archives Web site, "In 2008 MoD announced their intention to transfer all their remaining records on UFOs to The National Archives before 2010. This transfer has now begun with 27 UFO files dating from 1979 to 1991 opened to the public via The National Archives UFO website during 2008." [8]

Documents released in October 2008 included a 1988 letter from Torres to the MoD relating his UFO experience and expressing his desire to know more about what really happened on that day.[2]

About Milton John Torres

Milton Torres was born on July 28, 1931 in New York City but moved to Miami, Florida at age 15. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1951 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1954, serving in Great Britain as a fighter pilot. In 1961, he earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering and became a range control officer at Cape Canaveral AFS for the Gemini and Apollo space programs. Later, he flew 276 combat missions in the Vietnam War and earned 13 air medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross. He attained the rank of major before retiring from military service in 1971. After leaving the military, he earned a doctorate degree in mechanical engineering and became an engineering professor at Florida International University. He retired from the university in 2004. Torres wrote a novel in 2005 titled The Good Guys Wear Blue Hats [ISBN 978-1420846522] based partly on his own experiences in the military and working with NASA.[9]

Recent Comments by Torres

In an interview with the Miami Herald published October 23, 2008, the 77-year-old Torres stated that the UFO he saw on radar in 1957 "was not made of this Earth" and that his mission to fire upon the UFO was "just a dumb little kid going to slaughter." He expressed gratitude at not having fired because he surely "would have been vaporized."[10] Speaking to Miles O'Brien of Cable News Network (CNN), Torres said he is convinced the UFO he encountered was designed by an "alien" intelligence and was not manufactured on Earth.[11] He also said,"It was some kind of space alien craft. It was so fast, it was so incredible ... it was absolutely death defying."[12] "To this day, when he [Torres] goes outside, he always looks up, half expecting to catch a glimpse of the prey that escaped him that night," according to an article in the Toronto Star.[13]

A Helicopter-UFO Encounter over Ohio

Source: Jennie Zeidman, CUFOS

The Coyne case (or "Army helicopter incident") stands out as, perhaps the most credible (in the "high strangeness" category) of the 1973 wave. An Army Reserve helicopter crew of four men encountered a gray, metallic-looking, cigar-shaped object, with unusual lights and maneuvers, as they were airborne between Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio. The crew won the NATIONAL ENQUIRER Blue Ribbon Panel's $ 5,000 award for "the most scientifically valuable report of 1973." 

On October 18, 1973, at approximately 10:30 PM a UH-1H helicopter of the United States Army Reserve left Port Columbus, Ohio, for its home base of Cleveland Hopkins airport, ninety-six nautical miles to the north-northeast. In command, in the right-front seat, was Captain Lawrence J. Coyne, thirty-six, with nineteen years of flying experience. At the controls, in the left-front seat, sat First Lieutenant Arrigo Jezzi, twenty-six, a chemical engineer. Behind Jezzi sat Sergeant John Healey, thirty-five, a Cleveland policeman who was the flight medic, and Coyne was the Crew Chief, Sergeant Robert Yanacsek, twenty-three, a computer technician. 

The helicopter was cruising at 2,500 feet above sea level at an indicated airspeed of ninety knots, above mixed hills, woods, and rolling farmland, averaging 1,200 elevation. The night was totally clear, calm, and starry. The last quarter moon was just rising.

About ten miles south of Mansfield, Healey noticed a single red light off to the west, flying south. It seemed brighter than a standard aircraft port-wing light, but it was not considered relevant traffic, and he does not recall mentioning it. An estimated two minutes later, at approximately 11:02 PM, Yanacsek noted a single red light on the south-east horizon. He assumed it was either a radio-tower beacon or an aircraft port-wing light - most likely an aircraft, since it was not flashing - and he watched it "for a long time, a minute to ninety seconds" before calling it to Coyne's attention. Coyne, smoking, relaxing, glanced over, noted the light, assumed it was distant traffic, and told told Yanacsek casually to "keep an eye on it." 

After an estimated additional thirty seconds, Yanacsek announced that the light had turned toward the helicopter and appeared to be on a converging flight path. Coyne verified Yanacsek's assessment, grabbed the controls from Jezzi, and put the UH-1H into a powered descent of approximately 500 feet per minute. Almost simultaneously, Coyne established radio contact with Mansfield control tower, ten miles to the northwest. Coyne thought the flight was an Air National Guard F-100 from Mansfield. After an initial acknowledgment ("This is Mansfield Tower, go ahead Army 1-5-triple-4"), radio contact failed. Jezzi then attempted transmission on both UHF and VHF frequencies without success. Although the channel and keying tones were both heard, there was no response from Mansfield; and a subsequent check by Coyne revealed that Mansfield had no tape of even the initial transmission, the the last F-100 had landed at 10:47 P.M. 

The red light continued its radial bearing and increased greatly in intensity. Coyne increased his rate of descent to 2,000 feet per minute and his airspeed to 100 knots. The last altitude he noted was 1,700 feet. Just as a collision appeared imminent, the unknown light halted in its westward course and assumed a hovering relationship above and in front of the helicopter. "It wasn't cruising, it was stopped. For maybe ten to twelve seconds - just stopped," Yanacsek reported. Coyne, Healey, and Yanacsek agree that a cigar-shaped, slightly domed object substended an angle of nearly the width of the front windshield. A featureless, gray, metallic-looking structure was precisely delineated against the background stars. Yanacsek reported "a suggestion of windows" along the top dome section. The red light emanated from the bow, a white light became visible at a slightly indented stern, and then, from aft/below, a green 'pyramid shaped" beam equated to a directional spotlight became visible. 

The green beam passed upward over the helicopter nose, swung up through the windshield, continued upward and entered the tinted upper window panels. At that point (and not before), the cockpit was enveloped in green light. Jezzi reported only a bright white light, comparable to the leading light of a small aircraft, visible through the top "greenhouse' panels of the windshield. After the estimated ten seconds of "hovering," the object began to accelerate off to the west, now with only the white "tail" light visible. The white light maintained its intensity even as its distance appeared to increase, and finally (according to Coyne and Healey), it appeared to execute a decisive 45 degree turn to the right, head out toward Lake Erie, and then "snap out" over the horizon. Healey reported that he watched the object moving westward "for a couple of minutes." Jezzi said it moved faster than the 250-knot limit for aircraft below 10,000 feet, but not as fast as the 600-knot approach speed reported by the others. 

There was no noise from the object or turbulence during the encounter, except for one "bump" as the object moved away to the west. After the object had broken off its hovering relationship, Jezzi and Coyne noted that the magnetic compass disk was rotating approximately four times per minute and that the altimeter read approximately 3,500 feet; a 1,000 foot-per-minute climb was in progress. Coyne insists that the collective was still bottomed from his evasive descent. Since the collective could not be lowered further, he had no alternative but to lift it, whatever the results, and after a few seconds of gingerly maneuvering controls (during which the helicopter reached nearly 3,800 feet), positive control was achieved. By that time the white light had already moved into the Mansfield area. Coyne had been subliminally aware of the climb; the others not at all, yet they had all been acutely aware of the g-forces of the dive. The helicopter was brought back to the flight plan altitude of 2,500 feet, radio contact was achieved with Canton/Akron, the night proceeded uneventfully to Cleveland. 

Jennie Zeidman, associate of astronomer J. Allen Hynek, published a report titled“Helicopter-UFO Encounter Over Ohio” for the Centre for UFO Studies in 1979 after meticulously investigating the case. Zeidman states:

“Just as a collision appeared imminent, the unknown light halted in its westward course and assumed a hovering relationship above and in front of the helicopter. “It wasn’t cruising, it was stopped. For maybe ten to twelve seconds – just stopped,” Yanacsek reported. Coyne, Healey, and Yanacsek agree that a cigar-shaped, slightly domed object subtended an angle of nearly the width of the front windshield. A featureless, gray, metallic-looking structure was precisely delineated against the background stars. Yanacsek reported “a suggestion of windows” along the top dome section… …The green beam passed upward over the helicopter nose, swung up through the windshield, continued upward and entered the tinted upper window panels. At that point the cockpit was enveloped in green light. Jezzi reported only a bright white light, comparable to the leading light of a small aircraft, visible through the top “greenhouse” panels of the windshield. After the estimated ten seconds of “hovering,” the object began to accelerate off to the west… …After the object had broken off its hovering relationship, Jezzi and Coyne noted that the magnetic compass disk was rotating approximately four times per minute and that the altimeter read approximately 3,500 feet; a 1,000 foot- per-minute climb was in progress. Coyne insists that the collective was still bottomed from his evasive descent. Since the collective could not be lowered further, he had no alternative but to lift it, whatever the results, and after a few seconds of gingerly maneuvering controls (during which the helicopter reached nearly 3,800 feet), positive control was achieved. By that time the white light had already moved into the Mansfield area. Coyne had been subliminally aware of the climb; the others not at all, yet they had all been acutely aware of the g-forces of the dive. The helicopter was brought back to the flight plan altitude of 2,500 feet, radio contact was achieved with Canton/Akron, the night proceeded uneventfully to Cleveland.”

The case has never been solved. 

Source: Richard Haines, 2000 (Credit: CFI / NARCAP) 

Summary from CFI (Coalition for Freedom of Information - from Richard Haines) 

On a clear day in 1981, Captain Schultz was piloting TWA flight 842 from San Francisco to John F. Kennedy Airport over Lake Michigan. In his written report presented to Dr. Haines, he described seeing a "large, round, silver metal object" with six jet black "portholes" equally spaced around the circumference, which "descended into the atmosphere from above." Expecting a mid-air collision, Schultz and his first officer braced themselves for an impact. The object suddenly made a high speed turn near the aircraft and departed. 

Schultz did not inform TWA about the incident, but instead filled out a detailed report for . Haines. He also invited Haines into the cockpit of his airplane while on the ground, and reconstructed the event there to assure accuracy. Haines made a sketch of the event to Schultz's specifications, drawn to scale. With extensive jet combat experience in the Korean War and afterward, Captain Schultz had never believed in UFOs. But he stated at the time, "We have nothing that can do what that object did." 

From Richard Haines

July 4, 1981 1646L UC South central Lake Michigan 

Captain Phil Schultz, 54, was flying TWA flight 842 from San Francisco to John F. Kennedy Airport, New York (on autopilot control) and was at cruise altitude (FL370) at 280 kts airspeed (540 kts. ground speed) in an L-1011 heavy jet. The sky was generally clear over Lake Michigan with a high, thin layer of cirrus over much of the southern part of the lake and some scattered mid-level clouds at about 10,000 feet. The sun was still high in the sky (41 deg. above the horizon) and behind the aircraft. Then the high altitude encounter (FL370) happened. 

In the captain’s own words, "A large, round, silver, metal object descended into the atmosphere from above and to the left of my airplane to about 40,000 feet overhead and passed off to my left." After an extensive reconstruction of this event in the cockpit of his aircraft, I was able to ascertain many more important facts about this event [cf. Haines, 1982(a); 1982(b)]: 

(1) The object traveled very smoothly during the five or six second-long encounter. 

(2) The UAP was about 2.5 times wider than thick with six jet black perfect circles ("portholes") aligned and equal-spaced around its circumference. Centered on the bottom surface of the circular disk was a single, jet-black circle. 

(3) The UAP traveled along an approximately parabolic course and performed a high speed turn (calculated to be approximately 20 g) relatively near the aircraft before departing in a gradual climb to the north and leaving a darkish wavy trail behind in the sky. 

(4) Its approach and departure speed was calculated to be about 1,000 mph, 

(5) No shock wave or turbulence was felt at any time. Capt. Schultz remembered seeing a fan-shaped region extending outward from behind the object which was "of a much darker blue than the rest of the sky." 

(6) The aircraft’s autopilot remained coupled throughout the encounter and no E-M effects were noticed. 

(7) The FO saw approximately the final two-thirds of the event but the FE did not see anything due to his position in the rear of the cabin. 

(8) When Captain Schultz called Chicago Center to ask about other possible traffic in the area he was told there was none. He did not report what they had just seen. 

(9) Before this sighting Capt. Schultz did not believe in UFO at all. His extensive jet combat experience during the Korean War and afterward had left him with the strongly held belief that such objects "simply do not exist." This encounter instantly changed his view and, when I asked him what he thought the object was he quickly replied." 

(10) Both pilots were very concerned about a mid-air collision and began to brace themselves for an impact. Other technical details must be omitted due to space limitations. (Pilot report form)  

According to him this video was given to him by a pilot that use to be in the air force and now is in corporate aviation. The video shows an object he captured on video during a night time flight from Texas to Florida and back. He was the copilot. At the start of the video he is recording the city lights below, using the night vision setting on his camera, when the pilots points out a bright object passing above there aircraft.

He video records the object and the pilot calls on the radio saying that he has several objects in front of them. Another plane pilot say he has them in sight. Yet another asks ATC if they had a report at 410. ATC reports that they might see traffic 3 miles ahead and instructs the jet to turn left. Another voice comes on the radio saying it is the planet Venus. The pilots want to remain unknown for professional reasons so don't ask me the names, dates, or aircraft information. This is real video, recorded in a real jet airplane, on a real trip. The audio is the recording of the real pilots and ATC radio communications. 

Ham Radio Operator Hears American Airlines Pilot Report UFO

L’enquête est en cours, mais il y a déjà de fortes présomptions. Le 14 janvier 2016, un pilote de American Airlines a (vol San Francisco - Philadelphia) a aperçu devant lui sur sa droite a 0h12 ce qu'il a décrit à la tour de contrôle comme un “énorme carré orange brillant” (bright large orange square). Après vérification, l'opérateur lui a confirmé qu'il n'y avait aucun autre vol dans ce secteur, a côté de la ville de Nephi, dans le centre des Etats-Unis. 

Bien qu'aucun rapport d'UFO n'ait été établie par le pilote officiellement, l'affaire a été révélée par un radio-amateur local qui écoutait justement les conversations entre les pilote ce soir là. Le MUFON a ensuite émis une requête de FOIA à la FAA afin d'obtenir les enregistrements des conversations et les relevés radars. Ces derniers montrent des échos primaires qui correspondent au moment et au lieu de l'observation. Les analyses du relief et des conditions météorologiques semblent excluent hypothèses d'échos radar fantômes, oiseaux et autres “anges”, d'autant que les échos sont rapportés par 2 radars différents.

L'enquête est toujours en cours. Toutes les infos en anglais ici

NOTE: THIS INVESTIGATION IS IN PROGRESS.

PERIODICALLY CHECK THIS SITE FOR UPDATES

UFOs Northwest & a Team of Utah Investigators headed by MUFON Director Erica Lukes are Working on This Case.

Location of Sighting: Near Nephi, Utah

Date of Sighting: January 14, 2016

Time of Sighting: Between 12:12 and 12:13 AM MST

Voice Transmission of Airline Pilot Reporting Possible UFO (YouTube):

Watch Animation of Radar Returns from 12:08 to 12:15 AM MST (YouTube):

Background: This case was reported to me by Erica Lukes who is the director of MUFON for the state of Utah. She knows a radio show host (Pat Daniels) who was scanning communications between aircraft and the FAA shortly after midnight on January 14, 2016. He heard a conversation between an airline pilot and Air Route Traffic Control.

 The pilot reported seeing an extremely large bright object that he estimated a mile wide to his right. The air traffic controller told him that he was looking in the direction of Nephi, Utah. Apparently the air traffic controller told the pilot that the object was not detected on radar. The object appeared to keep pace with the aircraft.

A Freedom of Information (FOIA) request was written to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). About six weeks later we received a response to the FOIA. The response consisted of radar returns, voice tapes and tower logs. The FAA is to be commended for their full and timely response to our request.

Research showed that the aircraft was American Airlines Flight Number 434 which was enroute from San Francisco, CA to Philadelphia, PA. The actual sighting time was between 12:12 and 12:13 AM MST on January 14, 2016. We were able to find segments of the conversation on the Air Traffic Control archives website, but much of conversation was deleted. One could hear the controller telling the pilot that Nephi, Utah was off to his right and the pilot acknowledging the transmission. However, the UFO report was not on the tape. The ham radio operator did not record the conversation so the “UFO report” could not be heard. He heard the conversation on the frequency of 127.95 mhz.

Update: March 4, 2016. The voice tape obtained from the FAA (see above) does fill in some of the transmission missing from the tape from the Air Traffic Control archives website. The only thing not included from the original transmission was the estimated size of the object and the and the conversation where the FAA said that the object was not detected on radar. The airline crew described the object as a large orange square.

An animation was constructed for each revolution of the radar (12 seconds). The radar animation frames are speeded up to one second/revolution in the animation. (Animation follows voice tape above.) The animation shows 1 to 3 returns for each revolution of the radar. There are a few rotations where no returns are detected. This is strange. There is no detected conventional movement and the returns vary from 0 to 3 over the 7 minute period. The time period is from 12:08 to 12:15 AM MST which is a few minutes before and after the pilot reported the strange object. One wonders if the object was moving erratically and perhaps was rotating exposing more or less radar cross sectional area resulting in no detection or a different number of returns? The object could have been large considering this type of “radar signature?”

A visual trace of the FAA tape is shown in Figure 1. Pat Daniels (ham radio operator) stated in a radio interview that the aircraft radioed the FAA and inquired whether radar showed anything in the area of their sighting. This conversation was around a minute before the conversation where the FAA told the crew that the town to the right was Nephi, Utah. There was some conversation in this time frame. (See annotation in Figure 1.) However, the conversation has been deleted and only a second or two not “redacted.” The question is why did the FAA redact this conversation? According to Pat Daniels the crew did not announce their flight number when they first sighted the object. So perhaps the FAA didn’t include it for that reason. Or perhaps they did not want the public to hear the conversation? In the recorded conversation starting just after 12:12 AM the crew was talking about their sighting and the FAA responded “you mean to the right.” How did they know that? They knew because they had it on radar.

Figure 2 above shows the  route of the aircraft. The aircraft was flying at 31,000 feet and 530 knots at the time of sighting. The pilot reported the sighting to the FAA around 12:12 AM. (See Figure 2.) The pilot stated that he had been watching a large square of orange light for sometime and that the object was “off his nose.” The aircraft was headed in an ENE direction. The radar shows a “dense” area of returns at approximately the 2 o’clock position at the time of the sighting. However, the returns would have at near a 12 o’clock position beforehand as the pilot had been watching the object for sometime and was heading in an ENE direction. These returns are quite isolated and very numerous. They are likely not birds, angels, ground targets or anomalous propagation. (See discussion below of anomalous propagation.)

Figure 3 above is a zoom in of the radar returns to the SW of Nephi.  The time is from 12:08 to 12:15 AM which is the time that the crew saw the object(s).  The map shows a large area of returns near and to the East of I-15.  The returns are not traffic as the radar is too far away to detect ground targets.

The “zoom out” map (Figure 4) shows  the concentration of radar returns just to the SW of Nephi.  The returns are in the position and time observed by airline crew. Note that most of the radar map is devoid of returns except in the area immediately to the SW of Nephi.

The Doppler radar map for Salt Lake City was also obtained. (See Figure 5). The map does show some returns to the Northeast of Nephi at the time of the sighting. The radar was operating in “clear air mode” which means that the gain is turned up making it more sensitive. (See radar map above.)

Figure 6 above shows the location of the 2 radar sites used in the analysis.  One radar (Cedar City, UT) is about 155 miles to the SSW of sighting location.  The other radar (Francis Peak, UT) is about 90 miles to the north. These returns were likely true objects and probably quite large given the distance from the radar sites.

I also took a look at the radar returns for the entire time period of my radar request which was from midnight to 12:30 AM MST.  Figure 7 above shows all of the returns for this time period near Nephi.  Returns were found for each minute from midnight to 12:30 AM in the sighting area. In all 106 radar returns were detected. This means that the object(s) were there before and after the sighting. The returns in Figure 7 almost look a “gridded” radar map. Figure 8 shows the plot of these returns on a Google Earth relief map. It is fairly obvious that the returns are not due to the radar reflecting from higher terrain. A few of elevations are displayed. There was very little elevation change in the area of the returns.

Radar Propagation Analysis:

Atmospheric conditions can cause radar waves to bend downward or upward causing “false returns” or showing returns in the wrong location. Also there is a possibility that radar returns may be reflected off of higher terrain. (However, this is generally not the case as aviation radar is designed to not detect stationary targets.) However, Doppler weather radar can detect higher terrain and result in false returns. Figure 8 shows very little elevation change in the area of the returns.

Watch Slide Show of Photos of UFO Sighting Area (YouTube):

The above slide show of photos taken by Utah MUFON Assistant State Director show no anomalies in area that could possibly cause radar returns.

Both of the aviation radars were at considerably higher altitude than the target detect area. The Cedar City aviation radar (155 miles to the SSW) was at an elevation of 10,760 feet above sea level which is over 5,000 feet higher than the target area. The Francis Peak aviation radar (88 miles to the north) was at an elevation of 9,324 feet which is nearly 4,000 feet above the target detect area. Given this scenario it is unlikely that the radar waves would be refracted abnormally because the waves would be above any surface temperature inversions over lower terrain. Figure 6 shows the locations of the two aviation radars with respect to the target detect area.

Figure 10 above is a table of computed radar refractivity gradients/1,000 Feet for the Cedar City, UT radar. Figure 11 is a similar table for the Francis Peak, UT radar. The tables show pressure levels, heights of pressure surfaces ASL, temperature, dew point temperature in degrees C, refractivity index and the gradient of refractivity index per 1,000 feet. The data were obtained from the weather balloon sounding of the atmosphere from Las Vegas, NV for the Cedar City radar. Data were obtained from the weather balloon sounding at Salt Lake City, UT for the Francis Peak radar. For both radar sites the refraction gradients are small and well within the normal atmospheric propagation of 0 to -24/1,000 feet. Given that fact the radars were at high elevations (over 10,000 feet for the Cedar City radar and over 9,300 feet for the Francis Peak radar) and given the values in the above tables the probability of anomalous radar propagation (false returns or returns in the wrong location) is nearly 0.

Comments From Martin Shough, Retired Air Traffic Controller & Radar Expert -England: As for the radar, you’re right that those primaries clustered around the interstate are not traffic and AP seems not to be relevant. You might get multiple-trip ghosts from (say) remote mountains appearing at almost any displayed range, but they’d be random with respect to local features. In this case I do get the sense of some correlation with the road, but I don’t know why. I doubt AP would look like this. There’s no significant terrain here. No airfield (although there is a small airfield and heliport to the NE at Nephi). I have absolutely no idea what they are.

Interpretation of Voice Tapes and Radar Data:

I have the following comments and concluding remarks regarding this radar-visual sighting:

1. Pilot reports a large unusual orange square of lights while flying at 31,000 feet.

2. The first conversation where the crew asked if the object was on radar & the FAA responded saying that the object was not on radar was likely redacted (see Figure 1).

3. The radar shows a dense area of returns at the exact position and time reported by the pilot.

4.  These dense returns are well removed from radar sites. The closest site was about 90 miles to the north at Francis Peak, Utah. The other radar was located at Cedar City, Utah about 155 miles to the SSW. (See Figure 6 above.)

5.  These returns are not due to military operations. There are several restricted military operations areas (MOA’s) in Utah, but Nephi is well outside of these area. (See Figure 9 above.)

6. These returns are not drones. Regular drones would not be likely detected at the long distances from the radar sites. Military drones would be detected, but they would not be in the area. (See Figure 6 above.)

7. These returns are likely not due to anomalous propagation. (See Figure 10 and 11.)

Anomalous propagation generally starts closer to the radar antenna.

8.  Birds, weather targets would not be detected in an isolated area that far from the radar sites.

9. Radar angels are sometimes observed. These are false targets, but there would not be that many of them that far removed from the radar sites.

10. The object(s) were likely at the sighting location before and after the time that the crew sighted the object(s). Figure 7 above shows returns for each minute from midnight to 12:30 AM MST.

9. Of course keep in mind that the pilot crew saw a large square area of orange lights so the radar and observation “corroborate” each other.

Where Do We Go From Here? Erica Lukes and her team of investigators have ran an ad in the local newspaper to see if other people have seen anything unusual. She conversed with the manager of a local truck stop near the sighting location and was told that UFO’s are frequently sighted in the area. One investigator believes that the crew sighted lights from a local power point (Currant Creek Plant – Mona, UT). To me this doesn’t explain the sighting as the conglomerate of radar returns suggests something unusual. Also I would expect that the same crew had flown this same route before. If this was true, why would they ask the FAA about the location?

Request: Any passengers on American Airlines Fight number 434 are urged to

file a report if they saw anything unusual on the flight. Please note the time of your sighting in the report. The flight left San Francisco at 10:08 PM PST on Wed, Jan 13, 2016 and arrived at Philadelphia at 5:35 AM EST on Jan 14, 2016.

Resources:

1. Listen to Interview of Radio Operator Pat Daniels Who 1st Learned of Sighting (YouTube):

2. William Puckett Interview With Erica Lukes (KCOR Radio)

3. William Puckett & Pat Daniels Interview With Race Hobbs (MUFON Radio – KGRA Radio)

In the early morning hours on December 6th, 1952 during a training mission over the Gulf of Mexico, the crew of a B-29 Superfortress , cruising at 18,000 feet, made radar and visual contact with multiple UFOs. The crew was returning to Florida from a night practice flight and was about 100 miles south of the Louisiana coast under clear weather and bright moonlight very early in the morning.

At around 5:25 AM Lieutenant Sid Coleman checked his radar scope to see if he could see the coast line. What he saw was a URE (Unknown Radar Echo) at the edge of the screen, that in the next sweep had gone 13 miles in that brief pause between the sweeps. Another URE appeared on the screen and appeared to be heading right for the B-29 at 5,240(by manual calculations) mph! This is only the first incident in the case, I will cover the rest below, but first let’s go over some details of the crew.

Important Details

The Crew:

• 1st LT. Norman Karas-Visual Observation

• 1st LT. WM Naumann Jr- Instrument Navigation

• Master Sgt. B.R. Percell-Assistant Radar Operator

• Staff Sgt. WM J Derouse-Gunner

• 2nd LT. Robert J Eckert-Navigation

• Staff Sgt. HD Shogren-Radar Operator

• Captain John Harter-Flight Commander

• Lieutenant Sidney Coleman-Radar Operator

• Master Sergeant Bailey Percell- Assistant Radar Operator

• Staff Sgt. Ferris-Assistant Radar Operator

• Crew had several hundred hours of flying time and experience combined between them.

Weather, Radar, and Location Information

• Weather was clear and windless with a temperature of 10 degrees Celsius.

• All oil refineries were spotted and accounted for as well.

• There were 25 hits in ten minutes.

• UREs seen on multiple scopes by three different personal.

• Radar was working properly according to crew.

• Location was around 100 miles south of Louisiana and 190 miles east of Galveston, Texas.

• All UREs (also called UFOs in this case because of the visuals) were at around the same altitude as the plane, which was 18,000 feet.

Map Showing Location of Encounter

NOTE: The other research files on this case (included in sources section) give different coordinates, but those are obviously erroneous once you plug them in as it would place the aircraft close to the Sea of Cortez. This is likely due to the poor condition of the Blue Book files. My information was computed using logic and the original Blue Book map you can find here. The exact coordinates may differ by a small margin but I assure you they are close within an acceptable margin of error.

The Rest of The Sightings

As I have shown in the opening the initial contact was made at about 5:25 AM on December 6th, 1952, 100 miles south of the Louisiana coastline. The initial URE contacts (which were three) were clocked at speeds of around 5,000 mph. The following is the summary of the remainder of the incidents as initially recorded by Major Donald Keyhole and subsequently NICAP:

When LT. Coleman alerted his Captain of the speed of the URE the Captain did not believe him stating “that’s impossible, recalibrate your scope!”---the speed was the same as before. After the initial contacts were recorded the action picked up immensely , with the next set of contacts coming just as Coleman was rechecking the calculations when Master Sgt. Bailey spotted another two UREs. Lieutenant Eckert, the navigator spotted the two more UREs as well. At this time the UFOs were on all three scopes, which were recalibrated to show no malfunctions. As an unknown URE was spotted on radar at “3 o’clock” Master Sgt. Bailey Percell witnessed a “white-blue” object streak by in a blur under the bombers right wing”.

At this time three more UREs appeared on the radar screens at an apparent speed of over 5,000 mph (Around Mach 7) on a bearing dead ahead (12 o’clock). The three UFOs veered to miss the bomber by “some miles”. There now was a brief pause of activity 6 minutes into the incident that lasted only briefly as another group of UREs appeared on the scopes at the same speed as before. At the 4 o’clock position two more UFOs of the same “white-blue color” streaked by the aircraft, this was seen visually by Staff Sgt. Ferris. Forty miles behind the B-29 5 more UREs appeared (which actually were observed on radar to “swerve” into the path f the aircraft) and were calculated to be there in three seconds(48,000 mph or around Mach 47).

But then the UREs slowed down to match the bombers speed almost instantly! That is a deceleration from Mach 47 to match the subsonic speed of the B-29 (cruise speed around 220 mph)near instantly! The UFOs kept pace with the aircraft for around 10 seconds then quickly picked up speed and merged to one side. They then proceeded to merge into one object (on the radar scope) and zoom off at around 9,000 mph. Coleman alerted the Captain:

"Captain, did you see that?"

"Yes-I saw it," said Harter.

"We clocked it," said Coleman. "You won't believe this-it was making over 9,000 miles an hour!"

"I believe it, all right," Harter said grimly. "That's just what I figured."

www.nicap.org...

Alternate Explanations and Official Conclusions

When the crew landed they were immediately questioned by intelligence officers with the USAF(They had radioed ahead and alerted the ground of their incident). Here are some statements, all courtesy of nicap.org

Captain Harter: "One group of blips was noted, after the set was calibrated, to arc about and swing in behind us at about 30 miles, and maintain speed and distance for approximately ten seconds . . Contact was broken off at 0535, after a group of the blips merged into a one half-inch arc and proceeded across the scope and off it at a computed speed of over 9,000 m.p.h."

Lieutenant Coleman: "I noticed one UFO approach our aircraft at a terrific rate of speed. I timed it as best I could with a stop-watch over a known distance and the flight engineer computed the speed at 5,240m.p.h. I alerted the entire crew to look for the objects visually, and flashes of light were noted. The closest the objects came was approximately 20 miles. I saw about 20 objects in all. I recalibrated the set and there was no change.

"The objects were small and possibly round, with the exception of one very large return shaped as follows, one- half-inch curved arc. I also noticed a large return come up to within 40 miles of our tail from behind and then disappear. To the best of my knowledge, I believe that this object was real and moved at an extremely high speed and was not a set malfunction or optical illusion."

Master Sergeant Bailey: "The radar operator clocked the object [the first one seen] and I computed the air speed of the object to average 5,240 m.p.h. Twice during the period, the radar operator reported an object to be passing at 3 o'clock. Upon looking out the window, I saw a blue-white streak travel front to rear and disappear under the wing."

Staff Sergeant Ferris: "After the radar operator reported objects approaching at 4 o'clock, I immediately looked in that position and saw two flashes of a blue-white nature for approximately three seconds."

I have confirmed these statements from the official Blue Book Documents(Pages 973-76, 985-1003), unfortunately they are greatly degraded and in bad perspective. For ease of viewing I am using these “text only” statements which I have authenticated as stated.

As far as alternate conclusions go in this case there are very few, that is why this is listed in the Blue Book Unknowns file. The leading candidates are a meteor shower and mirage, but that is it. We will look at those now:

Meteors: Blue Book only put forth this theory in the middle of the investigation because the Geminid Meteor Showers were taking place at this time. But it was never taken as an acceptable answer for the case for many reasons that are obvious, such as the intelligent maneuvers (slowing down and speeding up, merging into one object).

• Mirage: If one is to speculate that a mirage of either an oil refinery, star, or meteor could account for the visual sightings then one must also account for the radar contacts. This by itself seems impossible by any probable stretch.

• Meteor/Mirage Combination: More likely then either of the first two by themselves. This theory was never put forth by anyone to my knowledge until now. Theoretically it is possible that the visual sightings could have been caused by a mirage of a higher meteor or a meteor making it into the lower atmosphere . The radar hits could have been caused by echoes off of meteors making it to the lower atmosphere as well. But this scenario is highly unlikely as any astronomer would tell you.

Official Conclusions

There have been no skeptical organization (such as the Condon Committee) to offer comments about this case that I could find in my research. Actually the only statement other than Blue Books came from a NASA scientist who became their “unofficial UFO investigator”, Paul R. Hill, who had the following to say on the case:

Several changes of course were made, and two phases of acceleration were performed. Speeds of 5.000 to 9.000 miles per hour with maneuvers and motionless capability exclude any meteor whatsoever as it is too slow, and exclude any known human flying machine of 1952 and ever since, as it is much too fast. Planes cruising at 5000 miles per hour at an altitude of 18.000 feet would simply immediately disintegrate. Rockets of that time did not have the observed maneuverability.

The fact that the objects arrived head on, turned back, paced the plane, went away to joined with a much larger one which then fled away at an impossible speed is indicative of an intelligent driven operation.

No known human plane or rocket emits a blue light.

Neither meteors nor planes nor rockets do not make rendez-vous.

No rocket or plane has the size seen by the crew for the largest object on the radarscope.

Case details by Donald E. Keyhoe, NICAP:

Official clearance list, item 8. Gulf of Mexico area, December 6, 1952. B-29 training flight. Radar and visual reports, accurate details, double-checked; speeds computed showed UFO making 9,000 m.p.h.

The second case which Chop had just cleared was even more dramatic. This strange sighting occurred over the Gulf of Mexico, as a B-29 bomber was returning to its base in Texas. It was just before dawn on December 6, 1952 - less than 48 hours after Lieutenant Earl Fogle's near-collision at Laredo, Texas.

Approaching the end of a night practice flight to Florida, the B-29 was cruising in bright moonlight, at 18,000 feet. So far it had been a routine mission.

At 5:24 A.M. the big bomber, piloted by Captain John Harter, was 190 miles from Galveston and about 100 miles south of the Louisiana coast. A minute before, Harter had called the radar officer, Lieutenant Sid Coleman, and asked him to turn on the set, so he could check the coast line on the auxiliary scope in the cockpit.

At 5:25, back in the ship, Coleman was watching the main radarscope to see if the coast showed up. Suddenly the blip of some unknown object appeared at one edge of the screen. When the sweep made its next revolution, Coleman jumped.

In that brief moment the unknown craft had gone 13 miles.

A third blip leaped onto the scope as the oncoming object streaked toward the B-29. For an instant it seemed they would meet head-on. Then Coleman saw their paths were diverging. He snatched up his stop-watch, yelled for the flight engineer.

"Bailey! Help me track this thing!"

Before the blips faded, Coleman and the staff sergeant swiftly computed the unknown's speed.

It was 5,240 miles an hour.

The two men gaped at each other, then Coleman grabbed his intercom mike and called the pilot.

"Captain-check your scope! We just clocked an un known at over 5,000."

"That's impossible," snapped Harter. "Recalibrate the set."

As Coleman hurriedly went to work, Master Sergeant Bailey bent over the scope.

"There's another one-two of them," he exclaimed.

A second later Lieutenant Cassidy, the navigator, cut in on the intercom.

"I've got 'em on my scope, too," he said tautly.

By the time Coleman finished recalibrating, the blips of four UFOs were racing across his screen. Abruptly, Harter's crisp voice came through the intercom.

"I've got four unknowns at 12 o'clock [dead ahead]. What do you show?"

"They're on all three scopes," said Coleman. "I've re-calibrated - it's no malfunction."

Up in the cockpit, Harter incredulously watched the swift-moving blips cross his glass. As one approached on the right, he called out a hasty alert.

"Unknown at 3 o'clock!"

Back in the B-29, Bailey sprang to the right waist blister and peered out into the night. Astonished, he saw a blue- lit object streak from front to rear. Moving so fast it was only a blue-white blur, the saucer vanished under the bomber's wing.

The strange machine had hardly disappeared when another group of blips came onto all three scopes. Like the other machines, the new group was making over 5,000 miles an hour. To make it worse, they were all coming from almost dead ahead. Though their course still diverged enough to miss the bomber by miles, the slightest change might put the crew in instant peril. At those terrific speeds they wouldn't have a prayer, and every man aboard knew it.

Six minutes after the first sighting, there was a sudden lull. As the scopes cleared, Coleman drew a long breath. Apparently the nightmare was over.

A minute passed. The tense airmen were slowly beginning to relax when a third group of blips flashed onto the scopes. Coleman seized his stop-watch again, swiftly called off the times and distances. Bailey figured the speeds, grimly nodded.

"Same as before," he muttered.

The radar officer bent over the screen. Two of the UFO's were rocketing by on the right.

"Unknowns at four o'clock!" he bawled into the mike.

Staff Sergeant Ferris beat Bailey to the waist blister. Open-mouthed, he watched two machines streak by- mere blurs of blue-white light.

Up in the cockpit, Harter's eyes were glued to the auxiliary scope. Forty miles away, five of the saucers were racing behind the bomber, cutting across its course.

Suddenly the saucers swerved, headed straight for the B-29. Harter froze. At their terriffic speed they would close the gap in three seconds.

But before he could move the controls, an incredible thing happened. Abruptly the onrushing UFO's slowed to the bomber's speed. For ten seconds they kept pace behind it, while the pilot held his breath.

Then, swiftly picking up speed, the unknown machines pulled off to one side. At the same moment Harter caught sight of a huge blip-a half-inch spot on the scope. Amazed, he saw the most fantastic thing of all.

Still moving at over 5,000 miles an hour, the smaller craft merged with the large machine. Instantly, the huge blip began to accelerate. Moving so fast that Harter sat stunned, it flashed across his scope and was gone.

A few moments later Coleman's awed voice came through the intercom.

"Captain, did you see that?"

"Yes - I saw it," said Harter.

"We clocked it," said Coleman. "You won't believe this-it was making over 9,000 miles an hour!"

"I believe it, all right," Harter said grimly. "That's just what I figured."

For the rest of the way he kept the crew on alert, but no more saucers appeared.

The meaning of what they had seen was inescapable. The discs had been launched from a huge mother ship for some type of reconnaissance mission. Probably it had covered parts of the United States, but at the discs' tremendous speed they could have been operating anywhere over the globe.

For a rendezvous, whoever guided the discs had chosen this point over the Gulf of Mexico. After the B-29 was sighted, one group of discs had been diverted for a brief observation or tracking. Then, flying at 5,000 m.p.h., they had been taken aboard the mother ship. And in a matter of seconds the huge machine had almost doubled its speed.

It was almost unbelievable. But the radar set had been working perfectly, and the visual confirmation, as Bailey and Ferris saw the machines flash by, was final, absolute proof. Three separate times during the operation saucers had been seen exactly where the three radarscopes showed them.

Captain Harter had radioed ahead, and Intelligence officers were waiting when they landed. Over and over the airmen were interrogated, separately and together. But nothing could shake their story, and statements in the report showed their firm conviction.

Captain Harter: "One group of blips was noted, after the set was calibrated, to arc about and swing in behind us at about 30 miles, and maintain speed and distance for approximately ten seconds... Contact was broken off at 0535, after a group of the blips merged into a one half-inch arc and proceeded across the scope and off it at a computed speed of over 9,000 m.p.h."

Lieutenant Coleman: "I noticed one UFO approach our aircraft at a terrific rate of speed. I timed it as best I could with a stop-watch over a known distance and the flight engineer computed the speed at 5,240m.p.h. I alerted the entire crew to look for the objects visually, and flashes of light were noted. The closest the objects came was approximately 20 miles. I saw about 20 objects in all. I recalibrated the set and there was no change."

"The objects were small and possibly round, with the exception of one very large return shaped as follows, one- half-inch curved arc. I also noticed a large return come up to within 40 miles of our tail from behind and then disappear. To the best of my knowledge, I believe that this object was real and moved at an extremely high speed and was not a set malfunction or optical illusion."

Master Sergeant Bailey: "The radar operator clocked the object [the first one seen] and I computed the air speed of the object to average 5,240 m.p.h. Twice during the period, the radar operator reported an object to be passing at 3 o'clock. Upon looking out the window, I saw a blue-white streak travel front to rear and disappear under the wing."

Staff Sergeant Ferris: "After the radar operator reported objects approaching at 4 o'clock, I immediately looked in that position and saw two flashes of a blue-white nature for approximately three seconds."

As was to be expected, neither Bailey nor Ferris could make out the shape of the saucers. At their great speeds they were naturally only a blur.

=====================================

Patrick Gross

UFOS are detected by military radar. When these detection is confirmed by visual observation, there is no place left for "meteorological" or "astronomical" explanation or so-called "temperature inversion." When speed measurements are made, there is no space left for blaming observers for subjectivity errors. When an entire bomber crew reports, there is no space left for "psychological" dismissal.

In December 1952 Lieutenant Sid Coleman was Radar Officer aboard a B-29 bomber near Galveston. When watching the radarscope, Coleman observed two UFOs which he tracked at a speed in excess of 5.000 miles per hour, quite impossible for planes of the day. The captain of the plane, John Harter, suggested that Coleman recalibrate his set as the sighting was impossible but the sighting was immediately confirmed by the navigator on his radarscope. Eventually four UFOs were seen on the radar screen.

From the plane, they were also able to make visual contact with the object, watching it as a blue-white streak moving fast near the bomber. Shortly after this, there was a repeat with several more objects whizzing past their plane. Crew members watched the UFOs perform maneuvers to avoid hitting the plane. In the end a larger object absorbed the smaller craft and fled at 9.000 miles per hour.

Conclusion (PG):

This incident is no less than a report from US Air Force's own people that groups of extraordinary flying machines with a speed impossible to any known plane of that time, and still impossible to any modern time jet from the point of view of both speed and manoeuver, do visit our planet.

It is also an incident in which not only radar and visual observation was made by multiple witnesses, but in which precise enough measurement of the speed was done, based on instrumentation and not just visual evaluation.

This is also an incident where smaller flying machines paced a US bomber aircraft and, finally, joined with a flying machine of a size which was and still is impossible to any known plane, and whose speed of 9000 miles per hour after a motionless period was and still is something absolutely impossible to any know plane.

This case is one of many which prove that our planet is visited by something for which there is no other reasonable explanation by far, than an intelligent, technological, extraterrestrial origin.

www.ufologie.net...

This was the same agreement that Blue Book and other ufological associations have had about the case. As I have said in the opening, this case is still officially listed in the “UNKNOWN” category by the USAF.

Helpful Links On Case

• NICAP Case Directory

• Blue Book Documents(pp.973-76, 985-1003)

• ufologie.net 

Mr. Robert Blazina is a retired military man with a top-secret clearance. He worked transporting nuclear weapons all over the world. He personally witnessed a UFO maneuvering in the clear nights sky at an incredible speed straight up. Another time he and a civilian 747 both saw on their radar screens an object travel an estimated 10,000 miles an hour directly at them.

My first experience with UFOs was in 1952. I was on a flight from Seattle, coming back to Sacramento. It was between 10 and 12 midnight. It was a clear, dark night. Sitting there, looking ahead, I saw this orange glow in front of us….

We added power and we kept getting closer and of course it got larger until we got up to about Redding, California. It went into a descent and we followed it. We picked up quite a bit of speed in a shallow dive and it went clear into Sacramento and across the city and right over the capital building. We were right on it. We had the aircraft redlined, as fast as it could go. At that point, it went vertical and it disappeared in a matter of two seconds, straight up...

While in the Air Force Reserves in the 1970s, we were coming back from Germany. We were in a C-141 and we were, at the time, 35,000 feet plus. We were around two hours out of Dover, Delaware. Again, it was clear skies, but dark. We observed this object on our radar screen. We had two of the scopes on board, the pilots had one and the navigator had one, and it was on both of them. It would come directly at us, but we couldn’t see it visually and then it would turn off. It made several passes at us, in fact, one time it came directly on our nose, so close that the pilot took evasive action.

At the same time, there was a civilian 747 off to our right that we could see. We contacted him and the pilots talked back and forth. They were seeing the same thing on their radar that we were seeing and we couldn’t figure it out.

The navigator, he worked it out and said that it (the UFO) was traveling 10,000 miles per hour, plus…

On the evening of July 14,1952, a Pan American World Airways DC-4 was on a routine flight, ferrying from New York to Miami with ten passengers and a crew of three, including, Captain F. V. Koepke, First Officer William B. Nash and Second Officer William H. Fortenberry. 

The sun had set an hour before though the coastline was still visible, and the night was clear and almost entirely dark. With the aircraft set on automatic pilot, while cruising at 8000 feet over the Chesapeake Bay approaching Norfolk, Virginia, they were due to over fly the VRF radio range station in six minutes and make a position report. In the mean time, since this was Fortenberry’s first run on this course, Nash, in the left pilot’s seat, was orientating Fortenberry by pointing out landmarks and the distant lights of the cities along the route. 

Nash had just pointed out the city of Newport News and Cumberland, ahead and to the right of the plane, when unexpectedly a red-orange brilliance appeared near the ground, beyond and slightly east of Newport News. The brilliance seemed to have appeared all of a sudden and both pilots witnessed the startling appearance at practically the same moment. In the excitement someone blurted out, “What the hell is that?” 

Captain Nash later described their initial observations… 

“Almost immediately we perceived that it consisted of six bright objects streaking toward us at tremendous speed, and obviously well below us. They had the fiery aspect of hot coals, but of much greater glow, perhaps twenty times more brilliant than any of the scattered ground lights over which they passed or the city lights to the right. Their shape was clearly outlined and evidently circular; the edges were well defined, not phosphorescent or fuzzy in the least and the red-orange color was uniform over the upper surface of each craft.”

“Within the few seconds that it took the six objects to come half the distance from where we had first seen them, we could observe that they were holding a narrow echelon formation, a stepped-up line tilted slightly to our right with the leader at the lowest point, and each following craft slightly higher. At about the halfway point, the leader appeared to attempt a sudden slowing. We received this impression because the second and third wavered slightly and seemed almost to overrun the leader, so that for a brief moment during the remainder of their approach the positions of these three varied. It looked very much as if an element of "human" or "intelligence" error had been introduced, in so far as the following two did not react soon enough when the leader began to slow down and so almost overran him.”

What occurred next utterly astonished the pilots. The procession shot forward like a stream of tracer bullets, out over the Chesapeake Bay to within a half-mile of the plane. Realizing that the line was going to pass under the nose of the plane and to the right of the copilot, Nash quickly unfastened his seat belt so that he could move to the window on that side. During this interval, Nash briefly lost sight of the objects, though Fortenberry kept them in view below the plane and both would later recollect… 

“All together, they flipped on edge, the sides to the left going up and the glowing surface facing right. Though the bottom surfaces did not become clearly visible, we had the impression that they were unlighted. The exposed edges, also unlighted, appeared to be about 15 feet thick, and the top surface, at least, seemed flat. In shape and proportion, they were much like coins. While all were in the edgewise position, the last five slid over and past the leader so that the echelon was now tail-foremost, so to speak, the top or last craft now being nearest to our position.”

This shift had taken only a brief second and was completed by the time Nash reached the window.  Both pilots then observed the discs flip back from on-edge to the flat position and the entire line dart off to the West in a direction that formed a sharp angle with their initial course, holding the new formation. The pilots had noticed that the objects seemed to dim slightly just prior to the abrupt angular turn and had brightened considerably after making it. Attempting to describe the objects extreme actions, Nash proposed, “The only descriptive comparison we can offer is a ball ricocheting off a wall.” 

An instant later, two more identical objects darted out past the right wing, from behind and under the airplane at the same altitude as the others and quickly fell in behind the receding procession. They observed that these two seemed to glow considerably brighter than the others, as though applying power to catch up. As they stared after them dumbfounded, suddenly the lights of all of the objects blinked out, only to reappear a moment later, maintaining low altitude out across the blackness of the bay, until about 10 miles beyond Newport News when they began climbing in a graceful arc that carried them well above the plane’s altitude. Sweeping upward they randomly blinked out and finally vanished in the dark night sky. Describing the disappearance of the objects some years later, Nash wrote, 

“As they climbed, they oscillated up and down behind one another in a irregular fashion, as though they were extremely sensitive to control. In doing this, they went vertically past one another, bobbing up and down, (just as the front three went horizontally past one another, as the initial six approached us. This appeared to be an intelligence error, ‘lousing up the formation’)—they disappeared by blinking out in a mixed-up fashion, in no particular order.”

Map of Newport News area, showing places mentioned in the text.

Their bewildered initial reaction is best affirmed in the words of Nash… 

“We stared after them, dumbfounded and probably open-mouthed. We looked around at the sky, half expecting something else to appear, though nothing did. There were flying saucers, and we had seen them. What we had witnessed was so stunning and incredible that we could readily believe that if either of us had seen it alone, he would have hesitated to report it. But here we were, face to face. We couldn't both be mistaken about such a striking spectacle.”

At "A", during approach, six UFOs held a stepped-up echelon formation. Flipping on edge at "B", followers overrode the leader until, in reverse order at the V-point, they flipped flat again and the echelon darted in a new direction, appearing aligned from the the observers' point of view. At "C", after a brief blink-out, the six were joined by two from behind the airliner.

The time was 8:12 Eastern Standard Time. As the reality of their experience dawned on them the first question which came to mind was whether anybody else onboard had seen the spectacle. Fortenberry went through the small forward passenger compartment, where the captain was intent on paper work. In the main cabin a cautious inquiry whether anyone had seen anything unusual produced no results. 

 Back in the cockpit, the pilots radioed Norfolk and gave their position according to schedule, and upon receiving confirmation added a second message to be forwarded to the military: "Two pilots of this flight observed eight unidentified objects vicinity Langley Field; estimate speed in excess of 1,000 mph; altitude estimated 2,000 feet." At this point, Captain Koepke came forward and took over control of the DC-4 while Nash and Fortenberry went to work reconstructing the sighting. 

With a Dalton Mark 7 computer they determined the objects' angle of approach and the same for the angle of departure. The difference between the two was about 30 degrees; therefore, the objects had made a 150-degree change of course almost instantaneously. 

They were able to accurately determine their position visually and by reference to their position to the VHF range at Norfolk.  The objects first appeared beyond and to the east of Newport News and came toward the DC-4 in a straight line, changed direction beneath the plane and departed in a straight line to the West once again passing a suburban edge of Newport News and seemed to travel out over a dark area before they began to climb steeply into the night sky. They determined that Newport News was 25 miles away and added the additional 10 and 30 miles that they estimated the objects had traveled in each direction, arriving at a total distance of 90 miles. To be conservative they decided to use 50 miles, since they had seen them travel at least that distance.  Determining the time duration of the sighting was not so straightforward. Wanting to be accurate, they reenacted the exact sequence of events seven times, and using the panel stopwatch clocks determined that the time period did not exceed 12 seconds each time. Again, to be conservative they adopted 15 seconds in the final computation, which meant that the objects were flying at the rate of 200 miles per minute, or 12,000 miles per hour! 

They estimated that the objects were slightly more than a mile below the plane, or about 2000 feet above ground level, and by mentally comparing their appearance with the wingspread of a DC-3 at that distance, judged the size to be approximately 100 feet diameter and 15 feet thick.  Determinations of distance, size and speed are always open to question by the fact that the objects observed were unidentified phenomena. However, this particular incident was especially unique in the sense that the pilots observed the objects between the ground and the plane.  Most sightings occur against an empty sky without any standard of comparison to known objects or distance, but in this case the planes altitude of 8000 feet established a finite distance for reference. Nash later qualified his ability to estimate the altitude of the objects in a letter to astrophysicist, Dr. Donald H. Menzel. 

“We both had flown many thousands of hours at either 7000 or 8000 feet, because these altitudes were high enough to avoid most turbulence but not so high as to starve us for oxygen. Hence, a sort-of “instinct-judgment” about the height of objects gradually developed. If after 10,000 hours of flying at the same altitude a pilot cannot judge if something (even an unfamiliar something) is halfway between his plane and the ground, and split that in half again, he best quit. Our judgment, after seeing these things travel nearly a hundred miles, and observing them both from a distance and almost directly beneath us, was that they were holding 2000 feet for most of the observed time.”

Further, both Nash and Fortenberry had served in the Navy during the war in which Nash flew patrol bombers for the Naval Air Transport Service patrolling between the African and South American coastlines in search of German submarines. Fortenberry served in the U.S. Navy Air experimental wing for two years and was well aware of aeronautical developments for the time. In naval training, both pilots had received intensive instruction in aircraft identification and had learned to identify every ship in the German Navy. 

While Nash and Fortenberry were still discussing the matter, the lights of a northbound airliner came into view on a course about 1,000 feet above. Ordinarily the head-on approach of two airliners at 500 mph seems fairly rapid. But in this instance, compared to the streaking speed of the discs, the oncoming plane seemed to be standing still. If any normal happening could have increased the effect of the night's experience, it was just such a commonplace event. 

They landed at Miami International Airport shortly after midnight. Upon entering the operations office, they found a copy of the message they had transmitted to the military through Norfolk, with an addition: "Advise crew five jets were in area at the time." This didn't exactly apply since the things they had seen were eight in number, and they were dead sure they were not jets. 

At 7 A.M. Air Force investigators telephoned and an appointment was set for an interview later that morning. USAF Wing Intelligence officer Major John H. Sharpe and four officers from the 7th District Office of Special Investigations met Nash and Fortenberry at the airport. In separate rooms, the pilots were questioned for one hour and forty-five minutes and following that, for a half-hour together. The pilots were duly impressed by the skill and thoroughness of their interrogators. Questions had been prepared in advance and posed individually to the two pilots in order to evaluate their recall. Map overlays were compared and they had a complete weather report for the area, which coincided with the previous night’s flight plan. It stated; 3/8 Cirrus clouds about 20,000 feet. No inversion and a sharply clear night, probably unstable air. Visibility was unusually good. Following the interview, the investigators advised the pilots that they had already received seven additional reports from persons who had witnessed similar incidents within 30 minutes, in the same area. The best was from a Lt. Commander and his wife who described a formation of red discs traveling at high-speed and making immediate directional changes without a turning radius. Being told that their particular experience was by no means unique surprised the pilots. 

None of these reports appear in the official Blue Book files, though three reports requested by ATIC in August describe multiple objects cavorting over Washington D.C. at 9:00 A.M., the morning of the sighting. Fortunately, NICAP retained copies of some of the confirmatory reports for the evening of July 14, which were published in the Norfolk newspapers. Although none of the reported sightings appear to describe the identical maneuvers that the pilots witnessed, a couple are sufficiently similar to be taken as reasonable substantiations. For example, one witness stated that, 

“She and a friend were sitting on a bench in Stockley Gardens when they saw what appeared to be flying saucers ‘circling overhead and then going north.’ She said they saw seven or eight altogether ‘the first three white and the others were yellow and red.’”

In a letter to the editor of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, the naval officer from the cruiser Roanoke, apparently mentioned to Nash and Fortenberry during the OSI investigation, reported that he had sighted eight red lights in the direction of Point Comfort that proceeded in a straight line and then disappeared. He saw the objects at about 8:55 P.M. Eastern Daylight-Saving Time, approximately 15 minutes before the pilot’s sighting, as he was driving towards the Naval base for a 9:00 P.M. appointment. 

Especially interesting is that as a result of the press coverage of the Pan American pilots sighting the following day, Paul R. Hill, an aerodynamicist at the NASA-Langley facility, decided to watch the sky for UFOs on the evening of July 16. Expecting “conformance to pattern” he parked at the waterfront a little before 8:00 P.M. and soon observed two amber-colored objects approach from the South and turn West taking them directly overhead. At this point, the objects curiously appeared to be alternatively jumping forward of each other slightly.  Then after passing zenith, they made an astounding maneuver. They began to revolve around a common center, and after a few revolutions, switched to the vertical plane! Within a few more seconds two more similar objects joined the first two before all four headed south. Hill later wrote, 

“Up to that point I had been just a fascinated spectator. Now they had convinced me. At that moment, I realized that here were visitors from another world. There is a lot of truth in the old saying, ‘It’s different when it happens to you.’ It was within my line of business to know that no Earth craft could remotely approach those maneuvers.”

This sighting prompted Paul Hill to a life-long study collecting and analyzing sightings’ reports for physical properties and propulsion possibilities in an attempt to make technological sense of the unconventional objects. The study was eventually published posthumously, under the title, Unconventional Flying Objects: A Scientific Analysis (Hampton Roads, 1995), in which Hill presents his thesis that UFOs “obey, not defy, the laws of physics.” 

At the time of these sightings flying saucers had been big news for many weeks and the staff of nine at Project Blue Book were swamped with sighting reports, far more than they could properly deal with. By mid-July they were getting about twenty reports a day and frantic calls from intelligence officers at every Air Force base in the U.S. The reports they were getting were good ones and could not be easily explained. In fact, the unexplained sightings were running at about 40 percent. All this was leading inexorably to the following weekend when UFOs were picked up by radar at Washington National Airport in restricted air space over the nation’s capitol, and would become one of the most highly publicized sightings of UFO history. For those reasons, the Nash/Fortenberry sighting received a less than adequate investigation.  Project Blue Book quickly determined that the five jets flying out of Langley, AFB could not have possibly been responsible for the sighting, and the case was dropped and filed as an “Unknown.” 

It was not until 1962 that the case would be reexamined by the Director of the Harvard College Observatory, astrophysicist Donald H. Menzel, and published in his book, The World of Flying Saucers: A Scientific Examination of a Major Myth of the Space Age (Doubleday, 1963).   At the time, Professor Charles A. Maney, a physicist at Defiance College, had been engaged in a rather lengthy correspondence with Menzel, and when the Nash/Fortenberry sighting came up, Maney forwarded copies of the correspondence to Nash, then an advisor to NICAP.  This led to a series of lengthy correspondences over a six-month period between Nash and Menzel providing considerable insight into the process by which Menzel arrived at his eventual solution to the inexplicable sighting. 

Based on the meager data contained in the official report, Menzel assumed that the sighting could be reasonably explained as a reflection in the cockpit windows, especially considering the nearly instantaneous reversal, which seems to defy the laws of physics pertaining to inertia. In support of this explanation he underscored the apparent failure of the crew and Air Force investigators to make any tests for possible reflections, and generally called into question the credibility of the pilots. In a fairly scathing letter, Nash remonstrated Menzel on this critical point: 

“Dr. Menzel, regardless of your figures the western horizon was not quite bright, and regarding your “reflection theory,” in the first place the objects were between us and the West. In the second place, they would have had to be damned persistent, consistent and impossible reflections to have manifested in three cockpit windows in exactly the same way. We first observed them through the front window. As they approached and I moved across the cockpit, I kept my eyes on the objects and saw them through the curved window of the windshield, and we both finished our observations looking through the right side window. That is why there is no evidence (as you complain to Dr. Maney) that the pilots considered that what they saw was a reflection; and you state that we were too excited by what we saw to make the most elementary scientific tests. Again, Doctor, pilots do not excite easily or they would not be airline pilots—please—a little respect for us?”

Dr. Menzel’s next line of inquiry concerned whether the reflection could have been caused by an illumination within the cockpit, or possibly a “hostess taking a drag of a cigarette.” Dr. Maney’s rather sardonic response to this possibility was, “Quite a long drag, wouldn’t you say?” But, nevertheless, the pilots weren’t smoking, the cockpit door was closed, there were no hostesses on the flight and the pilot’s observed the object’s reversal out of the right window below the plane.  This pretty well convinced Menzel that an internal reflection was unlikely to explain the phenomenon and what Captain Nash had seen was something outside the plane. 

Still, Menzel concluded that Nash’s observations “… are completely consistent with the theory that the discs were immaterial images made of light.” 

Therefore, to explain the sighting he theorized that,  

“…a temperature inversion can lead to a sharp concentration of haze, ice crystals, smoke or other particles in a relatively thin layer.  The layer is often invisible until the plane actually goes through it, when it appears as a thin, bright, hazy line that disappears a moment later when the plane breaks through it. Multiple layers of such haze are not unknown, stacked one on top of the other. Now, a sharply focused searchlight, shining at night through a series of such hazy layers, will show up as a series of discs. As the searchlight moves, the discs will appear to spread out, exhibit perspective, and, as the searchlight turns around, the discs will appear to ricochet.”

The soundness of his theory depended on the prevailing weather conditions. Since the official weather reports for that evening indicated that there were no temperature inversions present, Dr. Menzel carefully constructed a scenario in which inversions (albeit in meteorological parlance, a sub refractive condition) could have been present though undetectable by the weather service. 

“In the summer of 1952 all the eastern states were suffering from a intense heat wave and drought, and the ground cooled rapidly after sunset, because of the lack of cloud cover during the day. In a period of heat and drought, the nightly cooling produces marked inversions favorable to extreme refraction and reflection. Small in extent, existing only briefly in one place, constantly changing location, such inversions may not be detectable by radiosonde observations.”

Dr. Menzel admitted that his solution does not identify the particular beacon or searchlight responsible for the sightings, though he suggests that, “A light on the Virginia coast, shining northeast toward the plane, could easily have been spread out into a series of images like those observed.” Apparently, the location of the light is assumed to be at the point of the pilot’s initial sighting of the red-glow, beyond and to the East of Newport News.  This begs the question why experienced pilots could not identify an apparently fixed high-intensity (red!) light source if it were emanating from a position 25 miles in front and below and directed toward their aircraft. Since the discs were organized in a stepped-up echelon, with the leading disc at the lowest point, one would deduce that the source of the light must have been from behind the aircraft. Had the light source been in front of the aircraft, as Dr. Menzel postulates, the leading disc would have appeared in the highest position in the echelon. Further, a searchlight reflecting off a horizontal cloud layer at an oblique angle to the observer would produce a gradual elongation of the disc as it moves relative to the observer. Nor does the theory account for the two discs that darted out from under the plane and conjoined the original six before disappearing into the night sky. Or the mechanism that would need to be in effect to make the discs appear to flip vertically on edge, reverse position in formation while maintaining relative distances, and then flip back to the horizontal plane (while executing a 150-degree course change at, well, in the words of investigating officer, Major John Sharpe, “…a speed fantastic to contemplate.” Incidentally, 90 miles in 12 seconds equals 27,000 mph!) 

In his book, Dr. Menzel asserts that his solution offers, “a highly probable explanation that is consistent with all observations and does not depend on the presence of an extraterrestrial spacecraft.” I have to agree with the later part of the statement, but have no doubt that readers will find further inconsistencies in Dr. Menzel’s impracticable solution. 

Some years later, in early 1957, Bill Fortenberry was lost in a Boeing B-377 Stratocruiser crash in the Pacific Ocean, with all onboard. In the early sixties, Captain Nash transferred to Germany, and for the next 15 years flew the Berlin corridors before retiring from Pan American. In a recent interview for the Sign Oral History Project, a still vivacious Captain Nash provided their concluding supposition… 

“Looking at the thing shook us up. We stared at each other, and all of a sudden there was this realization that our world is not alone in the universe. Because, nothing could have advanced to that degree of scientific progress without some of the intermediate steps having become public knowledge, or, at least known to the people who were flying. Bill had just come out of the Navy and was fully acquainted with their latest developments. We just knew that they were not from this planet. I know to this day, that it was nothing from this planet.”

References: 

Nash, William B. and Fortenberry, William H. “We Flew Above Flying Saucers.” True Magazine, October 1952: p. 65, 110-112. 

Ruppelt, Edward J.  Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. Doubleday and Company, Garden City, NY, 1956. 

Menzel, Donald H. The World of Flying Saucers: A Scientific Examination of a Major Myth of the Space Age. Doubleday and Company, Garden City, NY, 1965. 

Hill, Paul R. Unconventional Flying Objects: A Scientific Analysis. Hampton Roads, Charlottesville, VA, 1995. 

USAF Project Blue Book files, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington D.C. 

Personal files of William B. Nash.  (Copies of the Nash files with the Sign Historical Group). 

“Rockets, Tracers or Them Devilish Flying Saucers,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, July 17, 1952. 

The Witness: “A Precise Report on Flying Saucers—Or Something,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, July 20, 1952, p. 6. 

Nash, William B., 2002. Interviewed by Thomas Tulien and Jan Aldrich, January 4, (Sign Oral History Project)

An Air Force RB-47, equipped with electronic countermeasures (ECM) gear and manned by six officers, was followed by an unidentified object for a distance of well over 700 miles, and for a time period of 1.5 hr., as it flew from Mississippi, through Louisiana and Texas and into Oklahoma.

The object was, at various times, seen visually by the cockpit crew as an intensely luminous light, followed by ground-radar and detected on ECM monitoring gear aboard the RB-47.

Of special interest in this case are several instances of simultaneous appearances and disappearances on all three of those physically distinct "channels," and rapidity of maneuvers beyond the prior experience of the aircrew. 

Introduction 

In the early morning hours of July 17, 1957, an RB-47 was flying out of Forbes Air Force Base, Topeka, Kansas, on a composite mission that included gunnery exercises over the Texas-Gulf area, navigation exercises over the open Gulf, and finally ECM exercises scheduled for the return trip across the south-central United States. The RB-47 was carrying a sixman crew, of whom three were electronic warfare officers manning ECM gear in the aft portion of the aircraft. Their names are as follows: Lewis D. Chase, pilot; James H. McCoid, copilot; Thomas H. Hanley, navigator; John J. Provenzano, No. 1 monitor; Frank B. McClure, No. 2 monitor; Walter A. Tuchscherer. No. 3 monitor. 

I shall draw upon my interview with the crew as well as case files which I finally located. The files consist of a three-page TWX filed from the 745th ACWRON, Duncanville, Texas, at 1557Z on July 17, 1957, and a four-page case summary prepared by E.T. Piwetz, Wing Intelligence Officer, 55th Reconnaissance Wing, Forbes AFB, and transmitted to ADC Hq., Ent AFB, Colorado, in compliance with a request of August 15, from Col. F. T. Jeep, Director of Intelligence, ADC. That summary, plus a 12-page Airborne Observer's Data Sheet, was forwarded on November 17 from ADC to Blue Book, and was evidently the first notification Project Blue Book received concerning this case.

The 12-page Data Sheet (AISOP #2) was prepared by Major Chase on September 10, and contains a number of points of relevance not covered in other parts of the case file. There is very relevant information in the case file as to precise times, locations, and other circumstances, and the case file does have the great virtue of representing a summary account prepared while all of the details were fresh in the minds of the crew. 

Before describing the first ECM contact, it is necessary to explain briefly the nature of the ECM gear involved in this case. (Details are no longer classified, although all of the basic case-file documents were initially SECRET.) This RB-47 had three passive direction-finding (DF) radarmonitors for use in securing coordinate information and pulse characteristics on enemy ground-based radar.

The #2 monitor, manned by McClure, was an ALA-6 DF-receiver with back-to-back antennas in a housing on the belly of the RB-47 near the tail spun at 150 or 300 rpm as it scanned an azimuth. (Note that this implies ability to scan at 10/sec past a fixed ground radar in the distance.) It's frequency range was 1000-7500 MHz. Inside the aircraft, the signals from the ALA-6 were processed in an APR-9 radar receiver and an ALA-5 pulse-analyzer. All subsequent references to the #2 monitor imply that system. 

Number 1 Monitor  

The #1 monitor, manned by Provenzano, was an APD-4 DF system, with a pair of antennas permanently mounted on either wing tip. It was working at a higher frequency. The #3 monitor, with a frequency range from 30-1000 MHz, was manned by Tuchscherer.

It was not affected and will not be described here. VHF communications were likewise not affected. 

For emphasis, it needs to be stressed that the DF receivers are not radars and do not emit a signal for reflection off a distant target. They only listen passively to incoming radar signals and analyze signatures and other characteristics. When receiving a distant radar set's signal, the scope displays a pip or strobe at an azimuthal position corresponding to the relative bearing in the aircraft coordinate system.

For the case of a fixed ground radar, approached from one side, the strobe is initially seen in the upper part of the scope and moves down-scope, a point to be carefully noted in interpreting the following discussion. 

Having completed the navigational exercises over the Gulf, Chase headed across the Mississippi coastline, flying at an altitude of 34,500 ft, at about Mach 0.75 (258 kt IAS=500 mph TAS). The weather was perfect and practically cloudless under the influence of a large high-pressure area extending throughout the troposphere.

There were no showers or thunderstorms anywhere along the flight route. Shortly after the coast near Gulfport was crossed at a point marked A on the map on page 00, McClure detected on the #2 monitor a signal painting at their 5 o'clock position (aft of the starboard beam). It looked to him as if he were receiving a legitimate ground-radar signal. Upon noting that the strobe was moving up-scope, McClure tentatively decided that it must be a ground radar off to their northwest painting with 180 deg ambiguity for some electronic reason.

But when the strobe, after sweeping up-scope on the starboard side, crossed the flight  path of the RB-47 and proceeded to move down-scope on the port side McClure said he gave up the hypothesis of 180 deg ambiguity as incapable of explaining such behavior. 

Fortunately, he had examined the signal characteristics on his ALA-5 pulse-analyzer, before the signal left his scope on the port side aft. In discussing it with me, his recollection was that the frequency was near 2800 mcs, and he recalled that what was particularly odd was that it had a pulse-width and pulse repetition frequency (PRF) much like that of a typical S-band, ground-based, search radar.

He even recalled that there was a simulated scan rate that was normal. Perhaps because of the strong similarities to ground-based sets such as the CPS-6B, widely used at that time, McClure did not, at that juncture, call this signal to the attention of anyone else in the aircraft.

The #1 monitor was not working the frequency in question, it later developed. The #3 monitor was incapable of working the frequency in question, McClure and the others indicated to me. 

I next quote information transcribed from the summary report prepared by the Wing Intelligence Officer, COMSTRATRECONWG 55, Forbes Air Force Base, concerning this part of the incident that involved this aircraft (call sign "Lacy 17"):  

What can be detected on ECM direction finding devices, can be seen visually, and can be detected on ordinary ground-based radar all at the same time? What can be detected by all the sensors and can also fly rings around a jet travelling at 500 mph? 

Project Bluebook said that the sightings in Dallas - Fort Worth area were an ordinary jet airliner. They couldn't explain the abrupt, simultaneous disappearance and reappearance of the object from radar screens, ECM scopes, and visual detection. They also couldn't explain the events that occurred over Mississippi and Louisiana. It's odd that the Utah radar station couldn't tell an airliner from an unknown. 

The Condon Committee toyed with several explanations, but found none to be satisfactory, finally classifying this case as unknown. 

Most UFO researchers are aware of at least the basic details of the classic 1957 RB47 spy plane UFO encounter over Texas and Mississippi, which was voted the #1 “best evidence” UFO case by a panel of researchers in my 2007 documentary Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Sightings. It isn’t the only UFO incident associated with what was at the time the highly classified RB47 aircraft. At the Other Side of Truth podcast I've uploaded a short clip of Lt. Col. Bruce Bailey, a highly decorated retired RB47 crew member, recounting his crew’s own UFO encounter during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the aftermath, and compares it the 1957 case. 

One of the other incidents involved a plane in which Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Bailey was flying as an ECM officer. Bailey, pictured at the left with me in his home outside of Dallas, Texas, back in 2006, has served as the de facto historian for the RB47 since his retirement (his book We See All is a wonderful airman's memoir of what it was like to fly back then).

He describes his crew's own incident in my just completed documentary, Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Cases. Bailey (third from right in the photo at left, back in his USAF days) also describes the aftermath, not only of his incident, but of others involving RB47 crews, including the classic 1957 case. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first time he had talked about his case on camera.

His career in the Air Force (1956-77) was spent primarily as an Electronics Warfare Officer flying reconnaissance missions during the cold war. He has written several books on the subject and has become a sought-after authority. Bruce has flown many different types of aircraft, but most of his 9,000 hours were spent in the RB-47 and RC-135. Throughout most of his career he flew combat missions and wore the Combat Crew badge. During the height of the Cold War he was constantly either “On Call” or deployed. Air Force life was much better suited to Bruce. He was a highly effective leader and widely recognized as such by his peer and superior officers. The Air Force also allowed him to put his intellectual capacity to work. Quickly mastering electronics and Radio Frequency theory and processing, he quickly dominated his specialized field within the community. By the time of his retirement, Bruce was a highly decorated having been awarded the Bronze Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross several times, and many other medals and awards. His life in the military enabled him to travel the world where he had the opportunity to meet and interact with a wide range of people and cultures.

The sighting of three glowing objects by several airline crews February 24, 1959, is one of the most thoroughly investigated (and ironically, one of the most controversial) on record.

On February 24, 1959, Captain Peter W. Killian and First Officer James Dee, American Airlines, were flying a DC-6B nonstop from Newark to Detroit.  It was a clear night, with stars brightly visible and no moon.  At 8:20 P.M. (EST) the plane was approximately thirteen miles west of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, flying on a heading of 295 degrees at 8,500 feet.  Off the left wingtip, Captain Killian noticed three bright lights, which he first thought was the three stars making up the belt of the constellation Orion.  But then he realized that Orion was also visible, higher overhead.  The UFOs were about 15 degrees above the plane.

As he and Flight Officer (F/O) Dee continued to watch, the objects pulled ahead of the wingtip.  At this point, in the vicinity of Erie, Pennsylvania, Captain Killian contacted two other American Airlines planes in the area. One, at the "Dolphin checkpoint" (over the northern shore of Lake Erie), saw the objects directly to the south over Cleveland.  The other aircraft, near Sandusky, Ohio, and heading toward Pittsburgh. spotted the objects a little to the left of their heading, to the southeast.

As the DC-6B continued west, the UFOs occasionally pulled ahead and dropped back until they were in their original position with respect to the left wingtip.  Then Captain Killian began letting down for landing in Detroit, and the crew no longer had time to watch the objects.

During the forty-five minute observation,  the UFOs continuously changed brightness, flashing "brighter than any star," and then fading completely.  This did not occur in any apparent pattern. The color fluctuated from yellow-orange to a brilliant blue-white at their brightest. The last object in line moved back and forth at times, independently of the generally western motion of the formation.

Visibility was unlimited.  The pilots agreed: "It could not be any clearer than it was that night above 5,000 feet."

When the plane began letting down for landing, about 9:15 P.M., Captain Killian and F/O Dee lost sight of the objects.  At 9:30 P.M. in Akron, Ohio, George Popowitch of the UFO Research Committee received a phone call from a contact at the Akron airport.  A United Airlines plane

(Flight 937) had just landed for a fifteen-minute stop and reported sighting three UFOs which had followed their plane for thirty minutes. Popowitch had already received nine reports from local citizens between 9:15 and 9:20 of there UFOs seen in the area, so he arranged to

interview the crew of the airliner.

Captain A. D. Yates and Engineer L. E. Baney said they had tracked the object from the vicinity of Lockhaven, Pennsylvania, to Youngstown, Ohio, between 8:40 and 9:10 P.M.  United Airlines flight 321, also, had discussed the objects by radio. Captain Yates had seen the UFOs pacing his plane to the south.  But in the vicinity of Warren, Ohio, the objects passed the aircraft, veered to the right, and finally disappeared to the northwest.

On May 6, 1959, Major General W. P. Fisher, Air Force Director of Legislative Liaison, in a letter to Senator Harry Byrd, stated:  "The investigation of this incident revealed that an Air Force refueling mission, involving a KC-97 and three B-47 aircraft, was flown in the vicinity of Bradford, Pennsylvania, at the time of the sighting by Captain Killian.  The refueling operation was conducted at 17,000 feet altitude at approximately 230 knots true air speed (about 265 mph) for a period of approximately one hour."

THE NATIONAL INVESTIGATIONS COMMITTEE ON Aerial PHENOMENA pointed out several discrepancies in this explanation:

 (1) Bradford was to the north of the airliner's flight path; the UFOs were seen to the south.

 (2) Triangulation’s of the pilots' sighting did not conform to the altitude and position information given for the refueling operation.

 (3) The American Airlines crews checked with Air Traffic Control at the time and were told that no three aircraft were in the area and, after landing, were told that no jet refueling tankers were in the area.

Queried by the press, Captain Killian said: "If the Air Force wants to believe that, it can. But I know what a B-47 looks like and I know what a KC-97 tanker looks like, and I know what they took like in operation at night. And that’s not what I saw."

The Air Force subsequently released a (unsigned) statement which they said was made by Captain Killian, saying that the UFOs might have been a refueling operation and that he was not aware of what this looked like at night.  In the ensuing controversy, American Airlines instructed Captain Killian to keep silent. The Air Force officially concluded that the UFOs were aircraft

Richard Hall

Lieutenant Fox was in the Navy in the 60’s flying attack planes. He had a top-secret clearance and served in Vietnam. He is a retired pilot of 33 years with American Airlines. In his testimony, he reveals that there is a publication called JANAP 146 E that has a section which states that no one is to share any information regarding the UFO phenomenon under penalty of $10,000 fine and 10 years in prison. During one incident in late 1964, while flying an A4 Skyhawk, he says that all of a sudden a darkened saucer shaped object about 30 feet in diameter appeared on his left side. There were many other events over the course of his career where he observed saucer shaped and cigar shaped UFOs over military installations as well as one time seeing two red lights traversing the night’s sky from horizon to horizon in three seconds. He was afraid to bring up these events to others due to the inherent ridicule in the subject.

In the Navy my rank was Lieutenant and I was a nuclear weapons delivery pilot so I had a top-secret clearance.

Well, as far as the Navy goes I was Code 4 PUBS, which was a confidential publications and communications officer. There is a publication called JANAP 146 E that had a section that says you will not reveal any information regarding the UFO phenomenon under penalty of $10,000.00 fine and ten years in jail. So they were quite adamant that whatever experiences you had you were not to go public with it without their permission…

I was out about 180 miles from the carrier one night by myself at about 20,000 feet when an object showed up on my left side. It didn’t have any hostile intent; it was just there observing me. And I sort of observed it and came away with a very peaceful feeling. I never said anything to anybody until later in my career with the airlines. I later found out a fellow shipmate of mine had a similar incident.

The object was maybe 30 feet in diameter… Maybe it was an intelligence gathering disc. It was saucer shaped…

The subject never came up with Air Traffic Control. In any event I would never have opened my mouth. There was a Captain, Pete Killian, who was written about in some of the UFO books. He was a Captain with American Airlines back in the ‘50’s that evidently had a sighting and testified before the Senate committees. And then there was another captain that actually took a photograph of a UFO off his wings. And of course they were subject to ridicule. I didn’t want to go that direction. So, I never reported anything to FAA or the military. A lot of pilots just did not want to get involved in this because of peer pressure and ridicule. So the secret has been kept…

I have a very personal friend that was a B-24 pilot during W.W.II that got into [the] O.S.S. And he was one of the first people into Japan after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Nagasaki. He ended up on Project Bluebook, Section 13, which I believe was the top-secret portion of that investigation. At the time he was a captain in the Air Force. He’s in his late ‘70’s now and he is still being carried on active duty as a captain. I don’t know if he’s being paid but if he’s on active duty he should be a three star general with time and rank and he should be paid. And the whole reason that they have kept him on active duty is to keep his national security oath active because of what he knows. There are certain things that he will not talk to me about because of that security oath even though I had a top secret clearance with the Navy and we are both very interested in the same thing.

For whatever reason the Government, or those agencies of Government, deem necessary to protect their agendas, which obviously now, aren’t our agendas. I think it is time for us to act, to end this charade. And to take whatever steps are necessary to insure that the human race evolves properly and enjoys the fruits of that evolution.

UFO Encounter Revealed After Almost 40 Years By Ex-Military Pilot

On the night of Feb. 6, 1975, Marine Reserve Squadron Capt. Larry Jividen was piloting a T-39D Sabreliner (see image above) combat trainer and utility aircraft with five Naval officer pilots on board for a special training flight. He didn't know the evening would evolve into a game of "tag" with an unidentified flying object.  Jividen hasn't spoken about that experience from nearly 40 years ago -- until now.  

The nine-year Marine Corps officer -- and later commercial airline pilot -- had taken off at twilight for a two-hour roundtrip that began and ended at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. 

"At about 9 o'clock, we were descending from a high altitude -- around 33,000 feet -- and I looked off to the right side of the airplane where I saw a solid red light at our 1:00 o'clock position and altitude," Jividen toldThe Huffington Post. 

"It was not flashing like normal anti-collision lights flash on airplanes. I thought it might be some other traffic, but I wasn't sure, so I called Pensacola Approach Control and said, 'Understand we're cleared for the approach, but we have traffic off to our right, and who's first for the approach?" 

The traffic that Jividen and the other five crew members saw was mutually described as "a solid, circular object about the relative size of a kid's marble held at arm's length," Jividen recalled. 

When they were informed that ground control had no other traffic in their vicinity, Jividen became concerned that the mysterious object hadn't shown up on radar. So he asked for clearance to deviate from their approach and turn directly toward the bright red UFO "just to see what it does." 

As he turned toward the object, Jividen says it turned toward his plane. 

"It suddenly flew from right to left, across the nose [of our plane], and just stopped at our 11:00 o'clock position. At that point, I started to speed up to see if I could close on the object, and as I [did that], it was pacing me in front. In other words, as I'd speed up, he'd speed up. 

"So, I decided to descend to place the object against a star field to make sure that it was actually solid, and then I climbed so that I could silhouette the object against the Gulf of Mexico." 

Jividen says the five-minute encounter came to an end when the reddish UFO flew away at a very high rate and disappeared over the horizon in the direction of New Orleans. 

After the crew returned to Pensacola, Jividen filled out an incident form and that was the last he heard of the episode. 

And nobody else heard about it for more than three decades. 

Jividen's story is now being told in a new edition of UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities, written by retired Army Col. John Alexander. 

"I did some background checks on [Jividen] and one of the first things that came back was his distinguished flying crosses for doing really heroic things. He is who he says he is and very straightforward," Alexander toldHuffPost. 

"I don't think there's any doubt that it was something. I take him as a highly credible witness, much more so than many other ones." 

Alexander's unique top-secret clearance granted him by the U.S. government gave him access in the 1980s to a variety of official documents and first-person UFO accounts. He also created a special group of top-level government officials and scientists who studied the UFO phenomenon. 

In the end, Alexander determined that the U.S., indeed, had evidence pointing to UFO reality, but he couldn't find any signs that the government deliberately kept this information from the public, or that contact had been made with alien life. 

"One of the things we are seeing are physical characteristics that we don't understand, capabilities that are beyond our technological options at this time, i.e. extremely fast acceleration and high-G turns that living organisms, as we know it, would not survive," he explained. 

A larger issue going on with regard to UFOs seen by military, commercial and private pilots may turn out to be potential safety hazards, says at least one respected scientist. 

"My friends who are scientists say, 'Well, there's nothing to UFOs. If there were, we would have the data and we'd look at it.' That's partly a valid statement, and it's pilots who are unwittingly preventing us from getting the data to analyze scientifically," said Richard Haines, a former research scientist from NASA's Ames Research Center. 

Haines -- who prefers to use the term unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAP, to UFO -- is a former UFO skeptic who now heads the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, or NARCAP. 

"Our objectives are to make flying safer for the flying public, specifically in regard to UAP, and we're convinced there's a potential threat posed by nearby UAP to commercial and private airplanes," Haines toldHuffPost. 

Working with a staff of nearly 40 people, including international affiliates, Haines is NARCAP's chief scientist. He addresses the issue of pilots who have a fear reporting UFOs or UAPs while they're still actively flying. 

"To me, that's a serious inhibiting factor for scientists like myself to collect the data." 

Haines suggests that the fear factor surrounding pilots doesn't have as much to do with them being afraid of the objects they encounter as it does with the fear of losing their jobs if they talk about it. 

"Exactly. I don't think it's a physical fear. NARCAP comes along with the objective of trying to make flying safer for the public, and the airlines don't want to hear that because it implies it's not safe! For obvious reasons, many of the reports I have are from retired pilots." 

Like the one from Jividen, who filed a report with Haines last year -- almost 40 years after the fact, but it was still impressive. 

"First of all, it had a number of witnesses," said Haines. "There were six guys on board and they're not all going to mistake a common illusion. 

"After several minutes [the object] didn't change size, shape or intensity, which means that it not only accelerated in front of him and stopped at his 11:00 o'clock position, but it then maintained his forward velocity. We have to ask what kind of natural phenomenon can do that?" 

Haines still isn't sure what these unusual objects are that so many pilots over decades have reported. 

"I honestly don't know, and as a scientist, I want to keep all the doors open until I've got sufficient evidence, but until that time, I'm not going to speculate." 

Alexander's research leads him to at least one important conclusion about the truly unexplained UFO or UAP cases. 

"If you get to the fundamental issue -- if there is an intelligence behind this, and it certainly appears to be true -- things like energy have to be key. Certainly understanding a different form of energy would be incredibly useful." 

Whatever the red circular object was that Jividen and his crew encountered that night in 1975, two things made a lasting impression on him. 

"First, there was no radar contact with it. Clearly, by the silhouette and movement of my aircraft, this was a solid, self-propelled object. 

"I don't think our physical science is advanced enough to evaluate what these things are. There's some physical phenomena going on that we just can't clearly interpret or evaluate -- it's obviously intelligently controlled, but it may not be ET."

source: https://www.sott.net/article/243757-UFO-Encounter-Revealed-After-Almost-40-Years-By-Ex-Military-Pilot

An interesting case that occurred at 2105 EST on March 12, 1977 between Buffalo and Albany, New York, that involved United Airlines flight 94, a nonstop flight from San Francisco to Boston. The DC-10 airplane was under the control of autopilot system #2 and was flying at 37,000 feet altitude. The entire sky was dark and clear ahead and above the airplane, except for a partial undercast with small clouds extending to about 20 miles ahead. The aircraft was flying at an indicated air speed of 275 knots (true air speed 530 knots). The aircraft was about half way between Buffalo and Albany, and had just changed from contact with the "FROM" VOR (Very-High-Frequency Omnidirectional Bearing) signal emanating from Buffalo to the "TO" signal from Albany. The aircraft was just south of Syracuse, New York.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, the airplane began to turn to the left, making a 15 degree bank. Within a few seconds, the First Officer and the Captain looked to the left side of their plane and saw an extremely bright white light at about their own altitude. Subsequently, the Flight Engineer also looked and saw the light source. It appeared to be perfectly round and its apparent diameter was about 3 degrees of arc. However, the Captain estimated the object to be about 1,000 yards away and to be about 100 feet in size, that corresponds to an angular size of 2 degrees. "Its intensity was remarkable ­ about the intensity of a flashbulb," he remarked. Boston ATC radioed to ask "United 94, where are you going?" The Captain replied "Well, let me figure this out. I will let you know." He then noticed that the three cockpit compasses (that use sensors in different parts of the plane) were all giving different readings. At this point, the Copilot turned off the autopilot and took manual control of the airplane.

Based upon the fact that the object did not move laterally in the cockpit window during the 45 degree left heading change and from knowledge of the turn radius of this airplane at its stated velocity, Haines calculated the approximate distance to the object to be about 10 nautical miles. If the pilot's angular size estimate for the object is accurate, this suggests that the light source was about 2100 feet across. The object appeared to stay with the airplane for 4 to 5 minutes, after which it departed very rapidly, disappearing within about 15 seconds behind them to the west. The Captain asked ATC if they had any radar traffic in that area and received a negative reply.

The navigation system involves two gyro-suspended compasses, each coupled to a special circuit with a "mismatch annunciator flag." If the readings from the two compasses differ by 3 degrees or more, the autopilot should automatically disengage and the mismatch annunciator flag should be displayed (Powell, 1981). This forces the pilot to take manual control of the airplane. However in this event the readings on the two compasses differed by more than 3 degrees yet the airplane remained on autopilot and the mismatch annunciator flag was not displayed.

Haines reviewed several possible interpretations of this event (cf. Perry & Geppert, 1997). It seems most probable that the malfunction of the three compasses was due to a transient perturbing magnetic field that disturbed the two primary magnetic compasses, the sensor on the wing tip nearest the object (which was controlling the active autopilot at the time) being disturbed more than the other wing-tip sensor. Upon landing, the compasses were checked and found to be in normal operating condition.

In responding to this presentation, the panel took the position that evidence of interference with aircraft equipment is interesting but, in the absence of corroborative data from flight recorders and other mechanical or electrical recording equipment, the evidence presented must be regarded as anecdotal. It is quite possible that the persons making the report summarized above did indeed see unusual and striking phenomena. It does appear that the airplane departed from its normal flight path, but this could have happened for a variety of reasons. As with reports related to other categories of physical evidence, the evidence summarized in this section should be regarded as suggestive but far from sufficient to establish any actual physical linkage between the reported luminous phenomenon and the airplane's flight deviation. In order to improve our understanding of these phenomena, it will be necessary to establish more definite facts from the case work. To this end, there should be strong efforts to quantify the observations and to obtain multiple measurements of the same event, and investigators should bring a critical attitude to the compilation and analysis of the data.

References

• • Sturrock, P.A. (Ed.),  Physical Evidence Related to UFO Reports: 

  • The Proceedings of a Workshop Held at the Pocantico Conference 

  • Center, Tarrytown, New York, September 29 - October 4, 1997, 

  • Journal of Scientific Exploration. Vol. 12, No. 2, 1998. (Pp. 197-199)

  • Sturrock, P.,  The UFO Enigma, Warner Books, NY,1999  (Chpt. 12)

In this instance two gyro-compasses and the standby magnetic compass each were affected and displayed different readings.

TEXT OF RADIO COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN FAA AND TWO COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT IN THE VICINTY OF LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK, 

ON NOVEMBER 17, 1995, at 2220 hrs. (EST).

LUFT: Uh, Boston, Lufthansa 405/Heavy.

FAA: Lufthansa 405, go ahead.

LUFT: Uh, we just passed traffic on the left wing, uh, about 2,000 to 3,000 feet above us. What traffic was it?

FAA Is this Lufthansa 405?

LUFT: Affirmative, Lufthansa 405. We had opposite traffic on the left wing. Can you confirm this?

FAA: Lufthansa 405, negative. I show no traffic in your area within, uh, 20 or 30 miles.

LUFT: It should be now on our tail, about 10 miles... We passed it just one minute ago, and it was looking strange.

BRIT: Speed Bird 226 confirms that. It was just above us on our left-hand side about 3 minutes ago.

FAA What altitude does it appear to be at, Lufthansa 405?

LUFT: It was only 2 or 3 thousand feet above us. 

We are now passing (Flight) Level 260. That's confirmed, or not? Lufthansa.

FAA: Lufthansa 405, roger.

BRIT: Speed Bird 226, we confirm that. We had something go past us about two, well...

about one to two thousand feet above on the left hand side. 

Uh, looked like a green trail on it, and a very bright light on the front of it. 

We assumed it was an opposite traffic.

FAA: Speed Bird 226, roger that.

LUFT: ((Garbled))..Lufthansa 405/Heavy. 

we are right now about 26 miles east of "Hotel Tango Oscar ((Hampton??))." 

And the Speed Bird is now ahead, or behind us 

((or where))?

FAA: Lufthansa 405, the Speed Bird is in your 12:00 o'clock, and about 30 miles, 40 miles.

LUFT: That was not our traffic. Lufthansa 405 Heavy.

FAA: Lufthansa 405, roger. And the heading of the traffic, was it the same direction, or opposite direction?

LUFT: Exactly opposite. Lufthansa 405/Heavy.

FAA: Roger. Did it pass off your right side?

LUFT: Uh, left side.

FAA: Roger.

BRIT: Yea, Speed Bird 226 confirms that. We saw the same thing. It certainly looked like an aircraft initially, but it may not have been one.

LUFT: ((We can't tell then??)) It was looking very strange, with a long, uh, light, in the tail.

BRIT: Yea, a big bright white light on the front, and a greenish tail coming out the back.

LUFT: Can you confirm this, Lufthansa 405/Heavy.

FAA: OK, Lufthansa 405, Speed Bird 226. Thanks, we'll look into it.

??? ((Garbled transmissions))

FAA: Speed Bird 226, did it go over...did it go overhead. The traffic go overhead you, or was it below you?

BRIT: It was overhead and off to the left, much the same as ((garbled)). 

It actually looked about...opposite traffic, 2000 feet above. 

That's what it initially looked like. 

But then it did have a very strong trail to it...a vapor trail, which looked more like smoke.

 And the light on the front was very, very bright, and as it went past us,

it seemed to ((just?)) disappear and ((went)) 5 miles behind us.

FAA: Speed Bird, 226, roger. Were you level at 29 at that time?

BRIT: Yea, affirmative.

FAA: Roger. Lufthansa 405, how far off to your side did that pass, the traffic pass?

LUFT: It was pretty close, and like Speed Bird said, it looked like ((four??)) 

or three thousand feet above on the left wing, just one mile and, uh, on opposite track... 

It doesn't have, ...it didn't have any uh, lights...((normal)) lights, 

beacon lights, or red or green lights. 

Only a white light in the front, and with a long green light. 

It looked like a U-F-O.

FAA: Lufthansa 405, roger that. Like I said, we had nothing flying in the area. 

You are just north of a military operating area, 

but the traffic shouldn't have varied out that far out,...out of the area.

LUFT: Must have been a military. Lufthansa 405/Heavy.

FAA: Roger. Giant Killer, ((garbled)) 59.

GK: Giant Killer.

FAA: Hey, you got anything flying out in the area?

GK: Negative, ((105 is??)) turned over. 0300.

FAA: Well, I just received a couple of UFO reports.

GK: Oh, is that right?

FAA? Yea, I had a couple of guys that reported lights, just moved all over their heads. 

I have no traffic whatsoever in the area. 

They said it passed within a mile of them, like at 2-3 thousand feet above them, opposite direction. 

((Garbled)) green trail out the back.

GK: It could have been a meteor, or something.

FAA: ((Garbled--Yea, it could have been that.....it passed within a mile of them.))

GK: Who reported that?

FAA: Well, I got Speed Bird and Lufthansa.

GK: No, we don't have any aircraft out there.

FAA: OK.

END TEXT

As such, this transcription begins with the first words from flight 564 to Albuquerque ARTC at approximately 9:21pm: 

9:21pm... 

AW-564: "Cactus 564 going direct crow, crow 6 arrival Las Vegas." 

ABQ: "Cactus 564...Albuquerque Center...good evening" 

AW-564: "564 at 39,000'" 

9:29pm... 

AW-564: "Cactus 564...off to our 3:00, got some strobes out there. 

Could you tell us what it is?" 

ABQ: "Uh, Uh..I'll tell you what, that's some, uh..right now 

...I don't know what it is right now. That is a 

restricted area that is used by the military out there 

during the day time." 

AW-564: "Yeah...it's pretty odd." 

ABQ: "Hold on ...let me see if anybody else knows around here." 

9:30pm... 

AW-564: "Cactus 564..can you paint that object at all on your radar 

ABQ: "Cactus 564...No I don't, and in talkin' to 3 or 4 guys 

around here no one knows what that is, never heard about 

that." 

AW-564: "Cactus 564...nobody's painting it at all?" 

ABQ: "Cactus 564 say again?" 

AW-564: "I said there's nothing on their radars on the other centers 

at all on that (garbled) clear area, ...that object that's 

up in the air? 

ABQ: "Uh?..it's up in the air?" 

AW-564: "A-FFIRMATIVE!!" 

ABQ: "No...no one knows anything about it." 

What's the altitude about?" 

AW-564: "I don't know, probably right around 30,000 or so. And it's 

uh...there's a strobe that starts..um, going on counter- 

clockwise, and uh...the length is unbelievable." 

(???): "Where's this?" 

(NOTE: The last question above cannot be readily identified as having come 

from the Albuquerque FAA controller. Perhaps it was, however since a conversation 

with Cannon AFB began just at this point it could well indicate that the conversation 

was being monitored. The very next statement heard is the Albuquerque FAA 

controller calling to Cannon AFB.) 

9:31pm... 

ABQ: "Cannon 121?" 

CANNON: "Cannon..go ahead" 

ABQ: "Do you guys know if there was anything like a tethered 

balloon released that should be above 'tieband'?" 

CANNON: "Uh, no, we haven't heard nothin' about it." 

(BOTH)" "Uh, ok..(some chuckling), uh, ha.." 

ABQ: "A guy at 39,000 says he sees something at 30,000 that's as, 

..the length is unbelievable and it has a strobe on it." 

CANNON: "Uh huh...?" 

ABQ: "This is NOT good..(laughing)..okay..." 

CANNON: "Uh, wha..what does that mean?: 

ABQ: "(laughing)..I don't know, it's a ufo or something, it's that 

Roswell crap again!" 

CANNON: "Where's it at now?" 

ABQ: "He says it's right in 'tieband'." 

CANNON: "It's right in 'tieband'?" 

ABQ: "Yeah!" 

CANNON: "No, we haven't seen nothin' like that." 

ABQ: "Okay, keep your eyes open." 

CANNON: "I'll talk to you (mumbled)." 

9:34pm... 

ABQ: "Cactus 564...we checked with Cannon and they don't have 

any, uh, weather balloons or anything up tonight. Nobody 

up front knows any idea about that. Do you still see it?" 

AW-564: "Negative..back where we initially spotted it it was between 

the weather and us and when there's lightning you could 

see a dark object...and, uh, it was pretty eerie looking. 

This 'air coptr..(mumbled)' right here going eastbound... 

maybe he'll see it." 

ABQ: "Okay.." 

AW-564: "First time in 15 years I've ever seen anything like this. 

It's probably military in that restricted area." 

ABQ: "Cactus 564..you contact Albuquerque Center 132.8, 

goodnight." 

AW-564: "132.8 contact 564." 

Just then it sounds like another person in another aircraft breaks 

in on the conversation. It is never clear just what type of aircraft this is 

but the individual has clearly overheard the recent discussion. 

9:35pm... 

ABQ: "Aircraft calling..try again!" 

(?): "Center...uh..got time for a quick question?" 

ABQ: "Okay..would the question stand-by one please?... 

...okay..go ahead." 

(?): "(mumbled) 781, what was that cactus guy talking about he 

saw?" 

ABQ: "I, I don't know, off your right wing about 15-20 miles. 

He's saying he saw a large object with a strobe that looked 

like it was at 30,000 feet." 

(?): "Ah...it's that secret stuff!" 

9:36pm... 

AW-564: "Albuquerque...Cactus 564." 

ABQ: "Cactus 564..go ahead." 

AW-564: "(garbled)..that passed us earlier on the right. He'll be in 

the area in a few minutes, is that correct?" 

ABQ: "Yeah, he'll be in there in about 3-4 minutes, at 27,000. 

I'll ask him what he sees." 

AW-564: "..be at his left-hand side between him and the thunder 

storm. Thanks alot, we'll just monitor and listen." 

ABQ: "Okay." 

AW-564: "Three of us up here saw it!!" 

ABQ: "Okay." 

After a minute or so Albuquerque Center starts up a conversation 

with another aircraft. Again it is unclear at first what aircraft this is as 

there was no identification given and this aircraft does not preface 

it's transmissions with any identifier. A bit later a statement is directed 

to "Hawk 85" which appears to be the aircraft in question. 

9:31pm... 

ABQ: "I can't find...in the next 2-3 minutes. Be looking off your 

right side, if you see anything about 30000 feet, we had 

one aircraft reporting simething that wasn't a weather 

balloon or anything. It was a long white looking thing with 

a strobe on. Let me know if you see anything out there. 

(?): "I'll be careful..(garbled)" 

ABQ: "He said it was about 30,000'." 

(?): "(mumbled) I'm searching for ET." 

9:40pm... 

ABQ: "Cactus 564...you still up?" 

AW-564: "Affirmative! 564" 

ABQ: "That was south of your position?" 

AW-564: "It was north.." 

ABQ: "Hawk 85, let's make it out the left window then." 

AW-564: "Albuquerque, can we get a chance..Cactus 564." 

ABQ: "You know we're all up here huddled up talking about it. When 

it lightning'd you could see the dark object. It was like a 

cigar shape from the altitude that we could see it..and the 

length is what go us, a...sort of confused, because it 

looked like it was about 300-400 feet long. So I don't know 

if it's a wire with a strobe on it, but the strobe would 

start from the left and go right, counter-clockwise...and 

it was a pretty eerie looking site, but a, had the strobe.. 

At this point in the tape copy I received there appeared to have 

been some problem as there was a brief approximately 1/3 second 

solid tone like a dialtone. Then there was a strong transmission like 

another broadcast trying to cut in. The previous conversation continued 

briefly and the tone appears again followed by another request to "Albuquerque Radio". 

9:41pm... 

(brief but solid strong tone heard) 

(?): "ALBQUERQUE RADIO?...ALBUQUERQUE RADIO?" 

AW-564?: "..and it was just in the lightning..." 

(?): (solid strong tone heard again) 

(?) "ALBUQUERQUE RADIO?" 

ABQ: "Yeah...is this one any better?" 

(?): "Yeah." 

ABQ: "Oh good! Ha..hey you guys don't know anything about some 

kind of weather balloon or a ufo that's out in the vicinity 

of Fort Sumner tonight do you?" 

(?) "I don't think so...standby." 

ABQ: "Okay.." 

(?): "At this point the answer to that question is 'no'." 

ABQ: "Okay..yeah, this guy sees it up at Tucumcari, says it looks 

like it's 300-400 foot long, cylindrical, some kind of 

strobe on it, and everything else." 

(?) "Well...I would call it...I don't know what it is..yea." 

ABQ: "Yeah, okay...I didn't know if you were a science fiction 

buff or anything." 

(?) "Yea..no, we don't have, we don't have any published "high 

balls" today." 

ABQ: "Okay..appreciate it." 

(?): "Mmm hmm...bye." 

9:42pm... 

AW-564: "Albuquerque, 564...last time...just for our notes we're 

going to take a message. was that in a restricted area..and 

that was just basically south of Tucumcari when we reported 

it?" 

ABQ: "Okay...the way you went through, the only restricted area 

was on your south side, nothing to the north side...and 

those restricted areas are inactive. There shouldn't be 

anything going on." 

9:44pm... 

AW-564: "Albuquerque Center..Cactus 564. Thanks for your help and, 

uh, could we get your call sign?" 

ABQ: "Cactus 564...say again?" 

AW-564: "Albuquerque Center..Cactus564..We'll talk to you later. 

Before we go could we get your call-sign?" 

ABQ: "Cactus 564...mine is 'PP'." 

AW-564: "Was that 'tango golf'?" 

ABQ: "Pappa Pappa." 

AW-564: "Pappa Pappa...thanks alot." 

(End of Side 1, Tape 1..) 

9:48pm... 

ABQ: "Bigfoot...Albuquerque Sector 87." 

BIGFOOT: "Bigfoot's on!" 

ABQ: "Yea..I've got a, uh, something unusual and I was wanting 

to know if you'all happen to know of anything going on 

out here around Tucumcari, New Mexico,...north of Cannon? 

I had a couple of aircraft reported something 300-400 foot 

long..cylindrical in shape, with a strobe flashing off to 

the end of it." 

BIGFOOT: "Oh..?" 

ABQ: "At 30,000 feet." 

BIGFOOT: "Okay...hang on a second." 

ABQ: "Yeah, I didn't know if you happen to know of anything 

going on out there...no balloons in the area, no nothing 

reported?" 

BIGFOOT: "Okay, where's this at again?" 

ABQ: "It's at, uh, well ya'know where...it's in Tucumcar, New 

Mexico, it's about 150 miles to the east of Albuquerque." 

BIGFOOT: "Okay, eh...how far from Holloman?" 

ABQ: "Eh, Holloman, it looks like it's off the zero-three-zero 

of Holloman about 220 miles." 

BIGFOOT: "Okay...I think, okay...it's kind'a hard for us to see here. 

Okay, they'll be zero for about 200. Um...we don't have 

anything going on over there that I know of." 

ABQ: "Yeah...I didn't know, we've tried everybody else and 

nobody else is...this guy definitely saw it run all the way 

down the side of the airplane. Said it was a pretty 

interesting thing out there." 

BIGFOOT: "Okay, it was at 30,000 feet.." 

ABQ: "...30,000 feet." 

BIGFOOT: "It was like..long...um.." 

ABQ: "Yeah, it's right out of, right out of the X-files. I mean 

definite UFO or something like that, I mean." 

BIGFOOT: "..and..it..ooohh..ya'll are serious about this (laughing)." 

ABQ: "Yeah, he's real serious about that to, and..uh..he looked 

at, saw it, no balloons are reported tonight, nothing in 

the area..." 

BIGFOOT: "It was strobing off the front he said?" 

ABQ: "Uh...I think the strobe was off the tail end of it." 

BIGFOOT: "Okay...strobe tail end." 

ABQ: "He said it was kinda, well it was dark but..(aside to 

someone else)..did he say there was lights in it?" 

BIGFOOT: "How long did he say it was?" 

ABQ: "He said it was 300-400 foot long." 

BIGFOOT: "Holy smoke!!" 

ABQ: "..and we don't have any air carriers out here so...that 

strobing along." 

BIGFOOT: "um..the only thing that I can do is , I wonder if any of 

our aerostats cut loose or something 'cause we don't 

have any aerostats there." 

ABQ: "Yeah...not that far to the north." 

BIGFOOT: "I mean...to me it would sound like an aerostat, but..I 

don't think ours are that big though." 

USAF 'PROJECT BLUE BOOK' DETAILS UFO REPORTS IN NEW ARCHIVE

Andrew Danziger said he saw a UFO during a flight from Kansas City to Iowa in 1989. (Rastan/Getty Images/iStockphoto)

We flew on and I commented to Bruce, the captain, about this dimly visible disc. He said that he'd been watching the same thing since we had leveled off. It looked similar to the moon faintly visible though thin fog, except the two were visible at the same time on opposite sides of our cockpit. We looked down below for search lights, you know, the kind that's sometimes used for aerial light displays or advertising at a car dealer, but there was no beam of light coming from the ground, no search light from an airport either. The captain and I had cumulatively spent many years flying and were accustomed to seeing — day and night — all manner of airplane, blimp, hot air balloon, satellite and bird. But neither of us had any idea what this disc could be.

We spent 20 to 30 minutes at our cruise altitude, all the while staring at this white disc dimly visible through some clouds that we somehow never seemed to fly through. Within about 40 miles of Waterloo, ATC confirmed the weather, still clear skies and unrestricted visibility at our destination as we began to descend. We got busy with our flying duties and for a short while, maybe for a minute, both of us had looked away from the disc, but when I looked up at it again I saw something that has been burned into my memory.

Pilots can call the "National UFO Reporting Center" to reporting sightings of extraterrestrials. (Felipe Caicedo/REUTERS)

I yelled to Bruce, "Holy s--t." He immediately looked over from what he was doing. Above the clouds, where the white disc had been, was a now giant red ball. It was big and bright and just sat there above the clouds. It wasn't intense enough to illuminate us with a red glow but it was still plenty bright. We sat there in stunned silence. We obviously didn't want to hit it but quickly saw that it was flying parallel to our course. We weren't on a collision course and we also weren't gaining on it. Time became a blur as we continued our descent, this giant, red ball holding its course.

We slowly lost altitude and at around 13,000 feet, the brightly glowing ball began a gradual descent, too. As it did, it slowly started disappearing behind those wispy clouds. In about 30 seconds, like a setting sun but not nearly as bright, it vanished behind the clouds. The instant it fully disappeared, hundreds of lights began flashing from within the clouds.

SIGNS OF ALIEN LIFE WILL BE FOUND BY 2025: NASA

As I looked on in disbelief, the flashing lights were brighter than ever and I could see that the section of the cloud that the glowing red ball had descended behind was starting to stretch apart like a piece of "Silly Putty," two halves being pulled slowly apart with the middle getting thinner and thinner. This continued until the halves grew so thin that it tore apart and, pop! Everything was gone. The dimly lit disc, the flashing lights, the thin wispy clouds that we had with us for the last 40 minutes; all of it, gone. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. Only the full moon remained off to our left.

Bruce and I just looked at each other. "Oh my God, what the f--k was that", was all I could muster. My colleague just stared out the windscreen, mesmerized. We discussed whether we should report what we had just witnessed. After a few minutes, I picked up the radio mic and asked the Kansas City Center controller if they had anything on radar. "Nope, nothing but you," came the response. "No, not right now but a couple minutes ago, at our one to two o'clock," I replied. "No," he repeated, "It's a slow night. I've got the entire sector between Kansas City and Waterloo and you're all that's been in it for the last hour." Bruce and I again just looked at each other, completely dumbfounded. "So for the last say 40 minutes or so you've had no traffic at all, not at our one or two o'clock?" I asked. "No sir, not at your one or two o'clock, not anywhere, you're all there is," he assured us.

A minute or so later, from over the radio came, "Air Midwest , do you want to report a UFO?" We looked at each other for a couple seconds and Bruce nodded his head. "Yes sir, we do," I finally replied. "OK, take down this number and call when you get on the ground."

MORE FROM ANDREW DANZINGER: PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATIONS WON'T STOP THE NEXT GERMANWINGS DISASTER

After deplaning we called the number. "National UFO Reporting Center" said the voice from the other end. At the time I didn't even know such a place existed, but they took collect calls from pilots and air traffic controllers. Bruce told the person on the other end of the line that we wanted to report a UFO. We were interviewed separately, first the captain and then me. When my interview was finished the man on the other end of the line said that we would never hear from him again and would never receive any additional information, this was going to be our first and only contact regarding the sighting. I asked, "Can I ask just one question, do you think we're crazy, has anyone else ever reported something like this?"

"Oh no, you're not crazy at all," he replied. "This very same thing has been reported by pilots countless times." And while neither of us had any idea what we had saw one thing we were certain of, it wasn't from here.

Our airline had no official UFO policy (nor did any that I ever worked for), but at the time we were both young with long and promising careers in front of us. We knew through the grapevine that pilots weren't supposed to talk about UFOs so we swore the station agent on duty to secrecy and agreed not to talk about our incident to any of our co-workers.

That was more than 25 years ago. Today I'm older, wiser and at the end of my career. In my last few years of flying the subject of UFOs occasionally came up in the cockpit. If it was brought up at all, it was usually by a younger, newer first officer who'd say something with much trepidation. More than a few pilots have shared their UFO stories with me, too. I'm not going too far out on a ledge to say that virtually all pilots believe in UFOs. Little green men, "close encounters", alien kidnappings,... not so much, but with billions of stars and trillions of planets out there, "ya gotta believe", and almost all of us do.

Andrew Danziger is a 28-year airline veteran, with experience in turboprops and Boeing aircraft. He was an international 757/767 captain for the last 14 years. He has served as an airline ground school instructor and check pilot in both simulators and aircraft and was one of the pilots to fly Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign.

"WHERE'S IT COME FROM?" - A STUDY OF THE 1994 NELLIS UFO VIDEO FOOTAGE

by Martin J. Powell

In February 1995 the American TV show 'Hard Copy' broadcast a videotape showing an unidentified object flying over a North American military test range. Further footage was shown the following December on the 'Sightings' TV show.ref 1 The videotape had apparently been filmed by a high-tech Air Force surveillance camera at an undisclosed location within the Nellis Air Force Base Bombing and Gunnery Range Complex, Nevada (often referred to simply as the Nellis Test Range).

The videotape is said to have been smuggled out by contractor personnel who had operated tracking stations on the Nellis range. Copies of the videotape were sold to Paramount Studios (producers of 'Hard Copy' and 'Sightings') by a former Air Force employee who worked on the range, although apparently he had not witnessed the object himself.2

Near Kennedy Airport, New York-August 9, 1997

The airplane was a Boeing 747, a wide-bodied, long-range airliner with Swiss national registration. The flight left Philadelphia International Airport at 4:50 p.m. and landed at Boston Logan International Airport 57 minutes later.

The cockpit crew consisted of Capt. Phil Bobet, with 15,000 hours of flying time, First Officer (co-pilot) G, with 7,500 hours of flying time, and Flight Engineer K, whose total flying experience was not listed in the various reports.

Capt. Bobet was sitting in the left pilot's seat, and First Officer G was in the right seat. The Flight Engineer's seat swivels so that he can face forward to share the pilot's view, or sideways toward his instrument panel and aircraft system controls. Ordinarily, the Flight Engineer is facing forward during takeoff and landing, but turns sideways at other times during the flight.

(Editors Note: Although this report is rather long, and the event is not particularly unusual, it is being run as an example of a thorough investigation - as well as an interesting account of the unusual interest shown by government officials (the ghost of TWA Flight 800?).

The flight proceeded along airways in accordance with its planned route. Sixteen minutes after takeoff it was over New York's Kennedy Airport, and turning to a northeasterly heading toward Boston.

The Captain, who had been at the controls, transferred control of the airplane to the First Officer and keyed the microphone on the public address System to make a routine passenger announcement. The weather was clear, and the passengers sitting on the left-hand side of the airplane could see New York City and its environs.

Capt. Bobet advised them of the sights beneath the airplane. As he was talking about New York City, he was looking at it through the left side cockpit window.

With that portion of his announcement finished, he turned his head forward.

While Capt. Bobet was making his public address announcement, First Officer G was leaning forward, concentrating on adjusting the volume on his radio receiver panel.

At the same time the Captain's gaze turned to view the expanse ahead of the airliner, the co-pilot, now satisfied with his audio panel setting, moved to scan forward and outside. The time was 5:07 p.m.

Thus it was that the two pilots almost simultaneously saw the UFO.

Report to Traffic Control

The following dialogue is from the tape recording made by the FAA. Ail air traffic control communications are taped and archived. This permits later investigation of communications where violations of regulations are alleged, or where there is an accident or other unusual event.

SW = Swissair Flight 127, probably Capt. Bobet

ATC = Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center, Danbury Sector 22, radar controller.

SW: Swissair 127

ATC: Swissair 127, go ahead.

SW: Yes sir. l don't know what it was, but it just over flew just like a couple of hundred feet above us. I don't know if it was a rocket or whatever. But incredibly fast. Opposite direction.

ATC: In the opposite direction?

SW: Yes sir, and the time was two-one-zero -seven [5:07 p.m. local time]. It was too fast to be an airplane.

ATC: OK, thank you.

(End of transcript)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0kEqZ_7lUOLOTM2SDFBQ2daWnc