Coast to Coast - Update on EM Effects and Aircrew UFO Sightings

 

Before I get into the airline pilot sightings, here is additional information from last week’s report. In November, 1953, while driving near Gjersjoen Bridge, Norway, three witnesses—Mr. Trygve, Mrs. Buflot and a neighbor-observed an object as it ascended from behind a hill. It oscillated over the lake for more than one minute, moved rapidly toward the witnesses and followed their car. The object passed over the vehicle and hovered ahead of them very low to the ground. Mr. Trygve stopped the automobile, and they watched the stationary object. During the sighting all three experienced mild electrical shocks until the object ascended vertically. A watch stopped working, and numerous people vouched for the fact that the paint on the car changed from dark beige to a bright green.

In a report I learned of just this week, two men driving near Oslo, Norway, on July 20, 1954, were chased by an object for several minutes. They stopped their car to observe it hovering a short distance away. A watch stopped- working, and the paint on the car changed color.

And to show that this is a worldwide phenomenon, though somewhat rare, is this case. On Nov. 4, 1974, a single witness driving near Scottsdale, Tasmania, at 2300 observed a soundless object of great size. His car engine and radio cut out, and his watch dial lit up brightly. The object moved away, and suddenly ascended vertically. The watch stopped shortly after the event. The left-hand mudguard of the car changed color from red to orange, and the color change was permanent. This information was originally published in The MUFON UFO Journal in June 2005. Mark Rodeghier pointed it out to me.

Now on to the airline reports. On January 17 of this year, a passenger on a Singapore Airlines aircraft filmed what was described as a white object as it flew beneath the aircraft as they came in for a landing at the Zurich airport. It was flying too fast for the passenger to get a good look and the film is, given the subject, relatively unremarkable. The pilot followed the near collision protocol, by increasing his speed, and according to some, the passengers reacted to the sudden, sharp acceleration. The object was not a bird or a drone because it was not visible on radar but was large enough for the pilot to see. At least that was the first pass on the story.

After the initial excitement created by the video clip, it seems that others, including those on both sides of the Ufological question, are less than impressed. Close examination of the clip now suggests that while the video of the landing is authentic, it seems that other parts of the video have been doctored. As more than one commentator reported, the video was not taken on a Singapore Airlines aircraft, the landscape looks too green for Zurich in January but most important is that the person who shot the video had now removed it from public scrutiny. This is most likely a hoax and I mention it here because it is important that we report on the solutions of sightings as well as those that have no explanation.

On October 15, last year, the pilot of a commercial airliner that had just taken off from Heathrow International Airport, saw a bright red object fly alongside the left side of the aircraft. It was no more than twenty feet from the aircraft and at about 3000 feet which is more than seven times the altitude allowed for drone aircraft. Although there has been on identification, a weather balloon or some other terrestrial object has not been ruled out, though I would suggest that they wouldn’t be launching weather balloons so close to the active runways.

On September 1, again, last year, something passed within ten feet of a Boeing 737. Both pilots said they saw a bright light and then an object flying directly the front of the aircraft, just slightly above it and to the left.  The object appeared so suddenly that they had no time to react. The control tower said that the pilots of a police helicopter had reported Chinese lanterns in the area, but the pilots said that what they had seen could not be explained by a lantern.

A UFO was filmed as it shot by a passenger plane that had just taken off from Philadelphia on August 20 of last year. One of the passengers, who occupied a window seat filmed the object as it flashed by at a distance. The object, described as a shiny, domed disk, seemed to be flying at unusually high speed. It paced the plane for several moments. One of the passengers, identified as Mariah Lyn, is heard asked, “What is that?” I don’t have any additional information about his case at the moment, but when more details are available, I will post them here.

This is not a new phenomenon. Just days after Kenneth Arnold had reported nine objects in fast flight near Mt. Rainier, Washington. The crew of a United Airlines DC-3, on July 4, 1947, saw a number of objects after they had taken off from Boise, Idaho. According to the government files and the newspaper accounts, about dusk Captain E. J. Smith (not to be confused with Captain E. J. Smith who was captain of Titanic) was near Emmett, Idaho, when a flying saucer appeared, coming that them. The first officer, Ralph Stevens, reached down to flash the landing lights, and Smith asked him what he was doing. Stevens said that another plane was coming at them and he wanted to ensure that they were seen. Smith wrote:

My copilot…was in control shortly after we got into the air. Suddenly he switched on the landing lights.

He said he thought he saw an aircraft approaching head-on.

I noticed the objects then for the first time.

We saw four or five “somethings.” One was larger than the rest and for the most part … right of the other three or four similar but smaller objects.

Since we were flying northwest – roughly into the sunset we saw whatever they were in at least partial light. We saw them clearly. We followed them in a northwesterly direction for about 45 minutes…

Finally, the objects disappeared in a burst of speed.

According to the Project Blue Book files, Smith said that they were never able to see any real shape. He thought the craft was flat on the bottom and seemed to be irregular on the top. The object appeared to be at their altitude and followed them for ten to fifteen minutes.

Stevens, Arnold and Smith, July 1947.

The AMC (Air Materiel Command) opinion of the sighting was that it had occurred at sunset which meant the lighting conditions would be changing rapidly and that illusionary effects are most likely then. The objects could have been ordinary aircraft, balloons, birds, or pure illusion. They remarked that they had insufficient data to draw any sort of conclusion. In the final Project Blue Book listing, it is marked as “Unidentified.”

Andrew Danziger, the first officer on a flight to Waterloo, Iowa, said that he spotted a white, disk-shaped object through the clouds near his aircraft in 1989. He pointed it out of the pilot, who also saw it. The two discussed what it might be, ruling out the conventional explanations. He said that after twenty minutes, it was replaced by a massive red ball and was pacing the aircraft. As the aircraft descended, the ball followed before disappearing behind the clouds. There was then a burst of multicolored lights in the clouds.

All this provides additional information about the close approach of UFOs affecting car paint color and airline crew sightings of UFOs. At some point we have to notice that there is a growing body of evidence surrounding these sorts of cases. While eyewitness testimony is sometimes rejected because, well, eyewitness testimony isn’t always reliable, these cases provide something more than just eyewitnesses. We need to collect, review, and substantiate these sightings when possible.