AARO Pilot's Sighting Report

In the last few weeks, I seem to have been stuck with reading about what is happening with the various investigations in Washington, and with reports from those agencies telling us, basically, there is nothing alien in what they found. Sean Kirkpatrick later explained that. He also said, as have others, that there are cases that are unresolved, meaning there is no terrestrial explanation for the report, but nothing in those unresolved cases that takes us off-world.

Now, we have something new from AARO, which, given the nature of that investigation, again explained by Kirkpatrick, is not surprising. In the report, released publicly at the end of April, in a case from January 26 of last year, a military pilot reported that while on the Eglin Air Force Base training range, his* on-board radar displayed four unidentified objects flying between 16,000 and 18,000 feet. The pilot only saw one object which he described as rounded and somewhat cone shaped. Not only was there a radar display but what was described as Electro-optical and infrared sensor data suggesting something real outside the cockpit of the jet.

The pilot said the object was gray with a paneled surface and orange-red coloring in the center. It was about 12 feet in diameter and might have been hovering or moving relatively slowly. He said there was a rounded bottom and that there was a cone top, like that on the Apollo Spacecraft. He said there was blurry air underneath that seemed to be some kind of a heat signature.

Pilot's illustration of UFO courtesy of AARO.

As the pilot closed to within 4,000 feet, his radar malfunctioned. Examination by technicians found that a circuit breaker had tripped. I found that interesting, but maintenance records showed that same circuit breaker had tripped three other times. That suggests the problem was not the close approach of the UFO. Other, contradictory information, apparently left out of the report suggested that was not the only electronic failure on the aircraft during the close approach of the UFO.

AARO’s investigation suggested the object was lighter-than-air, possibly a weather balloon (where have we heard that before), a large mylar balloon or a commercial, outdoor helium lighting balloon.

They also concluded that blurry air that suggested a propulsion system could have been, and I stress that, could have been, a visual misperception due to environmental conditions. Or, in other words, it was something in the atmosphere causing the trouble, but nothing emitted by the object.

Both the intelligence assessment and the science and technology assessment in the AARO report reached the same conclusion. They independently identified object being like some form of balloon. Of course, since these were high-level investigations by highly trained and respected experts, we can accept that as being accurate.

Florida Republican Congressional representative, Matt Gaetz, said that he had attempted for months to gather more information about the sighting once he learned about it officially. He pointed out that the radar data showed four objects flying a diamond formation with equidistant separation. He also noted that the sighting took place over the Eglin ranges which are relatively free of airborne clutter. These facts suggest something other than a balloon. I suppose you could say that a cluster of balloons, tethered to one another could hold a relatively stable formation, but I find that difficult to believe.

Gaetz said that not only had the radar failed, but the infrared camera also failed. The pilot took still photographs of the UFO. This was one of those facts left out of the report that took us away from balloons and faulty radar circuits and into a new arena. It also suggests that AARO is engaged in identification even if that identification is somewhat shaky.

As I noted earlier, the object was said to be virtually stationary, but the winds at the altitude of the UFO were blowing at 80 knots. This and other facts suggest the Pentagon has resorted to the decades old policy of offering explanations for mysterious sightings without worrying about the contradictory evidence. I think here of the Levelland sightings of November 1957, which were resolved as ball lightning ignoring the facts that ball lightning is very short-lived and was much smaller than the UFO reported by dozens of witnesses in that case.  These reports including testimony that car engines had stalled, the headlights dimmed and the radios were filled with static. There was also a report of a large, circular burned area on a ranch near Levelland.  The UFO was described as huge and was glowing bright red. For those interested in more information about Levelland, the book is called Levelland in a comprehensive examination of the case.. Or you can take a look at some of the related articles published here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2016/03/one-of-best-cases-levelland-texas.html

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2020/10/coast-to-coast-levelland-ufo-landings.html

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-levelland-sightings-and-condon.html

This provides a good look at Levelland and each of the articles does contain references to other reports about the case if you wish to dive deeper (which is now how we say, “Examine it further.”

One other point that is relevant. Kirkpatrick has said that the mission of AARO  was to determine the nature of UAP and not hunt for aliens. He also said that the craft reported were secret military vehicles, which has been a way to dodge questions by invoking national security. Independent research has not borne this out. In reality, it is just another way to conceal the evidence.

While I approve of seeing one of the AARO reports, and John Greenewald for publishing it on his Black Vault website, I, and many others reject the conclusion that is based on several assumptions, an overlooking of contradictory evidence, and then suggesting a “moderate” rating. While this suggests a solution, the meaning of “moderate” suggests they don’t have much confidence in it. I suppose they hope that no one will make careful examination of the facts.

*I have used the generic pronoun of he, assuming, based on statistics, that the pilot in question was male, realizing there is a chance the pilot was female. The report used the group pronoun “they” which is confusing in a report where there was a single pilot. I wondered, if at some future date, someone interested in UFOs would come across the AARO report and lose time trying to learn the identifies of the other witnesses because common sense has taken hold then and we eventually stopped using group pronouns for single individuals.