Let's Kill Ufology?

Many years ago, my pal, Rich Reynolds, thought that we geezers in the UFO field should step aside and allow the youngsters to take over. I don’t think he phrased it quite that way but the implication was clear. We had failed to solve the riddle of the flying saucers, so let someone else, with newer ideas, come forward. Maybe they would do better than we had.

Now we have Lue Elizondo, a late comer to the party, saying that he wanted to kill Ufology so that whatever replaced it might by more holistic and harmonized. He wanted a community that was far more academically serious and representative of the topic. You know, like the To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences. Yes, I know that he is no longer associated with it, but then, it certainly wasn’t, exactly, serious and representative of the topic.

What he seems to have missed was that Ufology has always been relegated to the civilian world for any serious investigation. The Air Force spent its time ridiculing the topic, often suggesting that those who see UFOs are not the most reliable of observers and providing useless answers to high quality cases.

Oh, you want an example?

In a word, “Levelland.”

Here was a case in which witnesses, who had observed a UFO close to the ground, that stalled their car engines, dimmed their headlights, and filled their radios with static, provided multiple chains of evidence. Sightings lasted for minutes, giving the witness enough time to get a good look at the UFO before it took off in a bright red glow. The craft interacted with the environment and there are even hints of landing traces having been found. The local sheriff saw the UFO but if you read the Air Force report, it said that he’d only seen a streak red light in the distance rather than an object. Before the Air Force investigator arrived, he told reporters that he had seen a glowing red object that was oval or football shaped. After he talked with the Air Force investigator, and according to the Project Blue Book file, he said he had only seen a streak of red light in the distance. Later still, he told Don Berliner that he had seen an object.

Witnesses around the Levelland, Texas, area independently reported the craft, reported the electromagnetic effects, and there were reliable reports of landing traces. The Air Force said that only three people saw the object and ignored most of the reports of stalled engines. The Air Force concluded that the sightings were the result of ball lightning even though, at the time, scientists argued about the reality of ball lightning. Doesn’t really matter because ball lightning has been described as never being larger than a foot to two feet in diameter and existing for mere seconds. Witnesses talked of large craft that remained close to them for five or more minutes. The sightings by multiple witnesses lasted for two and a half to three hours in and around the Levelland, Texas, area.

The Air Force didn’t issue an immediate explanation for the Levelland sightings because they were waiting for NICAP to issue theirs first. The Air Force believed that it was easier to respond to NICAP than it was for them to issue the first report. By waiting, the Air Force was able to change the tone of the discussion from the sightings to the number of the witnesses to those sightings, and then to lie about those numbers. They claimed that only three witnesses had seen an object but their own files provide five names and newspapers, some of the clippings in the Air Force file, reported on many other names.

This wasn’t the only deception by the Air Force related to the sightings in November, 1957. James Stokes, an engineer working at Holloman Air Force Base, reported that just days after the Levelland sightings, his car had been stalled by a low flying UFO

James Stokes

near Orogrande, New Mexico, just south of the Air Force base and near the White Sands Missile Range. Stokes also spoke of a slight, sunburn effect, that reddened his skin. Although the sunburn was seen by others, including the news director at an Alamogordo, New Mexico, radio station, the Air Force investigator, who arrived two days later, didn’t see the burn. The Air Force officers also made a big deal out of the claim that Stokes was an engineer, saying that there was no record of his graduating with any sort of engineering degree and that he was just a technician assigned to the base. It was a smear designed to reduce Stokes’ credibility by suggesting that he was misrepresenting his job status.

The problem was that the Air Force officers assigned to Holloman AFB and who knew Stokes, refuted the other Air Force claim. They said that Stokes was an engineer, had been doing the work of a trained engineer for some eighteen months, and was a twenty-year veteran of the Navy. It was an example of the attitude suggesting that if you can’t explain it, then ridicule it. We had two Air Force organizations dueling over Stokes’ qualifications which, of course, changed the discussion from the reality of the sighting to the credibility of the witness which was what some in the Air Force wanted anyway.

The point here is that the problem wasn’t the quality of the civilian investigations into UFO sightings, but the government and the Air Force attitude and interference in them. Rather than conduct a real investigation, the Air Force just labeled the cases, smeared the witnesses, and went on about their business as if they had supplied accurate analysis.

There are other examples of this, including the case of the photographs taken by William Rhodes in 1947. I have detailed this on the blog and you can access some of that information here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2010/10/still-more-on-rhodes.html

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2010/10/rhodes-wrap-up.html

I certainly could supply additional examples of these tactics but after a point it becomes tedious. For those who wish to read more information about Air Force attempts to smear witnesses, including members of the Air Force, I point you to:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2014/07/air-force-character-assassination-and.html

Elizondo complains that some self-professed Ufologists (is there really another kind) on social media have been less than productive. He reminds us that the Intelligence Community and the Defense apparatus watch social media. I’d suggest their time might be better spent engaging those of us who stay away from social media and the nonsense produced there. While Elizondo mentions a “few naughty children… that have decided that no other children are allowed to play in their sandbox…,” I would suggest that these spats, once called flame wars, have little to do with the scientific work being done by those of us associated with the Center for UFO Studies and the recently formed Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU), which embrace the scientific method and rejects these other spats as counterproductive.

Many of these “spats” are not between members of the UFO community on the side of alien visitation, but are the result of half-truths and lies created by the so-called skeptical community. Philip Klass had a habit of attacking those with whom he disagreed. In the past, I have enumerated some of these allegations. Rather than go into them, at length now, you can read find the information here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2011/09/philip-klass-and-his-letter-writing.html

I would also point out that there are scientific journals that routinely report on UFOs. The Journal of Scientific Exploration, a peer reviewed scientific journal, publishes research into the UFO phenomenon. This is the sort of thing that Elizondo advocates but seemed to know nothing about.

And there is the MADAR system created by Fran Ridge and others. These are stations around the world with sensor arrays that detect and record a wide range of anomalies in the environment. Then, tracking with MUFON and the National UFO Reporting Center, they search for visual observations of UFOs, looking for correlation. Although the results have been slim, there have been some interesting correlations between alerts from the MADAR array and UFO sightings. This brings another level of science to the investigations that provides corroboration for the visual sightings and adds another link in a chain of evidence.

Elizondo wrote that the first place the newcomers go for information about UFOs is social media and that suggests a rather superficial look at UFOs. There are some very good websites and blogs that provide solid and well thought out examinations of the evidence but, of course, there are those that are filled with conjecture, conspiracy, and conflicting data. Shouldn’t anyone interested in the topic seek out multiple sources of information rather than just searching social media? Shouldn’t they be given the opportunity to draw their own conclusions rather than have some suspected and self-appointed authority tell them what the truth is and where to find it?

Elizondo wrote, “Sadly, the UFO Community as of late has become somewhat of an irrational morass of mob rule and popularity seekers.  Gone is the respect and decorum, in favor of mosh pit elbow shoves and boot kicks.  Voices of those who would otherwise apply a scholarly focus are being drowned out by those social media personalities sensationalizing their efforts as ‘disclosure activists’ in order to generate revenue through viewers and subscribers.  Those who seek ‘credit’ instead of cooperation are hijacking the topic for their own enrichment at the expense of genuine truth advocates.”

While I might point out that science is often driven by the same sad motivations, and would point to the Dinosaur Wars of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries as but a single example, it would seem that some of these newcomers are driven by the same motivations. Some of these newcomers have engaged the services of agents and public relations specialists for the very purpose of enriching themselves and propelling themselves into the spotlight. Others have used their connections, however indirect those connections might be, to suggest inside information and knowledge as a way of improving their access to media and those important monetary rewards.

I have often wondered, however, why researching and writing about UFOs is about the only field in which it is a sin to profit from hard work. I can name several older UFO researchers who have written books and given presentations about their research to share the information for the purpose of sharing that information. For those who visit my blog, there is no pay wall or donation button. The information is offered freely. But I still wonder why I am criticized for publishing books on the topic when the compensation rarely covers the expenses for gathering the information. I don’t know how many times I have been accused of only being in it for the money, when there are easier and better ways for me to make money such as historical fiction. The accusation is hurled as a way of dismissing my work, and that of many others, without having to do much research into how we gathered the data or what credentials we might hold.

And while Elizondo condemns us for many of the problems in Ufology, I would suggest they grow from the attempts to cover up what is happening. I can point to the CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel from early 1953 as a good example. Their recommendations after their alleged investigation were to debunk the phenomenon, have teachers deny students permission to use UFOs as research projects and reject reports on UFO books. They suggested an “education” program to demystified UFOs so that the public would lose interest all the while knowing that the truth was much more interesting.

We also have had the Air Force sponsored, University of Colorado “Scientific Study” of UFOs, commonly called the Condon Committee. We have the documentation showing that the conclusions were written before the investigation began. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Robert Hippler wrote to Dr. Robert Low of the committee telling him what the Air Force wanted, that is, there was no national security threat, there was no scientific benefit in continued in the investigation of UFOs, and that the Air Force had done a good job with their investigation. For the next fifty years, science beat us all over the head with the results of this “scientific endeavor” only to learn that it was more anti-UFO propaganda paid for by the US Government and the Air Force. You can learn more about this here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2007/03/hippler-letter.html

Now we learn that “the social media circus of today has challenged the government’s confidence in UFOlogy as a worthy area of study.” I submit that this social media circus might be driven by the government that has worked for 75 years to prove that UFOs do not exist and are not worth the expenditure of government resources. I suggest that the podcasts, YouTube channels, Twitter fees, and Instagram pages are not the problem here, but the decades of ridicule, misinformation and outright lies spread by official government and Air Force sources are the reason that there is the confusion and division that Elizondo condemns as he attempts to propel himself into a leadership role in the UFO community. That ridicule and division was exactly what the Air Force and the government wanted to keep the answers hidden and it has worked for 75 years.

And now we have a bunch of ex-government officials, some with questioned credentials, lecturing us on what is wrong in the world of UFOs. While many of us have been toiling for decades to bring science to UFOs, have written about it, made suggestions about it, and have attempted to apply science, we have the newcomers telling us that we should now embrace science as if we hadn’t thought of that all by ourselves long ago. Well, thanks for the enlightened view of the situation and I’m sure everything will now change… except, of course, the government is again wrapping its investigation in the cloak of national security so that they can bury the information. John Greenewald just reported that the Navy has determined that the majority of the information and video evidence they have gathered is a national security issue and will not be released to the general public anytime soon. This is the same dodge they used for the last 75 years.

But that’s okay because we have these newcomers who have the answers as they find themselves on the lecture circuit and writing the books, for which they are paid, sometimes quite handsomely, all the while condemning us for writing books and appearing on the lecture circuit. But that’s okay because their motives are pure. We know this because they have told us so.

So, obviously, I find it difficult to read the suggestions made by someone who doesn’t seem to know the history of UFO research. I find it difficult to listen to the suggestion that we embrace science when many of us have done that for years. I wonder just how useful Elizondo’s suggestions are because they seem to address a symptom of the problem but not the problem itself. The problem isn’t the current state of UFO research, but to interference by government, DoD, and Air Force officials. Had they not attempted to hide the information, we would be having a completely different discussion and we would have “solved” the problem decades ago without the help of the enlightened newcomers.

 

PS: I do wonder if putting in links to other articles that have relevance here is worth the effort. Those links lead to other links so that a comprehensive picture can be drawn. The problem is that it can take a long time to wade through the material. Does putting in the links help or hinder the discussion. I would like to know. Please provide a comment with your thoughts. 

Memphis UfO Photograph - Chasing Solutions

For years, I have chided the skeptics for accepting solutions for UFO sightings without critical comment. The Air Force explained the Levelland sightings as ball lightning, but I have never heard a skeptic questioning that solution. The theory is that any solution is better than admitting that they have no solution at all. To question a solution doesn’t require them to embrace the alien explanation, merely to acknowledge that those solutions that have been offered are inadequate.

This is a way investigating the Memphis, Tennessee, sighting for which a solution has been offered recently. To recap for those who might have missed it, I mentioned the sighting by an airline pilot of an object he had seen while flying over Memphis. I was mainly intrigued by the photograph, and the fact that the picture had been taken by an airline pilot.

In my search to prepare for my weekly segment on Coast-to-Coast AM, I visit many sites, access various discussion and news groups, look at what has been reported to William Puckett’s Northwest UFOs, Peter Davenport’s Nation UFO Reporting Center, and even various MUFON sites, both national and by state. I pick those sightings that I think are interesting, and as I have mentioned, last more than a minute. The Memphis sighting was reported by the NUFORC fit a number of those criterion. That listing follows:

Occurred: 1/31/2022 18:55 (Entered as: 01/31/2022 6:55 PM) Reported: 2/1/2022 11:43:15 AM 11:43 Posted: 3/4/2022 Location: Memphis (over), TN Shape: Light Duration: 5 minutes Characteristics: There were lights on the object. There was an aura or haze around the object

I’m a commercial airline pilot. While flying at FL 380, at 0055z I observed a round white donut and a lighted moving object within it. The observation lasted five minutes. Sky conditions at cruise altitude were clear with unlimited visibility. No moon illumination was present in the starlit sky. Winds aloft were 310/20 and my ground speed was 445 knots. There was a scattered undercast cloud layer with tops around 10,000 ft. The glowing object within the donut was slowing moving, and I do not attribute its movement to autokinesis. After five minutes of observation the lit object vanished and the white donut dissipated within a minute. One photo was taken.

 

This report provides all the information for a good investigation, with the exception of the direction of flight and the direction to the object from the aircraft cockpit. Either of those numbers would be valuable in understanding the sighting and aiding in solving it. If the orientation of the aircraft, or the direction to the UFO were provided, they might have either confirmed or eliminated the solution offered.

After I posted the information, there was a comment made to this blog about the sighting, which is relevant. According to that post, “That last photo from a pilot over Tennessee was of a SpaceX polar launch.”

Here, then, was a plausible explanation. The problem was, that explanation as offered provided nothing in the way of evidence. It was merely an opinion, which might be relevant… or might not.

So, I looked up the listing of SpaceX launches and found there was one on the evening to January 31. Liftoff, according to the records was at 18:11 hours (6:11 p.m.). Assuming that the pilot’s time of 6:55 p.m. (18:55 hours) is correct, and given he was airborne at the time and that there are clocks on the instrument panel, and his given time is accurate, it seemed to be a long gap.

I found a reference that suggested that the light from the launch would be visible at a radius of 520 miles, which is a long way from Memphis, but that was the number provided by SpaceX. It also mentioned that it would be visible for two minutes and 4 seconds (2:04) but the pilot said the light was in sight for five minutes. Again, this is probably an accurate time, given he was at the controls of his aircraft.

The distance from the launch site to Memphis was something over 700 miles (719. 4 miles to be precise) which also seems to put it out of range for the pilot. Of course, we see that he was flying at 39,000 feet, which changes that dynamic, not to mention that the SpaceX rocket would be climbing upward as it attempted to enter orbit, so the mileage figures might not be relevant.

I could find nothing that told me anything about the direction of launch, though it was supposed to be in a polar orbit. I did wonder, and in fact, do wonder, if they would be launching rockets over land rather than the Atlantic Ocean, but will note I found a reference to a southernly trajectory. I was unable to confirm exactly what that meant, other than a suggestion that the rocket would have been flying away from the Memphis area. I do not know, at this time, if all the SpaceX rockets are launched with the same trajectory, though I would suspect they are all launched out over the ocean.

The picture taken by the pilot actually provides us with the best clues about the solution. As you can see, it provides a dramatic look at the UFO.

However, I found another picture of a SpaceX launch, which looked a great deal like the picture taken by the pilot.

Although I don’t have any directions to the UFO or the heading of the aircraft for that matter, that might not be relevant. The photos seem to prove the point. While I would like to believe the pilot photographed something that was truly strange, the similarity between the two is difficult to ignore. Given that, I believe we have a solution…

And I will note that this is the way things should work. In the world today, with so many of us connected to one another, something that might have been unidentified because we didn’t have access to all the information, now can be explained. In the future, I’m confident that we’ll be able to repeat this process. 

Some of the Promised Updates

 

As I have said a number of times during my various radio appearances, when I have additional information, I’ll publish it. So, here we go.

For those who wonder about the photographs taken in Bettendorf Iowa, on December 24, 2021, I have heard back from the MUFON State Director for Iowa. He reported that no investigation had been initiated in Iowa, but he also checked with Illinois and Missouri with the same negative results. At the moment, I have nothing more on those pictures.

The Bettendorf UFO.

David Marler said, during my interview with him, that skeptics had suggested that sightings of triangular-shaped objects were sparked by Star Wars. Many of the Imperial ships had a very distinctive, triangular shape. David pointed out that sightings of triangles predated Star Wars and provided an example from 1953. I mentioned a chart published in the early 1960s showed triangles as one of the shapes. Someone wanted to know where to find that chart. It was published in several magazines and a couple of books. Here is the chart from the 1964 UFO Evidence published by NICAP.

The UFO shapes chart, circa 1964

I also found a magazine article that dealt with the look of future aviation which included a number of test aircraft that are triangular in shape. We do have the B-1 bomber and the F-117 aircraft that had triangular shapes. This suggests that some of the uptick in such sightings might be the result of tests of these somewhat experimental aircraft.

There is additional evidence of this. On April 14, 2016, an amateur photographer, Jeff Templin, shot a picture of a triangular craft over Wichita, Kansas. Templin said that he used a 400 mm lens, and took the picture when the object was directly overhead. He said that it was making a series of “S” turns and was leaving a contrail behind.

A real triangle, though terrestrial based.

On March 10, two men in Amarillo, Texas, Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett took pictures of three triangles flying over the city. They resembled the craft in Templin’s picture.

I mention this because it does support the idea that some of the triangle sightings are not of alien spacecraft, but are of the next generation of terrestrial airplanes. This does not, of course, solve all cases of triangular UFOs. It just means that some of those sightings are of Earth-base craft rather than space ships.

A triangular balloon that can also fool a witness.

And, if we look into the future, meaning of course, what is being proposed by various aircraft manufacturers, we see that the triangle shape is becoming more common. As more of these aircraft are mistaken for something alien, we also must be aware that sightings of triangular UFOs predate the development of our terrestrial based craft. A solution of one sighting does not translate into the solution for all sightings.

Coast to Coast AM - Repeatability

 One thing that we all look for in the world of the UFO is some kind of repeatability. That means, simply, that people in other locations and other times report a craft that is similar those reported earlier. One of the problems in the UFO field is the wide variety of craft that are reported with very few cases in which a similar craft is seen somewhere else at some other time. An example of this are the photographs taken first in McMinnville, Oregon, in 1950 and later in Rouen, France in 1954. A similar object seen and photographed at widely separated locations.

The top photo is from McMinnville and the bottom from Rouen, France. I am
making no claims about the authenticity of either picture. I'm only pointing
out that the images are a match for one another.

Fran Ridge, of the NICAP website and the MADAR program, alerted me to a sighting that has some aspect of repeatability. He posted about a sighting he sent to the National UFO Reporting Center last year. According to him, on September 3, 2021, he, and 14 others were in The Poconos, when they watched a lighted object for five minutes.

According to his report, they were doing what he termed as a sky watch event in Blooming Grove Pennsylvania. At 9:44 p.m. two of them saw three lights slowly moving away from them around the Sterling, Pennsylvania area heading towards Scranton, Pennsylvania. They used high power binoculars to watch the craft. To the unaided eye it was three yellowish-pinkish lights in a row. The color reminded Fran Ridge of mercury vapor lights. The lights were about the size of a pencil eraser held at arm’s length. The lights were arranged in a horizontal pattern. When Fran and the others looked through the binoculars, they began to suspect they might be seeing the back of a craft that was very large. It moved very slowly and they watched it for about five minutes, until they lost sight of it behind the tree line. Fran said it was too slow to be an airplane.

What Fran found particularly odd was that through the binoculars, he could see that under the three yellow lights there were three tiny red lights that blinked randomly and not sequentially. One would blink once and then a second later another would blink. They thought they might be looking at the back of a large black triangle. He also noted that they didn’t take a photo of the UFO.

That was one sighting of a craft with a specific set of lights. The MUFON Case Management System, had a report from December 14, 2021, from a witness, in West Dundee, Illinois, who saw an object that Fran believed was similar to the one he had seen in September. Although there wasn’t a photograph, the drawing submitted by the witness looked like the object Fran and the others had seen.

There were two additional sightings made in Illinois, and all three took place in December, within a day or two of each other. All three were of triangular-shaped objects. Importantly, in the case from Macomb, Illinois, the witness made a video with a cell phone.

Fran posted a photograph of an object taken on the night of January 31, 2008 in Indiana. This too, reminded him of the object he had seen and it seemed to be related to the Illinois sightings as well.

Photograph supplied by Fran Ridge of an object that resembled the one he saw.

In all of the cases reported here, the object had a line of lights on what seemed to be the rear, and in all the cases, it seemed that the UFO was triangular shaped. This does suggest the note of repeatability that I mentioned earlier.

I’ll say here that the December Illinois sightings are part of the MUFON Case Management System and are still under investigation. If I find additional information about them, I’ll post it.

Coast to Coast AM - Christopher Mellon and Cigar Shaped UFO Sightings

 

Christopher Mellon, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in the Clinton  and George W. Bush Administrations and a the Staff Director of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, published a long article about the Air Force lack of transparency in the current crop of UAP sightings.

Christopher Mellon

I mention this because, in his analysis, he failed to mention the deceit of the Condon Committee. That was the University of Colorado study, funded by the Air Force, in which the conclusions were written before the study was conducted. A letter from an Air Force officer told the Committee members what the conclusions were to be and those were the conclusions reached. This alleged scientific study is often cited by skeptics as evidence that there is no alien visitation. This is why I’m somewhat critical of the renewed efforts to resolve the UFO situation. You can see the Hippler letter here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2007/03/hippler-letter.html

And you can read the entire Mellon article here:

https://thedebrief.org/why-is-the-air-force-awol-on-the-uap-issue/

There is another aspect to this that worries me and it had to do with a quote from Mellon. Leslie Kean reported Mellon said:

I highly doubt DoD or any other government agency is concealing UFO information. I participated in a comprehensive review of DoD's black programs and spent over a decade conducting oversight of the national foreign intelligence program, an almost totally separate world of secrets. I visited Area 51 and other military, intelligence and research facilities. During all those years, I never detected the faintest hint of government interest or involvement in UFOs. ... While a few new, previously overlooked documents might turn up (the bureaucracy is never perfect), I do not believe they would resolve the UFO issue or provide significant new insights. I can think of one lengthy UFO report that is classified only due to concerns over sources and methods. In fact, it identified a convincing conventional explanation for the pilot sightings in this particular case. There are lots of classified documents related to activities at Area 51, where high security is needed. But this is all legitimate stuff the American people would support. They have nothing to do with UFOs, to the best of my knowledge.

While I understand that people can modify an opinion based on new and additional information, it is disturbing to read that Mellon said he was involved in reviewing black projects and found the least interest in UFOs by the government. This statement is inaccurate because government interest in UFOs transcended the end of the Condon Committee, transcended the end of Project Blue Book and survived the compromise of Moon Dust. In other words, those of us on the outside of these inner government circles can point to government interest. And I haven’t even mentioned the poor explanations for some very puzzling cases.

Since you asked, I will point to the Levelland sightings of November 1957. No matter what you think about alien visitation, you must admit that ball lightning does not explain the stalling of car engines over a period of two hours and at multiple locations. I just published a comprehensive look at the Levelland sightings.

All this does suggest the latest trend in the UFO field, which is a renewed, official interest in UFOs, even if we can see the government playing fast and loose with the facts. How else to explain the continual delay in providing the proper and accurate information to Congress and to those of us outside of Washington, D.C.

 Another trend is the  increased sightings of cigar-shaped craft, many of them reported to MUFON. On December 12, 2021, the witness, in Titlow Hill, California, saw a dark object with a cigar shape. It moved at a constant speed and made no noise. The witness watched the UFO through a finder scope attached to a larger telescope. He said that the UFO was barely visible against a very dark gray sky. There was a pair of lights on the front end, one on the nose and the other lower on the leading edge. There was a line of rectangular lights along the center of the craft.

He watched as the object changed direction and moved closer. It then disappeared behind a tree line to the east. When the object disappeared, he grabbed his binoculars. He did run across the road in an attempt to spot the object again, but it was gone.

Also on December 12, of last year, the witness, in Rancho Mirage, California, saw several lights moving slowly. The craft was cigar shaped. It moved from south to north and then seemed to dissolve. There were no clouds where it disappeared and he could see stars in the area. He spotted several private planes but they were not flying as high as the UFO. Instead, it seemed to be at the same level as commercial aircraft, and was about the size of four of them put together. He did say that he had seen the Star Link Satellites before and that this was nothing like that.

On December 3, the witness, on the way to his girlfriend’s house in Chesterfield, Virginia, spotted something strange off to the left. He thought it might be a reflection or some other rather mundane object but then realized this was a massive craft. He said that it was cigar shaped, seemed somewhat bulky, and that it had a large light that looked like windows that were sectioned off.

Finally, on December 3, 2021, the witness saw a distant object hover for about twenty minutes. It flashed two red lights and one gold light sequentially and it had two other white lights on it. The UFO moved slowly to the north and then did a circular loop. He said that it was big and cigar like. He said that hovered after the loop and then sped away.

As I say, each of the sightings lasted much more than a minute and several of them were accompanied with video, which was reported to MUFON and are now part of their Case Management System.

There is one additional case to be mentioned because there is some interesting video that goes with it. This was an object reported over Norway. It might be returning space debris, and at one point, the first video goes out of focus so that the object looks like a fuzzy orb. I mention this case, only because of the videos that go with it. You can see the video here:

https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/2022/02/really-fast-ufo-sighting-over-northern-parts-of-norway-2022-norwegian-mainstream-medias-reports.html 

As always, I’ll keep my eyes open and if there is additional information about any of the cases mentioned here, I’ll publish it as well.

Coast to Coast - Pilot Sightings

 

First, a quick update. Last week I mentioned the flying humans near LAX were thought to be mannikins and drones. This week, it was announced that they might be some sort of balloon advertising a new movie. I’m still unimpressed with these answers and await more information.

However, I began to look for other reports by pilots. They are considered to be trained observers and should be familiar with many mundane objects seen in the air because they spend a lot of time there. They sometimes supply information that is important to science. On June 30,1954, an airline pilot, James R. Howard, reported he had seen a large object on a flight from New York to London. Although the Air Force wrote this off as Mars, the Condon Committee identified the object as a natural phenomenon so rare it had never been seen before or since, which suggests that something of scientific value would have been learned had they bothered to pursue that. I will note here that both the pilot and co-pilot were interrogated by government officials and told not to talk about the sighting. You can find all the details in The Best of Project Blue Book.

Project Blue Book card providing very little information,
other than the solution was Mars.

Much more recently, on March 19, 2020, the captain of an American Boeing 767 reported an encounter over Mexico. MUFON CAG member, Bob Spearing and MUFON California State Director, Ruben Uriarte investigated the sighting that included pictures of the UFO as well as video.

The sighting began when the first officer, looking toward the left, saw a yellowish light descending that he, at first, thought was a meteor. When it suddenly stopped at the same altitude as the aircraft, he knew that wasn’t the right answer.

The light, or object, flashed a bright beam at the 767 and seemed to be on a collision course. The pilots thought they were looking at the landing lights of an oncoming aircraft. As they began to take evasive action, the beam disappeared and the UFO accelerated, and began pacing the aircraft. The captain said that the UFO stayed about 1200 feet from their airplane.

The light was described as tear drop shaped, a brilliant yellow-white, had no navigation lights but did seem to have a tail. The encounter lasted for thirty minutes and the crew took eight photographs and four short video segments.

As the aircraft approached the Mexico/US border the UFO began to flicker, changed colors from yellow-white to pinkish/purple, and turned to a perpendicular heading away from the aircraft. It flew parallel to the border without crossing into the United States. The rest of the flight to Memphis was uneventful.

Among the conclusions drawn by Uriarte and Spearing were that approaching the 767 from above, stopping/hovering, shining a light on the plane, and then pacing it for over 32 minutes is something that has been seen frequently in the past. The possibility exists that the UFO is a technical device or system under intelligent control. This, they believe, calls for further careful analysis.

To them, this event suggests that UFOs are still a threat to safe aerial navigation. They suggest that flight crews be instructed on procedures if they find themselves in a similar circumstance. You can find the full report here:

https://www.narcap.org/blog/narcaptr20

And remember, this idea that national security is involved in these new UFO reports (Yes, I know we are now supposed to call them UAPs, but I wonder why), is the reason the millions have been spent studying them lately and there is a call to do it all again. But I remember the Air Force Project Blue Book, and then the Condon Committee, and their conclusions that national security wasn’t an issue and nothing new could be learned by studying UFOs. That seems to have been changed.

The point here is that nothing really has changed. On June 25, eyes were focused on the DNI report on UAPs. Today, we seem to have forgotten all about that. I suppose it will be another 70 years before someone else grabs a few headlines and interest is renewed… Unless, of course the Roswell information is revealed or an alien spacecraft lands in Washington D.C. … I mention Washington because I don’t think our politicians will believe the leaders of another country saying that UFOs are alien spacecraft.

X-Zone Broadcast Network - Rob Swiatek and MUFON

This week’s guest was Rob Swiatek, a member of MUFON’s board of directors and someone who has been interested in UFOs for decades. He has participated in some very interesting investigations. You can listen to the show here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/45792473

Rob Swiatek

The first thing I asked was about was the state of MUFON since there had been some trouble in the last year or so. The headquarters was moved from Santa Monica to Cincinnati and apparently the move was only completed just days ago.

I also asked about the MUFON Journal. I have noticed that it is not quite as robust as it once had been. Sure, there are UFO reports, but they aren’t examined in depth. Rather, there are just the bare bones of the sightings. The Journal reminded me of a popular magazine rather than a journal. In the past, there had been comprehensive articles about important UFO sightings but that seems to have given way to interviews with members, and the promotion of the organization. True, they must move forward with the times, but the real point is that they seem to be appealing to an audience that isn’t there rather than to the one that is.

We did talk about the MADAR system that Fran Ridge is running. I have talked about this in the past and I think it’s a very good idea. Sort of a proactive way to conduct research rather than waiting for someone to see a UFO and then report it. While the system has been up and running for a while, it hasn’t produced a mass of sightings, but it has proven the concept. You can read about the MADAR system here with embedded links to additional information:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2021/02/coast-to-coast-dr-abraham-loeb-madar.html

Finally, we talked about abductions and the attempts to validate these sorts of reports. A project had been designed to gather evidence electronically, but seems to have produced little in the way of evidence. The problem wasn’t a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the participants, but a lack of funding. Too often it is forgotten that those involved in the research are not paid for it. They volunteer their time and their money but so much more needs to be done.

I was worried that the results of the abduction study would be negated because there was no control group. I wondered if that might lead to a problem with the research. The other problem was that they didn’t have the equipment to monitor a large number of people. Over time, I believe, there were only thirteen participants. Nothing has been done there in about two decades.

Next week, I’ll talk with Robert Scheaffer about his UFO research. He approaches it from the skeptical side of the fence, but then he is reasonable about it. 

X-Zone Broadcast Network - Bill Konkolesky

This week I changed things slightly and invited Bill Konkolesky on the program to talk about his abduction experiences. About the first thing I learned was that he doesn’t like the term abduction because it implies he was a victim. Instead, he prefers the term “experiencer,” because these were, well, experiences. You can listen here (or use the embedded audio player at the left):

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/44247005

We did discuss some of the terrestrial explanations for alien abduction. Sleep paralysis was one of those topics, of course. Those who experience sleep paralysis

Bill Konkolesky with Budd Hopkins

often describe an event that is remarkably similar to alien abduction. I did mention that protocols to separate sleep paralysis from alien abduction had been talked about but that no such protocols have been established.

We did talk about the vast distances between stars and that the speed of light, as we understand physics today, is the limiting factor. While it is certainly possible that in the future, we might discover a way of defeating that problem, as of today, we simply can’t do it. This did lead into a discussion of ancient astronauts and ancient aliens, but that conversation didn’t reveal very much.

One of the things that interested me was some sort of corroboration. Bill gave three examples of that. He told of a childhood friend who had witnessed part of an interaction when a fog crept into the backyard where they were playing. The friend, however, didn’t see the gray alien wrapped in the fog.

In the second event, Bill and friends witnessed a display of lights but again, while that would provide corroboration for the sighting, it does nothing for the claim of abduction.

In the third event, he was on a date when they were approached by what might have been an alien. Unfortunately, he is no longer in contact with the woman and frankly, I have no desire to bother her, given her strong reaction to the event.

This led to the question of attempting to record any of these events, but he hadn’t done anything like that. I thought if the abductions were happening periodically, there might be a chance for a recording. Bill did mention that when MUFON has attempted something like that it has always failed for some reason. I find that somewhat suspicious, but that’s an argument for another time.

I asked why he thought he had been singled out and he suggested that it was a family thing. He said that others in the family had reported some strange activity. He was reluctant to supply names and I didn’t push him on the subject.

Next week will begin a two-part show with both Tony Bragalia and John Greenewald to discuss Tony’s claim that the Pentagon had admitted to possession of alien materials. If you have questions about this, put them in the comments section and I’ll try to get them asked. 

Coast to Coast - Phoenix Lights, Triangular UFO Version

With the coming of the anniversary of the Phoenix Lights, I thought it time to revisit those sightings. However, I think the discussion of the lights seen over Phoenix actually masks the other, more significant sightings of a V-shaped or triangular-shaped craft that was seen over much of Arizona that night. In this discussion, I have eliminated the information about the lights to focus on that craft. I have written about it at other times. Some of the information here is based on my discussion of that craft with Mike Rogers, he of Travis Walton abduction fame. You can listen to that discussion here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/19005920

The sightings of an object that could be described as a flying wing with lights in a “V” formation were made first in Nevada rather than Arizona. Just before seven (Pacific Standard Time) a man living in Henderson, just outside of Las Vegas, said that he saw a “V”-shaped object that he thought was about the size of a Boeing 747 and that sounded like the rushing of wind. There were six lights on the leading edge. He watched as it flew to the southeast, eventually disappearing over the horizon.

A young Mike Rogers

Had this been the only sighting in that area that night, it would have been just another UFO report. A little over an hour later, at 8:15 p.m., a former police officer said that he and his family saw a cluster of lights in a “V” formation near Paulden, Arizona. He described them as red-orange balls of light. He said that there were four lights traveling together with a fifth bringing up the rear. He said that the lights were in sight for about two minutes and that they made no sound. He thought that each of the lights consisted of two parts. When he returned home, he watched them through binoculars until they vanished over the horizon.

Others reported the UFO as it flew from northern Arizona to the southern corner, a distance of about two hundred miles in about thirty minutes, or at about 400 miles per hour. The speed is not outside that of conventional aircraft, though the configuration suggests something else.

Peter Davenport, and his National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) received dozens of calls from witnesses in Arizona that night.  According to him:

One group of three witnesses, located just north of Phoenix, reported seeing a huge, wedge-shaped craft with five lights on is ventral surface pass overhead with an eerie “gliding” type of flight. It coursed to the south and passed between two mountain peaks to the south. The witnesses emphasized how huge the object was, blocking up to 70 – 90 degrees of the sky.

A second group of witnesses, a mother and four daughters near the intersection of Indian School Road and 7^th Avenue [in Phoenix], were shocked to witness an object, shaped somewhat like a sergeant’s stripes, approach from over Camelback Mountain to the north. They report that it stopped directly above them, where it hovered for an estimated 5 minutes. They described how it filled at least 30 – 40 degrees of sky, and how it exhibited a faint glow along its trailing edge. The witnesses felt they could see individual features on the ventral surface of the object, and they were certain that they were looking at a very large, solid object.

After this point in the sighting, the facts are somewhat less clear to investigators. It is known that at least one object continued generally to the south and southeast, passing over the communities of Scottsdale, Glendale, and Gilbert. One of the witnesses in Scottsdale, a former airline pilot with 13,700 hours of flight time, reported seeing the object execute a distinct turn as it approached his position on the ground. He noted that he witnessed many lights on the object as it approached him, but that the number of lights appeared to diminish as it got closer to overhead. Many other witnesses in those communities reported seeing the object pass overhead as it made its way toward the mountains to the south of Phoenix.

Other sightings occurred shortly afterward along Interstate 10 in the vicinity of Casa Grande. One family of five, who were driving from Tucson to Phoenix, reported that the object that passed over their station wagon was so large that they could see one “wing tip” of the object out one side of their car, and the other “wing tip” out the other side. They estimated they were driving toward Phoenix at approximately 80 miles per hour, and they remained underneath the object for between one and two minutes as it moved in the opposite direction. They emphasized how incredibly huge the object appeared to be as it blocked out the sky above their car.

Many witnessed, located throughout the Phoenix basin, allegedly continued to witness objects and peculiar clusters of lights for several hours following the initial sightings. One group of witnesses reported witnessing a large disc streak to the west over Phoenix at very high speed. Others reported peculiar orange “fireballs,” which appeared to hover in the sky even hours after the initial sightings.

One of the more intriguing reports was submitted by a young man who claimed to be an Airman in the Air Force, stationed at Luke Air Force Base, located to the west of Phoenix in Litchfield Park. He telephoned the National UFO Reporting Center at 3:20 a.m. on Friday, some eight hours after the sightings on the previous night, and reported that two USAF F-15C fighters had been “scrambled” from Luke AFB, and had intercepted one of the objects. Although the presence of F-15’s could never be confirmed, the airman provided detailed information which proved to be highly accurate, based on what investigators would reconstruct from witnesses over subsequent weeks and months. Two days after his first telephone call, the airman called to report that he had just been informed by his commander that he was being transferred to an assignment in Greenland.

What all this demonstrates is that there were more sightings than have been reported by most of those commenting on the lights. More important, some of the explanations offered in the days that followed did not account for the variety of sightings.

But the sightings didn’t end; they just became more controversial and produced a number of video tapes. These were lights that inspired the investigations as well as the media attention because nothing excites the media like a good visual. One of the tapes, shown repeatedly on local, national, and cable television, was analyzed using an impressive looking array of computers and some very sophisticated software. The conclusions drawn in those early investigations were that the lights were not natural phenomena and did not exhibit any of the features of manufactured lights. In other words, they were unique. Later investigation suggested that flares were responsible for some of those sightings.

Quite naturally, the Air Force was questioned about this and the official spokesman said, as usual, the Air Force no longer investigates UFOs. Most people in Phoenix were unhappy with that answer and believed that the Air Force was hiding the truth about this.

Others, including private researchers began to gather the stories of the lights that had moved across Arizona, some of them believing that all the sightings were related. There were those who claimed to have a triangular-shaped object and others who claimed to have seen individual lights in a triangular or “V” shaped formation. Some thought the lights were white, others red, and still others saw various faded colors in the lights.

There is no radar data available for any of this. According to those at Sky Harbor these high flights would not be monitored on their radar. It would be controlled by FAA radar in Albuquerque. If such a flight had been made it would have been represented by an asterisk, but since they flight would have been far above their control zone, they would not have been concerned about. Radar records would have been kept in Albuquerque, but since no question about the radar displays was raised within two weeks, the tapes were reused. The record has been lost.

It might also be said that this is where things become confusing. There is good testimony that one formation of lights was identified as airplanes. While those in the UFO community were talking of multiple formations, it was reported by Steve Wilson of The Arizona Republic, that they might be right. He interviewed four people who saw the lights and whose testimony suggests there was more than a single formation. He reported:

Dr. Bradley Evans, 47, is a clinical psychiatrist from Tucson. He and his wife, Kris, were driving north on Interstate 10 to a swimming meet in Tempe. They watched the lights for 20 minutes or so move slowly south in a diamond formation and pass over them at an estimated 1,500 feet. Even then, with the car’s moon roof open, they heard not a sound from the sky. He was ‘awed’ by the experience and has no idea what he saw. Kris said she couldn’t explain it either and guesses it was ‘something military.’

…Max Saracen, 34, is a real estate consultant who lives in north Phoenix. He and his wife, Shala, were driving west on Deer Valley Road when they saw a huge triangular craft. They pulled off the road, got out and watched it pass overhead. “It was very spooky – this gigantic ship blocking out the stars and silently creeping across the sky. I don’t know of any aircraft with silent engines.

Adding to this was an investigation by Arizona MUFON investigator Richard F. Motzer who studied “all the videos I could find and interviewed other witnesses,” outlined his research in the July 1997 (number 351) of the MUFON Journal. He wrote:

The key to the solution was also the biggest mystery. Why did all videos of 3-13-97 at 10:00 p.m. have a different number of lights, different order of starting and decay, and shapes?

It was really dependent upon the observation point of the witness in the Phoenix area and, most important, how high their viewing point was. It turned out that the lights were not over Phoenix, but near the Estrella Mountains to the southwest. This determination was made after viewing all the video tapes and going to all but one of the sites and shooting 35 mm film in daylight. Using the point marked by the pilot, I drew a line from each of the sites where the Estrella lights were taped. On the Rairden tape there are nine lights, but only eight lights on the Moon Valley footage and just in the early part you see a light form briefly which then goes out, but did it really? No, something must have blocked it out, but it was still there in the Rairden footage. As the lights drifted downward, some lights were blocked out by the many small peaks making up the Estrella range.

…What I wanted to find was footage where a tripod was used and the zoom lens was left in one spot. To my surprise there were several clips that met these specifications. What I did next was to mark each segment the ground on a monitor and the ending position of each light. When I ran the editor video deck in reverse, I could see each light rise in altitude and drift to the right or to the left. In all the video clips the results were the same. Just before each light went out, there was an increase in the descent of each light.

What this suggested to Motzer was that the lights were, in fact flares. The witnesses believe that the lights were in front of the Estrella Mountains, but the video showed they were not. He learned that the Army had been firing flares that night and that these were parachute flares. The heat generated by the flare helps to slow the rate of descent of the flares, but as the flare begins to die out, the rate of descent increases. But there should be smoke visible and some of the witnesses said they had seen no smoke. Motzer reported that the control tower crew at Sky Harbor had seen the smoke.

With that, including the confirmation by the Army National Guard they were firing flares that night, that they were firing them at 8:30, 9:25 and 10:00 on March 13 and the evidence on the tapes suggests flares, that seems to end the questions. Contrary to the reports from Village Labs, the evidence available suggests flares as the most logical and best solution here.

But this does not explain the “V” formations that some people reported. Giving the timing of some of the reports and given the length of time that some of the “V” formations were visible to witnesses, it seems that there might have been more than a single event. That would mean that both Stanley and Contry saw airplanes but some of the others didn’t.

This seems to be where the March 13 events remains. As I mentioned briefly, I believe the video tapes show flares and some of the “V” formations are identified as aircraft, but there isn’t a good explanation for the sightings of the large, V-shaped craft. As I say, those sightings have been lost in the glare of the flares and the discussion of the Phoenix Lights.