Identified flying objects (IFOs)

The actual percentages of IFOs vs. UFOs depends on who is doing the study and can vary widely depending on the used database, evaluation criteria, personal biases, and politics. Results can also fluctuate from year to year. For details, see Identified flying objects

Hoaxes

Among the many people who have reported UFO sightings, some have been exposed as hoaxers. Not all alleged hoax exposures are certain, however, and many claimants have stuck by their stories, leaving the determination of specific cases as hoaxes contentious. Some of the controversial subjects include these:

* Perhaps most notably, Ed Walters' 1987 hoax, perpetrated in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Walters claimed at first having seen a small UFO flying near his home, and then in a second incident seeing the same UFO and a small alien being standing by his back door after being alerted by his dog. Several photographs were taken of the craft, but none of the being. Three years later in 1990, after the Walters family had moved, the new residents discovered a model of a UFO poorly hidden in the attic that bore an undeniable resemblance to the craft in Walters' photographs. Various witnesses and detractors came forward after the local Pensacola newspaper printed a story about the discovered model, and some investigators now consider the sightings to be a hoax. In addition, a six-figure television miniseries and book deal were nearly struck with Walters.[59]
* Contactees such as George Adamski, who claimed he went on flights in UFOs. (Some believers even contend he had real experiences and later fictionalized others, leaving the subject murky.)
* Bob White (UFO hunter) has a UFO artifact
* Billy Meier, some of whose photographs have been discredited.
* The Maury Island Incident
* The Ummo affair, a decades-long series of detailed letters and documents allegedly from extraterrestrials. The total length of the documents is at least 1000 pages, and some estimate that further undiscovered documents may total nearly 4000 pages. A Jose Luis Jordan Pena came forward in the early nineties claiming responsibility for the phenomenon, and most consider there to be little reason to challenge his claims.[60]
* The Sci-fi channel ran an advertising promo of a UFO near the World Trade Center being seen by a group of tourists in a helicopter. Created prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks, the commercial used realistic special effects to simulate the encounter. The video has subsequently been aired on East Asian television and posted to video-sharing sites like YouTube as genuine footage.[61]
* A video was posted as genuine footage to Youtube.com by a "barzolff814". It depicts two large UFOs flying over an observer on a tropical island, said to be Haiti in the title "Haiti Ufo". The video was quickly debunked by rense.com, AboveTopSecret.com and other sites. The video was done entirely with CGI 3D Animation programs by French animator David Nicolas, also known as "Numero 6."[citation needed] It managed to fool many people; many still thoroughly believe that the video is real. The hoax was discerned by the identical palm trees in the video, which were the same as in a promo video for a 3D program called Vue Infinite.

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UFO categorization

Some researchers recommend that observations be classified according to the features of the phenomenon or object that are reported or recorded. Typical categories include:

* Saucer, toy-top, or disk-shaped "craft" without visible or audible propulsion. (day and night)
* Large triangular "craft" or triangular light pattern
* Cigar-shaped "craft" with lighted windows (Meteor fireballs are sometimes reported this way, but are very different phenomena).
* Other: chevrons, equilateral triangles, spheres (usually reported to be shining, glowing at night), domes, diamonds, shapeless black masses, eggs, and cylinders.

Hynek system

Dr. J. Allen Hynek developed another commonly used system of description, dividing sightings into six categories. It first separates sightings based on proximity, arbitrarily using 500 feet as the cutoff point. It then subdivides these into divisions based on viewing conditions or special features. The three distant sighting categories are:

* Nocturnal Lights (NL): Anomalous lights seen in the night sky.
* Daylight Discs (DD): Any anomalous object, generally but not necessarily "discoidal", seen in the distant daytime sky.
* Radar/Visual cases (RV). Objects seen simultaneously by eye and on radar.

The distant classification is useful in terms of evidentiary value, with RV cases usually considered to be the highest because of radar corroboration and NL cases the lowest because of the ease in which lights seen at night are often confused with prosaic phenomena such as meteors, bright stars, or airplanes. RV reports are also fewest in number, while NL are largest.

In addition were three "close encounter" (CE) subcategories, again thought to be higher in evidentiary value, because it includes measurable physical effects and the objects seen up close are less likely to be the result of misperception. As in RV cases, these tend to be relatively rare:

* CE1: Strange objects seen nearby but without physical interaction with the environment.
* CE2: A CE1 case but creating physical evidence or causing electromagnetic interference (see below).
* CE3: CE1 or CE2 cases where "occupants" or entities are seen. (Hence the title of Steven Spielberg's movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind)


Hynek's CE classification system has since been expanded to include such things as alleged alien abductions (CE4s) and cattle mutilation phenomena.

Vallee system

Jacques Vallee has devised a UFO classification system which is preferred by many UFO investigators over Hynek's system as it is considerably more descriptive than Hynek's, especially in terms of the reported behavior of UFOs.

Type I (a, b, c, d): Observation of an unusual object, spherical discoidal, or of another geometry, on or situated close to the ground (tree height, or lower), which may be associated with traces - thermal, luminous, or mechanical effects.

1. On or near ground.
2. Near or over body of water.
3. Occupants appear to display interest in witnesses by gestures or luminous signals.
4. Object appears to be "scouting" a terrestrial vehicle.

Type II (a, b, c): Observation of an unusual object with vertical cylindrical formation in the sky, associated with a diffuse cloud. This phenomenon has been given various names such as "cloud-cigar" or "cloud-sphere."

1. Moving erratically through the sky.
2. Object is stationary and gives rise to secondary objects (sometimes referred to as "satellite objects").
3. Object is surrounded by secondary objects.

Type III (a, b, c, d, e): Observation of an unusual object of spherical, discoidal or elliptical shape, stationary in the sky.

1. Hovering between two periods of motion with "falling-leaf" descent, up and down, or pendulum motion.
2. Interruption of continuous flight to hover and then continue motion.
3. Alters appearance while hovering - e.g., change of luminosity, generation of secondary object, etc.
4. "Dogfights" or swarming among several objects.
5. Trajectory abruptly altered during continuous flight to fly slowly above a certain area, circle, or suddenly change course.

Type IV (a, b, c, d): Observation of an unusual object in continuous flight.

1. Continuous flight.
2. Trajectory affected by nearby conventional aircraft.
3. Formation flight.
4. Wavy or zig-zag trajectory.

Type V (a, b, c): Observation of an unusual object of indistinct appearance, i.e., appearing to be not fully material or solid in structure.

1. Extended apparent diameter, non-point source luminous objects ("fuzzy").
2. Starlike objects (point source), motionless for extended periods.
3. Starlike objects rapidly crossing the sky, possibly with peculiar trajectories.

Source: 1. Jacques and Janine Vallee: Challenge To Science: The UFO Enigma, LC#66-25843

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UFO sightings

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Ufo)

History

Unusual aerial phenomena have been reported throughout prehistory (flying saucers in cave paintings in Hunan[citation needed], 47,000 B.C., southern France[citation needed], 20,000 B.C., etc.) and history. Some of these phenomena were undoubtedly astronomical in nature: comets, bright meteors, one or more of the five planets which can be seen with the naked eye, planetary conjunctions, or atmospheric optical phenomena such as parhelia and lenticular clouds. An example is the Comet Halley , which has been recorded the first time historically by Chinese astronomers in 240 B.C. and possibly as early as 467 B.C.. Other historical reports seem to defy prosaic explanation, but assessing such accounts is difficult at best, since the information in a historical document may be insufficient, inaccurate, or embellished enough to make an informed evaluation difficult.

* On September 24, 1235, General Kujō Yoritsune and his army observed unidentified globes of light flying in erratic patterns in the night sky near Kyoto, Japan. The general’s advisers told him not to worry — it was merely the wind causing the stars to sway.[2][3]

* On April 14, 1561 the skies over Nuremberg, Germany were reportedly filled with a multitude of objects seemingly engaged in an aerial battle. Small spheres and discs were said to emerge from large cylinders.[4][5](image right)

Whatever their actual cause, such sightings were usually treated as supernatural portents, angels, and other religious omens. Some contemporary investigators believe them to be the ancient equivalent of modern UFO reports. Art historian Daniela Giordano[6] cites many Medieval-era paintings, frescoes, tapestries and other items that depict unusual aerial objects; she admits many of these paintings are difficult to interpret, but cites some that depict airborne saucers and domed-saucer shapes that are often strikingly similar to UFO reports from later centuries.

First modern reports



Before the terms “flying saucer” and “UFO” were coined in the late 1940s, there were a number of reports of strange, unidentified aerial phenomena. These reports date from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century. They include:

* In July, 1868, The investigators of this phenomenon define the first modern documented sighting as having happened in Copiapo city, Chile.[7]
* On January 25, 1878, The Denison Daily News wrote that local farmer John Martin had reported seeing a large, dark, circular flying object resembling a balloon flying “at wonderful speed.” He compared its size when overhead to that of a "large saucer". [8]
* Reports of "mystery airships" appeared in American newspapers in 1887 and 1896-7, and another wave of sightings occurred in 1909-12 in New England, Europe, and New Zealand.
* On February 28, 1904, there was a sighting by three crew members on the USS Supply 300 miles west of San Francisco, reported by Lt. Frank Schofield, later to become Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Battle Fleet. Schofield wrote of three bright red egg-shaped and circular objects flying in echelon formation that approached beneath the cloud layer, then changed course and “soared” above the clouds, departing directly away from the earth after 2 to 3 minutes. The largest had an apparent size of about six suns.[9][10]
* An unusual phenomenon on November 17, 1882 was observed by astronomer Edward Walter Maunder of the Greenwich Royal Observatory and some other European astronomers. Numerous sighting reports were written up in Nature and other scientific journals. Maunder in The Observatory reported “a strange celestial visitor” that was "disc-shaped," "torpedo-shaped," "spindle-shaped," or "just like a Zeppelin" dirigible (as he described it in 1916). It was much brighter than the concurrent auroral displays, had well-defined edges and was opaque in the center, whitish or greenish-white, about 30 degrees long and 3 degrees wide, and moved steadily across the northern sky in less than 2 minutes from east to west. Maunder said it was very different in characteristics from a meteor fireball or any aurora he had ever seen. Nonetheless, Maunder (and some other astronomers) thought it was probably related to the huge auroral magnetic sunspot storm occurring at the same time; Maunder called it an "auroral beam." [11]
* The so-called Fátima incident or “The Miracle of the Sun,” witnessed by tens of thousands in Fátima, Portugal on October 13, 1917.
* On 5 August 1926, while traveling in the Humboldt Mountains of Tibet's Kokonor region, Nicholas Roerich reported that members of his expedition saw--high in the sky, above an eagle they had been watching--"something big and shiny reflecting sun, like a huge oval moving at great speed" (from his travel diary Altai-Himalaya, published 1929). While Roerich does not say what he thought the object might have been, surrounding passages discuss Theosophical accounts of ancient civilizations and their technology.[12]
* In both the European and Japanese aerial theatres during World War II, “Foo-fighters” (balls of light and other shapes that followed aircraft) were reported by both Allied and Axis pilots.
* On February 25, 1942, the U.S. Army detected unidentified aircraft both visually and on radar over the Los Angeles, California region. The craft stayed aloft despite taking at least 20 minutes worth of flak from ground batteries. The origins of the aircraft were never identified. The incident later became known as the Battle of Los Angeles, or the West coast air raid.
* In 1946, there were over 2000 reports of unidentified aircraft in the Scandinavian nations, along with isolated reports from France, Portugal, Italy and Greece, then referred to as “Russian hail,” and later as “ghost rockets,” because it was thought that these mysterious objects were Russian tests of captured German V1 or V2 rockets. This was subsequently shown not to be the case, and the phenomenon remains unexplained. Over 200 were tracked on radar and deemed to be “real physical objects” by the Swedish military. A significant fraction of the remainder was thought to be misidentification of natural phenomena, such as meteors.

Modern UFO Era

Kenneth Arnold's Sighting 1947


The post World War II UFO phase in the United States began with a reported sighting by American businessman Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947 while flying his private plane near Mount Rainier, Washington.
He reported seeing nine brilliantly bright objects flying across the face of Rainier towards nearby Mount Adams at “an incredible speed”, which he calculated as at least 1200 miles per hour by timing their travel between Rainier and Adams.
His sighting subsequently received significant media and public attention. Arnold would later say they “flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water” and also said they were “flat like a pie pan”, “shaped like saucers,” and “half-moon shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear. ...they looked like a big flat disk.” (One, however, he would describe later as being almost crescent-shaped.) Arnold’s reported descriptions caught the media’s and the public’s fancy and gave rise to the terms flying saucer and flying disk.

Arnold’s sighting was followed in the next few weeks by hundreds of other reported sightings, mostly in the U.S., but in other countries as well.

Other sightings



Perhaps the most significant of those other sightings was a United Airlines crew sighting of nine more disc-like objects over Idaho on the evening of July 4. At the time, this sighting was even more widely reported than Arnold’s and lent considerable credence to Arnold’s report. In fact, American UFO researcher Ted Bloecher, in his comprehensive review of newspaper reports, found a sudden surge upwards in sightings on July 4, peaking on July 6-8. Bloecher noted that for the next few days most American newspapers were filled with front-page stories of the new “flying saucers” or “flying discs.” Starting with official debunkery that began the night of July 8 with the Roswell UFO incident, reports rapidly tapered off, ending the first big U.S. UFO wave.

Over several years in the 1960s, Bloecher (aided by physicist James E. McDonald) discovered 853 flying disc sightings that year from 140 newspapers from Canada, Washington D.C, and every U.S. state save Montana. [13] This was more UFO reports for 1947 than most researchers ever suspected. Some of these stories were poorly documented or fragmentary, but Bloecher argued that about 250 of the more detailed reports (such as those made by pilots or scientists, multiple eyewitnesses, or backed by photos) made a persuasive case for a genuine mystery.
Starting July 9, Army Air Force intelligence, in cooperation with the FBI, secretly began a formal investigation into the best sightings, which included Arnold’s and the United crew’s. The FBI was told that intelligence was using “all of its scientists” to determine whether or not “such a phenomenon could, in fact, occur.” Furthermore, the research was “being conducted with the thought that the flying objects might be a celestial phenomenon,” or that “they might be a foreign body mechanically devised and controlled.” (Maccabee, 5) Three weeks later they concluded that, “This ‘flying saucer’ situation is not all imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomenon. Something is really flying around.”[14] A further review by the intelligence and technical divisions of the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field reached the same conclusion, that “the phenomenon is something real and not visionary or fictitious,” that there were objects in the shape of a disc, metallic in appearance, and as big as man-made aircraft. They were characterized by “extreme rates of climb [and] maneuverability,” general lack of noise, absence of trail, occasional formation flying, and “evasive” behavior “when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and radar,” suggesting either manual, automatic, or remote control. It was thus recommended in late September 1947 that an official Air Force investigation be set up to investigate the phenomenon.[15] This led to the creation of the Air Force’s Project Sign at the end of 1947, which became Project Grudge at the end of 1948, and then Project Blue Book in 1952. Blue Book closed down in 1970, ending the official Air Force UFO investigations.

Use of “UFO” instead of “flying saucer” was first suggested in 1952 by Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, the first director of Project Blue Book, who felt that “flying saucer” did not reflect the diversity of the sightings. Ruppelt suggested that “UFO” should be pronounced as a word — “you-foe”. However it is generally pronounced by forming each letter: “U.F.O.” His term was quickly adopted by the Air Force, which also briefly used “UFOB” circa 1954. (See next paragraph.) Ruppelt recounted his experiences with Project Blue Book in his memoir, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (1956), also the first book to use the term.[16]

Air Force Regulation 200-2, issued in 1954, defined an Unidentified Flying Object (UFOB) as “any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object.” The regulation also said UFOBs were to be investigated as a “possible threat to the security of the United States” and “to determine technical aspects involved.” Furthermore, Air Force personnel were directed not to discuss unexplained cases with the press.[17][18][19]

In Canada, the Department of National Defence has dealt with reports, sightings and investigations of UFOs across Canada. In addition to conducting investigations into crop circles in Duhamel, Alberta, it still identifies the Falcon Lake incident in Manitoba and the Shag Harbour incident in Nova Scotia as "unsolved".[20]

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National Press Club Conference on UFOs - Witness Statements

Steve Kaeser and UFO UpDates - 11/22/2007
go to original article | fair use notice
The following is the individual witness testimony distributed to those who attended the Briefing at the National Press Club on Monday. This is in the order of the presentations:

[Permission is given to distribute the following provided attribution to both Steve Kaeser and to the UFO UpDates List as the sources... ]

The following is the individual witness testimony distributed to those who attended the Briefing at the National Press Club on Monday. This is in the order of the presentations:

Summary by Major General (Ret) Wilfried De Brouwer

My name is Wilt ned De Brouwer. I am a retired Major General of the Belgian Air Force and I was Chief Operations in the Air Staff when an exceptional UFO wave took place over Belgium. Indeed, during the evening of 29 November 1989, in a small area in Eastern Belgium, approximately 140 UFO sightings were reported. Hundreds of people saw a majestic triangular craft with a span of approximately 120 feet, powerful beaming spot lights, moving very slowly without making any significant noise but, in several cases, accelerating to very high speeds.

The following days and months, many more sightings would follow. The UFO wave would last rrore than one year during which a Belgian UFO organization conducted more than 650 investigations and recorded more than 400 hours of audio witness reports. On one occasion, a photograph revealed the triangular shape and four light beams of the object.

Belgium had no official focal point for reporting UFO observations. Nevertheless, in my function of Chief Operations, I was confronted with numerous questio9s about the origin and nature of these craft. In the first instance, and in consultation with other NATO partners, 1 could confirm that no flights of stealth aircraft or any other experimental aircraft look place in the airspace of Belgium. In addition, the Civil Aviation Authorities confirmed that no flight plans had been introduced. This implied that the reported object(s) committed an infraction against the existing aviation rules.

The Belgian Air Force tried to identify the alleged intruder(s) and, on three occasions, launched F 16 aircraft. On one occasion, two F 16 registered rapid changes in speed and altitude which were well outside of the performance envelope of existing aircraft. Nevertheless, the pilots could not establish visual contact and the investigation revealed that specific weather conditions may have caused electromagnetic interferences and false returns on the radar screens. The technical evidence was insufficient to conclude that abnormal air activities took place during that evening.

In short, the Belgian UFO wave was exceptional and the Air Force could not identify the nature, origin and intentions of the reported phenomena.

Claude POllER Scientific Position Statement

Bonjour, I am Dr Claude POHER, retired astrophysicist and space research engineer from the National Center for Space Studies, the French equivalent of NASA. I was the founder of the GEPAN, the Group for the Study of Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena, which was an official agency devoted to the study of UFO observation reports, and which remains active today, under the name GEIPAN.

I first learned about the existence of official US UFO reports early in the sixties, from Dr J. Alien Hynek, the well known astronomical consultant to the US Air Force's Project Blue Book. I then began to investigate official French UFO reports, and to undertake scientific analyses of the data. I received approval from ONES to create and direct the GEPAN about 15 years later, in 1977.

I trained our first investigators, teaching them how to conduct official investigations into the different kinds of reports, from lights in the sky to landings with physical evidence and observations of occupants. We had an independent scientific steering committee. This committee recommended that we continue to pursue this work during the two years of my direction. For example, I trained our investigators on the case of CUSSAC, where, in August 1967, two young witnesses were alerted by the agitation of dozens of frightened farm animals at around noon. The witnesses then observed a landed spherical UFO at a distance of 80 yards, with four occupants near it.

Very high luminosity was reported after slow takeoff, leaving physiological effects on the witnesses eyes that were confirmed by the village mayor. The hiss noise described by the two witnesses was also heard by the hunting guard of the village. The UFO acceleration after vertical takeoff was estimated to be about a hundred g's by GEPAN experts. The occupants were seen floating in the air while entering the craft, from its top, in a hurry.

Physical traces on the ground from the craft were confirmed by the local police, as well as a sulfur oxide odor. CNES experts in meteorology and space debris worked in the field with the witnesses, along with a Juge, a psychologist, an optical engineer and aeronautical engineer. They had full measuring eqtipment and worked with the police as well.

The official conclusion of GEPAN in 1979, was that about 15% of cases remained unidentified after careful analysis by our experts. We concluded that the objects, in most of these cases, were compatibie with flying machines whose flight physics were foreign to the experts knowledge.

What I have stated is about the past. Now there are some recent experimental facts, in direct relation to my GEPAN and UFO investigation involvement, that I believe are of great importance for our future, and for the way you should now handle UFO observations in the USA.

After I left the GEPAN but r9mained at CNES, I continued to work on the UFO subject in the domain of theoretical physics. Last April, the physical theory about gravitation and inertia I was working on since 1980, was successfully tested in the laboratory.

Effectively, I patented and tested devices able to reproduce, in the laboratory, the causes of the strange effects that are described in UFO observation reports. I am talking about such effects as tremendous accelerations, sharp turns, sudden stops, powerful emission of light, silent supersonic speed, etc

These experimental results are currently open to be demonstrated, in my laboratory in Toulouse, for qualified scientists, scientific journalists and industrial representatives, including those from the USA.

Thanks for your attention.

Jean-Charles DUBOC

My name is Jean-Charles DUBOC, and I am a retired Air France Captain.

During Air France Flight 3532 from Nice to London, on 28 January 1994, 1 observed, with my crew, a dayliqht UFO near Paris. We had few passengers on board and none of them had reported that observation to the crew.

The time was 1:00 P.M, and the visibility was excellent with some altocumulus clouds.

That object had been identified initially by a steward who was in the cockpit and by the copilot as a weather balloon, but when I identified it, it looked quite different.

In fact this UFO was in evolution and it looked like this (I shall then show a drawing), with a bank angle of 45°. It seemed to be a huge flying DISC. It stabilized and stopped moving (moving horizontally the draw.

We observed it over one minute on the LEFT on our plane, surprisingly totally stationary in the sky, and it disappeared progressively (turn of the drawing).

This large object was below us at the altitude of 35, 000 ft (we were at 39 000 if), at a distance of about 25 nautical miles.

The colour was RED BROWN with BLURRED outlines.

The apparent diameter of this object could be compared to the diameter of the moon, or the sun. That means that it was about 1000 feet wide.

We had no idea of the structure of the UFO that seemed to be embedded in a kind of magnetic or gravitational field, with no lights or visual metallic structure, which gave it a really FUZZY appearance.

The most incredible aspect is that it became transparent and disappeared in about 10 to 20 seconds. My co-pilot, chief steward and I quickly realized that what we were seeing did not resemble anything known to us, and we reported our sighting to Reims traffic control. Simultaneously, the radar of the Operational Centre of the Air Defence (the CODA), registered a one minute spot crossing the track of our plane. When I recorded the estimated position of the UFO on an aeronautical map I was surprised to realize that its position was near the base of Tavemy which hosts the headquarters of the French Strategic Air Command.

This sighting has been studied by the French military COMETA group under the direction of General Denis Letty and with the participation of several high ranking officers of the French Defence, as well as by GEPAN under the French National Space Centre (CNES I.

The investigations determined this could not have been a weather balloon, and estimated the approximate length of the UFO to have been 800 feet.

This sighting remains unexplained.

Jean-Claude Ribes Position Statement

My name is Jean-Claude Ribes and I am an astronomer, working for the French Centre National de Ia Recherche Scientifique from 1963 to 1998. I contributed to the French COIvIETA report, a three year military study on UFOs and National Security released in 1999, and more recently to the book Phenomenes aerospatlaux non identifies, under the direction of Yves Sillard, chairman of the Steering Committee of GEIPAN. He asked me to represent him and GEIPAN here today. General Denis Lefty, chairman of the COMETA group, also asked me to represent him here, because he was unable to attend.

The COMETA report was written mainly by high ranking military people from the French High Studies Institute for National Defence. It analyzes the possible explanations for UFOs and their implications in terms of Defence, with the extraterrestrial hypothesis presented as the most logical one, even if not formally proven. Some recommendations are made, including that all managers of the Army, Police, Politics, and pilots be informed about UFOs; that detection systems be modified to take UFOs into account; and that the French government contact the United States and other allied countries to initiate cooperative action on the subject. So far, these recommendations have not been implemented.

However, last March, my country took a big step forward. Jacques Patenet, current director of GEIPAN, released the French UFO files to the public. They were posted on a website - more than 1,600 sightings spanning five decades. Some cases involved multiple sightings and physical evidence such as bum marks and radar trackings. Others documented UFOs with flight patterns or accelerations defying the laws of physics. M. Patenet told the press at the time that We do not have any proof at all that extra-terrestrials are behind the unexplained phenomena. Nor do we have any proof at all that they aren t.

GEIPAN's Steering Committee plays an important role, with representatives from the Army, Police, Civil Aviation, Meteorology and the scientific community. This Committee insures the best conditions for gathering reports by instructing the agencies involved in investigations, and by protecting any witnesses who request anonymity for fear of ridicule.

My personal opinion is that UFOs should be taken seriously and studied without prejudice. There may be several possible explanations, such as rare atmospheric phenomena, but some cases strongly suggest actual flying machines with characteristics well beyond our terrestrial capacities. If these cases could be completely proven as such, then the extraterrestrial hypothesis would probably be the most likely explanation for these advanced craft. Admittedly, it is a fantastic possibility, but not an irrational one, given the data that we have.

Parviz Jafari

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen

My name is Parviz Jafari, and I am a retired General of Iranian Air Force.

At about 11 pm on the evening of 1 8th September, 1976, citizens were frightened by the circling of an unknown object over Tehran, the Capital city of Iran, at a low altitude. It looked similar to a star, but bigger and brighter. They reported it to the tower and it was seen by the tower man too. He alerted the Air Force command post and Deputy General Yousefi decided to scramble an F-4 jet to investigate.

The pilot in the first jet lcst instrumentation and communications when he got too close to the brilliant object, so he headed back. About 10 minutes later, they scrambled a second jet, which I was piloting. At the time I was Squadron commander. I approached the object, which was flashing with intense red, green, orange and blue light so bright that I was not able to see its body. The sequence of flashes was extremely fast, like a strobe light. We locked on it with radar; it was at 30° left, at a range of 25 miles. The size on the radar scope was comparable to that of a 707 tanker.

Four other objects with different shapes separated from the main one, at different times during this close encounter. Whenever they were close to me, my weapons were jammed and my radio communications were garbled. One of the objects headed toward me. I thought it was a missile. I tried to launch a heat seeking missile to it, but my missile panel went out. Another followed me when I was descending on the way back. One of the separated objects landed in an open area radiating a high bright light, in which the sands on the ground were visible.

We could hear emergency squash all the way, which was reported by other airliners flying at the time and continuei for another couple of days. During my interview at H.Q, after the incident, an American colonel took notes, but after it was over I could not find him to talk with. Later, a once-classified document was released here in America through the Freedom of information Act. The Defense Intelligence Agency documented the event in great detail, and it was sent to NSA, The White House and the CIA. The DIA assessment said this case is a classic that meets all necessary conditions for a legitimate study of the UFO phenomenon. I would be happy to answer questions and tell you more.

Rodrigo Bravo Garrido

Declaration For The Press Conference At The National Press Club In Wasihngton D.C., United States Of America

Since the beginning of Chilean history, there have been reports of unidentified phenomena, sometimes called UFOs, observed in our skies.

Over the years, we have increased our capacity to explain many of the sightings, but some continue to remain without a scientific or logical explanation. For that reason, in October of 1997, the Department of Civil Aeronautics, the Chilean equivalent of the American FAA, set up the Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena, known as the CEFAA. This agency handles the best reports of unidentified aerial phenomena in cooperation with aeronautic specialists.

In 2000, the Aviation branch of the Army of Chile assigned me to research anomalous aerial phenomena, which they knew were real, and their affect on aerospace security. I then graduated to become a military pilot, and learned that the Aviation Amy had in its files many reports of UFO incidents from military pilots. A link was then established between our Army office and the CEFAA, and as a result, nine official cases have been documented. This has helped to create awareness among The flight crews about UFOs, and they now cooperate with flight security to report any abnormal situation.

One of our most important civil aviation cases occurred in 1988, showing that unidentified flying objects can be a danger for air operations. A Boeing 737 pilot, on a final approach to the runway at The Tepual Airport in Puerto Montt City, suddenly encountered a large white light surrounded by green and red. The light was moving in the opposite direction of the airplane, coming straight at it. The pilot had to make a steep turn to the left in order to avoid a collision. The phenomenon was observed by the control tower personnel.

In 2000, the crew of a Chilean plane from the Aviation branch of the Army, flying South of Santiago, observed a long cigar-shaped object, a brilliant gray. It flew parallei to the right side of the aircraft for two minutes and then disappeared at a very high speed. This object was detected by the radar of the Control Center of Santiago which notified the crew minutes before the incident.

Sadly, the UFO subject has been contaminated with false information, out of touch with reality, provided by unqualified people to the media. This has moved the issue away from a scientific and specialized study where it belongs. In light of that problem, we now make the call to all the countries that are presently working on this issue in a serious and factual way, to unite their efforts. We would like this to include the United States of America. This cooperative effort would help all of us counteract the potentially unsafe effects of UFOS on air operations around the world.

New cases are being documented by pilots, traffic controllers, operations staff at the wor d's airports, and by many others with the proper training to determine if a flying object is something unusual. The true origin of these UFOs is unknown, yet they do affect aviation all around the planet, and this must be addressed.

Oscar Alfonso Santa Maria Huertas

I am Oscar Santa Maria Huertas, official pilot of the Peruvian Air Force, currently retired.

On April 11, 1980, at 7:15 in the morning, 1800 men were in formation at the Air Base of La Joya, Arequipa. They all observed a stationary object in the sky which looked like a balloon, at about three miles distance, and approximately 1,800 feet altitude. It was luminous because it reflected the sun.

My unit commander ordered me to takeoff in my Sukoi -22 jet to shoot down the spherical object. It was in restricted airspace, without clearance, and we were concerned about espionage. I approached the object and strafed sixty-four 30mm shells at it. Some projectiles went towards the ground, and others hit the object fully, but they had no effect at all. The projectiles didn t bounce off; probably they were absorbed. The cone-shaped wall of fire that I sent out would normally obliterate anything in its path.

The object then began to ascend, and move farther away from the base. When I was at about 36,000 ft., it made a sudden stop, forcing me to veer to the side since I was only 1500 feet away. I flew up higher to attack it from above, but just as I had locked on to the target and was ready to shoot, the object made a straight vertical climb evading the attack. Two more times I had the object on target, when the object was stationary. Each time, it moved away at the very last minute, when I was just about to fire, always eluding my attack.

I decided to climb at full thrust to get above the object, but it began to ascend almost parallel to my plane, and when I reached 63,000 ft., it stopped. At this point, I came to within about 300 feet of the UFO. It was about 30 feet in diameter. It was an enameled, cream-colored dome, with a wide, circular, metallic base. It had no engines, no exhausts, no windows, no wings or antennae. It lacked all the typical aircraft components, with no visible propulsion system. It was at that moment that 1 realized this it was not a spying device, but that it was a UFO, something totally unknown. I was almost out of fuel, so I couldn t attack or maneuver my plane, or make a high speed escape. I was afraid. I thought I might be finished. When I had calmed down, I radioed for another plane to come and have a look, trying to hide my fear. They said no, it's too high, just come back. I had to glide part way down due to lack of fuel, zigzagging to make my plane harder to hit, always with my eyes on the rearview mirrors hoping it wouldn t chase me. It didn't.

I had spent 22 minutes maneuvering with this object. After I landed, the object remained stationary in the sky for two hours, for everyone at the base to see.

A US Department of Defense document titled UFO Sighted in Peru described the incident, stating that the vehicle's origin remains unknown.

It still gives me chills to think about it.

Oscar Alfonso Santa Maria Huertas

DNI: 40315515


Press Release: Peru And The Chulucanas Incident.

First Case Of A UFO Investigation Officially Disclosed.

I am Dr. Anthony Choy, ounding member of the Office of Investigations of Anomaluos Aereal Phenomena (OIFAA), and an investigor for this office. This agency was established by the Peruvian Air Force in December, 2001.

I am the author of Project 33, the first integral study on the UFO phenomenon in Peru. I traveled all over my country for about three years, speaking with witnesses, obtaining audio-visual information such as photographs and videos, and collecting data for this study.

On October 13, 2001, in the northern city of Chulucanas, and before hundreds of people, eight spheres of light, of an intense red-orange color, were recorded on video. We were the first ones to obtain this video and we gave it to the air force. These objects were suspended in the air for over five hours, moving in an apparently intelligent manner, and in absolute silence until they disappeared.

A few days later, on October 25th, the luminous tear-shaped object of some 25 meters diameter (approx. 80 feet), was recorded over the countryside near the city. Within a few minutes, the apparent landing of light spheres in the woods was also recorded.

In February of 2002, the Air Force's 01 FAA ordered me to investigate these sightings.

Taking responsibility for the so-called Chulucanas Incident, in February 2003 Peruvian Air Force Colonel Jose Raffo Moloche, Director of Aereal and Space Concerns, made an open statement to the media acknowledging that the Chulucanas Incident was the first official UFO investigation in Peru.

The preliminary conclusion was that the sightings, although being physically real, had no explanation. The case remains open, and the investigation continues independently

The climax occurred on August 6 of 2004 when, in collaboration with the American television channel of Univision, we were able to record for 55 minutes a distant object of unknown nature and origin, moving at great velocity in the sky, going up and down, and right and left.

I believe the Air Force in Peru has done the right thing by opening an office to conduct these investigations. The evidence we have from actual UFO cases and incidents that have taken place in our country show that the UFO phenomenon remains one of the greatest challenges to our current knowledge of science and technology.

Ray Bowyer

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen and thank you for coming today. My name is Ray Bowyer and I fly a civilian airliner as Captain. I have been invited here due to my sighting last April of multiple as yet unidentified objects over the Channel Islands region of the English Channel. This encounter lasted for 15 minutes with the first object being visible from 55 miles distant.

On nearing the object a second identical shape appeared beyond the first. Both objects were of a flattened disk shape with a dark area to the right side. They were brilliant yellow with light emanating from them. I estimated them to be up to a mile across.

I found myself astounded but curious. But at 12 miles distant these objects were becoming uncomfortably large, and I was glad to descend and land the aircraft.

Many of my passengers saw the objects as did the pilot of another aircraft 25 miles further south. There is also possible radar information still being investigated.

A team headed by Dr. David Clarke looking at this case will shortly publish a report but I understand that at this time no definitive solution has been discovered to explain the sighting.

I have taken note of the differences between the British and U.S. reporting system. It appears that attitudes on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean are very different when it comes to the required reporting and recording of this type of event.

Air Law stipulates quite clearly that if an operating crew of an aircraft see another aircraft a place that it should not he, then at the earliest opportunity the whole scenario is to be reported to the relevant authority.

In my case the British Civil Aviation Authority knew within 20 minutes of the sighting what was seen, as described in the flight log faxed directly to the relevant CM office. The military were informed by Jersey Air Traffic Control at the same time. This is not an option; it is an obligation that crews react in this manner.

In my experience, having reported the incident as required has had no negative effect. And there was no problem with me talking about it on British television. Indeed, my company Aurigny Air Services have offered every support to date. The assistance of Jersey ATC in releasing recorded information to myself and the investigating team has been a great benefit. I did not feel that I was in any danger of being ridiculed, because all I did was report what actually happened, as was my duty.

I heard about the multiple witness sighting at Chicago O Hare Airport a year ago, on November 7, 2006. I was surprised to hear how this was handled. Despite many pilots and airport personnel witnessing the object hovering over the terminal, there was no investigation by the FAA. It appears that pressure may have been applied to crew members by their company not to discuss this incident.

These witnesses were afraid to talk about what they saw, due to concerns about job security. The FAA told the witnesses that what they saw was actually not what they saw but that it was simply weather,

I would have been shocked if I was told that the CAA would obstruct an investigation, or if the CAA told me that what I had seen was something entirely different. But it seems that pilots in America are used to this kind of thing, as far as I can tell.

I would urge all aircrew to report whatever they see as soon as possible, and to stand up and be counted. It is only when crucial witnesses such as professional pilots make reports that the authorities will be kick-started into a broader investigation of these phenomena.

Nick Pope Position Statement

My name is Nick Pope, formerly with the British Ministry of Defence.

Since 1950 the British Government has received over 10,000 UFO reports. Responsibility for this subject rests with the Ministry of Defense, whose remit is to look for evidence of any potential threat to the UK, or anything else of any defense significance. From 1991 to 1994 I was the desk officer responsible for these investigations.

Most UFO sightings turned out to be misidentifications of things such as aircraft, satellites and meteors, but in around 5 per cent of cases no explanation could be found. These cases include incidents where reliable witnesses such as police officers and pilots reported structured craft performing speeds and maneuvers significantly in excess of anything they had seen military jet aircraft perform. Other cases included in this category involved UFOs tracked on radar and incidents where photos or videos were produced and where the MoD's technical experts found no evidence of fakery.

The MoD takes no position on the nature of the UFO phenomenon but I and some of my colleagues were privately convinced that whatever was going on, there were important defense, national security and flight safety issues involved.

In March 1993 I investigated a case where a UFO was seen by about 60 witnesses, including military personnel at two air force bases. Witnesses included a patrol of air force police, together with a meteorological officer with 8 years experience. This latter witness described a triangular-shaped craft midway in size between a c-i 30 and a Boeing 747. He said that it was emitting a low frequency humming sound and he said it moved slowly at first, before accelerating away many times faster than a military jet. My Head of Division's brief to the As&stant Chief of the Air Staff concluded In summary, there would seem to be some evidence on this occasion that an unidentified object (or objects) of unknown origin was operating over the UK. The case file - published on the MoD website

- also mentions related enquiries from the US authorities, asking if the UK had a black programme that might explain some UFO sightings involving large triangular-shaped craft. That's interesting, given the US government's public position that UFOs are no longer investigated.

Britain's best known UFO sighting occurred in 1980 and involved USAF personnel from two military bases in the UK. There were multiple witnesses and an object was seen to land in a place called Rendlesham Forest. A Geiger counter was used to take radiation readings at the landing site and the assessment undertaken by the MoD's Defence Intelligence Staff stated that the levels recorded seemed significantly higher than the average background. We are fortunate to have two of the witnesses to these events here today and I should like to hand over to one of them now, so that he can give you the specifics. Thank you.

Ends


James Penniston Statement

My name is James Penniston, United States Air Force Retired.

In 1980, I was assigned to the largest Tactical Fighter Wing in the Air Force, RAF Woodbridge in England. I was the senior security officer in charge of base security.

At that time I held a top-secret US and NATO security clearance and was responsible for the protection of war-making resources for that base.

Shortly after midnight on the 26th of December, 1980, Staff Sergeant Steffens briefed me that some lights were seen in Rendlesham Forest, just outside the base. He informed me that what ever it was didnt crash... it landed. I discounted what he said and reported to the control center back at the base that we had a possible downed aircraft. I then ordered Amn. Cabanzak, AIC Burroughs to respond with me.

When we arrived near the suspected crash site it quickly became apparent that we were not dealing with a plane crash or anything else we d ever responded to. There was a bright light emanating from an object on the forest floor. As we approached it on foot, a silhouetted triangular craft about 9 feet long by 6.5 feet high, came into view. The craft was fully intact sitting in a small clearing inside the woods.

As the three of us got closer to the craft we started experiencing problems with our radios. I then asked Cabansag to relay radio transmissions back to the control center. Burroughs and I proceeded towards the craft.

When we came up on the triangular shaped craft there were blue and yellow lights swirling around the exterior as though part of the surface and the air around us was electrically charged. We could feel it on our cloths, skin and hair. Nothing in my training prepared me for what we were witnessing.

After ten minutes without any apparent aggression, I determined the craft was non hostile to my team or to the base. Following security protocol, we completed a thorough on-site investigation, including a full physical examination of the craft. This included photographs, notebook entries, and radio relays through airman Cabansag to the control center as required. On one side of the craft were symbols that measured about 3 inches high and two and a half feet across.

These symbols were pictorial in design; the largest symbol was a triangle, which was centered in the middle of the others. These symbols were etched into the surface of the craft, which was warm to the touch and felt like metal.

The feeling I had during this encounter was no type of aircraft that I ve eve seen before.

After roughly 45 minutes the light from the craft began to intensify. Burroughs and I then took a defensive position away from the craft as it lifted off the ground without any noise or air disturbance. It maneuvered through the trees and shot off at an unbelievable rate of speed. It was gone in the blink of an eye.

In my logbook, (that I have right here) 1 wrote, Speed: IMPOSSIBLE. Over 80 Air Force Personnel, all trained observers assigned to the 81st Security Police Squadron, witnessed the takeoff.

The information acquired during the investigation was reported through military channels. The team and witnesses were told to treat the investigation as top secret and no further discussion was allowed.

The photos we retrieved from the base lab (two rolls of 35 mm) were apparently over exposed.

Statement By Charles I. Halt

My name is Charles I. Halt. I retired from the US Air Force in 1991 as a Colonel. I was a base commander at two large installations and at the time of my retirement was Director, Inspections Directorate for the DOD 1G. In that position I had inspection oversight of all military services and defense agencies.

In 1980 I was the Deputy Base Commander of RAF Bentwaters, the large twin base complex in East Anglia England. At the time this was the largest Tactical Fighter Wing in the Air Force.

In late December 1980 I was called upon to investigate a strange event that was distracting our Security Police from their primary duties. Early on the morning of December 26, 1980 our police patrolmen discovered strange lights in the forest east of the back gate of RAE Woodbridge. Three patrolmen were dispatched into the forest to investigate. They reported discovering a strange triangular craft sitting on three legs. The craft was approximately 3 meters on a side. The craft had multiple lights. It rapidly maneuvered and quickly left the area.

I was not immediately aware of the details only being told of strange lights and assumed there was a reasonable explanation.

Two nights later the famIy Christmas party was interrupted by the on duty police commander. He told of strange events and claimed it was back. Since my boss had to present awards I was tasked to go out and investigate. I fully expected to find an explanation.

I took two senior Security Police, a Disaster Preparedness expert and the reporting On Duty Police Commander. At the site we found the three 1 1/2 indentations in the ground in a triangular pattern. [SHOW PLASTER CAST],

We discovered mild radiation, and evidence including broken branches. We suddenly observed a bright red/orange oval object with a black center. It reminded me of an eye and appeared as though blinking. It maneuvered horizontally through the trees with occasionally vertical movement. When approached it receded and silently broke into five white lights which quickly vanished. We moved out of the forest into a pasture and observed several objects with multiple lights in the Northern sky. They changed in shape from elliptical to round.

Several other objects were seen to the South. One approached at high speed and sent down a concentrated beam near our feet. Another object sent down beams into the weapons storage area. The whole time we had difficulty communicating with the base as all three radio frequencies kept breaking up. This activity continued for about an hour.

During this entire event I had my pocket recorder and taped the event as it unfolded. A copy of the tape was released without my knowledge. This is the original recorder and tape.

I have no idea what we saw but do know whatever we saw was under intelligent control.

John Callahan

What I am about to tell you now, is about an event that never happened.

I am John Callahan, and I was Division Chief of the Accidents, Evaluations and Investigations Division of the FAA in Washington, for 6 years during the 1980's.

In early January of 1987, 1 received a call from the Air Traffic Quality Control Branch in FAA's Alaskan regional office, requesting guidance on what to tell the media personnel who were overflowing their office. The media was requesting information about the UFO that chased a Japanese 747 across the Alaskan sky for some 31 minutes at flight levels between 31000 and 35000 ft. on November 17, 1986. Somehow, the word had got out.

What UFO; when did this take place; why wasn't Washington Headquarters informed? I asked.

Hey, he replied, who believes in UFOs? I just need to know what to tell the media to get them out of here.

The answer to that question was easy: Tell them it's under investigation. Then, collect all the data - the voice tapes and data disc for both the facility and the military. Send then overnight to the FAA Tech Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Japan Air Lines flight 1628, a cargo jet with a pilot, co-pilot and one crew member, was just north of Anchorage, and it was about 11 pm when the pilot first reported the UFO. He described it as a huge ball with lights running around it. He said it was about 4 times bigger than a 747, and he saw it with his own eyes. So did the other two crew members.

Over the course of 31 minutes, the UFO jumped miles in a few seconds, changing places to different spots around the 747, in one sweep of the radar scope.

After receiving the data from Alaska almost two months later, I briefed my boss Harvey Safer and the FAA Administrator Admiral Engen, and Safer and I went to the FAA Tech Center to observe the playback.

The FAA had developed a program capable of recreating the traffic on the controllers scope, or plan view display. I instructed the FAA specialist to synchronize the voice tapes with the radar data so we could hear everything the controller and pilot said. I video taped the radar display.

Later that day, I requested that the FAA automation specialists plot the radar targets along the route of flight and explain what each target was doing. I video taped the resuLting chart.

The print out and radar play back displayed primary targets in the vicinity of the 747. These target returns were displayed about the same time and place as the pilot advised viewing the UFO.

Both the radar and manual controller observed the primary target. The military controllers also viewed the primary target on their radar and identified it as a double primary. The pilot and crew viewed the target on their radar and were able to see the huge UFO at the same time as it approached their aircraft.

If this craft had been a leer jet or military aircraft at the wrong attitude, that would have been clear. The FAA has procedures that cover tracking unidentified aircraft violating another's airspace - but it has no procedures for UFOs.

Back at FAA headquarters, I gave Administrator Engen a quick briefing and showed him the video. He set up a briefing with President Reagan's scientific staff, and told me my function was to give them a dog and pony show and hand this event off to them, since the FAA does not deal with UFO s.

I brought along a copy of the video and all the data print outs available at the time.

One of the scientists asked a number of questions, such as, what is the range of the radar, what is the frequency of the radar, what is the band width, what is the formula for the height equipment, etc.

I was impressed with the response from the FAA experts. At the end, one of the three people from the CIA said, This event never happened; we were never here; we re confiscating all this data and you are all sworn to secrecy.

What do you think it was? I asked the CIA person.

A UFO and now they have over 30 minutes of radar to go over, he responded.

Well let's get a TWIX out and advise the American public that we were visited by a UFO, I suggested.

No way, if we were to tell the American public there are UFOs they would panic, ho informed me.

Some time after the briefing, the detailed FAA report which included extensive interviews with the pilot and crew, the chart prepared at the Tech Center; and facility voice tapes arrived at my office and were placed on a small table waiting for the CIA to request more data. The material stayed there until I retired 2 years later, and I ve had it ever since.

Most people including FAA controllers really aren t familiar with how the FAA radar system works and why all aircraft traveling through our airspace are not caught on radar or displayed on the controllers PVD. But I am.

The system and organization of the FAA is not configured to identify and track these types of performances.

Final Statement Fife Symington

In 1997 during my second term as Governor of Arizona, I saw something that defied logic and challenged my reality.

I witnessed a massive delta-shaped craft silently navigate over Squaw Peak, a mountain range in Phoenix, Arizona. It was truly breathtaking.

To my astonishment this apparition appeared, and it was a solid structure; this dramatically large, very distinctive leading edge with some enormous lights was traveling through the Arizona sky.

I still don t know what it was. As a pilot and a former Air Force Officer, I can definitively say that this craft did not resemble any man made object I d ever seen. And it was certainly not high- altitude flares because flares don t fly in formation.

The incident was witnessed by hundreds, if not thousands of people in Arizona and my office was besieged with phone calls from very concerned Arizonians.

The growing hysteria intensified when the story broke nationally. I decided to lighten the mood of the state by calling a press conference where my chief of staff arrived in an alien costume. We managed to lessen the sense of panic but at the same time, upset many of my constituents.

I would now like to set the record straight. I never meant to ridicule anyone. My office jamake inquiries as to the origin of the craft, but to this day, they remain unanswered.

Eventually the Air National Guard Force claimed responsibility stating that their pilots were dropping flares. This is indicative of the attitude from official channels. We get explanations that fly in the face of the facts. Explanations like weather balloons, swamp gas and military flares.

I was never happy with this silly explanation. There might very well have been military flares in the sky later that evening, but what I and hundreds of others saw had nothing to do with that.

I now know that I am not alone in witnessing something extraordinary. There are many high ranking military, aviation and government officials who share my concerns; some of them have joined me here today. There is absolutely no doubt as to the veracity of what these men have told you. They have fought in wars, guarded top secret weapons arsenals and flown countless passengers thorough the world's skies.

Incidents like these are not going away. One year ago, Chicago's O'Hare airport experienced a UFO event that made national and international headlines. Pilots and many other airline employees observed a metallic disc hovering over the United Airlines terminal for several minutes. It then shot straight up and cut a hole in the clouds. The FAA did not investigate, dismissing the sighting as weather.

We want the US government to stop putting out stories that perpetuate the myth that ALL UFOs can be explained away in down- to-earth, conventional terms. Instead, our country needs to reopen its official investigation that it shut down in 1969. The US government can no longer shun an international dialogue about this, and we invite the government to work in cooperation with the countries represented at this table.

When it comes to events of this nature that are completely unsolved, we deserve more openness in government, especially our own.

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