334 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
334 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
SUBJECT: A BIRD, A PLANE - OR A UFO? FILE: UFO2637
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
|
|
From "The Unexplained" #8. Orbis Publishing, Great Britain.
|
|
|
|
A BIRD, A PLANE - OR A UFO?
|
|
|
|
Weird lights in the night sky, strange silvery shapes flashing
|
|
through the sunlight - these are the stuff of UFO reports, but
|
|
they sometimes have a perfectly rational explanation. How can
|
|
you recognise unusual objects in the sky - including true UFOs?
|
|
|
|
On 31 December 1978, two police officers in Hertfordshire,
|
|
England, watched in amazement as an incredible object passed
|
|
silently overhead. It had a cigar-shaped, silvery body with
|
|
what looked like windows along the side. Behind trailed
|
|
shimmering orange-coloured streamers. The thing then moved
|
|
slowly away out of sight and, alarmed by what they had seen,
|
|
the police officers radioed their headquarters.
|
|
Unknown to them, hundreds of other people, including airline
|
|
polots and coastguards, reported seeing the same thing in
|
|
various parts of Britain. Many believed that the sighting was
|
|
connected with the piece of film taken by a telivision crew off
|
|
the coast of New Zealand the day before - film that was already
|
|
receiving massive worldwide publicity; and there was widespread
|
|
belief that the 'object' was definitely a UFO.
|
|
One January afternoon, thirty years earlier, a strange
|
|
bright light had also been seen to hover for several hours
|
|
over Godman airfield, Kentucky, USA. In due course, a team of
|
|
F-51 aircraft appeared in the area, led by Captain Thomas
|
|
Mantell. Though on a routine mission, Mantell agreed to divert
|
|
his planes to investigate the glittering intruder. One by one,
|
|
however, the polots were forced down, due to the lack of the
|
|
proper oxygen equipment to travel above a limited height. But
|
|
Mantell himself continued climbing. At 20,000 feet (7,000
|
|
metres), he reported seeing a metallic object, ahead and above
|
|
him. Minutes later, the wreckage of his F-51 was found
|
|
scattered over a wide area. According to a report at the time,
|
|
which has persisted to the present day, Mantell had been shot
|
|
down by a UFO.
|
|
On close investigation, many such cases turn out to have
|
|
involved a perfectly normal object, however. Strange objects in
|
|
the sky, especially when seen at night in a deserted area, can
|
|
certainly be alarming. There is the case, for example of a
|
|
woman who locked herself in her bedroom and hid under the bed
|
|
for an hour, terrified by an object she believed to be a UFO,
|
|
but that turned out to be simply a star. Ufologist Allan
|
|
Hendry has also described how one man was in such a panic after
|
|
seeing a well-lit aircraft, believing it to be a UFO, that he
|
|
ripped his neighbour's door off its hinges, in the attempt to
|
|
escape. Such examples may sound strange, but it would be wrong
|
|
to assume that those involved are idiots.
|
|
To help witnesses distinguish between what is and what is not
|
|
a UFO, the term 'true UFO' is used for something that does not
|
|
appear, after investigation, to be a case of mistaken identity.
|
|
If the object seen turns out not to be a UFO but has a
|
|
recognisable identity, then the term 'IFO' - Identified Flying
|
|
Object - is used.
|
|
|
|
TELL-TALE SIGNS
|
|
|
|
Ufologists divide UFO reports into several categories. But,
|
|
more often than not, reports tend to fall into one or other of
|
|
two simple classes. These are often called 'low-definition' and
|
|
'medium definition' experiences.
|
|
Low-definition experiences - 45 per cent of all UFO reports
|
|
- involve seeing a light or a highly amorphous phenomenon with
|
|
no distinctive shape. The colour of the light is not of great
|
|
importance. In most cases, it is white; but there are many
|
|
different coloured light sources, and the presence of thin
|
|
cloud or smoke in the atmosphere can subtly alter what is seen.
|
|
If you see an unidentified light in the sky, there are a number
|
|
of things you can do.
|
|
First, note whether the light remains stationary or if it
|
|
moves. If stationary, the chances are that it is a star or
|
|
planet. Stars and planets are among the most common sources of
|
|
UFO misidentification. Of course, they are not really
|
|
stationary, but their motion is so slow relative to an observer
|
|
that it is not usually noticed except over a period of hours.
|
|
This is an excellent tell-tale sign. If a light is visible in
|
|
the night sky for over an hour or more, and hardly moves at
|
|
all, then it is probably a star. You can check by looking at a
|
|
map showing the positions of stars and planets in the night sky
|
|
for that particular time of year.
|
|
Venus is a common source of misidentification. It is the
|
|
brightest object in the night sky, and at certain times of the
|
|
year is very close to Earth. It can be seen even in daylight,
|
|
as a bright white speck, if you know where to look. But often
|
|
there are good reasons why stars and planets are not
|
|
immediately recognised for what they are. Optical illusion, for
|
|
example, and the phenomenon known as AUTOKINESIS, which causes
|
|
a star apparently to dart about erratically in the sky, are
|
|
common causes of misidentification. Since stars do not normally
|
|
dart about, this effect instills the belief that the light
|
|
comes not from a star but from a UFO.
|
|
|
|
FLIGHTPATHS
|
|
|
|
If the light does appear to move, the next question is
|
|
whether it follows a smooth flightpath or whether it hovers or
|
|
seems to change direction dramatically. A smooth flightpath can
|
|
indicate one of several things. Precisely what it is can
|
|
usually be tetermined by the length of time for which the light
|
|
is seen. If it is of very short duration, for instance, it
|
|
could be a meteor - particles of dust or debris from space
|
|
brning up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere. Meteors tend to
|
|
glow for a second or two, leaving a trail of light.
|
|
Occasionally, the debris is a little larger than usual and
|
|
takes longer to burn up. This leads to the phenomenon known as
|
|
bolide or fireball, a brilliant light visible for up to 10
|
|
seconds and accompanied by a rumbling or whooshing sound.
|
|
Fireballs have been seen in daylight too, although this is
|
|
fairly rare. Usually, sightings of fireballs are so spectacular
|
|
that they are witnessed by dozens of people over a wide area.
|
|
But on the whole they are very similar in appearance to a
|
|
satellite re-entry, which is another common cause of UFO
|
|
misidentification.
|
|
Circling the Earth are hundreds of man-made satellites. Many
|
|
are too small to be seen from the ground, but others are
|
|
visible at night as points of light that may take several
|
|
minutes to cross the sky. When they re-enter the Earth's
|
|
atmosphere, they can present a spectacular sight. As the pieces
|
|
burn away, they glow in several colours, leaving a trail
|
|
through the upper atmosphere, which can take several minutes to
|
|
disappear. A few parts may even survive and reach the ground,
|
|
as happened to the American Skylab, for example, which landed
|
|
in Western Australia in July 1979.
|
|
But by far the most common causes of UFO misidentification
|
|
are aircraft. Since aircraft possess many different types of
|
|
lighting, there are plenty of opportunities for strange
|
|
effects. Bright searchlights, used in front of the plane, may
|
|
be visible from miles away. Seen heading towards you, such
|
|
lights can appear stationary for a long time before bursting
|
|
into colour as the aircraft's navigation lights come into view.
|
|
In many countries, aircraft are also employed for advertising by
|
|
using electronic lights that flash out a computer-programmed
|
|
massage. The aircraft is built to fly very slowly so that the
|
|
message can be read. But if the lights are seen from an angle,
|
|
it is common for very weird effects to result.
|
|
Aircraft are, of course, highly manoeuvrable, - helicopters
|
|
even more so. Consequently, not only might they be seen as
|
|
lights on a smooth flightpath, but can also be seen to alter
|
|
direction, slow down, and even stop in mid-flight. The wind,
|
|
meanwhile, can carry away the sound of an aircraft's engines,
|
|
leaving only a silent light in the sky.
|
|
Most of these effects would be seen only at night. But
|
|
there is one object that is often seen and misidentified as a
|
|
UFO during the day - the balloon. Weather centres release
|
|
balloons at regular intervals, either to test wind direction or
|
|
to carry instruments high into the sky from where they radio
|
|
meteorological information back to Earth. At a high altitude, a
|
|
balloon will reflect sunlight from its shiny surface while
|
|
floating across the sky; and from the ground, the silvery dot,
|
|
drifting across the sky, may be seen as a round or conical
|
|
shape.
|
|
Medium-definition experiences are those that involve the
|
|
clear perception of a shape. Though they have sometimes been
|
|
seen at night, they are more commonly seen in daytime. They
|
|
account for a further 35 per cent of all UFO cases and, as with
|
|
low-definition experiences, the most important criterion is
|
|
motion. A clearly defined shape that hovers for some time is
|
|
unlikely to be an aircraft, although it could be a helicopter,
|
|
too distant to be heard.
|
|
Airships tend also to be a common cause of
|
|
misidentification. Under certain conditions, their shape could
|
|
be mistaken for a cigar-shaped UFO, hovering or moving slowly
|
|
across the sky. Kites are another possible explanation. Seen at
|
|
a distance, the controlling cord of a kite may not be visible,
|
|
and the irregular shape of its body could easily be taken to be
|
|
a UFO.
|
|
In most cases, the object believed to be a UFO is seen
|
|
moving in a constant direction at varying speeds. In strong
|
|
sunlight, for example, an aeroplane's wings and tailplane can
|
|
be obscured, leaving just a metallic body or cylinder visible.
|
|
Though really the fusalage, it can look just like a UFO. Even
|
|
clouds have been mistaken for UFOs. One type, for example - a
|
|
lenticular formation - looks like a structured disc. Though
|
|
uncommon, its slow movement has certainly fooled more than one
|
|
observer.
|
|
Flocks of birds have also caused confusion. In daylight, the
|
|
reflective underbellies of certain species can shine in
|
|
sunlight and may be seen as white ovals, obscuring all other
|
|
detail. At night, it is even possible for street lighting to be
|
|
reflected, creating different coloured oval shapes, according
|
|
to the type of lighting used.
|
|
Clearly, there are many possible causes of
|
|
misidentification. What Captain Mantell encountered over
|
|
Kentucky, for instance was probably one of the 100-foot
|
|
'skyhook' balloons, which were secretly being tested in the
|
|
area at the time by the US Navy. These balloons were not known
|
|
to Air Force officers; and although this was the probable
|
|
identity of Mantell's UFO, the case has never been conclusively
|
|
proven. The 'official' explanation that what observers on the
|
|
ground saw was the planet Venus is definitely not convincing to
|
|
the majority of investigators.
|
|
As for the case of the Hertfordshire policemen, it was
|
|
subsequently discovered that a Russian booster-rocket had
|
|
re-entered the Earth's atmosphere that night. As it happened,
|
|
its orbit took it over northern Europe, and it was this that
|
|
many witnesses probably mistook for a UFO. The New Zealand film
|
|
was not connected to the Hertfordshire incident at all. But
|
|
there are still those who remain convinced that what the two
|
|
policemen had seen was a true UFO.
|
|
|
|
****End****
|
|
|
|
Casebook: ALIENS IN THE DARK
|
|
|
|
Sightings, such as those that follow - in which craft show up
|
|
on radar and leave behind definite markings - certainly seem to
|
|
indicate that UFOs are a genuine phenomenon.
|
|
|
|
The night of 13 August 1956 was a busy one for the RAF and
|
|
USAF air controllers and radar operations in East Anglia.
|
|
Although some of the many inexplicable radar traces they
|
|
obtained were probably spurious, others were undoubtedly from
|
|
unknown objects. Indeed, the sighting described here was stated
|
|
by the USAF Condon Report to be 'the most puzzling and unusual
|
|
case in the radio-visual files'
|
|
The main events began at 10.55 p.m. at RAF Bentwaters, near
|
|
Ipswich, a station leased to the United States Air Force. A
|
|
Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) radar operator picked up a
|
|
fast-moving target 30 miles (50 kilometers) to the east,
|
|
heading in from the sea at a speed of 2,000 to 4,000 miles per
|
|
hour (3,200-6,440 km/h). It passed directly over Bentwaters and
|
|
sped away until it disappeared from the scope 30 miles (50
|
|
kilometers) to the west. This overflight was not just a radar
|
|
obaservation, however: a tower operator on the ground looking
|
|
up saw a light 'blurred out by its high speed', while the pilot
|
|
of a USAF C-47 aircraft flying over Bentwaters at 4,000 feet
|
|
(1,200 metres), who had been alerted by ground control, looked
|
|
down and saw the fuzzy light flash between his aircraft and the
|
|
ground. The UFO was heading towards Lakenheath, another RAF
|
|
aerodrome leased to the USAF, and immediately warning was
|
|
given.
|
|
For the record, there was no mention of a sonic boom at
|
|
Bentwaters. Ground observers at Lakenheath saw the light
|
|
approach, stop dead and then move swiftly out of sight to the
|
|
east. Some time after that, two white lights were seen to join
|
|
up and disappear in formation.
|
|
Observers and radar operators of the Lakenheath GCA and
|
|
radar traffic control centre scopes testified to having
|
|
recorded objects travelling at terrific speeds, stopping, and
|
|
changing course instantaneously. After some hesitation, the
|
|
Americans at Lakenheath then put through a call to the RAF.
|
|
The RAF Chief Controller at Bentwaters remembers USAF at
|
|
Lakenheath telephoning to say something was 'buzzing' their
|
|
airfield circuit. He scrambled a Venom night fighter from RAF
|
|
Waterbeach, and his interception controller, with a team of
|
|
three highly trained personnel, took over. The Venom was
|
|
vectored on to the UFO; and the pilot, who was accompanied on
|
|
his trip by a navigator, called out 'Contact' when he could see
|
|
it, and 'Judy' when the navigator had the target fairly and
|
|
squarely on the fighter's own radar scope. The Venom closed on
|
|
the target, but after a few seconds, and in the space of one or
|
|
two sweeps on the scopes, the object appeared behind the
|
|
fighter. The pilot called out 'Lost contact, more help,' and he
|
|
was told that the target was now behind him.
|
|
Meanwhile, the chief controller scrambled another Venom
|
|
fighter. The American witnesses said the UFO 'flipped over' and
|
|
got behind the RAF fighter, which then manoeuvred to try to get
|
|
behind the UFO.
|
|
This information was given to the USAF-sponsored study of
|
|
UFO pnenomena under Dr. E.U. Condon at Colorado University. But
|
|
until the Condon Report was published in January 1969, the case
|
|
remained secret. A detailed study was carried out by Dr James
|
|
McDonald, working as an upper atmosphere physicist at Arizona
|
|
University. This was a sighting the Condon Report could not
|
|
dismiss: indeed, it had to admit that "the apparently rational,
|
|
intelligent behaviour of the UFO suggests a mechanical device
|
|
of unknown origin as the most probable explanation."
|
|
|
|
The small French village of Quarouble, not far from
|
|
Valenciennes, close to the Belgian border, was also shaken by
|
|
strange events during the night of 10 September 1954.
|
|
At about 10.30 p.m., 34-year-old steel worker Marius Dewilde
|
|
was sitting in the kitchen of his house, situated just under a
|
|
mile from the village and by a railway tract. (sic)
|
|
Suddenly his dog started to howl and, thinking there was a
|
|
prowler or smuggler outside the house, Dewilde took his
|
|
flashlight and ventured out into the darkness. He was instantly
|
|
aware of an ill-defined shape to his left, on or near the
|
|
railway line, and thought it might be a farmer's truck. Then he
|
|
heard a sound to his right. He swung round, and his torch beam
|
|
fell on two very odd creatures, each just over 3 feet (1 metre)
|
|
tall and wearing what appeared to him to be divers' suits and
|
|
huge helmets. They appeared to be shuffling along on very short
|
|
legs, and both had very broad shoulders, but no arms at all.
|
|
They seemed to be heading for the dark shape that he had seen
|
|
close to, or on the railway line.
|
|
Recovering from his initial surprise, Dewilde ran to the
|
|
garden gate with the intention of cutting off the interlopers
|
|
from the path. He was about 2 yards (2 metres) from them when a
|
|
blinding beam of light issued from an opening in the side of
|
|
the dark shape. The beam struck him and he was stopped dead in
|
|
his tracks, unable to move or shout. Then the light went out.
|
|
After recovering the use of his muscles, Dewilde set off
|
|
after the small creatures. All he saw, however, was what
|
|
appeared to be a door closing in the side of the object, which
|
|
then rose slowly from the ground like a helicopter. There was a
|
|
whistling noise, and Dewilde saw steam clouding up from beneath
|
|
the contraption. After rising about 30 yards (30 metres), the
|
|
craft then set off towards the east, climbing and glowing red
|
|
as it went.
|
|
He contrived to get access to the Commissioner of Police
|
|
who, after listening to his semi-coherent account, realised
|
|
that this man - by now in a state of incontinence - was neither
|
|
joking nor at all mad.
|
|
As a result, a detailed inquiry was set up by the regular
|
|
police, the air gendarmerie and the Territorial Security
|
|
Department. All became convinced that the witness had not been
|
|
lying, nor suffering from an hallucination, and that the object
|
|
could not have been a helicopter (carrying contraband, for
|
|
example) because of the mass of telephone wires overhead which
|
|
would have prevented a landing. What is more, marks - sharply
|
|
and deeply cut - had appeared in the iron-hard wood of the
|
|
railway sleepers where Dewilde said the object had stood. An
|
|
engineer calculated that it would have taken a tremendous
|
|
weight to have made the marks. It would also have taken very
|
|
great heat to produce the burnt and calcined ballast stones
|
|
found between the affected sleepers.
|
|
|
|
****End****
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**********************************************
|
|
* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
|
|
********************************************** |