Article from The International Herald Tribune, USA
Healthy skepticism about extraterrestrial space travelers makes people ignore UFO-like objects without much hesitation
LONDON - On the afternoon of November 7, 2006, pilots and ground personnel at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago observed a disc-like object hovering over the runway for several minutes. Since the radar showed no markings, the FAA did not investigate. But the radar cannot detect all aircraft.
Stealth aircraft are invisible to radar. Many radar systems filter out signals that do not match normal aircraft performance. Was it wise to completely ignore the observations of multiple witnesses?
A healthy skepticism about extraterrestrial space travelers makes people ignore UFO-like objects without much hesitation. But in the United States, this translates into an over-reliance on radar data and a complete indifference to unidentified aircraft of any kind. Such a weakness may well be exploited by terrorists, as well as all those who are trying to conduct espionage activities against the United States.
US authorities have not investigated UFO sightings since 1969, when the US Air Force completed its Blue Book Project. It was an attempt from a scientific point of view to analyze all the occurrences of unidentified flying objects in order to understand whether they pose a threat to the national security of the country. Britain and France, unlike the United States, continue to study and investigate UFO sightings. They are concerned that some of these targets may be foreign military aircraft violating their airspace, as well as foreign space-based systems of interest for reconnaissance.
Most of the cases studied in Britain have a simple explanation. These are either stars and planets mistaken for UFOs, or onboard aeronautical lights, satellites and meteorites. But some cases raise concerns about national security and air safety.
So, on December 26, 1980, several witnesses at two US air bases in England reported that they had seen the site of a UFO landing. As a result of studying this place, it turned out that there are dents in the ground, and the radiation level in this area is much higher than usual.
An even greater number of witnesses from the same base reported UFO sightings in the following days.
The base deputy commander said the aircraft was directing light beams at the base's most vulnerable point. This was a clear security breach.
On March 30 and 31, 1993, a whole UFO invasion was observed over Britain. One eyewitness described a triangular-shaped aircraft that flew slowly over an Air Force base and then, with tremendous acceleration, disappeared below the horizon in an instant - many times faster than any jet aircraft.
The British military reported at the time: "In this case, there is some evidence that an unidentified object (or objects) of unknown origin are operating over the territory of Great Britain."
On April 23, 2007, a passenger airline pilot and several of his passengers reported a cigar-shaped UFO sighting near the Channel Islands. The pilot reported that the object could be about a mile wide. At the time, air traffic controllers told the pilot that there was some mark on their radars, but it was an 'unknown signal'.
In addition, there have been cases of UFOs nearly colliding with planes. This even forced the Department of Defense and the British Civil Aviation Administration to advise the pilots that in the event of a meeting with such an object, they should not maneuver, but, if possible, simply leave the object behind.
The United States is no less vulnerable than Britain and France to threats to its national security and air traffic safety. The US Air Force and NASA should resume studying the UFO phenomenon. This does not mean that the country is suddenly obliged to believe in little green men. It will be a simple recognition of the possibility that radar alone cannot always determine what is in the sky.
Nick Pope is the author of the book "Open Skies, Closed Minds". From 1991 to 1994, he directed UFO research at the British Department of Defense.