If a man in the street can take anything for a UFO - from a cloud to ball lightning, then professional military men, pilots and astronauts can hardly be mistaken. MK asked the most reliable eyewitnesses about the UFO mystery and collected foreign evidence
A few days ago, videos appeared on a well-known website, allegedly published by British intelligence. The videos, which were made in Mexico and India, clearly show several flying fireballs, now approaching, then scattering in different directions … It is not clear what these are - natural anomalies, extraterrestrial objects or human creations …
In 1969, the report of American astronauts returning from a flight to the moon lay on President Nixon's table. Among other things, it said about unidentified flying objects: “There was something at a distance close enough to observe. Naturally, none of us was going to shout: "Hey, Houston, here something is moving with us, and we don't know what it is." We did not intend to do this, knowing that the messages will be listened to by all kinds of people and we may be ordered to return because of the aliens."
Many years later, 76-year-old astronaut Aldrin, in an interview with the authors of the film about the flight to the moon, confirmed that during the mission they observed an unknown flying object. The astronaut was laughed at, to which he replied: "How do you then explain the fact that the governments of both the USA and the USSR immediately curtailed the lunar program, and then completely forgot about the Earth's satellite?" This year, NASA declassified the data from the "lunar" report. But 80% of the films filmed by the crew remained classified as "secret" …
In 1985, speaking at the UN, Colonel Gordon Cooper, who flew in the Mercury and Gemini spaceships, claims that he first saw a UFO in the 50s, when he served as a pilot in Germany. "I believe that these are extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews arrive on our planet from other planets that are more technically advanced than we are," said the American astronaut. “For many years I have kept a secret, because all specialists and astronauts were obliged to do this. Everything about UFOs is classified, but we have instructions in case of "contacts".
Now I can say that in the United States every day, radars record objects, the shape and composition of which are unknown to us,”he added in the report.
By the end of the 70s, so much data on UFOs had accumulated in the USSR that the KGB decided to create a special department to investigate all these cases. A service called "Grid" is being created under the USSR Ministry of Defense. Its task is to screen out information about UFOs, that is, to consider absolutely all messages and report them upstairs. Over the years, a unique archive was collected, but it disappeared when the department was disbanded in 1991 …
In the summer of 2001, dozens of former military pilots, civil aviation officials and NASA officials took the initiative to tell their UFO stories to the press and demand a congressional hearing. But the topic of the hearings was replaced by a more important one at that time - terrorism.
So what are the authorities hiding from us?
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Pavel Popovich: "A bright object appeared nearby, flying in a parallel course"
REFERENCE "MK"
Pavel Popovich - pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, major general of aviation. Was in space in 1962 and 1974. In the USSR, several organizations at once dealt with the UFO problem. The KGB and the Ministry of Defense, which included several research institutes and the All-Union UFO Association, studying UFOs. The latter was led by cosmonaut Pavel Popovich. It was to him that the reports were addressed …
How was the data validated?
- It was mainly data from the military and pilots. And they are healthy people. We checked the flight data in the specified area, we could find out the health status of the pilots who saw unusual objects, whether something could cause them hallucinations. Of course, there was a lot of nonsense among the reports, but there were also noteworthy stories.
Have you seen such objects yourself?
- I have not seen anything extraordinary in space. The only UFO sighting happened to me when I was flying a fighter jet. It was 1978 when I was flying a plane from Washington to Moscow, at an altitude of about 10,000 meters. Suddenly a bright object appeared next to us, flying in a parallel course. It was a luminous equilateral triangle resembling a wing. The plane flew at a speed of about 1100 kilometers per hour, and the "triangle" - more than 1700. He overtook our plane and disappeared. Not only I saw this object. But what it was, we did not understand.
And often did your colleagues report to you about such objects?
- Yes, there were a lot of reports. Especially from the military. UFO data began to come in during the Second World War. Soviet pilots have repeatedly reported UFO sightings. There is unique information that during the Battle of the Kursk Bulge, Soviet pilots and eyewitnesses from the ground observed some mysterious objects in the sky.
During World War II, military pilots of the US Air Force often encountered a certain cigar-shaped object, spreading blinding rays around them, because of which the pilots were forced to catapult and abandon their cars.
Why did you leave the post of President of the VUA?
- There was not enough time, and it’s not mine. I am a pilot, not a ufologist. In addition, at that time squabbles began between scientists, and I retired. And then the department was disbanded altogether, nobody cared about some kind of "plates". All countries of the world have continued and continue to research in this area, but we have not.
Vladimir Kovalenok: "This object did not look like garbage!"
According to one of the cosmonauts, the atmosphere is "borscht" where a lot of everything is "cooked". That is why you can take anything for a UFO - clots of plasma, clouds, ball lightning, movement of gases. But UFOs continued to pursue people outside the atmosphere, in space.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General of the Air Force, pilot-cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalenok told how in 1981, while on board the Salyut-6 spacecraft with Viktor Savinykh, he saw a luminous object approaching from below.
- Yes, it was, an object similar to a capsule or a cartridge case was moving parallel to our ship from bottom to top. We reported the object to Earth, we were asked to describe it and tell about its actions. We wanted to shoot the UFO on camera, but we didn't have time, this something disappeared.
Later, your colleague, astronaut Grechko, in an interview, will tell you that you saw an ordinary bucket, of those that remain after space stations and circle around orbit
“I don’t know if it was a bucket or not, but I can clearly describe this object even now, and I say that it didn’t look like garbage.
Has anyone else from your colleagues seen something unusual in space?
- Yes, the famous case was with the cosmonauts Strekalov and Manakov. They saw a ball of some kind over the Newfoundland Peninsula. Cosmonaut Avdeev, who visited orbit 2 years ago and spent almost a year there, also said that his crew saw mysterious spherical objects, they not only moved, but changed their trajectory. This cannot happen with garbage!
… There is a version that "visions" of UFOs are the consequences of hallucinations. Indeed, in space, a person experiences overload.
“The cosmonauts do not experience any hallucinations, these are very healthy people,” says Pavel Popovich. - We have encountered discomfort, headaches, discomfort, but there have never been hallucinations! Moreover, the flight is always closely monitored by psychologists from Earth.
Another version says: UFOs are man-made objects. It is not for nothing that UFOs are most often observed over military bases and secret facilities. But sometimes the military could see the object, but the radar could not …
And, finally, one more version: UFOs are flying machines of aliens watching us. The version is tempting, but also the most implausible. However, she also has very authoritative followers.
Marina Popovich: "We are children compared to aliens!"
REFERENCE "MK"
Class I test pilot, Air Force Colonel Marina Lavrentievna Popovich is the only woman pilot in the world who has set 101 world records on aircraft of various types. Winner of many awards, including the MV Lomonosov Prize of Honor for the book "UFOs Above Planet Earth". For more than 20 years Marina Lavrentievna has been collecting materials on ufology, taking part in expeditions to search for contact with UFOs.
Marina Popovich claims that UFOs are seen by all astronauts without exception, but only a few are recognized.
The topic of alien visits interested Marina Lavrentievna after she herself became an eyewitness to a UFO. Together with scientists in 1982, the pilot led an expedition to the Pamirs in search of Bigfoot. There I saw inexplicable flying objects. Since then, she began to meet with people dealing with UFOs, with eyewitnesses, contactees.
Your book contains about 3000 facts about human contacts with UFOs. What are the most interesting ones?
- In Russia, perhaps the most interesting contactee is Viktor Petrovich Kostrykin. He was abducted by aliens, and soon he began to discover incredible abilities in himself. He began to hear at a great distance, read thoughts, start the car with the power of thought, subdue animals and birds. He was able to treat seriously ill people. But over time, these abilities began to fade.
In the book, you describe an incident during the Vietnam War. When the military guarding Hanoi saw the saucer and fired at it. The missiles came back, and there was nothing left of those who fired! After this incident, an order was issued by the Minister of Defense of the USSR, stating a ban on firing at UFOs. Have you seen this order?
- Yes! And this story was told to me by an FSB colonel.
Why is there still no recognized factual evidence of UFOs?
- What about the Roswell UFO crash? I personally spoke with Air Force Commander Stevens, one of the most famous ufologists in the world. In 1947, he was the first to fly to the crash site of a crashed ship in New Mexico. He showed me a piece of a crashed UFO. It is a durable plate, yet very soft! It can be squeezed in the palm of your hand. Stevens sent the ship and the bodies of the dead aliens to the base …
In the CCCP, there was also a UFO crash, which became known only after the collapse of the Union. This crash happened near Sverdlovsk, and the remains of biorobots or alien organisms were found there. But the autopsy results are still classified.
You describe cases of contacts between humans and aliens, after which implanted sensors are found in humans …
- Yes, I personally know the American Corrie Wade, who was abducted by a UFO as a child. He grew up and found a hard lump under the skin behind his ear. Wade was in Moscow, undergoing examination at the Brain Institute. He was found to have a foreign body of unknown origin with tentacles extending into the brain. And there are more than 200 such implants in the world!
In the book, you say that earthlings are descendants of creatures who visit us and follow us …
- Well, how else can you explain our appearance on Earth? It is not for nothing that UFOs always appear when a person invents something new, or during wars and before disasters! We cannot catch them because they have capabilities that are beyond our reach. We are children compared to them! For example, UFOs are often hung with phantoms to confuse people. At one military base, such a phantom was observed, they opened fire on it, but it turned out that there was nothing there. The real plate was hanging nearby, it was noticed only when it flew away.
Georgy Grechko: "The crane was working, and the cabin was shining - here's a UFO for you"
REFERENCE "MK"
Georgy Grechko - twice Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences - has repeatedly admitted his passion for the supernatural. The astronaut took part in an expedition to Tunguska, where he looked for traces of an alien ship, but after spending several months in the taiga, he realized that there was no plate there. Georgy Mikhailovich was also looking for traces of unidentified objects on Sinai, where, according to scientists, UFOs often landed, recorded by a camera from a satellite from space.
Paradox: Georgy Grechko is skeptical about talking about "saucers", but for some reason he shows great interest in them.
- I am a scientist and used to trust the facts. UFOs have been studied since 1947, but during this time there was no evidence of their presence on Earth. I myself would be glad to have such a discovery. I personally checked the information that a UFO is landing on Mount Sinai. We saw satellite images, it really looks like a saucer. But when I arrived at the place, it turned out to be just a beautiful hill.
But what about the testimony of eyewitnesses? They can't all be wrong
- Do you know the saying “he lies like an eyewitness”? I do not trust these eyewitnesses! I myself checked a lot of such "facts", and they all turned out to be empty.
The stories of Strekalov and Manakov are all about space debris, which is full of it at the top. In space, any point glows and looks like a flying ship. Because the distance in space cannot be determined, it seems to us that objects are far away, but in fact, reach out to them.
It all started with the fact that I myself saw "flying saucers" in orbit. A whole system! I showed them to Yuri Romanenko. He explained to me: these are specks of dust that separated from the casing of the station. And when other cosmonauts came to visit us, I played them off - knocked on the window, eight dust particles flew off. It was before sunrise: the sky turns red, and therefore red reflections appeared on the "plates". He called the guests, showed the "UFO". “Here,” I say, “they are not attacking today!” And he didn't say it was a joke. And the guys then returned to Earth and told about UFOs. They were immediately summoned by the leadership: "Have you seen a UFO?" They confirm what they saw. Then they were dragged to the authorities, and I still make excuses to ufologists.
Pavel Popovich once told me this story. His ex-wife Marina brings him to the window one night and says: "You didn't believe in plates, but what do you think is this?" Pavel looks out the window - indeed, a UFO! The beam shines downward, itself hovered in the air. In the morning he wakes up, looks out the window, and there - a construction crane stands. At night, the crane worked and the cabin was lit. So much for a UFO!
But what about the data of American astronauts?
- I personally spoke with Aldrin, who visited the moon. Called him tete-a-tete, asked: what, they say, have not seen a UFO there? So at first he moved away from me altogether, and then he told me that he had not seen anything supernatural …
Is there an instruction for astronauts on what to do in case of contact?
- Report back to Earth, that's all.
They say there is an order that UFO attacks are prohibited?
- I have not seen such an order.
So UFOs definitely don't exist?
- It is hard to say. There are many inexplicable things in the world. For example, there are two authors, historians who studied the manuscripts of 1000 years ago: Erich von Deniken and Zacharia Sitchin (adherents of the theory of the origin of man from extraterrestrials. - MV). In these manuscripts, they found descriptions of aliens, their flying vehicles and evidence that they visit Earth once every several thousand years, help humanity and interact with us. They supposedly contributed to human evolution. Judging by these manuscripts, the next visit will take place in 2012, very soon … Believe these documents or not, everyone decides for himself. Once in a London museum I saw a painting painted in 1480. It depicts a "flying saucer" with portholes and a beam of light emanating from it. Think about it now!