The infamous Michael Morella, the author of a number of sensational publications on the topic of aliens, began a new campaign to educate the masses, publishing an article that thousands of UFOs, registered every year by various observers, could distract the pilot and put the plane and its passengers in serious danger.
But are the little green men as scary as this gentleman paints them? We know exactly when people started to notice UFOs. This is 1942-1944, and it was caused, most likely, by the increased duration of the stay of representatives of the species Homo sapiens in the air.
Initially, British, and then German, Japanese and American pilots - especially night lights - began to see massively fireballs, spheres and other objects that chased them in the European theater of military operations, always keeping a short distance, and in the Pacific theater of operations and over the Indian ocean, on the contrary, remained in place.
Regardless of what you think about the nature of UFOs, it must be admitted that you cannot suspect that it is all about the nervousness of the pilots. Yes, they tend to make mistakes, yes, the Soviet, say, Air Force, like the German, for years reported that they had met such enemy aircraft in the air, which had never been at the front, and so on. Yes, nowhere do they lie so much as in war and hunting. And yet it is doubtful that the Japanese, British and Germans suddenly conspired with American pilots and began to talk about the same fictional phenomenon.
The number of such messages in those years, as in the first post-war years, is enormous. Some of them mentioned the threat that fireballs posed to pilots. But, contrary to Mr. Morella, not a single case of attack or negative influence of UFOs on flights has been recorded. This was until January 7, 1948, before the events in Kentucky. When four P-51D Mustang fighters of the 165th Squadron, responding to a signal received from the vigilant population, who were frightened by a large object, gleaming metal and hanging in the air, began to pursue the object. Two (the third had little fuel) at an altitude of 6 km approached him and were able to see; the fourth, Thomas F. Mantell, the flight commander, decided that he needed more than anyone else … Before the connection with him was cut off at 15:15 (local time), he said:
“I'm going to get closer to get a better look. He is right in front of me and still flies twice as slow as me … This thing looks metal and huge in size. Now she is gaining altitude and walking at the same speed as me … That is, 360 miles per hour. I will climb to 20,000 feet and if I cannot get close, I will stop chasing.” The wreckage of the plane and the body of the pilot were found several hours later.
The official explanation of what happened - the unannounced launch of the experimental Skyhook balloon, undertaken by the US Navy - would satisfy everyone, if not for these very words about the speed of flight with a climb equal to 360 miles per hour (576 km / h, 160 m / s). There are not so many balloons flying into the sky at the speed of a fighter.
In theory, the Mustang pilot, on the other hand, should have easily cut circles around an object that does not have its own motor. Those who observed a similar (presumably the same) object in Ohio on the same days noted that it could sharply descend almost to the ground, and then sharply climb again.
Promotional video:
The horizontal flight speed demonstrated in Ohio, reaching 800 km / h, looks too outstanding achievement for a balloon. But whether the UFO is guilty of the incident is a big question. The Mustang pilots served "according to peacetime standards," so only one of the four had an oxygen mask, and even that was of little use, since there was almost no oxygen in the cylinder. After climbing to about 7.6 km, Mantell lost consciousness and fell - at least in his place, anyone would have done without an oxygen tank.
It was this story that laid the foundation for the endless conversations of the townsfolk about flying saucers and saucers, which have not ceased to this day. The inner horror story of the pilots at war has become a matter of public concern: UFOs shoot down planes! Homeric details immediately began to appear that the pilot's watch stopped at 15:10 (in fact, at 15:18), and the plane allegedly crashed at 15:45 (the exact time of its fall is unknown), and even witnesses were found who saw how it exploded in the air. It is clear that here the fault of the "alien" was "proven" in the shortest possible time. Not to blame everything on the pilot's carelessness … Since then there have been many stories, but we will focus on only two. Note that in all other cases, never before a single accident were the pilot's negotiations with the ground (or between pilots) recorded, in which UFOs were mentioned.
However, enthusiasts are often prone to innocent jokes, such as this one, to which for some reason Mr. Morella refers, insisting on the existence of dangerous "plates": to helium balloons. And what do you want, the postmodern era … But there were cases and more serious. Moreover, those who, once and for all, are able to end the discussion about whether UFOs can distract pilots. This is the incident with the Japan Airlines flight known as JAL 1628.
That time, the Boeing 747, which, fortunately, was a cargo plane, collided with three (!) UFOs. Initially, at 18:15 Alaska time, the crew detected them on radar. Then he asked for ground services, but they said that there should be no aircraft in the area. Soon the full crew saw two UFOs, about 1.5 km away.
Unlike most of the previous cases, the observations were long, almost hour long. The next day, all the newspapers rushed to explain the incident with balloons. From the serviceman's report (below): "The horizontal flight speed of the object was above 800 km / h." The aeronautical lights of the objects, including the flashing ones (or what did the crew under the command of Kenju Teraguchi see there?), Looked white and yellow. The objects seemed too large for an airplane, something like an aircraft carrier in size. Ground services advised to make a full circle, the pilots obeyed.
In this case, the UFO, according to the crew, disappeared. In fact, however, the radar of the nearest military base recorded them behind the plane. In other words, during his maneuver, the UFOs changed location, joining the tail of the car. By the time the ground workers managed to send another plane to the area, the objects had disappeared. What happened next, everyone can easily guess for himself. The story was declared fiction or a hallucination of the pilots. Yes, all at once. After the incident, the captain who reported it, insisted on the truth of the testimony, was removed from flights, and so on. Well, the military radar allegedly caught the "radar shadow of the aircraft itself", no more, no less.
They preferred to forget about the readings of the on-board radar of a cargo plane, which registered objects in front of it for almost an hour: What are the conclusions? These two cases are the most real (of the documented) interactions of human aircraft with UFOs. The first ended badly, the second - well, and it seems to have little to do with the UFOs themselves: the restraint of the commander of the second plane helped him maneuver near objects without any problems, although their "extremely bright light and dazzled the eyes." And the fighter pilot died due to his own negligence …
It seems that if UFOs can distract the pilot, then it will not work to blame them on creating an emergency. No, even so: flight accidents have always had and will have a human factor as the main reason, no matter whether it is about pilots, errors of dispatch services or misses of aircraft ground preparation. There is no need to blame the supposedly alien mirror; a person successfully copes with all his accidents himself, no matter how authors like Michael Morella write there!