Ever since humanity got the opportunity to look beyond the earth's atmosphere and began to seriously explore space, earthlings have always been worried about the same question: are we alone in the universe. To this day, official science has not given an unambiguous answer to this question, simply because it does not have sufficient grounds for this. The unofficial one claims: no, they are not alone! And moreover, I am absolutely sure that the Earth and its inhabitants have long ago become the object of research and visits from their brothers in mind.
Unofficial science, confident in the existence of aliens and their periodic contacts with the Earth, is called ufology - from the English abbreviation UFO, in Russian - UFO, that is, "unidentified flying object." But ufology is not limited to the study of UFOs alone. The sphere of her interests is much broader: it includes all phenomena on Earth and outside it, which have not yet found a logical explanation, as well as terrestrial and extraterrestrial objects, which are attributed to extraterrestrial origin.
Although ufology is still not recognized as a science, and in many countries (including Russia) it is officially considered a quasi-science, or even a pseudoscience, its fans and supporters even have their own day - the World UFO Day, which is celebrated July 2. In anticipation of this day, MIR tells its readers about six famous UFO sightings and contacts, recorded since 1947 - since the first time the phenomenon of "flying saucers" was documented.
First encounter with "flying saucers" (1947, Washington, USA)
The first person who was able to describe in detail his encounter with unidentified flying objects is an American businessman and amateur pilot Arnold Kenneth. It was after his story that the term "flying saucer" itself appeared and forever entered the world dictionary, since it was precisely on it, according to Kenneth, that the aircraft that met him on June 24, 1947 over the Cascade Mountains in Washington state, located in the western coast of the USA. According to the amateur pilot, the nine obscure objects that looked like discs in profile and crescent moons with a ledge on top, “flew approximately 20-25 miles and disappeared from sight. “For about three minutes I watched a chain of objects moving like saucers through the water, like thrown flat stones, objects stretching for at least 5 miles, maneuvered between high mountain peaks. They were as flat as frying pans and, like a mirror, reflected the sun's rays. I saw all this quite clearly and distinctly,”wrote the American pilot. Most of all, Kenneth was alarmed by the flight speed of the "flying saucers": according to his calculations, it was much higher than the speed of sound, which at that time was not capable of any other known aircraft on the planet.
Roswell disaster (1947, New Mexico, USA)
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The events that gave rise to talk that the government and the military are hiding the truth about the aliens unfolded two weeks after Kenneth's sensational meeting with the "flying saucers". A few days earlier, on July 3, farmer Mark Brazel from New Mexico saw a bright flash and a clap of thunder at night, which shook his house, and the next morning he found a wasteland covered with metal debris like thick foil, which, under any impact, retained their shape. something lightweight material, non-combustible and unbreakable, and other incomprehensible things.
On July 8, a press officer at Roswell airbase made a statement that the found "flying disc" had been delivered to the base, but a day later this statement was disavowed by the higher command. The wreckage was called the remnants of a fallen weather balloon, but witnesses continued to claim that it did not look like any weather balloon. Later, eyewitnesses began to appear, allegedly seeing aliens found near the crashed UFO, which were seized and examined by the military.
Pilot Mantell incident (1948, Kentucky, USA)
This incident can be considered the first time a person was killed as a result of an attempt to investigate a UFO up close. On January 7, 1948, four Mustang P-51 fighters were lifted from Godman airbase, with the task of catching up and investigating an incomprehensible object approaching the airbase. All four pilots clearly saw an object in front of them, which they described as "metal, huge in size, round like a tear, and sometimes seemed liquid" (such a description from the words of the pilots was later cited by the command). Three pilots returned to base, and one - Flight Commander Captain Thomas F. Mantell - continued to chase the UFO in an attempt to get as close as possible. “I’m going for a rapprochement in order to better see it,” the pilot told the dispatcher. - He is right in front of me and still flies twice as slow as I … This thing looks metal and huge in size. Now she's climbing 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 pursuing. " Soon, communication with the pilot disappeared, and later the crashed Mantella fighter was found. It turned out that the pilot died from asphyxiation even before his plane fell to the ground, exploding in the air. One of the main oddities that make ufologists even today talk about a meeting with aliens is the time difference between the death of the pilot and the time of the plane crash. Mantell's wristwatch stopped at around 15.10, communication with the plane was lost at 15.15, and it suffered a disaster only an hour and a half later - at 4.45!I will stop the persecution. " Soon, communication with the pilot disappeared, and later the crashed Mantella fighter was found. It turned out that the pilot died from asphyxiation even before his plane fell to the ground, exploding in the air. One of the main oddities that make ufologists even today talk about a meeting with aliens is the time difference between the death of the pilot and the time of the plane crash. Mantell's wristwatch stopped at around 15.10, communication with the plane was lost at 15.15, and it suffered a disaster only an hour and a half later - at 4.45!I will stop the persecution. " Soon, communication with the pilot disappeared, and later the crashed Mantella fighter was found. It turned out that the pilot died from asphyxiation even before his plane fell to the ground, exploding in the air. One of the main oddities that make ufologists even today talk about a meeting with aliens is the time difference between the death of the pilot and the time of the plane crash. Mantell's wristwatch stopped at around 15.10, communication with the plane was lost at 15.15, and it suffered a disaster only an hour and a half later - at 4.45!Forcing ufologists today to talk about a meeting with aliens, there was the difference in time between the death of the pilot and the time of the plane crash. Mantell's wristwatch stopped at around 15.10, communication with the plane was lost at 15.15, and it suffered a disaster only an hour and a half later - at 4.45!Forcing ufologists today to talk about a meeting with aliens, there was the difference in time between the death of the pilot and the time of the plane crash. Mantell's wristwatch stopped at around 15.10, communication with the plane was lost at 15.15, and it suffered a disaster only an hour and a half later - at 4.45!
The Soccoro Case (1964, New Mexico, USA)
After the events of 1947-48, UFOs began to be observed around the world with sufficient regularity, but it was very rare to trust the stories of these encounters. All the more strange were the events of April 24, 1964 in the vicinity of the city of Soccoro, where the patrol officer Lonnie Zamora first saw a pillar of flame descending to the ground, and then, when he drove closer, a strange object that looked like a silver car, and two unknown persons next to it. “I did not see those two for long, when I stopped for two seconds to examine the object,” the policeman later said. - Nothing unusual: no hats, no helmets. People are like people.
Squat adults or tall boys. When they spotted me, one of these creatures turned to the car and shuddered in surprise. Calling for help and driving around the hill on which the strange apparatus stood, Zamora saw not a silver car, but something egg-shaped, and there were no living creatures nearby. And at that very moment, the object began to emit pops, then a flame appeared from below, and after a few seconds there was nothing on the hill. Later, dents in the ground and traces of exposure to flames were found in that place. The Soccoro incident is considered one of the most credible examples of possible contact with a UFO of extraterrestrial origin.
Fireball in Kexburg (1965, Pennsylvania, USA)
A year and a half later, on December 9, 1965, in the vicinity of the town of Kexburg, events unfolded that added fuel to the discussion of secret military research into UFOs. On that day, a radiant fireball swept over the eastern coast of North America, watched by thousands in the United States and Canada, from Ontario to Pennsylvania. In the end, the UFO disappeared in the area of Kexburg, and the place of its alleged fall was immediately cordoned off by the military. Local witnesses managed to see how a strange bell-shaped structure was pulled out of the forest, loaded onto an army heavy-duty trailer and taken away in an unknown direction. Opponents of the ufological version argued that near Keksburg, the military seized a crashed Soviet satellite or the head of a ballistic missile. However, in one of the few photographssurviving after the incident, you can see a strange object slightly taller than a human being, unlike any of the famous Soviet satellites, let alone the head of the rocket.
Tehran case (1976, Tehran, Kingdom of Iran)
In a long line of examples of UFO sightings over the Earth's surface, the so-called "Tehran case" stands apart. As the US Department of Defense Intelligence Agency noted in its report, according to the criteria for evaluating such incidents, this was "an outstanding case." The document notes that it “is considered a classic UFO sighting, satisfying all the criteria for reliable observation:
- The object was observed from several different positions (Shamiran, Mehrabad, aircraft, control tower and a dry salt lake);
- High reliability of many observers (Air Force general, qualified pilots and experienced air traffic controllers);
- Visual observations are confirmed by radar;
- Similar electromagnetic effects have been observed on three different aircraft;
- Physiological effects associated with UFO sightings (loss of night vision due to object brightness) have been observed;
- UFOs were highly maneuverable.
In addition, all the pilots who observed the UFO - and these were not only two military pilots, but also the crew of a civilian passenger aircraft, claimed that at a distance of about 40-45 miles from a brightly glowing object, their electronic equipment failed (and one of the military aircraft control system also failed), the object did not allow approaching it, and the smaller UFO detached from the main object even flew around the control tower of the military airfield, turning off all equipment on it, and later landed, but the results of the survey of the place of its landing remained classified.