Official BS UFO Explanations.

[Karl12]

• Kirtland AFB UFO, Nov 4th, 1957.



The same week all the 'flying egg' reports were coming in from Levelland there was also another very strange 'flying egg' incident at Kirkland Air Force base in New Mexico - the UFO was confirmed on ground radar and witnessed by two air tower control officers (through binoculars) who described the object as 'egg shaped' with 'no wings, tail or fuselage' and 'a single white light at its base'.

The object circled the base and came within 300 feet of the ground but then abruptly reversed it's direction and climbed at a very high rate of speed away from the field on a 120 degree course - it then headed south at very high speed before returning north to trail a military jet which had just taken off.

Witnesses: FAA(CAA) tower personnel, R.M. Kaser and E. G. Brink, reliable observers with 23 years of airport tower control experience between them.

A lighted object came down steeply at the east end of runway 26, left the flight line, crossed runways, taxiways, and unpaved areas at about a 30 degree angle, and proceeded southwest towards the control tower at an altitude of less than 100 feet. Observed through through 7x binoculars, the object appeared to be egg shaped, having no wings, tail, or fuselage, and was elongated vertically. It appeared to be fifteen to twenty feet tall, about the size of an automobile standing on its nose, and had a single white light at its base. Both Kaser and Brink emphatically stated that the object in no way resembled an aircraft.

Casefile:

The Kirtland 1957 UFO Incident Directory

PDF File:

The Kirtland Airfield UFO by Dr James E. McDonald

Bluebook explanation

'Aircraft'

[Karl12]

• White Sands Missile Range, November 3rd, 1957.


The same week all the 'flying egg' reports were coming in from Levelland (and Kirtland Air Force base) there was also another very strange 'flying egg' incident over White Sands Missile Range.

Military Police Officers described the object as 'egg shaped' and 75-100 yards in diameter - the UFO then descended to the ground about 3 miles away which 'looked like a completely controlled landing'.

A high altitude research engineer on the base also received sunburn from a 'large, whitish egg-shaped object' on November the 4th.

The White Sands Jeep Patrol UFO Incident

At 3:00 a.m. (MST) - 4:00 a.m. Levelland time - November 3, two military policemen on routine patrol at the White Sands missile range, reported an egg-shaped UFO which descended over the base.

Cpl. Glenn H. Toy and Pfc. James Wilbanks, patrolling in a jeep, noticed a "very bright object" high in the sky. The object descended to a point about 50 yards above a bunker which was used during the first atomic bomb explosion. Then its light blinked out. A few minutes later the light flared up again, becoming bright "like the sun," dropped toward the ground on a slant about 3 miles away and disappeared. According to Lt. Penney, the M.P.'s described the UFO as egg-shaped, and about 75-100 yards in diameter. Cpl. Toy stated: "It looked like a completely controlled landing."

That evening, about 8:00 p.m., Sp. 3/C Forest R. Oakes and Sp. 3/C Barlow, on another two-man jeep patrol, reported seeing an unidentified light hanging above the old A-bomb bunker. Oakes described it as "200 or 300 feet long. . . very bright." The patrol was about 2-3 miles west of the bunker. As the M.P.'s watched, the UFO took off climbing at a 45 degree angle, its light pulsating on and off. Moving slowly, sometimes stopping, the UFO gradually diminished to a point of light "like a big star," and finally disappeared


White Sands Engineer:

About 17 hours after the second jeep patrol sighting at White Sands, James Stokes, a high altitude research engineer at the base, watched an elliptical UFO maneuver over the area. Stokes also looked up and saw a large, whitish egg-shaped object moving in and out of clouds to the northeast, in the direction of the Sacramento Mountains, The UFO made a shallow dive, turned and crossed the highway a few miles ahead. As the UFO flashed by, Stokes felt a wave of heat. (His face later appeared "sunburned.")

Moving at fantastic speed, the featureless object turned sharply and disappeared over the Organ Pass west of the base. In a taped interview broadcast on station KALG, Stokes estimated the speed at 2500 mph.It was "definitely a solid object," he said.

Radio Broadcast - White Sands PIO report to Radio Station KGSW

Section 12 / E-Book

Bluebook explanation

'Venus'

The Army jeep patrols sightings were evaluated as "astronomical." The release said:
"Astro plots indicate Venus is at magnitude at the time, place and direction of the first patrol's observation, and the Moon, with scattered clouds, was in general direction of the second patrol's observation."

Section 9

[Karl12]

• Chorwon, Korea, 30th May 1952.


Quite a number of Korean war military pilot UFO encounters and there's a radar/visual case below where a brilliant white object took 'clearly evasive maneuvers' and pulled away from an F-94 at thirty thousand feet - the Intelligence report states the UFO 'possessed a superior speed, superior climbing ability and was able to turn equally as well as the F-94'.

"In June 1952 the Air Force was taking the UFO problem seriously. One of the reasons was that there were a lot of good UFO reports coming in from Korea. Fighter pilots reported seeing silver coloured spheres or disks on several occasions, and radar in Japan, Okinawa, and in Korea had tracked unidentified targets."

Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, head of Project Blue book, in his book 'The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects.


Incident:

Several U.S. soldiers saw a bright UFO that looked like a falling star,except that it stopped falling and began to climb again. It then moved northeast at about 150mph, reversed course twice,then climbed at a forty five degree angle and faded from sight.

One guard reported a pulsating sound from the object. An Air Intelligence Information Report stated that an F-94 attempted to intercept this object. The pilot described it as round,of unknown size, "brilliant white" and leaving no exhaust.

It undertook clearly evasive maneuvers and pulled away from the F-94 at thirty thousand feet. According to this intelligence report,"the object possessed a superior speed, superior climbing ability and was able to turn equally as well as the F-94"

Documents

E-Book:

Advanced Aerial Devices Reported During The Korean War - Dr. Richard F. Haines

Bluebook explanation

'Balloon with flare'

[Karl12]

• Michigan, March, 1966.

The Michigan UFO wave of March, 1966 where multiple town residents and police officers witnessed objects 'covered with red, green and blue lights zooming about at tree-top level' - one object even buzzed a police patrol car and the local sheriff stated that 'reports of UFOs have become so numerous recently that I haven't slept in 24 hours'.

Washtenaw County sheriffs and police in neighboring jurisdictions reported disc-shaped objects moving at fantastic speeds and making sharp turns, diving and climbing, and hovering. At one point, four UFOs in straight-line formation were observed. Selfridge AFB confirmed tracking UFOs over Lake Erie at 4:56 a.m. Their stories were backed up by more than 100 witnesses.

Newspaper archives:

Pic

1966 UFO Sightings | Ann Arbor District Library (scroll down)

UFOs at close sight: Hillsdale, Michigan, 1966, the Swamp Gas affair.

Bluebook explanation

'Swamp gas'



Possible origin of Dr Hynek´s 'swamp gas' explanation:

In interviewing Washtenaw County Sheriff Doug Harvey for the article, the former Sheriff explained how he had taken Hynek to the Frank Mannor farm near Dexter for some on site investigation. The sheriff described how Hynek interviewed witnesses and sloshed around in the swamp for a time in an attempt to determine what the many witnesses had seen a few nights earlier. The Sheriff then brought Hynek back to the Sheriff's headquarters located in Ann Arbor.

According to Harvey, they talked for a time about the sighting and Hynek admitted he didn't know what the witnesses had seen on the Mannor farm.

"That's when the phone call came in," Harvey told me.

"What phone call I asked?"

Harvey said, "it was a call for Hynek and it was from Washington."

"How did you know it was from Washington," I replied.

"Because the dispatcher stepped into the office and said, 'Dr. Hynek, you've got a call from Washington.'"

Harvey told me that Hynek stepped out of the office to take the call and then returned in a few minutes looking a bit perplexed. And then, according to the sheriff, Hynek said, "it's swamp gas they saw, swamp gas."

It was a short time later that Hynek held the infamous press conference at the Detroit Press Club and suggested that a possible explanation for the recent sightings might have been marsh or swamp gas. The explanation became a front page story the next day in papers across the country and Hynek became the butt of jokes and cartoons. He was ridiculed to such an extent that Michigan Congressman Gerald Ford (later President Ford) asked for a Congressional investigation. It was one of Hynek's worst moments.

[Karl12]

• Redlands UFO, Feb 4th, 1968.


Multiple separately located town residents witness huge, low-flying, disk-shaped object with a row of eight to ten lights which were alternating in colour. 

The UFO was reported to have  proceeded at a low altitude (about 300 feet) in a northeasterly direction for about a mile, stopped, hovered, jerked forward, hovered again then 'shot straight upward with a burst of speed'.

On February 4, 1968, about two hundred residents of Redlands, California, either saw or heard what was apparently the same huge, low-flying, disk-shaped object as it passed overhead.

The object apparently came down just west of Columbia Street and north of Colton Avenue, then proceeded slowly in a northwestern direction for about a mile or less, at an altitude of about 300 feet. Coming to a stop, it hovered briefly, jerked forward, hovered again, then shot straight up with a burst of speed. (Total time of the sighting must have been less than five minutes).

The object’s size and altitude were estimated by Dr. Sanderson. The object seemed (if at 300 feet altitude) to be around 50 feet in diameter.

The artist’s conception was based on a series of interviews with witnesses by Professor Brownfield. His composite painting was verified by witnesses. The composite painting was obtained from witnesses seeing the object at different angles. Therefore composite is probably a very accurate representation of the object.

Composite witness sketch:

Pic

The lights on the base appeared to expel jets of bright orange flame and were seven in number. The light on the top (eight to ten in a row) were alternating in color (red and green), giving the impression that the object was rotating.

Link / Redlands 1968 Ufo Sighting report

Bluebook explanation

'Aircraft'


Dr Hynek's response:

"The discrepancy between what was reported and the Blue Book evaluation is so great as to be laughable"

Link

[Karl12]

• Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona, May 1st, 1952.


Pretty insane incident from the 1952 wave where multiple military personnel (from both ground and air) witness two silent, shiny, silver, metallic disc shaped objects approach and pace a B-36 bomber.

The UFOs were observed to slow down to match the plane's speed and remain in formation for about twenty seconds - they then executed a very sharp no radius turn away from the B-36 where one of the objects then stopped and hovered.

Base Intelligence officer Major Rudy Pestalozzi also witnessed the incident and interviewed the aircrew who had closely observed the UFOs - they described them as having 'a convex top and bottom, 25 feet in diameter and about 12 feet thick'.

The major stated this was 'the thickest report he ever filed on a UFO' but it was mysteriously missing from USAF archives years later when Dr Mcdonald went to access it.

Bluebooks scientific consultant Dr Hynek described this case as 'a classic' and apparently it 'shook up the USAF at high levels'.



From 7:50

Early in the 1952 UFO sighting wave two discs approached and paced a B-36 bomber in the vicinity of Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona. On May 1, 1952, Major Rudy Pestalozzi, a base intelligence officer, along with an airmajn, looked up as a B-36 flew overhead and saw two shiny discs overtake the bomber, slow to its speed and position themselves alongside.

The bomber crew, startled by the experience, made an unscheduled landing at the base and were interrogated at length by Major Pestalozzi, who happened to be the base UFO officer. Members of the flight crew had crowded into the starboard blister aft of the wing and looked down at a slight angle to see the closest disc, which was lens- or double-disc-shaped and about 20-25 feet in diameter. After about 20 seconds, the objects peeled off at an angle of 70-80 degrees from the flight path of the B-36 and sped away.

Major Pestalozzi sent a comprehensive report of the incident to Project Blue Book.


Pilot Illustration

Saved Documents (PDF File)

E-Book:

'The Hynek UFO Report'

Bluebook explanation

'Aircraft'

[Karl12]

• UFO Car Chase - Wayne City, Illinois, August 4th, 1963.


Two motorists witness a big, white object 'about the size of a washtub' moving along at treetop level - the UFO then paced their vehicle for several miles zig-zagging over the road before hovering over the car and causing electromagnetic interference effects on the radio and engine (object also observed by multiple separately located witnesses).

After later being interrogated by the Air Force the driver was then instructed to wash his car and said the officers 'appeared to be decontaminating the inside of his automobile'.

Excerpts from report:

He glanced out of the window to the south and saw a  big white object moving along at treetop level, about 20 degrees above the horizon to the southwest.  He described it as fuzzy and about the size of a washtub. Both witnesses watched, casually talking about the light for several minutes. 

Then they discovered that the light seemed to be keeping pace with them. Ronnie reported that when he speeded the car up, the object seemed to speed up. Also, when he decelerated, the object seemed to slow down, as well..

The object had been on their right (south) and had kept up with them, when all at once the object headed for the car. It appeared to get within a few hundred feet and then it suddenly gained altitude and stopped for several seconds over an electronic relay tower. Then the light shot across the road to the north side to the left of the car. It maintained this position for a while about 500 feet distant..

When he turned east onto another gravel road, the object suddenly shot diagonally ahead of him over a barn about a mile away, just beyond the T-road. The object now changed from a brilliant white to a duller or dimmer light with an orange tinge. 

Ronnie said he "really poured the coal" to the car and must have been doing 120 mph when he topped the hill on the gravel road. Then, he reported, the object flared bright orange and came straight toward him at high speed. It hovered over the car, within 100'. Just before it hovered it had swerved upward and Ronnie judged its size as that of an automobile. At the point right over the car his radio (tuned to WLS in Chicago) went crazy with static, which was described as a loud whining sound.. At that time he noticed a "cooling effect". The object made another pass at the car, this time west to east, and at this point where the object was again overhead, the automobile engine started hissing. The object proceeded back to its position over the barn, hovered, changed to a duller orange.

Investigators Report

News clipping

Bluebook explanation

'Refuelling aircraft or Venus'

The AF, and especially Quintanilla, were ridiculing many witnesses who claimed sightings of UFOs. The "explanation" issued after the investigation was "a refueling operation" or the "planet Venus". The AF must have considered this case important. Normally, when investigating a case, they would mail out an 8 page questionnaire. If the case was important enough they would send the local "UFO officer" from the nearest airbase. But they did something unheard of by normal Air Force standard operating procedure. They flew a team of physicists, headed by the Project Blue Book Director, himself. Something strange was definitely going on in the Midwest, and AF Intelligence seemed to suddenly be interested in something that "didn't exist."

[Karl12]

• Bethune/Gander UFO incident - February 10th, 1951.


Pretty remarkable 'near collision' case where U.S. Navy personnel flying a C-54 Aircraft off the coast of Newfoundland witness a UFO over the Atlantic Ocean for about eight minutes.

The flight crew described the object as 300 feet in diameter and having 'an orange rim with a dark centre' - the object began to change colours and then shot towards the aircraft at high speed and some aircrew actually banged their heads ducking for cover.

The UFO then 'paced' the aircraft positioning itself about a hundred feet below and about two hundred feet ahead of the plane (apparently the onboard magnetic compasses were 'spinning wildly') - after a while the object reversed direction at an extremely sharp angle and disappeared over the horizon.

Upon landing the crew members were interrogated by Air Force intelligence officers and later interrogated by Naval intelligence.



From 0:30

"About 300 miles outside of Argentia, Newfoundland, I saw a glow on the water. As we approached this glow, it turned into hundreds of circles of white lights on the water. We watched it for a while; when the lights went out, there was nothing on the water. The next thing that we saw was a yellow halo that was very small, about 15 miles away. It came up to 10,000 feet in a fraction of a second. I disengaged the autopilot and pushed the nose over, because I was going to go under it at the angle that it was coming toward me. The minute that I did that, it was up at our altitude and I could see nothing outside of the cockpit but this craft."

"I didn't know which way to go. Then all of a sudden I heard a racket. I didn't know what it was. And I said: 'What the hell was that?' One of the crewmen looked around and said: 'Everyone (in the plane) was ducking (down) and they collided (with each other). They were all lying on the (floor of the plane)."

"Then (the UFO) appeared over to the right, moved out slowly and flew with us. It was not at our altitude, but we could see the shape of it. It was a dome and I could see the coronal discharge. I went back aft, let the other pilot, Al Jones, take my seat, and went to see if the passengers were OK. They had some bumps and bruises. One passenger was a doctor so I went to him first. I said: 'Doc, did you see what we saw?' He looked me straight in the eye and said: 'Yeah, it was a flying saucer.' He said: 'I didn't look at it because I don't believe in such things.' It took me a couple of seconds to realize what he was saying. Being a psychiatrist, he couldn't believe in that kind of thing."

"So I went back to the cockpit and said, 'Al, whatever you do, don't tell anybody we saw anything. They will lock us up as soon as we get on the ground.' He says: 'It's too late. I just called Gander control (in Newfoundland) to see if they could track this by radar.' So that's how the story got out."

"It was obvious from the questions and demeanor of the US Navy men who debriefed us that they'd seen things out there before. When the crew returned to the Patuxant River Naval Air Test Center in Maryland, they required that each of us writes a report."

Testimony

Witness Sketches: 1 / 2 / 3

Bluebook explanation

'Aurora borealis'

[Karl12]

• Presque Isle, Maine, Jan 29th, 1953.


Fighter jet UFO incident taken from 'The Chop Clearance List' - a compilation of Air Technical Intelligence UFO reports secured by Albert M. Chop who was Air Force UFO Officer at the Pentagon

Pilots of an F-94 fighter jet and two other fighter aircraft encounter a 'dark, gray object with a very definite oval shape' - .one fighter jet attempts to intercept the UFO at a speed of 0.8 Mach but the pursuit lasts for 4 minutes without the F-94 gaining on the object (chase called off due to low fuel).

9:55 a.m. EST. A  small gray oval-shaped object was seen by 2nd Lt. Fred T. Goetting, pilot of an F-94B fighter jet. Goetting pointed out the object to his Radar Observer, Lt. Howard C. Kelly. The object appeared to be 10 degrees above the F-94B which was at 23,000 feet. Goettering attempted to intercept the object at a speed of 0.8 Mach. This chase continued for 4 minutes without the F-94 gaining on the object. At this time the chase was  broken off because of low fuel. According to the AIR INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION REPORT, the object was also sighted by at least two fighter aircraft from other squadrons.

Link

Bluebook explanation

'Venus'

A nice example of an utterly ludicrous BB explanation.A "dark grey oval", 3/4 the apparent size of a dime at arm's length, which explicitly did not shine or emit or reflect light of any kind, pursued for 4 mins, in bright daylight, on a continuous heading of 70deg.

Conclusion "Venus, at 100deg".

Stunning.

[Karl12]

• Hissing UFO Burns Witness - Lavonia, Georgia, June 29th, 1964.


Two weeks after this freaky case where a 'hissing' top shaped object burnt a UFO witness there was another similar incident involving motorist Beauford E. Parham.

This witnesses also described the object making a hissing sound ('like a million snakes') and stated the UFO was shaped like 'a spinning top' - it came down directly in front of his car and he observed 'the top part of the object was moving in a clockwise direction and the bottom part in a counterclockwise direction'. The object was described as amber coloured, six feet tall and eight feet wide with a dark band around the top with portholes around the bottom.

The object went up over the vehicle leaving a 'gaseous vapor' which left an oily substance all over the car - the hood was later discovered to be warped with 'bubbled up paint' over the body of the vehicle - the witness also experienced a persistent burning sensation on his arms.

Businessman Beauford E. Parham was returning home late on the evening of June 29, 1964. He was between Carnesyille and Lavonia, Georgia, in the northeast corner of the state.

"I spotted a very bright light in the sky . . . coming directly toward my car," the witness said in a letter to a NICAP member. "The next instance it was directly in front of my headlights spinning like a giant top. It was shaped like a top and made a hissing sound like a million snakes. The top part of the object was moving in a clockwise direction and the bottom part . . . in a counterclockwise direction."

The UFO, "big enough to hold a man," was amber-colored, about six feet tall and eight feet wide. A tower-like projection with a dark band was seen at the top. Vane-like configurations were also observed. Small portholes dotted the bottom, through which "flames" could be detected.

Disappearing in a flash, the strange object reappeared a second time. "It stayed directly in front of my headlights for at least a mile, never touching the car but spinning just in front of my lights," said Parham.

Although he was traveling at 65 m.p.h., the UFO kept an estimated five feet in front of the automobile and only one or two feet above the road. The top part of the object was tilted toward the witness. Parham said he followed in a near trance-like state.

"When the object left ...," Parham wrote, "it suddenly went up over the top of my car, leaving a strong odor . . . like embalming fluid and a very gaseous vapor which left an oily substance all over my car.

After disappearing, the UFO reappeared for a third time, again heading directly toward the car. The vehicle's motor began to miss and the driver stopped the car. After "spinning like crazy," the object took off and disappeared in a "split second."

"By this time, my arms were beginning to burn," Parham related, "and my only thought was to get somewhere and let someone know what I had seen."

Giant Spinning Top - Lavonia, Georgia

Strange Effects From UFOs - Gordon Lore

Bluebook explanation

'Ball lightning'