SIGHTINGS


 
Balloon Crash: AF Allows Live
TV Coverage This Time!

By Jason Leigh, Ph.D.
International UFO Museum & Research Center--Roswell
1-9-98
 
 
The Hot-Air Balloon, launched today from Albuquerque, New Mexico, in a failed attempt to break the Around The World Balloon Record crashed this evening just after 6:40 p.m. (CDT), minus the bailed-out pilots, in Gainsville, Texas, 30 miles from my home. All four of the major News Network affiliates (ABC, CBS, NBC & FOX), were allowed by the Air Force to send their respective news helicopters to the scene to cover this event, as it happened, LIVE. This was a stark contrast to another "balloon story" in the Dallas area just two and one-half years ago.
 
Today's crash was actually a twofold event for me and many others in that back on June 1, 1995, a gigantic UFO and a number of smaller objects, seen by thousands, hovered over Cleburne, Texas and the Fort Worth areas for well over seven (7) hours. That huge ship was videotaped by myself and numerous others and yet our own tv stations called that event "a weather balloon" and/or "balloons" with each station naming a completely bogus(!) governmental agency allegedly responsible for the launching of the so-called "weather balloon(s)."
 
That astonishing event was later determined by a rigorous investigation to have been a gigantic UFO with between 6 and 11 smaller UFOs zipping approximately 4,000 mph downward at a 90 degree angle towards the earth, in formation. One of the smaller craft was even observed and videotaped to travel UPWARDS toward the giant UFO!
 
What is truly amazing about these two separate "balloon" events is that in June 1995, the Air Force at Carswell AFB in Fort Worth, issued a "NO FLIGHTS" order to our very same area TV stations--refusing to allow them to send their news helicopters aloft to show us what the purported "weather balloon(s)" looked like. Never mind it was a legitimate news story or that the object, claimed by Carswell to be a "weather balloon", could have crashed into a neighborhood, possibly killing THOUSANDS of residents in an explosion and flash fire caused by the 1,600 lb fuel payload onboard as later confirmed by Jim Turner of the National Balloon Base in a taped interview. Nor did Carswell AFB brass want those TV helicopters to venture up into the sky possibly presenting an 'aggressive posture' to the visitors who might have easily 'removed' them, thereby creating a very big PR problem for the government! Can you imagine live news feeds from the helicopters as they are being vaporized or 'acquired' by the visitors?
 
But this time, two and a half years later, a (real) hot air balloon, making international news, develops a leak shortly after takeoff. The news media jump all over the story as the pilots report they are going to bail out due to the risk of an explosion and fire on a forced landing. This time, Carswell is mum! The pilots bail out and the news helicopters are allowed to follow the balloon as it hits the ground and does, indeed, explode and catch fire. Fortunately no one is hurt in the crash. This time, just as in the earlier "balloon" incident in 1995, I taped newscasts from each station covering the event, moment by moment, on my home VCR. However, this time The Air Force did NOT issue a "NO FLIGHTS" order.
 
The behavior of Carswell Air Force is further proof that the sighting of June 1, 1995 was quite real and presented an event of such incredible magnitude that the public needed to be deliberately lied to in an attempt to control possible widespread panic should the truth of the matter really have been discovered by the news helicopters: Texas was being visited and overflown by a giant UFO and friends.
 
As further background to the events of today, January 9, 1998, please go to http://iufomrc.com (the Roswell Museum site) and click on my name to read the original article: "From Roswell, New Mexico to Cleburne, Texas: They called them 'Weather Balloons,'" for a complete report of the facts of that transparent cover-up by the US Military which prevented all of us from discovering the truth.
 
After all, the Government is sworn to "Defend the National Tranquility" right?


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