- SAN FRANCISCO - In
January, Agence France Presse reported that a Siberian airport was shut
for 11/2 hours while a luminescent unidentified flying object hovered above
its runway. Although it's hard to imagine such an event taking place in
the industrialized United States, a compelling October 2000 study by a
retired aerospace scientist from NASA-Ames Research Center shows that similar
incidents have occurred in American skies over the last 50 years. "Aviation
Safety in America -- A Previously Neglected Factor" presents more
than 100 pilot and crew reports of encounters with unidentified aerial
phenomena (UAP) that appear to have compromised aviation safety.
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- Author Richard F. Haines, formerly NASA's chief of the
Space Human Factors Office and a Raytheon contract scientist, is chief
scientist for the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena
(NARCAP), a research organization founded last year. In stunning detail,
pilots and crew describe a range of geometric forms and lights inconsistent
with known aircraft or natural phenomena. Bizarre objects paced aircraft
at relatively near distances, sometimes disabling cockpit instruments,
interrupting ground communications, or distracting the crew.
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- The data include 56 near-misses. Impulsive responses
by pilots to an approaching high-speed object can be hazardous; in a few
cases, such violent evasive reactions injured passengers and flight attendants.
However, Haines states that there is no threat of a collision caused directly
by UAPs "because of the reported high degree of maneuverability shown
by the UAP." While flying over Lake Michigan in 1981, TWA Capt. Phil
Schultz saw a "large, round, silver metal object" with dark portholes
equally spaced around the circumference that "descended into the atmosphere
from above," according to his hand-written report. Schultz and his
first officer braced themselves for a mid-air collision; the object suddenly
made a high-speed turn and departed.
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- Veteran Japan Airlines 747 Capt. Kenju Terauchi reported
a spectacular prolonged encounter over Alaska in 1986. "Most unexpectedly,
two space ships stopped in front of our face, shooting off lights,"
he said. "The inside cockpit shined brightly and I felt warm in the
face." Despite the Federal Aviation Administration's determination
that he and his crew were stable, competent and professional, he was grounded
for speaking out.
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- In 1997, a Swissair Boeing 747 over Long Island just
missed a glowing, white, cylindrical object speeding toward the plane.
According to an FAA Civil Aviation Security Office memorandum, pilot Philip
Bobet said that "if the object was any lower, it may have hit the
right wing." Ground-systems operators have also been affected by UAP.
"The element of surprise means a decrease in safety because it diverts
the attention of air-traffic controllers that should be focused on landing
planes. That is a danger," says Jim McClenahen, a recently retired
FAA air-traffic-control specialist and NARCAP technical adviser.
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- "Aviation Safety in America" does not attempt
to explain the origin of these mysterious objects. But Haines writes that
hundreds of reports, some dating back to the 1940s, "suggest that
they [UAPs] are associated with a very high degree of intelligence, deliberate
flight control, and advanced energy management."
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- In the 1950s, pilots and crews reported seeing flying
discs, cigar-shaped craft with portholes, and gyrating lights, all with
extraordinary technical capabilities. Documents show the unexplained objects
were considered a national security concern. By order of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, commercial pilots were required to report sightings and the unauthorized
release of a UFO report could cost them 10 years in prison or a $10,000
fine.
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- To keep this information from the public, officials ridiculed
and debunked legitimate sightings, angering some pilots. According to the
Newark Star Ledger in 1958, more than 50 commercial pilots who had reported
sightings, each with at least 15 years of major airline experience, blasted
the policy of censorship and denial as "bordering on the absolutely
ridiculous."
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- These pilots said they were interrogated by the Air Force,
sometimes all night long, and then "treated like incompetents and
told to keep quiet," according to one pilot. "The Air Force tells
you that the thing that paced your plane for 15 minutes was a mirage or
a bolt of lightening," he told the Star-Ledger. "Nuts to that.
Who needs it?" As a result, many pilots "forget" to report
their sightings at all, one pilot said. According to a 1952 Air Force Status
Report on UFOs for the Air Technical Intelligence Center, pilots were so
humiliated that one told investigators, "If a space ship flew wing-tip
to wing-tip formation with me, I would not report it." The vast majority
of sightings by American pilots are still not reported. The media perpetuate
the censorship and ridicule, handicapping the collection of valuable data.
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- In contrast, other countries are openly investigating
the impact of UAP on aviation safety. A 1999 French study by retired generals
from the French Institute of Higher Studies for National Defense and a
government agency with the National Center for Space Studies examined hundreds
of well-documented pilot reports from around the world. The study could
not explain a 1994 Air France viewing of a UAP that instantaneously disappeared
as confirmed by radar and a 1995 Aerolineas Argentinas Boeing 727 encounter
with a luminous object that extinguished airport lights as the plane attempted
to land. "Aeronautic personnel must be sensitized and prepared to
deal with the situation," the report states.
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- They must first "accept the possibility of the presence
of extraterrestrial craft in our sky." Then, "it is necessary
to overcome the fear of ridicule."
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- In 1997, the Chilean government formed the Committee
for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena (CEFAA) following publicly
acknowledged observations of unidentified flying objects at a remote Chilean
airport. Both the French group and Gen. Ricardo Bermudez Sanhuesa, president
of the CEFAA, have made overtures to the U.S. government for cooperation
on this issue, with no response. General Bermudez, and Air Force Gen. Denis
Letty, chairman of the French group, said in recent interviews that the
Haines study has international significance and should be taken seriously.
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- Brian E. Smith, current head of the Aviation Safety Program
at NASA-Ames, agrees. "There is objective evidence in pilot reports
of unexplained events that may affect the safety of the aircraft, "
he says. "Yet getting people to take an objective look at this subject
is sometimes like pulling teeth." Indeed, the Airline Pilots Association,
our largest pilots union, and the Flight Safety Foundation, describing
itself as "offering an objective view of aviation safety developments,"
ignored NARCAP requests for a response to the study. In recent phone interviews
with this reporter, representatives dismissed the report out of hand after
glancing at the executive summary.
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- However, such dismissals may soon lose ground. Next Wednesday,
John Callahan, former division chief of the Accidents and Investigations
Branch of the FAA, will disclose FAA documentation and subsequent CIA suppression
of the Terauchi encounter over Alaska. Callahan will be joined by more
than 20 other government and military witnesses, and dozens more on videotape,
at a National Press Club briefing to challenge official secrecy about this
subject.
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- Retired United Airlines Capt. Neil Daniels, whose DC-10
was forced into a left turn because of magnetic interference of cockpit
compasses by a brilliant UAP, is among the many who want change. "The
energies out there are absolutely profound," he says. "I think
we need to know what they are."
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- Leslie Kean is a journalist and author in the San Francisco
Bay area. lkean@ix.netcom.com
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