The UFO Napster

So given that, how far does a little deduction get us in answering some of the most puzzling aspects of the UFO phenomenon? Pretty far. I'll explore the issue in a question and answer format, addressing a number of the enigmas posed by the body of UFO reports amassed over the decades.

Details of one of Britain's most famous UFO scares was among information repeatedly suppressed by government defence chiefs, according to a Westminster watchdog.

Noah talks with Peter Sturrock, Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University. Professor Sturrock recently assembled a panel of scientists to review data from a collection of UFO sightings. This panel made the first independent review of UFO sightings since 1970 and concluded that a collection of alleged UFO sightings merit additional scientific study. Professor Sturrock believes that a lack of institutional support hinders the study of UFOs.

[A] team of scientists published the first independent review of UFO phenomena in thirty years. While they found no signs of alien intelligence, they did conclude that there is some UFO evidence that can't be explained. In this hour, we'll take a closer look at the report. Plus, we'll talk about a new approach to spinal cord repair in rats.

NPR's Steve Inskeep reports on the C-I-A's admission that it deceived the public for decades when asked about sightings of unidentified flying objects. For much of that time, the agency denied that UPO's even existed, explaining them away as `unusual weather phenomena,' Now the CIA admits that the objects were actually U-S high altitude aircraft used to spy on other countries.

Alejandro Guillier (journalist): UFOs, well...nothing better than to ask a war pilot about the experiences he’s had if he’s seen anything, but it turns out that I’ve heard talk about there being a military pilot in Antofagasta who toward the late Seventies -- ’78 -- had been flying and ran into a very strange thing. It also turns out that the pilot became a general, retired general Hernan Gabrielli, and we’re going to talk to him about this rather interesting experience. How do you do, general? Good morning

Originally posted by selfAdjoint
Well then, how do you explain your cases?

During the evening of October 21, 1978, twenty year old Australian Pilot Frederick Valentich disappeared over Bass Strait, while flying from Melbourne's Moorabbin Airport to King Island, off the coast of Victoria. His last communication occurred at 7:12 p.m., during the largest UFO flap in Australian history. Nearly fourteen years after that fatal Saturday evening, no trace has ever been found of either the pilot or his blue and white Cessna model 182 aircraft.

During my travels and correspondence, I have found many false stories circulating around the world regarding this most important case. I have found that these inaccurate statements are coming from individuals at home and abroad. These are people who live thousands of kilometres from the scene where the action took place, newcomers to the field, journalists who write about everything and are experts on nothing except misquotations and out of context reporting and last but not least, "Professors of Impossibility" from the scientific community who have concocted preconceived opinions and have tried to make their ideas fit around them.

Frederick Valentich was not the only person who reported a strange object over and near Bass Strait that day and night. Researchers have found over fifty reported observations in that area which occurred before, during and after his encounter. Most of this information would never have been found without the diligence of researchers from the Victorian UFO Research Society, based at Moorabbin, near the location from whence the mysterious flight originated.

ACTUAL TRANSCRIPTION OF MELBOURNE FLIGHT SERVICE
The transcript portion of the communication between Valentich and Melbourne Flight Service as released by the Australian Department of Transport follows: (FS - Flight Service, DSJ - Frederick Valentich aircraft designation).

1906:14
DSJ Melbourne, this is Delta Sierra Juliet. Is there any known traffic below five thousand?
FS Delta Sierra Juliet, no known traffic.
DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet, I am, seems to be a large aircraft below five thousand.

1906:44
FS Delta Sierra Juliet, What type of aircraft is it?
DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet, I cannot affirm, it is four bright, it seems to me like landing lights.

1907
FS Delta Sierra Juliet.

1907:31
DSJ Melbourne, this is Delta Sierra Juliet, the aircraft has just passed over me at least a thousand feet above.
FS Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, and it is a large aircraft, confirmed?
DSJ Er-unknown, due to the speed it's travelling, is there any air force aircraft in the vicinity?
FS Delta Sierra Juliet, no known aircraft in the vicinity.

1908:18
DSJ Melbourne, it's approaching now from due east towards me.
FS Delta Sierra Juliet.

1908:41
DSJ (open microphone for two seconds.)

1908:48
DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet, it seems to me that he's playing some sort of game, he's flying over me two, three times at speeds I could not identify.

1909
FS Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, what is your actual level?
DSJ My level is four and a half thousand, four five zero zero.
FS Delta Sierra Juliet, and you confirm you cannot identify the aircraft?
DSJ Affirmative.
FS Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, stand by.

1909:27
DSJ Melbourne, Delta Sierra Juliet, it's not an aircraft it is (open microphone for two seconds).

1909:42
FS Delta Sierra Juliet, can you describe the -er- aircraft?
DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet, as it's flying past it's a long shape (open microphone for three seconds) cannot identify more than it has such speed (open microphone for three seconds). It's before me right now Melbourne.

1910
FS Delta Sierra Juliet, roger and how large would the - er - object be?

1910:19
DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet, Melbourne, it seems like it's stationary. What I'm doing right now is orbiting and the thing is just orbiting on top of me also. It's got a green light and sort of metallic like, it's all shiny on the outside.
FS Delta Sierra Juliet

1910:46
DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet (open microphone for three seconds) It's just vanished.
FS Delta Sierra Juliet

1911
DSJ Melbourne, would you know what kind of aircraft I've got? Is it a military aircraft?
FS Delta Sierra Juliet, Confirm the - er ~ aircraft just vanished.
DSJ Say again.
FS Delta Sierra Juliet, is the aircraft still with you?
DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet; it's (open microphone for two seconds) now approaching from the south-west.
FS Delta Sierra Juliet

1911:50
DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet, the engine is rough-idling. I've got it set at twenty three twenty-four and the thing is coughing.
FS Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, what are your intentions?
DSJ My intentions are - ah - to go to King Island - ah - Melbourne. That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again (open microphone for two seconds). It is hovering and it's not an aircraft.
FS Delta Sierra Juliet.

1912:28
DSJ Delta Sierra Juliet. Melbourne (open microphone for seventeen seconds).

No official conclusion has been given for the strange sound which was heard that interrupted the last statement of the pilot. [CONTINUED]

...The only official report to emerge on the affair was an Aircraft Accident Investigation Summary Report, reference No. V116/783/1047. The basic relevant events and transcript of the conversation between Valentich and Robey - a "radio encounter of a weird kind" - included in the report are given here...

One of the most powerful U.S. senators in modern history actually eye-witnessed two UFO's while on a fact-finding trip through Russia in 1955-and the U.S. government kept the sightings a secret for more than three decades. The incredible encounter is detailed in 12 TOP SECRET CIA, FBI, and Air Force reports-and declassified in 1985. Those startling reports reveal that Senator Richard B. Russell, Jr. (D-GA)-then chairman of the Armed Services Committee-was on a Soviet train when he spotted a disc-shaped craft taking off near the tracks. He hurriedly called his military aide and interpreter to the window-and they saw the UFO, plus another one that appeared a minute later. The astonished trio reported the sightings to the U.S. Air Force as soon as they were out of Russia.[continued]

The Whole Tooth About the President's Extraterrestrial Encounter

By Peter Carlson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 19, 2004; Page C01

Fifty years ago tomorrow -- on Feb. 20, 1954 -- President Dwight Eisenhower interrupted his vacation in Palm Springs, Calif., to make a secret nocturnal trip to a nearby Air Force base to meet two extraterrestrial aliens.

Or maybe not. Maybe Ike just went to the dentist. There's some dispute about this.

The Ike-met-with-ETs theory is advanced by Michael Salla, a former American University professor who now runs the Peace Ambassador Program at AU's Center for Global Peace.

The Ike-went-to-the-dentist theory is advanced by the folks at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kan. And by James M. Mixson, a dentist, professor of dentistry and historian of presidential dental work.

Just to make things more intriguing: On the night in question, the Associated Press reported this: "Pres. Eisenhower died tonight of a heart attack in Palm Springs."

Two minutes later, the AP retracted that bulletin and reported that Ike was still alive. [continued]

Deerfield Twp. Fire Rescue Chief Bill Kramer is the co-author of a 1992 manual that serves as a guide for fire departments in disaster control. Along with Charles Bahme, Kramer penned a chapter in the manual Fire Officers’ Guide to Disaster Control on how fire departments should react if a UFO lands.

...Kramer said fire rescue personnel would be the first called if a UFO lands. Although there have not been any real encounters with UFOs, Kramer said the chapter essentially deals with panic control. He said there have been a number of incidents over the years that have induced panic. [continued]