Page 37 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - October / November 2018

Yes, UFOs Exist. But ... 37

Yes, UFOs Exist. But

They're Probably Not

What You Think.

Video of a 2004 encounter between
the U.S. Air Force and an unidentified

flying object has the internet asking
about aliens.

By Eleanor Cummins

On a dark and otherwise serene night back in
the 1960s, my grandpa, a doctor and
recreational pilot, was ferrying two lawyers to a
deposition. As they bisected the state of
Washington, the airborne group encountered
something surreal: An aircraft unlike anything
they had ever seen before was flying straight
toward them. My grandpa recalled an oblong
flying machine, with blinking lights and an
eerie ability to hover, that tracked his
movements through the sky. When he ducked,
the other object also ducked. And when he rose,
nation, is simply working on new, mind- once seemed incomprehensible (and to many
it rose. While it was certainly an unidentified
boggling technologies we’re not privy to yet. moon-landing conspiracy theorists, still is). We
flying object, my grandpa never claimed he saw
Though it may feel like a less exciting rationale have Harrier Jump Jets capable of vertical take-
aliens. He seemed to believe that someday, the
for the weird event, there’s immense precedent. offs, a type of lift long associated with alleged
strange visit he’d received would be
Much of the alleged alien activity of the past 80 alien technologies. And just this week, Boeing’s
explained—in earthly terms. years has ultimately been revealed as top secret eerily-named Phantom Works division
This family memory was the first thing I government projects. announced it had been quietly working on a
thought of when I read the recent New York Take, for example, the hidden history of Batmobile-style refueling plane. You’d be
Times story about U.S. Navy pilots who say
flying saucers. In the late 1950s, it seems, the forgiven if you saw either plane on a test flight
they saw an unidentified flying object near the
U.S. Air Force really was working on Project and thought it came from a galaxy far, far away.
San Diego coast in 2004. In the story, titled “2
1794 to build a supersonic saucer. The first test My grandpa waited and waited to see the
Navy Airmen and an Object That ‘Accelerated
of the VZ-9 Avrocar took place on Nov. 12, unveiling of a military aircraft that explained
Like Nothing I’ve Ever Seen,’” the Times
1959. Hopes of a lean, mean, and circular the Stranger Things moment he experienced all
described in hair-raising language the moment
fighting machine were high, but the prototypes those years ago. However, he died in 2014
Cmdr. David Fravor and Lt. Cmdr. Jim Slaight never met the military’s standards. Instead of without a truly satisfactory explanation for that
saw the… thing. Unlike more common aircraft rising to an altitude of 100,000 feet, it got closer night. That doesn’t mean he’s wrong that the
that use propulsion to move through the sky, this
to 5,000. It never hit the right speed, either, as ship he saw (and others like it) were the product
craft hovered. It acted almost like an anxious
its shape proved pretty unstable. The top-secret of human ingenuity (or human error). Even if
dog, “jumping around erratically,” but also
project was cancelled by 1961, but visions of none of these technological interpretations
zooming back and forth from the Navy aircraft
flying saucers have persisted. check out, natural phenomena, drones, and a
as if it were curious about the other airplanes it
And don’t forget the treasure trove of million other non-alien blips could also be to
had discovered. Most alarmingly, it moved fast
spooky stories emanating from the infamous blame. Aliens may be a fun explanation for
as lightning, and seemed privy to insider
Area 51. Located in the sand dunes of southwest what’s otherwise inexplicable, but sometimes, a
knowledge. When the Navy pilots made a Nevada, this top-secret site has long been UFO is just that: an (as yet) unidentified flying
game-time decision to head back to their believed the U.S. government’s storage unit for object.[]
rendezvous point, the strange object somehow
wayward aliens and their crash-landed ships.
beat them there.
While much about Area 51 remains mysterious
Reading this would send chills radiating
to this day, in 2013, the CIA acknowledged the
up and down any normal person’s spine. The
site really does exist—and that it has long been
accompanying video depicting the encounter—
used for testing spy planes, like the U-2
and the alarm in the pilots’ voices—does
reconnaissance plane.
nothing to suppress that hair-raising sensation.
But most relevant is the “Roswell
The first question many readers asked was, incident” of 1947. That summer, a UFO crash-
could this be an alien encounter? landed on a ranch in Roswell, New Mexico.
While there’s a slim possibility (like, an
When the U.S. military tried to cover it up,
infinitesimally small chance) that this really was
conspiracy theories ran wild, as no one accepted
some interstellar aircraft belonging to an
the explanation offered—that the mysterious
otherworldly species, the answer to the alien
metals were just a conventional weather
question is probably no.
balloon. Today, we know from declassified
As the New York Times wrote in another
documents that the myth-making machine was
piece published last weekend, the U.S.
really a nuclear surveillance test balloon,
government has been searching for manufactured as part of the Cold War-era
extraterrestrial life on and off for decades. surveillance operation, Project Mogul.
While some information remains classified, so
Some of these spooky special operations
far as we know, we haven’t found anything
have gained name brand recognition like Area
particularly promising. A more likely
51, but plenty of smaller, but no less profound,
explanation for the 2004 San Diego event could
developments have also taken place. We’ve
be that a government agency, deep within the
landed on the moon, something that would have
United States military or the military of another