Page 43 - 201009 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - August 2010

August 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 30/08/2010 4:00 PM Page 43 From The ‘X’ Zone Newsroom 43 Pilots and generals go public “History is filled with accounts of that I would want to post a message would be in about UFOs previously ridiculed subjects that have turned the local wheat field.” But these types of comments don’t Continued from Page 42 out to be important to mankind, as a study of the dissuade Gord Heath of UFO B.C. history of science confirms,” Haines writes. The U.S. experience with UFOs differs Before leaving the Straight office, he “What were those objects?” he asks in significantly from several other countries. turned over extensive reports that his group had his essay. “No one knows. They were not In 1951, the U.S. air force launched prepared of two UFO sightings. One involved a foreign jets attacking. They were unidentified Project Blue Book, which was ostensibly giant object in the skies over the Yukon on flying objects.” created to receive UFO reports from citizens, December 11, 1996, reportedly observed by 31 Pereira ends his chapter with a plea to all conduct investigations, and provide people. The other concerned a 57-year-old technologically advanced countries to set up explanations to the public. mystery about a pilot who disappeared over government agencies focused on UFOs: “The According to Kean’s investigation, it Lake Superior. United States should certainly lead the way, soon turned into a public-relations operation Neither the media nor the Canadian since that country is and will remain the planet’s intended to debunk UFO sightings and government paid much attention to either case. greatest technological power, with a great discourage public interest in the topic. [] ability to aggregate knowledge from other She explained to the Straight that a key The truth is out there... countries.” part of this shift was the Central Intelligence Two air-force pilots have contributed Agency’s creation of a scientific advisory panel but let’s just pretend chapters to Kean’s book recounting their in 1953, chaired by H. P. Robertson, a physicist attempts to shoot down UFOs. at the California Institute of Technology. Retired Iranian general Parviz Jafari After four days, the panel suggested He was a believer – in planet-wandering tells the story of pursuing a UFO over Tehran in creating a new public-education campaign spacemen. So convinced was he of something 1976, as it flashed intense red, green, orange, focused on explaining away sightings. being out there, it’s reported from recently released government archive reports that he ordered an and blue lights. When he got ready to fire, he A scientist who worked on Project Blue alleged sighting of an alien flying machine to be writes, his weapons jammed and his radio Book, J. Allen Hynek, was given this task. The kept secret to avoid mass panic and a loss of failed. U.S. UFO reporting system was shut down in religious faith. Retired Peruvian Commandante Oscar 1970, and two years later Hynek wrote a book A wartime meeting took place, attended by Santa María Huertas writes about firing at a stating that the entire operation was set up to Winston Churchill and Eisenhower, in which the balloon-like object. On three occasions, it discredit the existence of UFOs. prime minister is said to have been so concerned suddenly shot upward. The UFO was seen by When the Straight asked Kean why the about a reported encounter between a UFO and more than 1,000 soldiers. U.S. government was so opposed to an open RAF bombers, he ordered it be kept secret for at Kean obtained a U.S. government discussion of the topic, she said that the denials least 50 years, in the public interest. memorandum on the Iranian incident, which began during the Cold War, and there may have Not that mass panic would really have been stated that the case “meets all the criteria been fear that the Soviet Union would take on the cards. Not here. Mass interest, whipped up necessary for a valid study of UFO advantage of a UFO panic. hysteria, a collective over-activity in the wild phenomena”. It was seen by multiple witnesses “Maybe there is some kind of a secret imagination department maybe. But panic? Not a was confirmed by radar. program that they don’t want anyone to know chance. In November 1982, Portuguese air-force about,” she added. “There is a whole lot of These days it takes no more than a floating pilot Júlio Guerra claimed that an oval-shaped possible reasons. I think the main point is they Chinese lantern to set a flurry of X Files stories bouncing from the walls. The taillights of a object without a tail or wings appeared to the are not conducting policy responsibly, and it Malaga-bound 747 blinking in a night sky can left of his plane at an altitude of between 5,000 needs to change—regardless of the reasons for convince hordes of UFO nutters to go ape with and 5,500 feet. it.” excitement and lay the table for tea with a Martian. It had climbed from the ground in less University of British Columbia And I apologise now for any offence – but than 10 seconds, and finally stopped in front of astronomer Erik Rosolowsky told the Straight come on guys – until you can produce a turbo- him. In his chapter in UFOs, Guerra describes it by phone that people occasionally contact him engined ship from another world, from which an as a “metallic disc composed of two halves, one with stories about UFOs. Many involve the alien being is happy to step out and join us for a pie on the top and another on the bottom, with some Venus or other planets or satellites. and a pint in the pub, I’ll always believe you’re a kind of band around the center, brilliant with the He noted people in Norway once bit on the cooky side. You know – logical brain top reflecting the sun”. mistook a Russian manned space launch for a processes cut on the bias? But whacky or Guerra states that he planned an UFO. Over the past three years, he said, there otherwise, It seems everyone secretly wants a third “intercept”, but that the object was faster than have been only two instances brought to his encounter of the ET kind – a cuddly extra terrestrial his own aircraft, and flew over his path, attention that he could not account for using to take home to the kids. Reports of sightings of UFOs peaked in “breaking all the rules of aerodynamics”. Two standard astronomy. 1996 in the UK –when science fiction drama The X other pilots witnessed the event. “It does seem like there is a small set of Files was popular... nuff said? The sci-fi A 30-member, multidisciplinary team of UFO phenomena that are not explained yet,” blockbuster movie Independence Day was out the experts investigated and determined that the Rosolowsky commented. “The nature of same year... well, fancy that. object was flying vertically at more than 300 science is that because they’re not explained yet But don’t we just love a conspiracy theory? miles per hour, which is impossible for a doesn’t mean that they can’t be explained. But Be it a spooky space story, a big cat prowling helicopter. at the same time, you don’t know.” panther-like through Cumbria or the second At other times, it travelled at about The head of a Vancouver group of coming of Mulder and Scully, bathed in a glow 1,550 miles per hour, Guerra writes. The object skeptics questions whether extraterrestrial from the northern lights – the paranormal is so remained unidentified after the study was beings could even send a spacecraft from much more fun than our own hum-drum normal. completed. another galaxy to Earth. Churchill knew that. The company is good. Richard Haines, the former NASA Lee Moller, chairman of B.C. Skeptics, He too was a UFO nutter. The truth is out there and scientist, has focused his research on the told the Straight by phone that one would think the truth is, like Winston, when life gets tough we potential impact of unexplained aerial that society would be “hip-deep in high- all prefer a fiction. phenomena on aviation safety. He points out in resolution photos of yetis and aliens right now”, Since the Freedom of Information Act his own chapter in Kean’s book that Guerra’s given the abundance of cameras. “But we’re arrived in 2005, UFOs have become the third-most popular subject for people to write to the Ministry experience demonstrates the dangers of a near not.” of Defence about. Begging letters, they are. miss with an unidentified object in the skies. Then, in a reference to crop circles, he Pleading for release of evidence of other life forms He also states that unidentified aerial quipped: “If I were going to spend the trillions sharing our universe and invading our world.So, all phenomena can impair safety by interfering and trillions of dollars and the unimaginable evidence – such as it is – has been rolled out for with proper navigational equipment. A third amount of energy that it would take for me to public consumption. Should anyone care to do so, concern is the distraction these apparent objects get from one planet to another, I think the place it is now possible to gorge on the trivia of other create for flight crews. people’s obsessions and fabricated fears.[]