Page 17 - 201007 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - July 2010

July 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 31/07/2010 10:52 AM Page 17 More On Chinese Misidentified UFOs 17 Space Expert: China UFOs Likely From This World Lee Speigel Contributor July 20 2010: UFOs shut down an airport in China's Zhejiang province and turned heads in a major city, but a renowned space expert says the strange lights in the night sky will likely turn out to be more identifiable flying objects. Just days after the Xiaoshan Airport grounded flights due to bizarre lights, China's state-controlled news agency published photographs of a mysterious "diamond-shaped" object sighted over Chongqing, sparking speculation about extraterrestrial visitors. However UFO skeptic and space flight expert James Oberg told AOL News in an exclusive interview that he has a more terrestrial explanation -- military testing. "I'm not surprised because of the level of you look at those pictures, you see palm trees in "We're left with having to slice away confusion. In China, they do seem to have a lot them, and the buildings and the horizon look most of what people thought they knew about of openness about what people see -- they're not like Manchester, England, not Hangzhou, the event and come back to the fact that there always so open about the explanations, but China." was something visually seen -- at least by the that's not because the UFOs are interplanetary," And what about those rows of lights on flight crew -- that worried the traffic control into Oberg told AOL News. top of the alleged UFO? not knowing what was over the airport." Oberg, who is the NBC News space "It's a two or three-second exposure -- So what does Oberg think the China consultant and is widely regarded as a world the little dots show up because there's a strobe UFOs will turn out to be? authority on the Russian and Chinese space on the helicopter." "Whether it was really Venus -- and programs, cautions against jumping to OK, and how about the beam of light that's a conjecture -- it certainly has to be high conclusions about the latest Chinese UFOs. emanating from the UFO? on the list. Other people thought it might be a "Some of the stuff in China, like in the "If it's got a searchlight, then as the missile test. The raw descriptions are still in U.S.S.R. in the '60s, was military aerospace searchlight moves, especially if it's being conflict." activity, and the Chinese had a case like this just pointed to a place on the ground, it'll appear to The space scientist adds that the this past January, when an anti-missile test converge." possibility of the airport UFO having a military sparked UFO reports -- people saw the The China airport incident reminded connection "is an entirely legitimate interceptor missile flying and colliding with a Oberg of an early 2001 case in Barnaul, Siberia, speculation." target missile, and they reported it as lights in where a UFO shut down an airport. Oberg has often been called an open- the sky, which they were." "A jet got to the end of the runway for minded skeptic when it comes to UFOs, Shortly after the July 7 incident over the takeoff when they reported a bright white light, because he's keeping his final bets open about Xiaoshan Airport, spokesman Ruan Zhouchang like landing lights, also at the end of the what some UFOs may turn out to be. confirmed to the media that "there was an runway," Oberg explained. "After a few "I'm frustrated that people are just unknown object seen in the skies over the minutes, it was still there, and the pilots grappling among the smoke and mirrors airport. So, according to our regulations, we had reported it was hovering. Finally, it went away, because, with all the horse manure out there, I to close the airspace. Aircraft movements were and most people agree that the object in still think there could be ponies. suspended from 8:45 p.m. to 9:41 p.m. question was the planet Venus." "I know that from the things I've found "I heard that some of the passengers This may surprise you, but according to that turned out to be military activities, and that whose flights just landed saw the object, which Oberg, who has written 10 books on all aspects turn out to be important information about space appeared as glowing lights. It was not a normal of space flight, pilots might not be the best UFO activities -- Russian and Chinese, primarily -- civil aviation flight. What it actually was, no eyewitnesses. there are things worthy of discovery and of one knows," Zhouchang said. "One of the dirty little secrets of UFO legitimate interest to science, the news media, Oberg says that even videos and pictures witnessing is that pilots are, as a category, law enforcement, perceptual theory and don't necessarily show something that comes among the worst identifiers of celestial objects - psychology. from another planet. More terrestrial - and this is in their own words. "I think there are things worthy of explanations are the norm. "The reason for that is that pilots, to fly discovery hidden, lost, unrecognized among the "There was one picture from a sequence safely, have to interpret visual stimuli as corpus of UFO reports, and I think it's worth of a rocket launch that was observed a week dangerous so they can react quickly, rather than looking at. It's definitely not all nonsense." earlier all across central Asia, but that video has sit there and speculate what the light might be." been all over YouTube as the airport UFO." In his lectures on space safety (and the In fact, many images have found their principle of spaceflight safety as it applies to Dare to Believe - way to the Internet, purporting to be the China aviation) given to the National Transportation airport UFO. At first glance, these images show Safety Board, Oberg says it's confirmed what he Dare to be Heard what appears as an elongated craft, with several felt about pilot reports on UFOs. The ‘X’ Zone Radio Show lights on top of it, shooting a beam of light "Investigators are very reluctant to take toward the ground. testimony from pilots as witnesses because the with An alien mother-ship looking for pilot has an analytical mind and is trying to something it's lost on the ground? Oberg offers solve or understand the sequence of events, and Rob McConnell a simpler, more logical explanation. will edit or stress or leave out elements of his www.xzoneradiotv.com "The most bizarre-looking pictures are raw perceptions that are inconsistent with the pretty clearly time exposures of helicopters. If way he's interpreted the sequence.