A Happy New Year to you and I hope you
all enjoyed the festive break.
For me the run up and the main event was
quite busy hence my absence from posting since November.
Anyhow, the year has started with two interesting UK cases which have apparently only just hit the press, although technically the timing of the events seem to have been July and December of 2013 respectively.
The
first (this event appears to have been July 2013 but has only been reported in the Sunday Telegraph on 5 January) was a dramatic near miss between a passenger plane and a 'rugby ball shaped' UFO
near Heathrow Airport. The jury's still out on what the
object was but the UK's Aviation Airprox investigations unit has been
looking into the incident which has been reported by an (understandably) unnamed pilot
for an unnamed airline. The Full Telegraph article can be found here.
The Wakefield Express reports a resident in Ossett (a market town within the metropolitan district of the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire) having filmed a rectangular-shaped UFO hovering over the area on 29 December 2013. Have a look at the brief Express article.
Elsewhere, there has been an intriguing report of a UFO tracked on radar as well as seen by witnesses, which disrupted traffic at Bremen Airport in Germany - a country out of which - interestingly in itself - few UFO reports tend to emanate. See the Huffington Post's article here. According to accounts by air traffic control and local eyewitnesses, the UFO's description includes the apparent airframe and navigation lights of an plane. However, the aerial object in question was seemingly operating without authorisation in German airspace.
Could the mystery 'plane' in fact be:-
a) a huge oversight on the part of Bremen air traffic control (unlikely in my view);
b) evidence of a secret military/intelligence operation for example the continuing practice of extraordinary rendition (more likely although the timing and frequency of the event seems strange for this explanation to hold weight); or
Having subsequently examined this story more closely, the Kazakhstani scientists would appear to be earnest in their theory concerning 'alien code' being hidden in human DNA -and when one starts to look at what they have to say in detail, it does start to make a strange kind of sense.
To see what I mean, have a look at the following video I've added in here from Paul Davies. Writing in New Scientist, Professor Paul Davies, from the
Australian Centre for Astrobiology at Macquarie University in Sydney,
also suggests - amongst other theories - that a cosmic greeting card could have been left in the
so-called ‘junk DNA’ contained in every human cell.
If you can't view the video on your mobile device try clicking here.
According to an article in the Australian Courier (which in turn links to a six month old Discovery article) scientists in Kazakhstan - of all places - supposedly believe that humanity has alien code written into its DNA and that we might have been created by something 'non-terrestrial', much in the way 'the engineers' created humanity in the recent Ridley Scott movie Prometheus.
Conspiracy theorists shouldn't start punching the air just yet however.
Still of an 'Engineer' from the Ridley Scott movie Prometheus
No hard evidence in support of this appears to have been submitted yet nor does there appear to have been any scrutiny by the rest of the world's scientific community thus far.
Could it be that someone in Kazakhstan
is trying to raise the country's profile on the world map for being
associated with something other than Borat?
Still here folks. Just currently diverting more of my energy to searching for a decent part-time job or contract at the moment.
Real?
Anyway, you might have noticed a recent spate of sightings across the UK in recent weeks, including a ball of scintillating light captured on video over Cumbria; a vaguely 'disc-shaped' object photographed by a motorist in West Yorkshire (possibly a tax-disc holder as suggested by some keen-eyed observers!) and a green ball of light witnessed and photographed over Gloucestershire.
One incident that particularly struck me however, is the image captured by a former Royal Navy Aeronautical Engineer - see the Open Minds article. What's compelling to me is the calibre of the witness and the very interesting close up of one of the images captured - quite obviously a 'disc'.
Interesting too to note that none of the above sightings really correlate in any way, in that the phenomena - which may yet be revealed to have earthly explanations - are all visually different.
Staged
Finally - wouldn't you know it - yet another crashed 'UFO' is discovered in a school playground.
This time the event staged by North Harringay Primary School for its pupils, managed to feature in a national newspaper - The Independent (article here). More evidence, if needed, that the Department of Education appears to be endorsing a curriculum that includes a rather strangely-themed series of managed events in schools around the country...
Whilst conducting internet research for another post I plan to publish, I came across some (now quite old) posts on the following forum - Professional Pilots Rumour Network (PPRUNE) - a site that hosts anonymous online chatter between current and former civil/commercial aviation pilots and other aviation personnel.
A number of these posts can be said to be typical of the ridicule that anyone interested in the UFO/UAP subject attracts from those claiming to represent the 'voice of reason' in the aviation community. One classic example is this post where the mere utterance of the dreaded acronym 'UFO' leads to very toxic responses. I personally find the level of arrogance displayed and cavalier attitude demonstrated on this forum, towards the subject and those merely discussing it, to be of some concern - but not unexpected.
That's because, if one was to conduct an opinion poll in the UK today on whether regular air travellers would feel safe sitting in a plane known to be piloted by someone who claimed to have seen a UFO (despite the initials standing for Unidentified Flying Object - the 'alien' stigma attached to these letters remains), then I imagine at the very least 50 per cent of those polled would say 'no'. Coupled with the point that all pilots and civil aviation personnel generally would know their career would quickly be over if they publicly insisted on having seen a UFO (whether it had an earthly explanation or not), it's not really surprising to see why this general attitude persists to this day.
What's really interesting however, is this very rare post which demonstrates that there are pilots out there who have had some strange experiences and - quite boldly in my view - are prepared to discuss this to a limited extent on the very same forum.
Another poster in this chain does, however, offer a very valid word of caution which I have quoted below:
"...Of all the witnesses, two west country policeman are perhaps the most
memorable: they had become quite famous after spending most of an
evening chasing a mystery object that hovered in front of their patrol
car, darting from side to side and sometimes approaching very close as
they hurtled along at 90mph. I remember them being distinctly
disenchanted when shown astronomical tables that placed Venus right in
front of them on the straight bits of road.
These fine officers, and most other witnesses had fallen foul of two properties of the human eye:
Firstly, it's extreme sensitivity - the ability to easily see a 3W
torch bulb suspended on a hill top 6 mi away for instance.
Unfortunately, the eye is not calibrated, and a pin point source has an
apparent brightness linked to the surrounding environment. That is how
Venus can be described by witnesses as 'dazzling' and so on. Secondly, once denied normal visual cues in low light situations,
the eye can begin rapid involuntary movements. This makes distant light
sources (eg stars, planets, satellites and aircraft) appear to 'dart'
about the sky. Just note how many UFO stories involve 'dazzling' objects that 'dart' about! I am not suggesting that all sightings can be explained in this
way. But very many can. And there are important lessons for professional
observers like Pilots and Policemen. The eye can certainly deceive and
the more 'expert' the witness, the more extreme the mis-interpretation
of visual cues can become. That's just because we all share the same
physiology and no amount of training can change that, whatever any given
individual might think.
PS I never really gave up on the UFO idea. The astonishing and
continuing discovery of hundreds of extra-solar planets in the last few
years gives the whole subject new momentum. But 'investigating' the
anecdotes of witnesses is a hard road that rapidly becomes impassible if
any kind of objective test is applied to the data. The subject was IMHO
best discussed many years ago by Prof RV Jones, the man who
'discovered' the V2 rocket. His account is here"
[the link referred to at the end of this quote seems to have changed so interested parties will need to search for "Prof RV Jones"]
These last comments give me pause for thought
about my own recent sighting described in my previous post - in that it
is possible that what I saw could also have been an exceptionally
bright daytime celestial object - but I guess I'll never know for sure.
Should by any remote chance, any of those pilots have read this post (the latter and earnest ones only please - captain-flashheart-and-his-laugh-I-nearly-did crew of online abusers need not apply!), I would very much be interested in hearing their full accounts - anonymously of course.
Please email: Jonathan Niven at ufoscrutiny@gmail.com
As far as I'm aware, it's a shame that non-U.S. aviation personnel probably can't contact NARCAP to record their accounts.
The role and function of NARCAP can be found on its website and is self-explanatory. But this site is U.S. in origin and (tellingly) there is no such equivalent body or site in the UK for example, which means BUFORA would be the next best place for such reports in this country.
I hope those of my readers in the UK enjoyed the exceptionally good
weather we had this Summer (makes a change from recent years!). Aside
from enhancing my visits to relatives and in-laws in different parts of
the UK, the long sunny days allowed me to digest much more reading
material in my back garden on the subject of UFOs, which I shall summarise in a
future post.
In the meantime, I would like to share with you an interesting 'sighting' I had whilst recently walking through the area I live.
I should point out that although I am now in my mid-forties, I am very fortunate to still have very good eyesight and have yet to need glasses for any activity.
The sighting
The date was Wednesday 28 August 2013. I can remember the time of the sighting as I was walking on my way to see a matinee screening of the film 'Elysium' at my local Odeon cinema which was at 13:15pm. The sighting itself started at approximately 12:45pm. I was on my own (my wife being at work) and was in a quiet residential back street in the South London area where I live.
The sky was a brilliant cornflower blue with virtually no clouds. I just happened to look up in a northwesterly direction and noted the positions of at least two airplanes, both cruising at completely different altitudes, with one really high up (I couldn't hazard a guess at the specific altitude I'm afraid) and the other probably at base cloud level (had there been any significant cloud cover on the day).
What particularly caught my eye was a very bright object in-between these planes (in terms of guessed altitude). It seemed as bright, if not brighter, than the star Sirius would be at night-time, except this was in a clear early afternoon sky. The light was intense, white and occasionally fluctuated, but did not 'twinkle' like a night-time star would. Also of interest was its long, near-stationary position relative to other points of reference, such as the rooftops of houses over which I could see it and one of the airplanes I had first noticed. My impression was that the light source was artificial and not a natural phenomenon. There was no - even distant - accompanying jet engine or rotor noise that I would expect to hear from either a plane or helicopter. Remember I was on a quiet residential street with little or no ambient noise. I also remember being annoyed for two reasons: that I hadn't got my binoculars with me (which though fairly portable, I only generally carry around with me when in more rural surroundings); and that the duration of the sighting was in danger of making me miss the start of the film I was going to see - in that it lasted almost 15 minutes. Just to make sure I wasn't the only person who could see this, I asked a lady who was passing by if she could see it too (which probably unnerved her a bit and I can't say I blame her!). She had to physically cross the street to look over the rooftops from roughly where I was standing but she did indeed confirm that she could see the object too and that 'no. I wasn't going mad'. The lady then rather matter-of-factly carried on as if seeing a very bright stationary object in the daytime sky was no big deal! I continued watching the bright object, whilst the planes disappeared on their respective flightpaths and others came into view, concerned that I would need to tear myself away soon if I wanted to see the film, as I was still some five minutes walk away from the cinema. Then, almost as if to allay my concerns, at around 13:00pm the object very slowly appeared to descend. I say 'appeared to descend' because it could have been moving straight away from me relative to my position (in other words further northwest) which would also give the impression of descent. As it was I found myself slowly walking further and further back to keep it in sight above the rooftops until I almost banged into a tree on the kerbside.
Conventional explanation?
Now here's a list of the things, I personally believe this object couldn't have been which make the sighting interesting:-
An airplane because I could initially see at least two of those in the sky at the same time which did not resemble this object in any way and the object 'hovered' or remained stationary for at least 10-15 minutes. Incidentally there was no vapour-trail from or near the object;
A Chinese lantern, hot-air balloon or party balloon as the object remained stationary for a lot longer than any of those would;
The Moon - because I saw the Moon quite clearly in another part of the daytime sky and nowhere near as bright as this object;
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Sirius, Arcturus or another similar such celestial body because having read up on this aspect of astronomy, it is extremely rare for these to be seen with such luminous intensity in the daytime - and they do not move across the sky in as short a time-frame as this object did at the sighting's conclusion.
A 'sun-dog' or rainbow effect as there were no clouds near the object, which these phenomena are usually caused by and the object was only one apparent colour - a very intense white;
A bird as most birds - as far as I'm aware - rarely hover for fifteen minutes and aren't luminous or emit intense (even reflected) light!; and
A firework or laser show given that both of those would be more transitory, more obvious to even the casual observer and almost always take place at night.
I should also point out that, although it was a late Summer's day there were, as far as I am aware, no thunderstorms or associated atmospheric electrical phenomena in London that day.
Now it is possible that, given the objects 'flight characteristics' what I saw could have been:-
A helicopter, (real or model) or a camera drone; or
An airship.
However, for it to have been any of these, it would have to have had:-
a highly polished reflective surface to reflect sunlight with such intensity, for such a duration and at just the right angle for me to see it for nearly quarter of an hour; or
very bright searchlights pointed in my direction for nearly fifteen minutes - but why would either an airship or helicopter being using searchlights in the daytime?
Supporting evidence?
In view of the above, it is a source of intense frustration to me that I didn't have my binoculars or any other means of getting a closer view of the object. Also a video or image on my iPhone camera wouldn't have done it justice given the limitations of digital zooms - something analogue or optical zooms are much better for in these circumstances.
So no images or video to back up my sighting I'm afraid and no way for me to discern what the actual shape of the object was from such a distance. I have however found a recent UK video online (made incidentally the day after my sighting) which shows an object closely resembling what I saw. The video was posted on Youtube under the poster's heading "ufo (saucer) Derby Uk 29/08/2013". I cannot vouch for this video's authenticity however.
Conclusion
To me at least, my sighting currently sits within the pure definition of an Unidentified Flying Object, and I hasten to add - not necessarily with any of the E.T. connotations many automatically assume with such a sighting.
Given the above, I would be interested to hear from anyone who saw something similar on or around that time in the skies above South London, or indeed any other part of London which may help to 'triangulate' the sighting or even throw more 'light' (no pun intended) onto what this object was or might have been.
I see that there's been an exchange of fire between two of Britain's 'UFO experts' recently, especially coming on the heels of the final release of the MOD's UFO Files.
Whilst, I tend to favour Pope's view - and those of others such as Timothy Good - that these are not all the files that the relevant UK authorities possess concerning UFOs (note I'm not specifically concerned with just MOD's files here), I do wish these two would try and settle their differences.
One of the most recent salvos in this exchange was by Pope seemingly and indirectly referring to Clarke as a 'useful idiot' (which was in both the Reuters and UFOs and Nukes articles I referred to in my last post), which I thought was unkind given Clarke's work to have the MOD files released. Pope now appears to have offered an apology for his remark. It also doesn't help matters that - if certain claims being made about him are true - Pope might not have been the UFO sceptic he maintained he was before working for the MOD (the HuffPost article by Lee Speigel gives details).
As Lee says in his article:-
"If there are any losers here, it must be the public, for the confusion
this has brought up. After tens of thousands of pages of UFO files have
been released by the U.K., who are we supposed to believe about how
significant (or not) those documents really are?"
The two protagonists - like many others in the UFO community - seem more concerned with attacking each other (and perhaps protecting their own reputations) than making a collective effort to continue to search for answers.
Despite the arguments put forward by both supporters and sceptics generally, the phenomenon of UFOs and UAP persists. Of those cases that come to light, there are still a significant number that cannot be put down to chinese lanterns, balloons, experimental aircraft, drones, meteorological or astronomical phenomena, the mental state of observers etc.
The observable universe apparently stubbonly refuses to fit into the neat world-view of either hardened sceptics or avid supporters. In addition, whilst I favour 'cock-up' or 'WYSIWYG' (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) rather than 'conspiracy' to explain much Government activity, it would be foolish to think that any Government is entirely 'open' or 'transparent' on a topic such as this.
Still both Clarke and Pope - whatever flaws they might be considered by some to have (including each other) - are well-known and dare I say, respected names in the field and are bolder than I (and many like me), by publicly having just such an association with the UFO phenomenon, whilst I - through necessity - must remain anonymous.
That is why I think it is important that they acknowledge their differences in a mature, gentlemanly fashion and just try to get along.
The
first (this event appears to have been July 2013 but has only been reported in the Sunday Telegraph on 5 January) was a dramatic near miss between a passenger plane and a 'rugby ball shaped' UFO
near Heathrow Airport. The jury's still out on what the
object was but the UK's Aviation Airprox investigations unit has been
looking into the incident which has been reported by an (understandably) unnamed pilot
for an unnamed airline. The Full Telegraph article can be found here. 
