UFO near miss with Aussie plane - a case of the Oz factor?

In a case that bears some similarity to one I referred to in my article at the start of the year - New Year, New Close Encounters? - in March an Australian plane en route to Perth Airport apparently narrowly avoided a collision with a UFO. This incident has only just started getting net coverage given that the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau (ATSB) released a report this week on the investigation into the incident which, thus far, has not identified the object in question.

The West Australian newspaper briefly summarises this incident but the Open Minds article expands on this a little more, in particular on the point that if what the plane encountered was an 'unmanned aerial vehicle' or UAV (in other words a drone - either military or recreational) then it was operating in restricted airspace without the apparent knowledge of either civil or military aviation authorities.

Now I couldn't resist the use of the pun in the title of this post but there's a point to be made here in the context of Ufology in general. For those unfamiliar with the expression, the 'Oz factor' was first coined by our very own (by which I mean the UK's) Jenny Randles formerly of BUFORA.

The Wikipedia entry for Ms. Randles refers to the 'Oz factor' as:-

"...a term invented by Randles in 1983 to describe the strange, seemingly altered state of consciousness commonly claimed by some witnesses of unidentified flying objects and other similar paranormal events. Randles has noted the strange calmness and lack of panic described by the witnesses, relative to the bizarre circumstances that they described and says that they described and defined the Oz factor as "the sensation of being isolated, or transported from the real world into a different environmental framework...where reality is but slightly different, [as in] the fairy tale land of Oz." She has further noted that "the Oz factor certainly points to consciousness as the focal point of the UFO encounter..."

Now it would be supremely arrogant to say that all currently inexplicable UFO encounters might have a psychological explanation or be put down to an altered state of consciousness on the part of an observer or observers. In fact it would be quite a disturbing stretch to state this was the case for any given aerial encounter - as that would suggest psychological issues on the part of aviation personnel involved - including the pilots.

It could however be one explanation for some ground based 'abduction' or 'contact' cases allegedly involving extraterrestrials - a facet of the UFO subject I am still completely circumspect about.

Triangle UFO blasts Taliban?

My contract's been extended (they seem to like my work) which has meant l've been short on spare time to write. Thankfully I've now got some leave for a short while.

Whilst commuting I've still managed to find time to read Richard Dolan's excellent "The Cover-Up Exposed, 1973-1991" the 2nd volume in his planned 3 volume series, "UFOs and the National Security State," covering developments in the UFO phenomenon from the 1940s to the present day. Whilst the first book covered the post-war period - and arguably the start of the modern phenomenon - the second looks at the UFO events, politics, and research that occurred during the last two decades of the cold war.

I plan to review this and his previous book, as well as Nick Redfern's On the Trail of the Saucer Spies soon.

Triangle 'UFO' bombs Taliban

Meanwhile, a video has hit the net in the last few days, supposedly filmed by U.S. Marines and showing a triangular UFO attacking a Taliban camp. Personally I think it's nothing more than a half-decent CGI fake intended to go viral so - it wouldn't surprise me if there's some original footage of the explosion(s) shown around somewhere - minus the UFO.

Here's the video in question on YouTube

Another strange triangle UFO

More compelling is the imagery of the triangular 'aircraft' with a contrail, captured by an amateur wildlife photographer. What's particularly interesting is that the witness claims that, as well as making unusual 180 degree manoeuvres, the aircraft was 'absolutely silent'. KSN - which filmed this article - also spoke with nearby McConnell Air Force Base. Assuming they were being truthful, McConnell state that they were also unable to identify the craft. They suggested it may be a B-2 bomber ( i.e. the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit or 'Stealth Bomber'), however, they could not confirm it and added that if it is a B-2, it is not one of theirs. So if it was a B-2 whose was it? If it wasn't a B-2 what was it?

The full video article is on the Open Minds website

Flight MH370 - 5 days on and still a mystery...

Update 15 March 2014

An image of a Malaysia Airlines 777

This is looking more and more like a hijack/terrorist scenario given that communications on the plane may have been deliberately disabled and that the authorities are now looking at the crew/passenger manifest in more detail.

BBC Breakfast interviewed an 'expert' in the last hour who referred to the 'point of maximum confusion' during the plane's journey.

This would be the point at which communications with the plane would be handed over from one country or region's airspace control to another and during which a hostile takeover might possibly have taken place.

This may offer the hope (however faint) that the passengers and crew are still alive and that they - and the aircraft itself - are being held for a ransom at a secret location...

Main article

By now you may have heard about the 'disappearance' of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 five days ago.

Rather than repeat the story here, this BBC article covers developments so far in full.

The BBC have also posted an article about other mysterious airline incidents - some not resolved until many years later.

It remains to be seen what category of incident flight MH370 falls into. It would clearly be premature to even speculate at this stage about what might have happened but, of course, conspiracy theories - including those relating to UFOs - are already viral on the net.

What this most likely tragic story highlights however, is how the world's air travel infrastructure is still vulnerable in the 21st century, nearly a hundred years after the start of the first 'fixed wing' airline. It also shows that, despite all our modern technology which includes radar and satellite tracking systems, finding a large passenger aircraft (or potential wreckage thereof) with 239 people on board, in a search area recently expanded to 92,000 sq km, is an extremely challenging task.

Assuming the plane never made it to dry land, the ocean is a very big and very deep place to be looking through.

My thoughts go out to those relatives of the people on flight MH370 waiting for any news at this time.

A UFO flying across Kent’s skies?

Update 

This story also features in Newsshopper as well as Open Minds.

Main article

An article in the Kent News today features a UFO sighting by father and son - Les Burlington, 68 and son Andrew 38 - in the area of South London/Kent. This article also refers to the website UFO World sightings which they originally reported their sighting to.

Unfortunately, the picture in the article (also shown here) is only apparently a computer generated image created by son Andrew of what they believe the unidentified 'craft' looked like - a classic triangular UFO.

Nonetheless the description of their sighting is interesting. They rule out both the sceptics' recurring choice of Chinese lanterns and helicopters as an explanation.

'Digital representation' of the UFO in Kent News

I know exactly what they're talking about with their reference to helicopter sightings, as I regularly see police helicopters circling in the South London/Kent area. You always know they're around as they're very noisy - unlike the 'craft' in this apparent sighting. And if what they witnessed was at relatively close range - to prevent too much sound distortion - then one could also rule out a VTOL (vertical take off and landing) or vector thrust aircraft given the noise that is made by such vehicles.

I have seen Chinese lanterns in this area too. Whilst these are silent, they're readily easy to identify (at close range - less so at a distance) and rarely last for any significant duration.

If the timing of the sighting was at 8:45pm as suggested, then this also rules out
sun-dogs - and whilst most familiar celestial bodies slowly move across the sky (no idea whether it was a clear sky or not that night) - what they claimed to witness apparently 'circled' as well...

It is conceivable however, that what they saw might possibly have been an airship or blimp, or a remote-controlled drone/aircraft.

Message to Les/Andrew

 

If you're reading this post - especially given that this has apparently taken place not far from where I live - I would very much like you to get in touch about your sighting.

You can reach me at ufoscrutiny@gmail.com.

Thanks,

Jonathan aka MIB.

The (Hoax) Alien Invasion is coming...

Ok Folks,

I admit I've been a bit remiss with my postings again - especially as my last post has been out of date for some time (as the Open Minds website is now up and running fine again).
My apologies - it was down to another run of (tiring and tedious) Govt contract work which finishes at the end of March and which has been taking up quite a bit of my time.

So this post offers three relatively hot news items for one. Enjoy.

Hoax 'Alien Invasion'

A typical camera drone

Anyway, be warned that according to these OpenMinds and Yahoo News articles there is a hoax 'alien invasion' on the horizon.

No it's nothing to do with the laughable 'Project Blue Beam', this appears to be a planned large-scale prank orchestrated by supposed UFO fans who will fly large numbers of remote controlled drones, complete with eerie flashing lights, into the skies on 5th April. Apparently 1st April would be too obvious a date hence the 5th to catch the uninformed unawares.

It will be interesting to see whether this generates any flurry of activity on the web or whether - given some the event's thunder might have been stolen by these articles and others - it just ends up being another '...and finally' item on local news networks. All a bit of fun I guess. And who knows? Maybe the news of the 'fake invasion' is itself just as fake - a social experiment in media manipulation. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Are We Alone? - This coming week

It's good to see some elements of the mainstream media giving some extended and sober coverage to one of the great mysteries as the American Science Channel launches it's Are We Alone themed week from tomorrow. Full details on the Science Channel Website

Bruce Dickinson and the 'flying bum'!

Now what have the former Iron Maiden front-man and a 'flying bum' got in common?

Daily Mail picture of the Hybrid Air Vehicle

Well the recent BBC News article and other articles such as this one in the Daily Mail will show you.

Bruce Dickinson - now a successful businessman and pilot, has - along with other investors - re-acquired (from the US military) an advanced 'airship' designed in Britain which, according to the Daily Mail resembles nothing less than a 'flying bum'.

It's a rather crass description for a huge and elegant piece of British hybrid airplane/airship engineering called the HAV (Hybrid Air Vehicle) 304, which I'm sure might get mistaken by some unobservant people for a 'UFO'. Anyway check out the articles for more details.

Open Minds TV site down again?

Okay so for a few days I have been unable to access the Open Minds TV website. Apparently 'the server where this site is located isn't responding.'

Whether I use Firefox or Safari the browser just freezes up on this site only. Other sites no problem.

Disabling internet security has no effect. Perhaps this is just something affecting those of us on this side of the the pond.

I can see search engine results still showing live/recent news articles - and I'd expect a holding page to at least be accessible if the site was down for some new year maintenance.

Is anyone else having the same issue accessing this site?