SKEPTIC - The Physics of UFOs

[frogmarch]

87. Interesting! Thanks for posting it.

It's a fascinating case. However, no one in the other two airplanes, the ones that approached the Japan Airlines flight to look for the object, saw it (although by then the JAL pilot and crew reported that they had lost sight of it). No one else saw it either, except on radar.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Air_Lines_flight_1628_incident

After a three month investigation, the FAA formally released their results at a press conference held on March 5, 1987. Here Paul Steucke retracted earlier FAA suggestions that their controllers confirmed a UFO,[12] and ascribed it to a "split radar image" which appeared with unfortunate timing. He clarified that "the FAA [did] not have enough material to confirm that something was there", and though they were "accepting the descriptions by the crew" they were "unable to support what they saw".[11] The McGrath incident was revealed here amongst the ample set of documents supplied to the journalists.

The sighting received special attention from the media,[16] as a supposed instance of the tracking of UFOs on both ground[12] and airborne radar, while being observed by experienced airline pilots, with subsequent confirmation by an FAA Division Chief.

Yesterday I was reading about WWII pilots who flew the Hump (over the Himalayas to China) and learned that Barry Goldwater had been a Hump pilot. I googled him and found in a Wiki article about him that he was interested in UFOs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_goldwater

Goldwater was one of the more prominent American politicians to openly show an interest in UFOs.

On March 28, 1975, Goldwater wrote to Shlomo Arnon: "The subject of UFOs has interested me for some long time. About ten or twelve years ago I made an effort to find out what was in the building at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where the information has been stored that has been collected by the Air Force, and I was understandably denied this request. It is still classified above Top Secret."[77] Goldwater further wrote that there were rumors the evidence would be released, and that he was "just as anxious to see this material as you are, and I hope we will not have to wait much longer."[77]

The April 25, 1988, issue of The New Yorker carried an interview where Goldwater said he repeatedly asked his friend, Gen. Curtis LeMay, if there was any truth to the rumors that UFO evidence was stored in a secret room at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and if he (Goldwater) might have access to the room. According to Goldwater, an angry LeMay gave him "holy hell" and said, "Not only can't you get into it but don't you ever mention it to me again."[78]

In a 1988 interview on Larry King's radio show, Goldwater was asked if he thought the U.S. Government was withholding UFO evidence; he replied "Yes, I do." He added: “I certainly believe in aliens in space. They may not look like us, but I have very strong feelings that they have advanced beyond our mental capabilities....I think some highly secret government UFO investigations are going on that we don't know about – and probably never will unless the Air Force discloses them.[79]

I wonder if Goldwater saw a UFO when he was a pilot and that was why he was interested in them.

[shrug] I am far from convinced that ETs are visiting Earth, but the topic of UFOs still intrigues me. Alien crafts, if they exist, are material objects, so I’ve never understood why the topic of UFOs would be placed in the same category with ghosts and other supernatural stuff.