Airplane Passenger UFO Sightings

by Charles Lear

Pilot UFO sightings have been a constant in the world of UFOlogy ever since the sighting in 1947, that started the public fascination with the subject, by Kenneth Arnold, who was flying in his own plane near Mount Rainier in Washington State. Even though these are often single witness sightings, researchers generally take them seriously, as pilots, especially a commercial pilots, risk their reputations and continued employment by coming forward. But, what about airplane passengers? In the case of passenger sightings, you often have multiple witnesses, or at least one witness that can corroborate the pilot report.

An instance where a passenger witness came forward to back up a pilot report occurred in 1948 in the case of the classic Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter. On July 24, 1948, pilot Clarence Chiles and co-pilot John Whitted, were flying a DC-3 over Alabama. At about 2:45 a.m., Chiles spotted a red glow up ahead and brought Whitted’s attention to what he assumed was an Army jet. It closed in on the DC-3 quickly, shot past the right side of the plane, and then, with a burst of flame coming out of its rear, climbed up into the clouds. The pilots reported that the object was torpedo-shaped, had no wings, was 100 feet long, and 25 to 30 feet in diameter. Passenger Clarence L. McKelvie added to the credibility of the sighting by reporting that he saw a bright light streak by his window at that time. He later appeared in the documentary, “UFOs: It Has Begun,” (A 1976 and 1979 re-release of the 1974 documentary “UFOs: Past, Present, and Future.”) and there he says he spoke with one of the pilots and his description matches theirs. Read more

A UFO Over Tucson Arizona?

by Charles Lear

On February 9, 2021, at around 10:30 p.m., a helicopter pilot with U.S. Customs and Border Protection flying over Tucson, Arizona, reported to air traffic control that he had just had a near collision with a drone. A Tucson Police Department helicopter was sent into the area and the two helicopters followed the object and attempted to determine the location of whoever might be operating it. While it was described as a drone and a quad-copter, it was mostly tracked using night vision, and the only visual description was of a blinking green light. If it was indeed a drone, it attained an altitude well above the 400 foot limit set by the FAA, performed extraordinary evasive maneuvers, and had a power source that lasted far longer than a normal drone battery.

The story was first reported on May 20, 2021, by Dan Marries of KOLD News who described the “drone” as having attained an altitude of 14,000 feet, staying aloft for over an hour, and being “heavily modified.” A May 21, 2021, Associated Press article reports that the FBI had begun an investigation and was treating the incident as a case of illegal drone operation. It was thought that the “drone” had launched from an area about five miles south of Tucson.

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A UFO Flap in Virginia in 1965

by Charles Lear

Throughout modern UFO history, there have been periods when a large number of reports have come from one area. These were termed UFO “flaps” by Air Force UFO investigators working for Project Blue Book. According to former Project Blue Book Director in his 1956 book “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Air Force parlance, a flap was a state of confusion just below panic that could be brought on by any number of things. This week, we’ll look at a 1965 flap in the Virginia area that involved reported EM effects, creatures, and armed citizens ready to defend the planet.

Newspaper clippings and comments by investigators about the events can be found at the UFO History Group website. The flap actually began in 1964 with the December 21st sighting by Harrisonburg, Virginia, gunsmith Horace Burns. According to the report, he was driving on Route 250 near Fishersville when he saw a huge metallic object in the sky coming from the north. As it landed in a field to his right, his car stalled, and he drifted to a stop.

Burns described the object as shaped like a beehive, 125 ft in diameter, and 80 ft tall. He observed it as it rested for 60 to 90 seconds and then rose up and flew away to the northeast. He was able to restart his car and drive home.

Burns contacted the UFO Investigators Club at Eastern Mennonite College. Club President Ernest Gehman, who was a professor at the College and a member of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, checked the area with a Geiger counter and claimed to have found heavy radioactivity. He also reported that homeowners in the area had complained to the Virginia Electric and Power Co. that their radios and televisions stopped working for several minutes and that their lights dimmed. Read more

UFOs and Missing Soldiers in Gulf Breeze, Florida

Charles Lear

Many readers may be familiar with the controversial case of the Gulf Breeze, Florida, UFO photographs taken in 1987 by local contractor Ed Walters. The photos were clear and detailed and stirred up a great deal of excitement within the UFO community. Some, such as former Navy optical physicist turned UFO researcher Dr. Bruce Maccabee, believed the photos were genuine, while others believed they were hoaxed.

Then, in 1990, after Walters and his family had moved from their home at the time, the new owners found a Styrofoam model of a UFO in the attic. Pensacola News Journal reporter Craig Meyers was able to closely duplicate Walters’s photos using the model, and Walters responded to hoax allegations by claiming the model had been planted after he left.

What readers may not be familiar with is a saga that unfolded around the Gulf Breeze incident involving six soldiers, all intelligence analysts, who went AWOL from a U.S. Army Intelligence unit in Augsburg, West Germany. They became known as “The Gulf Breeze Six,” and their story is… something.

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A UFO and Creatures in the Mountains of Taos, New Mexico

by Charles Lear

New Mexico is famous for its reports of landed (and crashed) UFOs and associated creatures. While many might think that these sorts of reports have long since ceased since the golden age of UFOs, there was a report just a couple of years ago of creatures and a huge landed craft in the mountains of Taos, NM.

According to an article by Staci Matlock in the September 5, 2019 Taos News, days before, on September 1, two bow hunters, Josh Brinkley, 41, and Daniel Lucero, 26, were looking for elk on Pot Mountain northwest of Taos. Brinkley had been coming to the mountain for fifteen years while it was the first visit for Lucero.

They set up on opposite sides of a field and waited for three hours with no luck. At around 9:30 a.m., Brinkley became restless and went walking through the woods looking for elk there. He got to the top of the mountain, which was the rim of a collapsed volcano known as a caldera. There, he saw what he thought were two fellow hunters about 35 yards away. He was preparing to speak to them when they disappeared. According to him, “They were gone, just gone.”

The more Brinkley thought about the figures he had seen, the less like hunters they seemed. He saw only their torsos above the brush that covered their lower half. They seemed to have been wearing large hoods that had what looked like pairs of ribbons on both sides that came to a point at the top and bottom. The left side was white and somewhat shiny and the right side was black. He described their torsos as “kind of black.”

Brinkley went back down the mountain and met up with Lucero. He didn’t tell Lucero what he’d seen until they were back at camp.

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UFOs and Esotericism

by Charles Lear

From the days of flying saucers in the 1940s and 1950s, up until the present where many now prefer the term “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP), investigators and researchers have approached the mystery using scientific methods. However, this is not the case for all who have sought answers as to the source and purpose of the reported encounters with strange things in our skies. Many have turned to esotericism, in addition to science, as a means of inquiry. This approach has actually been present from the very beginning of modern UFOlogy and those interested in the subject might consider looking into it, even if only from a historical or sociological perspective.

Esoteric is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “designed for or understood by the specially initiated alone.” When one talks of esotericism in association with UFOs or the paranormal, one is usually referring to what has become known as “Western Esotericism” which is a term used to describe a loosely connected group of religious and philosophical ideas that deviate from Judeo-Christian beliefs and post-Enlightenment rationalism. By the late 19th century, organized groups and secret societies had developed around these esoteric ideas, two of the most prominent being the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Theosophical Society. Both of these adhered to the belief that there is a group of cosmic beings that can be contacted by adepts who wish to receive ancient wisdom and advice. The Theosophical Society still exists today.

Arguably, the first group to investigate claims of a mysterious flying object, was the Borderland Sciences Research Association. Formed in Southern California by Meade Layne along with Max Freedom Long, BSRA was an association dedicated to paranormal research and included parapsychologists, spiritualists, and Theosophists. Their research methods included Yoga, Qabalistic technique, and spirit channeling. Their main spirit channeler was Mark Probert, the “Telegnostic from San Diego.” The group put out its first newsletter, the Round Robin, in February 1945. It wasn’t long before they were investigating what they called, “The Ether Ship Mystery.”

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Floated Into a UFO

by Charles Lear

In the 1970s, New York artist and UFO investigator Budd Hopkins began to specialize in abduction research after being confronted by multiple reports. He wrote about his research in the 1981 book “Missing Time” and it wasn’t long after the book was published that people started to be featured in the press and on television with claims of their own abduction experiences. In an interview for the PBS series “Nova,” Hopkins stated that his “best case” was one that involved witnesses who claimed to have seen a woman accompanied by three small humanoids float out of a 12th story apartment in Manhattan and into a waiting craft close to the Brooklyn Bridge. The woman who was reportedly seen was originally identified by Hopkins as “Linda Cortile” (now known to be Linda Napolitano) and the case has become known as the “Linda Case” or the “Brooklyn Bridge Abduction Case.”

Hopkins described the “Linda Case” in his 1996 book, “Witnessed.” According to him, Linda had written him a letter in spring of 1989 after reading his 1987 book, “Intruders.” In the letter she described seeing strange nighttime visitors while lying paralyzed in bed as a child. She also wrote that she was asked by a doctor about what looked like evidence of surgery inside her nose as he was dealing with some built up cartilage that caused a lump that had concerned her. She wrote that she had never had surgery in her nose and that this was confirmed by her mother.

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The Allagash Abductions

by Michael Lauck  ~
Four friends studying at the Massachusetts College of Art, Chuck Rak, Charlie Foltz and twins Jim and Jack Weiner, set out from Boston for a wilderness vacation in late August 1976. They were dropped off in northern Maine by pontoon plane and canoed through the Allagash Waterway. On the night of Thursday, August 26 the men, all art students, were night fishing on Eagle Lake. In order to easily find their way back to their campsite in the dark, they had prepared a large log bonfire as a beacon to mark their camp.  Shortly after they began trout fishing a glowing oval object was spotted rising above the forest. Charlie Foltz signaled to the object with a flashlight which apparently caused it to stop its ascent and slowly move towards the students’ canoe. Read more

Government Funded UFO Study in France

by Charles Lear

Many countries around the world have active, state funded, long-term UFO studies. If the United States Congress follows up on the recommendation in the recently released Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force report that “additional funding for research and development could further the future study of the topics laid out in this report,” the U.S. may soon have one as well. The U.S. has had two acknowledged, publicly funded UFO investigations in the past. One was run by the Air Force under the name of “Project Blue Book” for most of its existence from 1948 until 1969, and the other by the Pentagon from 2007 until 2012 as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. While the 21-year run for the Air Force investigation may seem substantial, the investigation funded by the French government has lasted more than twice as long.

The group studying UFOs in France is now operating as Groupe d’Etude et Information des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés or GEIPAN. The group was first called Groupe d’Etude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés, or GEPAN, when it was started in 1977, and then Service d’Expertise des Phénomènes de Rentrée Atmérique, or SEPRA from 1988 to 2004. GEIPAN operates as part of the French Space Agency, Centre National d’Études Spatiales, or CNES. Read more

UFOs in the National Enquirer

by Charles Lear

Stories of UFOs and aliens have long been associated with tabloid newspapers, often with ridiculous headlines, dubious claims, and photos that only the most credulous could take seriously. While these might be considered innocuous pieces of entertainment by many, for the serious UFO researcher they make it harder to convince a skeptical public that the subject is deserving of careful scrutiny. One of the most famous and long lasting of the tabloids is the National Enquirer, and while it might not be considered to be a bastion of journalistic integrity, it launched Bob Pratt, who was a staff reporter for the paper, into a lifelong occupation (not always paid) as a serious UFOlogist. Read more

UFOs in Congress

It’s official: unidentified aerial phenomena exist, the Pentagon takes the subject seriously, but no there one can say if aliens are involved. This is according to the unclassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that was delivered to Congress this past Friday.

The fact that Congress is interested in the subject of what have long been known as UFOs has gotten quite a bit a media attention ever since the report was commissioned in legislation passed in 2020. But, this is not the first time Congress has shown an interest in the subject; in the 1960’s UFOs were discussed in Congress on two occasions, both times prompted by concerns that publicly funded UFO studies were not being taken seriously.

In 1966, there was a series of UFO sightings in Michigan that got the attention of the press and the Air Force. There was a great deal of excitement and Project Blue Book (the code name for the Air Force’s UFO study) scientific consultant, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, was sent in to help calm things down. At a press conference, he offered some possible explanations. Due to sightings over a marsh, he speculated that people there had seen ignited balls of swamp gas, some going out and others igniting, and that this created the illusion of movement. The swamp gas explanation made the headlines and outraged many Michigan residents, including Michigan Representative and House Minority Leader Gerald Ford. He sent a letter dated March 28, 1966, to the chairmen of the Science and Astronautics Committee and the Armed Services Committee, suggesting that one of them schedule “hearings on the subject of UFO’s”.  He mentioned Hynek’s explanations in the letter and, in a press release that same day, it is noted that he described Hynek’s swamp gas explanation as “flippant.”  Documents relating to Ford’s efforts and the resultant open hearing are housed at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.

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The Aguadilla UFO

by Charles Lear

Because of all the media coverage regarding the Pentagon UFO videos, an extraordinary video reportedly captured by Department of Homeland Security personnel has fallen into the background. It has become known as the “Aguadilla” video and the identity of the object caught on video remains a mystery.

The case was investigated by the Scientific Coalition for UFOlogy (now the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies) and a report was written that is available on the group’s website. According to the report, at around 9:30 p.m. on April 25, 2013, the departure of a commercial aircraft was delayed due to an unknown object flying at low altitude across the runway at Rafael Hernandez Airport in Aquadilla, Puerto Rico. In the area at the time was an airborne U.S. Customs and Border Patrol aircraft and the crew managed to capture infrared video of the object

The SCU investigators describe having obtained a copy of the video from an official source who insisted on remaining anonymous. The authors state that the individual’s identity, background, and employment were all verified and that “extensive efforts were made to ensure that this video did not contain any classified information.” Read more

UFOs Over Indonesia

Charles Lear

Wherever there are UFOs, there are UFO enthusiasts, and since there are UFOs everywhere, UFO enthusiasts can be found everywhere as well. This week we’ll look at Indonesia, where members of that region’s largest UFO organization have recently offered their opinion to the local press on the upcoming Pentagon UAP Task Force unclassified report due to come out later this month.

An article written by Wulan Kusuma Wardhani and posted online for The Jakarta Post on Monday, June 7, 2021, is headlined, “Not a cult: Indonesia’s biggest UFO-community BETA-UFO weighs in on U.S. government report.” The two people speaking for the organization are 55-year-old Nur Agustinas and 48-year-old Anugerah Sentot Sudono. Agustinus was a cofounder of BETA-UFO IN 1997 along with Bayu Yunantias Amus and several others, and Sudono is described as a “senior member” in the article.

BETA is an acronym for “Benda Terbang Aneh,” which is Indonesian for “Unidentified Flying Object.” The term was introduced in the 1960s by Jacob Salutan, founder of the Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space. Salutan was a vice air marshal in the Indonesian Air Force and started Studi UFO Indonesia (Indonesian UFO Studies/SUFOI). He wrote two books on UFOs: “UFO: Salah Satu Masalah Dunia Masa Kini” (UFO: One of the Current World Problems) and “Menyingkap Rahasia Piring Terbang” (Unveiling the Secrets of UFOs). As of this writing, SUFOI appears to be inactive.

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