Showing posts with label 2013. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2013. Show all posts

Saturday, April 02, 2016

Rectangle UFO Spotted Over Georgia

Bookmark and Share

Rectangle UFO Spotted Over Georgia

     A Georgia witness at Cumming recalled a UFO event from 2013 where a black, rectangular-shaped object was seen flying low and blocking out the stars, according to testimony in Case 75213 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

The witness was outside talking on a cell phone about 2:15 a.m. on November 4, 2013, on a clear night with good weather when something unusual was noticed in the night sky.

By Roger Marsh
OpenMinds.tv
4-1-16

“I noticed first off – the fact I could not see any stars in an area,” the witness stated.“The fact I could see some stars, but in an area I could not see any – it did not seem right at all.”

The witness was puzzled as to why some of the sky was blocked from seeing the stars.

“I did not think at that moment I was looking at anything. I kept looking and then realized when the end of this ‘area’ was, then allowing me to see the stars. At that moment I realized something was in front of me and it was large. I could then see the size due to the area I could not see.”

At this point, the witness was very close to the object.

“It was black but not shiny, but not a dull surface. It was approximately three stories tall, approximately 300 feet long, and approximately 75 feet wide. It traveled from north to south. I saw the entire west side of the craft. I did not see the front at all. I could see part of the back end, but limited due to the dark color craft at night time.” [...]

Tuesday, March 08, 2016

Hovering UFO Videotaped Over Chalfont, Pennsylvania | VIDEO

Bookmark and Share

Hovering UFO Videotaped Over Chalfont, Pennsylvania | VIDEO

     A Pennsylvania witness at Chalfont reported watching the same UFO five times over a three-week period that hovered in place and then slowly moved out of the area, according to testimony in Case 51878 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

The witness previously filed a report as Case 51842 and then again as Case 51878 on October 26, 2013.
In the first report, the witness stated that they first observed the object a few weeks prior and then began seeing it again.

“I’ve noticed this light five times in the past three weeks,” the witness stated. “Definitely wasn’t an airplane or a helicopter. I live not too far from the Willow Grove Air Base, so I definitely know what an airplane and helicopter look like at night.”

By Roger Marsh
OpenMinds.tv
3-7-16

The witness claimed that the object was not a star, planet or satellite. [...]

Friday, February 26, 2016

Disc-Shaped UFO Videotaped Over New York Skies

UFO Videotaped Over Owego, New York 10-12-13

     A New York witness at Owego reported watching and videotaping a disc-shaped UFO crossing the sky silently, according to testimony in Case 51482 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

The sighting occurred about 1 p.m. on October 12, 2013, when the witness observed what appeared to be a disk-shaped object flying from the northeast and moving over Owego.
“The object omitted no sound,” the witness stated. “There was no trail after it. There were no visible wings of any kind.”

By Roger Marsh
OpenMinds.tv
4-1-14

The witness uploaded a 22-second video taken on a camera phone with the report, which was filed with MUFON on October 12, 2013.

“The disc moved from southwest to the northeast over the western horizon. Shortly after another object the same size and shape, no wings, no trail, no sound was observed flying from east (Binghamton, NY) to the northwest, however, higher in the sky than the first object. Having observed thousands of flights going over this area in the last 30 years, I have never seen anything like this before.” [...]

Friday, February 19, 2016

UFO Emits Smaller Object to Ground Level | VIDEO

Bookmark and Share

UFO Emits Smaller Object to Ground Level - Boise, Idaho12-24-13

     An Idaho witness at Boise reported watching and videotaping a red light in the sky that emitted a flashing orb that moved to ground level, according to testimony in Case 52934 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

The incident occurred on December 24, 2013, and was reported to MUFON the following day. MUFON STAR Team Investigator Charles Stansburge investigated and closed this case as an Unknown.

The witness was driving home with his wife when they first saw a red light in the sky.

By Roger Marsh
OpenMinds.tv
2-15-16

“It caught my eye because I am always looking up for strange lights,” the witness stated.“I asked my wife what she thought and she recommended that we pull over – so I did.”

The witness looked at the object while stopped and realized it was not moving.

“I told my wife that we should hurry home and grab the video camera and hopefully it would still be there. Got home, ran inside, grabbed my camera and got it into view just in time to see it drop another orb, but this one was flashing.”

The witness described the object’s movement.

“It was moving down slowly and then stopped and almost seemed to come back up. Then the flashing object went back down and stopped for a second and then shot down to the ground. I didn’t realize the speed of the object’s decent until watching the video back in slow motion. It was like a bullet and didn’t make a sound. After the second object was out of view I zoomed in on the initial object and it flickered and blinked out.” [...]

Thursday, February 04, 2016

Triangular Shaped UFO Videotaped Over New Jersey | VIDEO


Bookmark and Share

Triangular Shaped UFO Videotaped Over New Jersey 12-24-13

By Roger Marsh
OpenMinds.tv
2-2-16

     A New Jersey witness at Hazlet reported watching and videotaping a silent, triangle UFO with three red lights, according to testimony in Case 53663 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

The witness was returning from a friend’s house on Christmas Eve 2013 when the object was first seen.

“I was making a right turn from Highway 36 onto Middle Road in Hazlet, N.J.,” the witness stated.“After I made a turn me and my wife saw three red objects round in shape moving slowly east about 100 feet above the houses on the right hand side of Middle Road.”

The witness stopped his vehicle at the first house next to Airport Plaza shopping center.

“I pulled out my cell phone to video the object. When I started to video the object it was over me and it started moving straight up. There were no sounds coming from the object. I kept taping it until I couldn’t see it anymore.”

New Jersey MUFON State Section Director Ed Dobson investigated this case and closed it as an Unknown. The case was reported to MUFON on January 22, 2014.

“The object is described as being triangular in shape and having red and white pulsating lights,” Dobson stated in his report.“It was unknown degrees above the horizon and first being noticed out of the west. The witness puts the size between 101-300 feet.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Fast Moving UFO Videotaped Over LaGrange | VIDEO


Bookmark and Share

Fast Moving UFO Videotaped Over LaGrange - LaGrange,Oregon 8-15-13

By Roger Marsh
OpenMinds.tv
1-28-16

     An Oregon witness at LaGrange reported watching and videotaping a glowing, disc-shaped UFO, according to testimony in Case 53207 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

The reporting witness and his wife were outside on a balcony having a barbecue when the object was first seen about 10:05 p.m. on August 15, 2013.

“I knew immediately it wasn’t something normal,” the witness stated.“I was taking the video when It either blasted off so fast we could not see or literally just disappeared.”

The case was originally reported to MUFON January 3, 2014, and investigated by Oregon Assistant State Director Keith Rowell and closed as an Unknown.

“According to the check-off data in the witness report, the object they saw maneuvered around a bit in the sky and was a reddish/whitish craft-like object that flashed randomly and seemed to be glowing,” Rowell stated in his report.“They believed the object was disk-shaped and had windows and a dome. This was not reflected in the video (this is almost never the case), but the video does most definitely reveal a strangely and fast-changing, lighted image.” [...]

Tuesday, January 05, 2016

Disc-Shaped Craft 'Escorted' a Police Car in Poland

Bookmark and Share

Disc-Shaped Craft 'Escorted' a Police Car in Poland

Piotr Cielebiaś By Piotr Cielebiaś
The UFO Chronicles
1-3-16

     In early January 2013 a pair of police officers from Opole region spotted strange, morphing aerial light that, as it turned out, emanated from luminous disc-shaped object. Exotic craft accompanied their car all the way back to the station. Frightened and disoriented officers reported close encounter to their principals but soon learned that “they must be exhausted and hallucinating”. Polish policemen rarely report their UFO encounters but when they do, their reports are astonishing ones.

On January 8th a pair of Police officers from Opole region (southwestern Poland) was returning from a night intervention. Their task was to calm down an aggressive drunkard in one of the villages lost amongst forested farmlands. When the job was done, they began to head back to their station located dozen kilometers away. It was about 4 am when their Kia Ceed was calmly running lone road. All of a sudden they noticed some bright lights in the distance that hovered over nearby forest. This prologue may sound prosaic but the rest of the story is much more extraordinary… and complicated.

Principals became concerned

Both witnesses serve in regional police station in one of the cities in Opole area. The main witness, Mr. M., requested anonymity fearing that his openness toward strange incident might influence his career. His concerns weren’t baseless. When on January 8th both witnesses arrived on their home station, they were immediately interrogated about such a long time of their intervention. It turned out that the way back took them about two hours. Stunned by the strange occurrence, without hesitation they reported the encounter with strange aerial device to the staff officer. This honest step induced some strange behavior of their principals.

Mr. M. remembers that after arriving to the station his patrol partner, Mrs. J., felt dizzy. Though he was all right he could remind that just after the appearance of the strange craft his organism also reacted in a strange way. For a moment his sight became blurry. It was about 4 am when along with Mrs. J. he noticed some light in the sky. At first they took it for mobile tower but the luminous object was apparently approaching their car. Soon it stationed over a groove of trees located about a kilometer from the road. Orange-yellowish “thing” was morphing and changing colors.

Mr. M. said that the arrival of UFO fulfilled his partner words. Just several minutes before seeing the light the woman had told him that “something is in the air”. Mrs. J. was anxious-excited: “She had repeated this sentence several times before the light appeared” - the policeman recounts. “When the object appeared in the horizon, we decided to stop and go out of the car to examine it. From the distance it looked like a ball and then changed shape into crescent-like.” He added that just a while before he could feel as if time slowed for a moment. But it was a matter of seconds. During the next stage of the encounter Mrs. M. and his partner were totally conscious.

Dropping orbs and the video

The officers stopped and watched the light maneuvering over a nearby field. The sight was strange: “It was moving soundlessly, with no noise that should be generated by engine or rotor of the flying machine. At some point the object began ejecting something resembling ‘balls of light’. Some were disappearing in their way down to the ground, other were returning to the UFO. Suddenly from the below of the craft there emanated a ‘flash’ resembling that of a stroboscope” - the witness said adding that for a second a patch of land was illuminated.

According to Mr. M. it was possible to distinguish the shape of the craft hull. But darkness, strange feelings and appearance of exotic object forced the witnesses to drove off the scene. To their amazement, after a while UFO began to move in parallel with their car, staying in the constant distance of about a kilometer. Despite strong concerns and unnatural fear, Mr. M. stopped the car in the next village trying to record the object with his cell phone camera.

“The UFO was in shape of a disc, with a kind of small ‘dome’ on the top. It was emitting blinding, yellow light (occasionally turning orange). At the bottom, three smaller white-bluish ‘balls’ could be seen. In my opinion they were ‘engines’ but there were no sounds at all” - the witness reported.

It was 4:32 am when Mr. M. took a short video showing a dim light in the distance. It’s the only one visual documentation of the incident. Strongly agitated Mrs. J. tried frantically to catch the disc with her phone camera but nothing interesting appears on her photos. Accomplished evidences seem not satisfying for such a spectacular case and Mr. M. is aware of this fact: “That situation was totally unexpected and we weren’t prepared for UFO encounter. I wish I could go closer to that object. It is clear to me now, when all the emotions ceased.”

Disc-Shaped Craft Escorted a Police Car in Poland (Image 2)

The UFO recording of Mr. M. was made public but in muted version due to witnesses’ request. In the original material we can hear excited voiced of both officers commenting the “UFO” appearance. They also tried to open the car window to check whether the object emits any noticeable sounds but only dog barking could be hear in the distance. In the video Mr. M. stresses that the quality of the recording is weak. Registered material reveals only a bright lump of light hovering in the distance, against the dark sky background. On some still frames one can see an outline of an elongated, bright object.

Disc-Shaped Craft Escorted a Police Car in Poland (Image 3)

Time confusion

Mr. M. said that during the incident he thought about noticing the staff officer as well other patrol cars about the strange object. “After short discussion with my partner we decided to stay calm. Too many units could hear our report so everyone can imagine the consequences… People are rather skeptical and we don’t want more problems” - he added. It was another instance of tabooing UFO encounters made by staff of emergency services, Police and Polish Army. Mr. M. is a very rare case of public servant who decided to reveal his experiences, despite his concern about the consequences. Therefore we decided not to reveal his name and the exact place of the sighting in case report.

It’s also interesting that Mr. M. claims that during three stops when the witnesses decided to inspect the object closer, the UFO seemed to withdraw deeper over the fields. In his opinion the object hovered about 60 meters over the ground but exact size of the craft was hard to estimate. Mr. M. said it was at least dozen of meters in length but it was hard to find any reference points. In the whole affair there is another one mystery. The witness stated that they observed the craft for about 90 minutes but it seemed too long comparing with the time necessary for them to pass the distance to their home station.

Mr. M. added that he also was somewhat confused realizing that the incident lasted for about two hours. This shortening of time might be a result of highly stressing situation or the curious onlookers might get lost in their observation. Another possible scenario is that the driver became disoriented and chose a wrong way; causing the patrol car to wander along some deserted village roads (Mr. M. stated that this may be the point). But it’s also tempting to propound another hypothesis that links the mentioned “time confusion” with Mrs. J.’s dizziness after the encounter. Anyway, for now there are no direct clues for the policemen involvement in “missing time” episode.

“You’re dog-tired!”

The patrol lost UFO from view in vicinity of K. village. According to Mr. M.’s report, the disc withdrew over nearby fields and then disappeared over the horizon. About 6 am, when both policemen returned to their station, they decided to report their experience to principals but as Mr. M. said, the duty officer at first burst with laugh and then neglected their story: “He said that I’m dog-tired and hallucinating. The same was with other high officers. They tried to persuade us that we saw balloons or birds…”

Nevertheless, the strange report about exotic “thing” probably induced some concern amongst higher officials since Mr. M. was informed that chief officer needs to talk with him. But after some time the case was hushed up as if nothing had happened on January 8th! Moreover, the personal situation of the female witness, Mr. J., whose husband worked in the same station, prompted her to keep silence over the incident. But what’s interesting, after some gossips about UFO encounter dissipated, Mr. M. was contacted with other officers who also saw strange things on their night duties.

Mr. M. stated that on January 8th he didn’t meet on the deserted village road with any other cars. But it’s quite possible that some inhabitants of the region (as farmers waking up early to tend their animals or people on their way to work) might also catch a glimpse of the strange aerial device. But six moths after the incident we still have no confirming reports (although the case was covered by big local newspaper in Opole region). We are well aware that the case might remain unsolved but it’s good to know that officers as Mr. M. are always on alert in reporting every suspected thing, even that with no right to existence according to his principals opinion.

Addendum: Polish Policemen see UFOs

Polish national media and web portals usually don’t report UFO incidents although it is a very popular topic. UFO reports from Polish police officers are also rarity but the case from Opole region showed that many other encounters may be not disclosed due to witnesses’ fear of ridicule. But the real cause of tabooing UFO reports amongst policemen is that there is no official procedure concerning unidentified objects and phenomena. In other words, an ordinary officer who sees UFO doesn’t know how to react.

Mr. M. said that he talk with some colleagues who also got unusual experiences. One of them wrote us a report concerning his UFO sighting in vicinity of Otmuchowskie Lake in 2008. He recounts: “At about 2 am, over Sarnowice, I saw a row of about 15 red lights. Along with my partner I decided to hide our car in darker spot [for the object not to see us]. But then some of the lights went off and other ones change their positions and began to move away in various directions.”

Another one interesting story from Police officer was reported to us several years ago. It also took place in Opole region, precisely in Daniec area. The witness, Mr. Z., wrote: “Unfortunately, I don’t remember the exact date. It was June or July 1997. From the duty officer we got a call that some drunken man was sticking people with an axe in a village in Opole area. It was an emergency, so we rushed with the siren going.”

Mr. Z. reported that just before their destination place, his partner heard a call of nature so they stopped the car on the side of the road: “I also went out to straighten my neck. Suddenly I saw those objects and in the same moment my colleague screamed: ‘UFO!” I saw two bright orbs flying in the air 300 meters away from the car. They weren’t discotheque lights or lanterns. They were flying with high speed, stopping, accelerating and making sharp turns. We stood there in awe! I was glad I wasn’t there alone. During the sighting one of the orbs neared us and stayed dozen of meters away. The other one remained over the field and then - as for command - both of them departed in just a second. I know that they were intelligent.”

Earlier but equally spectacular report comes from Mr. Jerzy M. - former officer of Citizens Militia (state police institution in Poland before 1989): “It was winter 1978 but the exact date got lost in my mind. It was about 2 am. […] I was patrolling area between Ornontowice and Chudów checking if the stores were properly shut down. I was in way from Ornontowice to Chudów. The night was beautiful, with no clouds in the sky. Temperature oscillated around -5 degrees. […] I was standing on the roadside when my attention was drawn to my dog strange behavior. […] Automatically I looked up hearing also some unfamiliar sound. Then I perceived something completely out-of-place.”

The officer reported that he saw a black, oblong object with some “windows”. He also got feeling that someone is staring at him: “It wasn’t a plane. It looked like a hull of An-22 but without wings. There were no sounds at all, despite slight ‘whirring’. […] Then I saw it against the sky background, from different perspective. The object looked like a dark ring. Afraid that it could be a damaged plane that is going to crash, I rushed to local bakery to phone to the duty officer from Gierałtowice.”

As in other cases, the witness soon learned from his chief that he must be kidding: “After returning Gierałtowice police station, I even phoned the night guard at Gliwice airport asking if there were any night landings scheduled. But he also scoffed me saying that I must be drunk!”

_________________

The case was registered by INFRA group. More information at: www.infra.org.pl.

The case is still under investigation so some conclusions may change in the future.

About author:

Piotr Cielebiaś - writer, publisher and journalist dealing with fringe science and paranormal phenomena. Regular contributor for “Nieznany Świat” magazine and Onet.pl - the biggest Polish web portal. With Michał Kuśnierz he runs INFRA group registering UFO reports and paranormal phenomena from Poland. Contact: infra@epoczta.pl.

His new book, and his first in English, and published by Flying Disk Press, UFOS OVER POLAND – The Land of High Strangeness, is out now on Amazon.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Aguadilla UFO Video Update: FOIA Request for Government Copy Answered

Aguadilla UFO Video Update: FOIA Request for Government Copy Answered

Rain, rain & more rain

By Billy Cox
De Void
10-27-15

     Given the dramatic nature of the 2013 Aquadilla UFO footage, not to mention its subsequent forensic analysis by an independent team of researchers, De Void decided to informally query some flacks in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office about it. The 162-page report was released online on Aug. 11, and the feds at least deserve the opportunity to tell their side of it, right? After all, they’re the ones whose thermal camera recorded the small UFO as it hurtled above a coastal residential neighborhood in Puerto Rico before breaking the waves and – according to the ad hoc Scientific Coalition for UFOlogy (SCU) investigators – averaged more than 80 mph underwater before splitting into two separate flying objects.

Once it became clear CBP wasn’t going to bite, De Void filed a Freedom of Information Act request for a government copy of that video. It was apparently leaked to researchers by Customs insiders and had been lighting up the Internet a year or so before the SCU issued its report. “It’s not like they can deny it,” says SCU co-author Robert Powell. “We’ve got radar records showing their plane in the air at that time.” Still, it seemed important to officially verify the provenance of the controversial clip. The ensuing brushoff a couple of weeks ago, slugged “Final Disposition” and tersely worded as a “full denial based on exemptions,” came as no surprise. But its crimes against coherence were abominable.

“CBP has determined,” stated the online rejection notice, “that the responsive records are partially releasable, pursuant to Title 5 U.S.C 552 and have applied the appropriate exemptions.” De Void followed that link to a list of nine itemized potential “Exemptions,” accompanied by three other separate speedbumps beneath a category called “Exclusions.” The range was eclectic; it covered everything from protecting “trade secrets” to “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” Unfortunately, the verdict failed to specify exactly which “Exemption” or “Exclusion” the CBP employed to justify its rejection of De Void’s FOIA. Furthermore, whatever the censors deemed “partially releasable” is nowhere in sight.

CBP evidently located what it called a “responsive record” to De Void’s query because it admitted there was “one item found.” Beneath that little glimmer of hope were links to “Export options” via CSV/Excel formats. De Void clicked on both of those separately and in both instances got a “Stripes validation error report” header with this alleged explanation, verbatim, in toto:
Here’s how it is. Someone (quite possibly the Stripes Dispatcher) needed to get the source page resolution. But no source page was supplied in the request, and unless you override ActionBeanContext.getSourcePageResolution() you’re going to need that value. When you use a tag a hidden field called ‘_ sourcePage’ is included. If you write your own forms or links that could generate validation errors, you must include a value for this parameter. This can be done by calling request.getServletPath().
Who writes this crap? Superman rival Mr. Mxyzptlk? Pretending to be helpful, this “Final Disposition” included yet another link, to a Department of Homeland Security “FOIA Contact Information” page, with a listing for a Customs & Border Protection FOIA Officer. De Void dialed the number and listened to the recorded message urging me to pursue more online options, but if I needed to talk to a human being I should press 1. When De Void pressed 1, it disconnected the call. De Void called back twice more and got the same results – two more disconnects.

Hang on a minute – I think I feel a sneeze coming on.

Of course, this isn’t about De Void or Aguadilla. During Sunshine Week last March, the Associated Press released a study detailing the disgraceful state of America’s FOIA laws. Despite President Obama’s inauguration-day executive orders calling for more federal transparency, bureaucracies under his administration have actually set a record for censorship, with a backlog of more than 200,000 FOIA unanswered requests in 2014, up by 55 percent over 2013. In its assessment of 100 federal agencies, the AP discovered a 4 percent drop in processing public inquiries from 2013. Maybe that’s because, in 2014, government agencies received a record 714,231 FOIA requests; maybe it’s because – as the logjam kept piling higher – those same agencies pink-slipped 375 employees charged with processing FOIAs full time, or 9 percent of the workforce.

Either way, the forecast for accountability and transparency looks like rain. Which – bottom line – means De Void is thankful for receiving abstruse gibberish instead of being ignored altogether.

Monday, September 07, 2015

Experts Chime in on Puerto Rico UFO Video

By Alejandro Rojas
openminds.tv
9-4-15

     Since the release of a report analyzing a UFO video allegedly captured by a Customs and Board Patrol (CBP) aircraft using a thermal imaging camera, online UFO researchers have shared a lot of opinions. Several have come up with alternate theories. However, the few experts that have shared an opinion support the findings in the report.

The report was authored by a group of UFO researchers with backgrounds in science and technology who have posted their findings on a website called the Scientific Coalition for Ufology (SCU). You can read more about their findings in a previous story on OpenMinds.tv and in the video below.


Robert Powell, one of the authors of the report, who is also the Director of Research for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), says the have heard from a French organization called The Aeronautical and Astronautical Association of France (3AF). They are an important mainstream organization in Europe, similar to the United State’s American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Powel says they have been impressed with the SCU’s findings, and have agreed with their conclusions.

Another expert who has offered an opinion on the report is Dr. Richard Haines, a former research scientist for NASA. He told Billy Cox of the Sarasota Herald Tribune, “For a number of reasons, I don’t believe it is a hoax. It does deserve a lot more serious study for what it may tell us about small volume, generally globular (i.e., contained), dynamic, heat-emitting resources.” [...]

Sunday, September 06, 2015

“…Investigation Of Arguably The Most Significant UFO Footage…”

“…Investigation Of Arguably The Most Significant UFO Footage…”

Boeing schmoeing, gimme Aguadilla

By Billy Cox
De Void
9-1-15

     Three weeks gone now since the release of a detailed investigation of arguably the most significant UFO footage of the modern era. Yet, not a peep about it in the mainstream press. Can you believe that? Could this be part of a pattern? Hmm.

OK, let’s just dispense with the obvious (again): When it comes to The Great Taboo, The New York Times, The Washington Post and pretty much every corporate watchdog in the Fourth Estate are reliable no-shows unless being spoonfed press release-sized pre-chewed culturally acceptable talking points. But maybe it’s unfair to single out the institutions; no mortal is immune to the evolutionary shift that is reprogramming -- right now, even as you read -- the universal attention span for minimal capacity. Who among you can hang, seriously, be honest, with a technical, 162-page multi-disciplinary analysis of a high-strangeness event– even if it was captured by an airborne government surveillance camera? But of course you'd watch the video (see below), who wouldn't? That's why one would think somebody, somewhere, might’ve broken from the mainstream flock and at least posted the footage, just for the easy bounce in traffic. It’s not every day we get a chance to see a taxpayer-financed video of a UFO outperforming our coolest toys.


On Aug. 19, a week or so after the Aguadilla news broke, Forbes magazine announced how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had approved back in April Boeing’s design of a “transformer-like process for converting the drone into a small submersible vehicle when it hits the water.” Superficially, it sounds a lot like what happened over Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, on the evening of 4/25/13. That’s when a Customs and Border Protection plane tracked the night-flying UFO with thermal imaging and recorded about two minutes' worth of action. Hurtling erratically along at anywhere from 40 to 120 mph, no transponder, and apparently forcing the 16-minute delay of a FedEx flight due to its proximity to a local airport, the gizmo went for a shallow dip in the Caribbean -- and averaged 82.8 mph. Underwater. Nearly twice the speed of most submarines and torpedoes.

Boeing’s designs on developing a “rapid deployment air and water vehicle” for the U.S. Navy include wings, stabilizers and propellers while aloft, and detachable components in its submersible configuration. But those sleek schematics on paper don't much resemble the vaguely spheroid, boxy-looking amorphous thingamajig that buzzed commercial/residential landscapes in Puerto Rico. And, unfortunately for Boeing, the plans it submitted to the USPTO don’t call for its Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) to split apart as it emerges from the water to become two separate flying vehicles. Looks like whoever invented the Aguadilla UFO beat Boeing to that nifty trick at least two years ago. That’s got to be a bummer, because the team that studied the Customs and Border Protection video -- they call themselves the Scientific Coalition for Ufology -- could detect no means whatsoever of propulsion for the UUV.

So guess what? If I’m the Navy brass, I’m saying Look, guys, China's working on supercavitation technology that can propel a sub at the speed of sound, so screw the Boeing specs, give me one of those Aguadilla UUVs so I can double my coverage and beat the snot out of anything that tries to chase me in the water. Fortunately for all parties, the media is keeping its distance from this one, so nobody has to get embarrassed or agitated in a public manner.

In the meantime, with or without the press, with or without institutional science, research on this curiosity continues. Here’s a radar rehash of that event, conceived and posted by UK researcher Rob Jeffs. Because no radar pingbacks registered on the UFO – too small? below the coverage? stealth? – its precise location during the sequence is inferred by the CBP plane's flight pattern. Jeffs' narration is self-explanatory, and it’s worth a look:


“It’s intriguing because the video appears to show some interaction with the water, which would place the object at ground level – at least at the end of the sequence,” adds Jeffs in an email. “But it’s also frustrating because while the video provides information that a UFO case wouldn’t usually include, it also raises additional questions, for instance, how the infrared camera operates.”

Bingo. If only. SCU team member Larry Cates is a mathematician with a background in systems analysis and hardware development. He got hooked on the UFO mystery after studying MUFON's radar post-mortem on the 2008 Stephenville incident. Among other things, Cates fired off FOIA radar requests for SCU, shortly after the footage was leaked, apparently by a federal employee, in 2013.

“There’s still more analysis to be done. For instance, most of us were pretty naïve about infrared when we started this project two years ago, trying to figure out what’s normal in an infrared video." That path ended at the gates of the technology that acquired the UFO footage -- Wescam MX-15D's thermal optics. “We went through a learning curve and then we bumped up against trade secrets and need-to-know issues.”

So imagine if NASA or NOAA or any government agency other than DoD brought transparently funded curiosity to bear on Aguadilla. Imagine if they issued press releases to The Times or The Post or NPR or Amy Goodman or Dr. Sanjay Gupta or Jimmy Fallon or take your pick, and gave them all permission to cover the story.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Aguadilla UFO Video: "... We’ve Got Infrared ... We’ve Got Radar ..."

 
 
Bookmark and Share

Aquadilla UFO Video: "... We’ve Got Infrared ... We’ve Got Radar ..."



Indifference or dereliction?

By Billy Cox
De Void
8-19-15

     What if – just for the sheer counterintuitive hell of it – “the government” isn’t even interested in UFOs? Or at least, not lately?

Last week, a group of researchers calling themselves the Scientific Coalition of Ufology released its potentially game-changing, 162-page analysis of a 2013 UFO event over Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. What set this incident apart from so much common dreck was the apparent source of the videotape – U.S. Customs and Border Protection, under the Department of Homeland Security. This is an impressive pedigree, maybe even a gold standard. And flightstats.com independently confirmed an insider’s contention that a Fed Ex flight was, indeed, delayed for departure by 16 minutes as the UFO, sans transponder, buzzed nearby Rafael Hernandez Airport.

That last detail put the hook in Dr. Richard Haines, former research scientist with NASA-Ames and founder of the non-profit National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena. Since 1999, Haines and NARCAP have assessed and published trends on the potentially catastrophic impact of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) on air traffic safety, at home and abroad. Given the extraordinary clarity of the Aguadilla video, coupled with the fact that the name-protected whistleblower who leaked the footage appears to be a federal employee, Haines took an arm’s-length approach when he was contacted about the images in 2013.

“Given sufficient motivation, manpower and money, one could create a very realistic hoax here,” Haines conceded in an email to De Void. “However, for a number of reasons, I don’t believe it is a hoax. It does deserve a lot more serious study for what it may tell us about small volume, generally globular (i.e., contained), dynamic, heat-emitting resources.”

Still, Haines’ main reservations weren’t over authenticity. His foremost concern was whether or not the footage involved classified material. After all, if this is what it appears to be – i.e., a single flying object, averaging 80 mph after plowing into the ocean, then splitting into two separate flying objects as it emerged from the water – it seems pretty obvious that a federal agency has documented evidence of some extraordinary technology. If it’s one of ours, is this how Uncle Sam would want to put the word out there? Via UFO researchers? Really? And if it’s stealthy hardware from, say China, would we want them to know we know?

“[Restricted access] has still not been determined by anyone as far as I know,” states Haines, “and that is one of the reasons we (NARCAP) did not proceed with any more than a cursory examination of the video long ago when we first learned of it. We wanted to (and still want to) play by the rules, so to speak, in this regard considering that it might have been classified information.”

But if Morgan Beall’s confidential source is correct, the bureaucrats just don't give a spit.

“According to our witness,” says Beall, the Florida State MUFON director who coordinated the investigation, “Air Force intelligence kicked it back down, said ‘We don’t know what it is,’ and said to call the 800 number of a civilian research organization. Actually there are two to three witnesses, and when there didn’t appear to be any interest from the upper echelon, their attitude was, well, does that mean we’re free to talk about it? And that’s when the leaks started.

“We’ve all heard stories about eyewitnesses being threatened and told to keep quiet or else. But those are largely historical cases, and from the ‘90s onward we’re not hearing that from anybody at all. And I think that’s probably a smarter way to handle it, just deny you’re interested.”

SCU team investigator Richard Hoffman suspects the Aguadilla video trickled into the public domain as “more of a mess-up than anything else.” An IT engineer contracting with U.S. Army Materiel Command at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., Hoffman blames the leak on a “lack of clear guidance” on what to do with UFO reports that might emanate from government agencies. Unlike a number of South American and European nations, the U.S. has had no official institutional system for processing UFO data since 1970. “Whether it was passed up the chain of command or if it just stayed with Customs, I don’t know,” he says. “My concern is that someone with DHS is going to spank someone from Customs for letting it get out there.”

A student of the phenomena since he was a teenager growing up in Ohio, Hoffman says he’s been waiting a lifetime for evidence of this caliber to emerge. He once interviewed an Air Force pilot who told him he shot gun-camera footage in pursuit of a UFO, only to have it confiscated and vanish down a black hole. Now, it’s as if Customs and Border Protection just delivered the goods on a silver platter.

“I’m almost doing pole vaults, I’m so excited about it,” says Hoffman. “There’s never been a single case that's been so thoroughly studied. In two and a half minutes, we have an object that breaks two laws of physics. And we’ve got infrared video, we’ve got radar, we’ve got the kind of technology and built-in metrics you just can’t get from eyewitnesses alone. We've done the science, we've done the math. We've posted it, and we want more input."

So did Customs screw up? Or DHS? Or could it be that administrators at either agency really don’t care that on the evening of April 25, 2013, a state-of-the-art airborne camera did its job and gathered evidence of a flying machine demonstrating unprecedented performance capabilities?

Monday, August 17, 2015

Scientific Coalition for Ufology and The Analysis of FLIR UFO Video

 
 
Bookmark and Share

Scientific Coalition for Ufology and The Analysis of FLIR UFO Video

Here's the beef

By Billy Cox
De Void
8-14-15

     Late last year, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, through its in-house Spectra magazine, revealed a drone program designed to convert a flying machine into a submersible platform, and its beta version of a real-life comic book fantasy. This unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) is called the Flimmer, and the Flimmer was the last best hope an independent six-man research team considered as an explanation for what happened two years ago over Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. But under withering scrutiny, it doesn't look like the Flimmer has the chops to qualify.

So this leaves us with an extraordinary mystery at the heart of one of the most rigorous scientific inquiries into a single UFO event since the Stephenville case in 2008. And not coincidentally, one of the co-authors of the new report is former semiconductor engineer and Mutual UFO Network Research Director Robert Powell. Powell’s FOIA work with Glenn Schultze on the Stephenville radar records forced the U.S. Air Force to reverse itself back in ’08 and admit that it did, indeed, have jet fighters in the Texas skies at the same time and general location of the UFO, just as eyewitnesses on the ground had insisted.

Assembled by an ad hoc multidisciplinary panel calling itself the Scientific Coalition for Ufology, its focus is a 3-minute 54-second long video clip, and the analysis – which runs 162 pages – is called “2013 Aguadilla Puerto Rico UAP.”A number of things jump out immediately, chief of which is the provenance of the footage. With the assistance of a whistleblower whose name remains confidential, investigators have confirmed the sequence was recorded by a DHC-8 Turboprop under the Command of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP is a branch of the Department of Homeland Security.

In a nutshell: On April 25, 2013, beginning around 9:20 p.m., the Dash-8 crew informed the air traffic control tower at Rafael Hernandez Airport it had spotted a pinkish-red light coming in off the ocean. ATC saw the bogey as well, but couldn’t get an ID because the sucker lacked a transponder. Things got more suspicious when the bogey evidently killed its lights, and that’s when the Dash-8 went into surveillance mode. It switched on a thermal camera with the sort of HD technology that easily paints airborne dope smugglers at night. And then it got weird. Some two minutes into the video (see below), after cruising at treetop level, above oblivious highway traffic, this rascal hit the ocean and continued to surge forward without slowing down, averaging more than 80 mph. The Dash-8 kept tracking the object, its heat signature still visible beneath the water. And that’s when it got really weird.


The thing broke the surface and skimmed it several times, and there’s a flash as the camera operator adjusted the magnification. About 30 seconds into the water sequence, after yet another flashing squint of the optics, the object zipped out of the ocean again. Only, this time it had a twin, tooling along at the same speed. De Void screeched to a halt at this passage:

“A careful frame by frame analysis indicates that the object split in half. In less than one second, the object’s thermal image doubled in size; its center of heat then became bimodal; the object then split into two halves. The process appeared similar to mitosis observed during cell division with the splitting of the nucleus, the expansion of the cell, and the final separation into two cells.”

!!!!

“Cell division – that was my gut feeling,” says Powell. “As I was color-coding the (pixel intensity) numbers, this heat zone separated, just like what we see in cell division. Then two separate objects came out of the water.” There’s possibly even more info one might wring from the images, which the Dash-8 acquired via its Wescam MX-15D camera. “But,” Powell adds, “we could not get them to give us any operational documents on their system.”

Even so, the framing in the camera’s video output provided a data bonanza, including the target’s latitude and longitude, altitude, distance, and azimuth heading. The investigative team, which included researchers with degrees in physics and statistics, concluded the somewhat shapeshifting UFO was anywhere from 3 to 5 feet long. Though the mystery traveled at varying speeds, between 40 and 120 mph, and changed directions multiple times – virtually eliminating birds and balloons as candidates – the team could detect no source of propulsion

The whistleblower also provided enough info to independently verify the plane’s location on said date through FOIA documentation. And here’s what’s interesting about that: Powell says the Aguadilla records were the last ones released through the 84th Radar Evaluation Squadron before the transparency window slammed shut. Located at Hill AFB in Utah, 84 RADES had long been an invaluable resource for UFO researchers requesting raw unsanitized radar data in order to study new cases. But in 2014, the Pentagon came up with a new censorship policy to drive yet another nail into the coffin of President Obama’s executive orders for more government accountability. But that’s another issue altogether. De Void has sent a link and a query to the Naval Research Lab about a possible UUV connection to Aguadilla, but I’ll stroke out and eat my shoes if they reply.

Anyhow, the takeaway is a richly detailed detective story, of which De Void has barely scratched the surface here. Alejandro Rojas provides a more complete summary at Open Minds, but you really need to read the original report, which is criss-crossed with the sort of trigonometry, graph charts and 3-D modeling that De Void is unqualified to evaluate. In fact, the target audience isn’t armchair quarterbacks like De Void.

“We want to open the door for continued analysis,” says Morgan Beall, the Florida MUFON State Director and environmental consultant who worked with the federal whistleblower and recruited the research team. “We’re inviting people to review our work and repeat what we’ve done. Or maybe find the flaws in it and show us where we’re wrong. That’s how science is supposed to operate.”

Somewhere else, maybe. In America, institutional science doesn't have the stomach for honest inquiry into The Great Taboo.