Showing posts with label Aguadilla UFO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aguadilla UFO. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
'FAA's Release of its First Official Report on UFOs'
Wonder how Argentina’s air force (FAA) would respond if a UFO were on track to bust the no-fly zone over the home of its president, as happened in the United States in 2008? Or if a UFO briefly parked over one of its busiest civilian airports – like in 2006, at Chicago O’Hare-- and left behind recorded chatter between air traffic control and a freaked-out airline supervisor? What if one of Argentina’s federal agencies videotaped UFO activity over a civilian airport that created a flight delay, similar to what happened over Aguadilla, Puerto Rico in 2013?
These parallels are unavoidable in the wake of the FAA's release of its first official report on UFOs since Argentina established a commission to check this stuff out in 2011. Spoiler alert: Argentina didn’t have much to work with. The good news: the report is too short and sketchy to put you to sleep.
Widely distributed online last week by Scott Corrales at Inexplicata: The Journal of Hispanic Ufology and Google-translated by Alejandro Rojas at OpenMinds, Argentina's Commission for the Investigation of Aerospace Phenomena (CEFAe) apparently resolved every one of the dozen cases it contemplated in 2014-15. All were individual incidents based on testimony, video and still photos, and not a single one made a compelling argument for a true unknown. None involved radar. Explanations were at least “consistent with” a star, the moon, airplane and helicopter running lights, a satellite, a tossed ball, and Jupiter. One of the UFO candidates was discovered to be “a couple of lights Red stop antenna.” Oh, and some of the translations were a little rough.
Argentina’s presumed glasnost toward The Great Taboo is part of a wave of South American nations – Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil – whose governments have either established investigative bodies or made a show of transparency for private researchers. However, in a note to De Void, Inexplicata’s Corrales says there’s a reason Argentina’s inaugural report is so thin and arid:
“The South American air forces have been clear about this – the purpose of their ‘UFO’ research organizations is to insure safety of the airways, not to promote a frame of reference.” By that, Corrales means a hypothesis. “If anyone’s expecting this government interest and/or disclosure of files will further that frame of reference … they’re in for a surprise.”
Well, nobody with half a brain in an official capacity wants to get stuck with trying to prove what legitimate UFOs are. Still, the incidents CEFAe investigated were so pedestrian, it begs the question of how the Commission might manage more problematic encounters. CEFAe’s dispensing with a dozen yawners invites comparisons to the rigorous and meticulously detailed studies performed by the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP), the nonprofit that receives zero U.S. government support. Like CEFAe, NARCAP’s primary concern is air-traffic safety, which explains why Uncle Sam wants nothing to do with The Great Taboo. How would staging a we-don't-know press conference about the Aguadilla enigma work to the Pentagon's advantage? And, given its recent lurch to the right, maybe Argentina’s commitment to open analyses of UFOs will go the way of Project Blue Book.
“What I wonder,” Corrales wrote to De Void, “is whether the newly elected Argentinean government (Mauricio Macri) is going to be as inclined to promoting any release of military intelligence as his predecessor, who even accepted a petition from CEFORA, one of the UFO research organizations.”
Well, yeah, lefties are notorious for wanting to give away the farm. But what would happen if, before that window closes, the boss hog of Argentina’s military stepped up to the podium one day with a vetted Aguadilla-type UFO video and announced to the international media something like: Folks, this bogey made a joke of our restricted air space, averaged 80 mph after it entered the water, split into two separate objects before flying away, and we have no idea WTF it is …
Thursday, October 29, 2015
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
.jpg) | 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.” [...]
Continue Reading ►
See Also:
“…Investigation Of Arguably The Most Significant UFO Footage…”
Aguadilla UFO Video: "... We’ve Got Infrared ... We’ve Got Radar ..."
Scientific Coalition for Ufology and The Analysis of FLIR UFO Video
UFO Video Captured by Homeland Security Analyzed | VIDEO
UFO Captured On FLIR Video by Homeland Security Helicopter? | VIDEO – Puerto Rico
REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE
Sunday, September 06, 2015
“…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.
Continue Reading ►
See Also:
Aguadilla UFO Video: "... We’ve Got Infrared ... We’ve Got Radar ..."
Scientific Coalition for Ufology and The Analysis of FLIR UFO Video
UFO Video Captured by Homeland Security Analyzed | VIDEO
UFO Captured On FLIR Video by Homeland Security Helicopter? | VIDEO – Puerto Rico
REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE
Monday, August 31, 2015
Controversial 'Aguadilla UFO' Filmed Years Earlier at Area 51? | VIDEO
 |
| Credit: HardCopy / military.com |
UFO Filmed by US Air Force at Area 51
Editor's Note: This video clip originally aired in February of 1995, on the syndicated, tabloid news TV show, Hard Copy; the segment was entitled, “The Air Force U.F.O. .”
See Also:
Aguadilla UFO Video: "... We’ve Got Infrared ... We’ve Got Radar ..."
Scientific Coalition for Ufology and The Analysis of FLIR UFO Video
UFO Video Captured by Homeland Security Analyzed | VIDEO
UFO Captured On FLIR Video by Homeland Security Helicopter? | VIDEO – Puerto Rico
REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Aguadilla UFO Video: "... We’ve Got Infrared ... We’ve Got Radar ..."
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?