Continental Airlines Pilot Reports UFO - FBI Investigates (May 26th 2008)

The FBI are investigating this incident although all early reports tend to suggest that it was little more than an amateur ‘rocket enthusiast’.

Is this public announcement of an imminent investigation because the fact that a smoke trail was present and it’s a relatively safe bet that this was the result of an amateur rocketeer?

The main reason for the investigation if early media reports are to be believed isn’t to identify the UFO but rather to assess exactly how close the object was and if it posed any kind of threat.

No doubt model rocket enthusiasts will bear the brunt of this investigations as it has already been reported that those in and around the Houston area have already been approached and questioned by the authorities.

Or is this an all too convenient explanation? Unfortunately (and with the information available) as well as being the most convenient it's also undoubtedly the most likely....

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HOUSTON -- The FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration said they are investigating a report from a Continental Airlines pilot, who told air-traffic controllers that a possible model rocket with a flaming tail and a trail of smoke was flying ahead of the plane shortly after takeoff Monday.

Although the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is involved in the investigation, officials said they believe the object was a model rocket.

FAA spokesman Roland Herwig stated: " We don't know for sure what the object was. But we think it might be somebody doing model rocketing…..The pilot saw the rocket and some people saw the rocket's trail. Building rockets is a legitimate hobby, but hobbyists have to let the FAA know what they're doing. "

The pilot spotted the object flying at 5,000 feet about 11 miles east of George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston . Flight 1544 continued its trip from Houston to Cleveland after reporting the object to air traffic controllers. Scott Wilson, a spokesman for the FBI's Cleveland office, said in a story in The Plain Dealer that the plane wasn't in danger and landed safely. Continental Airlines spokeswoman Kelly Cripe declined to discuss what crew members had seen aboard the Boeing 737, which carried 148 passengers. The plane did not change course and was not damaged.

FBI spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap said::

"We don't know if it was a rocket or what…..We will interview everyone and determine the validity of what was seen. "

Robert Morehead, an engineer and president of the Amateur Spaceflight Association in Houston , said model rockets routinely can reach as high as 40,000 feet. He said model rocket enthusiasts are supposed to notify the FAA if a rocket is entering controlled airspace.

Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman in Washington D.C. told the Chronicle that model rockets have crossed paths with planes before but have never struck them. She also said that the Memorial Day holiday weekend was a good time for a launch.

Source

Texas Flap - Purist UFO Sighting Ever?

The Great Texas Airship Mystery.

When mysterious lights appeared over Stephenville in January 2008, it became part of Texas history, was viewed and recorded in the digital files of cell phones, hard drives and on the Internet. But, Texas ' biggest mystery was recorded differently -- and was forgotten in time.

During 1897, in dozens of cities and in hundreds of published accounts, people reported seeing a strange flying machine. Something -- or someone -- was looking down on 1890's Texas .

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Historian Says UFO Sightings In Texas Nothing New

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Wallace Chariton spends a lot of time in libraries and halls of records, Chariton is a well-published Texas historian. He's scoured the records of a century ago and has written a book on one of the strangest chapters in the state's past called, “The Great Texas Airship Mystery.”

"It's been called the purist UFO sighting ever, ‘The Great Texas Airship Mystery'…..I think the airship mystery, as I call it, is very real…..This was before the Wright brothers. This was before any type of known flying machine.”

In fact, during the frenzy of sightings papers publish an account from Germany of the Stentzel flying bird. It was a crude, bird-shaped craft with a small motor powered by compressed carbolic acid gas. It was hailed as the machine that would first fly. There are no accounts that it ever flew. The same is true for similar designs at the time which seem vaguely similar to the descriptions of the object soaring above Texas , also the sightings all have very similar characteristics of shape, lights on the vehicle, etc.

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“All persons who have had a good view of it gave about the same description, and all testify as to its carrying a large light, and a few say at times it has many. ”

(Austin American-Statesman in April of 1897)

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Here are some other accounts drawn from the newspapers of the day:

"We could only gain a faint idea of its accurate size, but think it must have been 200 feet long, the sails or wings constituting nine-tenths of the whole…..There seemed to be a huge searchlight attached to the aerial machine and the light was thrown in several different directions….I was astonished by a brilliant flash from an electric search light which passed directly over my buggy. I want to tell you also I was frightened to death by it!!”

The ship was in the shape of a cigar and had two sets of wings on each side, in 1897 a lot of the cigars were not the cylindrical round shape. They came to a point, interestingly, if you look at a saucer on its side it has the same shape. They had no concept of a flying saucer. Several people report seeing the craft on the ground with crewmembers performing repairs. Many of the stories published are obvious embellishments such as the judge who told him the crew came for North Pole Land and needed an airship to get over the ice for a visit. But many more descriptions are from lawyers, shop owners, railroad workers, farmers and homemakers and seem to describe a similar experience. The reports continue for more than a month in a long list of cities: Dallas , Fort Worth , Austin , Weatherford, Beaumont , Cleburne , Bonham, Garland , Farmersville, Oak Cliff, Sherman, Waxahachie, Stephenville and more.

The sightings span the state of Texas , parts of Oklahoma , Kansas , Illinois , and even California and then they stop abruptly, Wallace Chariton says that:

"Unfortunately that's where the story ends.....What you're left with is hundreds and hundreds of plain ordinary people saying, 'I saw a flying machine!' But I will never discount the fact that so many people saw something that was foreign to them and they all basically described it the same way. So, something happened. This is Texas history. We can't ignore it."

Source: Joel Thomas (CBS 11 News)

UFOs are seen as a joke but it's almost an absolute certainty they exist.

The South Wales Echo recently ran a story (article below) with the headline, “UFOs are seen as a joke but it's almost an absolute certainty they exist” (Dec 29 2007). As the close of the year approaches it seems that the media are gradually becoming more and more tolerant towards the entire UFO phenomenon.

Of course you'll always have caustic, abrasive comments from news anchors like CNN's Nicole Lapin who when referring to respected former pilots, military personnel and even a former governor recently said:

“When you think of people saying: ‘Oh, Hey, I saw a UFO,' you kinda think of freaks. I'm not gonna lie.”

I hope not Nicole as CNN has previously been such a bastion of truth and well balanced reporting……

On a more worrying note (according to the CNN website), Lapin is currently serving as an ambassador for the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation, where she hosts a campaign called "Being Smart is Cool.”

But apart from the occasional snide comment it's still been an interesting year watching as the media ridicule of the subject was strangely blunted and stories seemed to point towards a somewhat reluctant acceptance of the fact that UFO's exist, or the media at least appeared open to, and acknowledge this possibility, which in itself is a considerable improvement.

Anyway, on closer examination of the article in the South Wales Echo it appears that the eye-catching and brazen headline, “UFOs are seen as a joke but it's almost an absolute certainty they exist” is no more than a quote from, “UFO investigator Mr Coggins, 67, of Pontypridd, <who> hypnotises people who have seen UFOs and then experienced periods of missing time.”

And then immediately following Mr Coggins' statement and closing the article is an, “Old faithful” MoD quote, “We believe that rational explanations, such as aircraft lights or natural phenomena, could be found for them if resources were diverted for this purpose.”

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“All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values”

Marshall McLuhan

UFOs are seen as a joke but it's almost an absolute certainty they exist.

Dec 29 2007 ( South Wales Echo)

Sightings of unidentified flying objects have soared in the last month, with at least two a week seen by airline pilots in South Wales . Dancing lights, large craft and mysterious flashes are among dozens of UFOs sighted above Cardiff and the South Wales Valleys in the last few years.

And only four days ago, on the night of Christmas Day, a couple saw spherical orange lights in the sky above their home in the capital. According to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act, the Ministry of Defence has looked into 13 reports of UFOs in South Wales in the past three years. Several other sightings have been posted on UFO websites but it is thought that many more go unreported.

David Coggins has been a UFO investigator for 30 years and says there has been a spate of sightings in recent months. He said:

“There have been lots of reports by airline pilots flying in and out of South Wales who are seeing a lot of unidentified craft on a frequent basis, one or two a week…..Generally speaking, they are large triangular shaped objects. It's not just during the night but in daylight as well…..I've come across people who have seen UFOs very close up, from a distance of 12 feet.”

Just three weeks ago, Martin Dupres and two friends had a close encounter when they saw a strange light in the sky in Lisvane at 5pm on Tuesday, December 11. Martin, 43, of Riverside , Cardiff , said:

“I saw an extremely bright light come straight across the sky. Then it faded out but it might have sped up…..It wasn't a satellite or an aeroplane. This thing was not like that. The light shone towards my eyes then carried on. I'm curious, I've never seen anything like it before.”

There was another sighting of a UFO at 4am on September 9 in St Mellons, Cardiff . The witness saw an incredibly bright star but it suddenly started moving up and down and side to side swiftly and then flashing lights appeared around it like cameras. One account comes from a Cardiff man left shaken after he saw three lights dancing around each other before flying away in April 2006.

“I saw something that I never believed I would. I saw what at first I thought was a plane, until it changed direction at such an acute angle. At this point it was by two more lights – they were very blurry, orange in colour. They danced around each other and then moved off……..I don't make silly claims. Quite frankly this has shaken me considerably.”

UFO investigator Mr Coggins, 67, of Pontypridd, hypnotises people who have seen UFOs and then experienced periods of missing time. Mr Coggins, who is featured in the alien encounter book Does It Rain In Other Dimensions, said:

“Strange as it may seem, people who had seen a UFO close up have ended up on the crafts and while they've been on, strange things happen to them such as medical examinations……….They don't remember until they are hypnotised. One man in South Wales had lost one-and-a-half days. He recounted what had happened under hypnosis and when I played him back the tape, he broke down in tears and said ‘did that happen to me?'. It's impossible not to believe in it……..UFOs are seen as a joke but it's almost an absolute certainty they exist and are visiting this earth on a regular basis.”

The MoD examines UFO reports to establish whether what was seen has any defence significance. A spokeswoman said: “We believe that rational explanations, such as aircraft lights or natural phenomena, could be found for them if resources were diverted for this purpose.”

Source: South Wales Echo

Chad – Coast To Coast UFO Pictures Update. The Plot Thickens!! (Capitola UFO Pictures)

First the O'Hare Airport, then Guernsey Pilot spots UFO, then Coast To Coast and Chad, then a similar UFO sighting at Lake Tahoe, and now we have yet another incredibly similar UFO at Capitola, courtesy of, “Rajman1977” (Flickr I.D).

rajman1977 explains that he was visiting his fiancés parents in Capitola. Then while eating dinner back porch they noticed the UFO sort of hovering in the sky, before it finally took off into the distance pretty fast. Adding that, “At one point a car stopped to look as well.” And nobody could figure it out and present was a mechanical engineer.

So after sending a copy to the local paper he uploaded the others to a ,”New” Flickr account. Visit rajman1977's account and view the photos.

Remarkable coincidences? Or maybes the beginning of the end for the UFO debunkers?

To Discuss These UFO Pictures, Visit Here.