UFO Sighting at Luke Afb?Author: Joy Healey
UFOs, Unidentified Flying Objects - Flying Saucers, whatever you care to call them, and whether you believe in them or not, there are too many sightings to be totally dismissed. Here's an exceptional one extracted from "Project Blue Book", written by "EJR" former chief of the Air Force's project for investigating UFO reports.
The incident took place at Luke AFB, Arizona, the Air Force's advanced fighter-bomber school that is named after the famous "balloon buster" of World War I, Lieu¬tenant Frank Luke, Jr. It was a sighting that produced some very inter¬esting photographs.
The sky was clear except for a few high cirrus clouds, late morning of March 3, 1953, when the pilot took off from Luke Air Base in an F-84 jet, to add some more hours to his flight log. He had been flying F-51s in Korea and had recently started to check out in the jets. After take off, clearing the traffic pattern, he climbed toward Blythe Radio, situated about 130 miles west of Luke.
He'd climbed for several minutes and had just picked up the coded letters BLH that identified Blythe Radio when he looked up through the corner glass in the front part of his canopyhigh at about two o'clock he saw what he thought was an airplane angling across his course from left to right leaving a long, thin vapor trail. He glanced down at his altimeter and saw that he was at 23,000 feet. The object that was leaving the vapor trail must really be high, he remembered thinking, because he couldn't see any airplane at the head of it.
He altered his course a few degrees to the right so that he could follow the trail and increased his rate of climb. Before long he could tell that he was gaining on the object, or whatever was leaving the vapor trail, because he was under the central part of it. But he still couldn't see any object. This was odd, he thought, because vapor trails don't just happen; something has to leave them.
His altimeter had ticked off another 12,000 feet and he was now at 35,000. Still climbing, the F-84 began to mush; it was as high as it would go. The pilot dropped down 1,000 feet and continued oneven when he was below the front of the trail, however, still no sight of an airplane. This bothered him too.
Nothing in 1953 flew over 55,000 feet except a few experimental airplanes like the D-558 or those of the "X" series, and they don't stray far from Edwards AFB in California.
He couldn't be more than 15,000 feet from the front of the trail, and you can recognize any kind of an airplane 15,000 feet away in the clear air of the sub stratosphere.
He looked and he looked and he looked. He moved the F-84 back and forth, convinced a flaw in the canopy's plexiglass was blanking out the airplane, however, still none to be seen. Whatever the object, it was darned high, or darned small. The object was traveling at approximately 300 miles an hour, as it was necessary to reduce engine power and "S" to stay under it.
He was beginning to get low on fuel about this time so he hauled up the nose of the jet, took about 30 feet of gun camera film, and started down. When he landed and told his story, the film was quickly processed and rushed to the projection room. It showed a weird, thin, forked vapor trailbut no airplane.
Lieutenant Olsson and Airman Futch (veterans of the UFO campaign of 1952) worked the report over thor¬oughly. The photo lab confirmed that the trail was definitely a vapor trail, not a freak cloud formation. But Air Force Flight Service said, "No other airplanes in the area," and so did Air Defense Command, because minutes after the F-84 pilot broke off contact, the "object" had passed into an ADIZAir Defense Identification Zoneand radar had shown nothing.
There was one last possibility: an astronomer said that the photos looked exactly like a meteor's smoke trail. But there was one hitch: the pilot was convinced that the speed of the object at the head of the vapor trail was approximately 300 miles per hour. He was unsure how many miles had been covered, but on first picking up Blythe Radio, whilst flying on Green 5 airway, he was approximately 30 miles west of his Air Base. When the pilot had disengaged from the chase, a further radio bearing confirmed his position as almost up to Needles Radio, 70 miles north of Blythe. He could see a lake, Lake Mojave, in the distance.
Was a high-altitude jet-stream wind the reason for the smoke cloud? Futch checked thisno. The winds above 20,000 feet were the usual westerlies and the jet stream was far to the north.
Several months later I talked to a captain who had been at Luke when this sighting occurred. He knew the F-84 pilot, whose report he had heard in minute detail. Maybe not a confirmed believer, however, certainly curious. "I never thought much about these reports before," he said, "but I know this guy well. He's not nuts. What do you think he saw?"
I don't know what he saw. Maybe he didn't travel as far as he thought he did. If he didn't, then I'd guess that he saw a meteor's smoke trail. But if he did know that he'd covered some 80 miles during the chase, I'd say that he saw a UFOa real one. And I find it hard to believe that pilots don't know what they're doing.
About the Author:
"Project Blue Book" documents many sighting of UFOs, and as such is regarded as an authority on the subject. This report is the first time ever that someone, military or civilian, has collated and publicized all the facts on this controversial subject. For more information, log in to http://www.project-blue-book.com Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/ufo-sighting-at-luke-afb-540621.html
Texas UFO And Jets May Have Entered Restricted Presidential AirspaceAuthor: Bill Knell
The laundry list of strangeness surrounding the Stephenville, Texas, UFO sightings is growing. Despite efforts by a military spokesperson to attribute the sightings to F-16 training maneuvers, new video shows a strange object that doesn't look or act anything like a conventional aircraft. On top of that, a former defense industry electronics expert now says that the F-14s may have been scrambled in response to a violation of restricted presidential airspace by the military.
A new video has surfaced and been presented by Stephenville, Texas, resident Steve Allen, the owner of a freight company and a witness to the sighting on January 8, 2008. Allen says that the video of a strange object in the sky was presented to him by an anonymous source and that it was taken on the occasion of the January 8th sighting. The video appears very similar to another UFO film taken years before which shows an object moving extremely fast and making bizarre and aerodynamically impossible moves. This new video evidence casts doubt on the current air force explanation for the event.
A new scenario that might help explain one of the Stephenville UFO sightings has entered the picture, but it's doubtful that the Air Force or other U.S. Government Authorities will find this one helpful in their efforts to portray the affair in conventional terms. A former employee for a government contractor (now retired) told the International Paranormal UFO Society that he worked on F-16s for many years as an electronics engineer and has his own opinion of what happened on January 8, 2008.
This informant is known to IPUS and he claims that it would be very unlikely for so many F-14s to be on a evening or nighttime training mission at one time. Instead, he believes that the reason so many F-14s were involved in the incident is because the unidentified flying object they were chasing had violated restricted presidential airspace over the Bush Ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Our informant bases his opinion on all the information that the media, military and eyewitnesses have provided to date. He points out that a previous email from a private pilot to IPUS mentioned that he was approaching Erath County airspace (where the events of January 8, 2008 took place) from the south and saw the object and jets in front of him indicating that they were approaching the area from the same direction. President Bush's Crawford Ranch is south and slightly east of Stephenville.
IPUS is continuing to investigate the Stephenville Sightings and related matters. We will post any new information that we have on our website at http://www.CanYouStandTheTruth.com We encourage anyone with information about the Texas UFO sightings to contact us through our website or call our UFO Sightings Hotline at 765-483-9089. IPUS Board Member and Co-Spokesperson, Dick Criswell, is available for media inquiries and guest spots about our investigation into the Texas UFO Sightings. He can be reached at our hotline phone number or by email at invader1@insightbb.com
IPUS is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to truth and research into UFOs and other Paranormal Phenomenon. You can read more articles about the Stephenville, Texas, UFO Sightings and many other cases on our website. We offer a free newsletter to anyone interested in our research. Sign up on our website. About the Author:
Bill Knell is a popular Speaker, Author and Consultant with eclectic interests. Featured in the Wall Street Journal; seen on NBC Nightly News; heard on Mancow and Howard Stern; consultant to films like Men in Black and World of the Worlds. BillKnell.comArticle Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/texas-ufo-and-jets-may-have-entered-restricted-presidential-airspace-323518.html
Phoenix Lights UFO Mystery 2007: Former AZ Gov Symington Admits To Seeing "Craft Of Unknown Origin"Author: Bill Knell
On March 13, 1997, unexplained lights appeared over Phoenix, Arizona. I was in town when the mysterious event took place. While authorities would like you to believe that these were merely military flares, former Arizona Governor Fife Symington says there is much more to the story.
Symington now admits that he was among the hundreds of witnesses who saw a huge triangular object in the skies over Phoenix. The former Governor made a number of statements about the Phoenix Lights mystery to Leslie Kean, Special Correspondent to The Prescott Daily Courier. The statements were included in an article by Kean published in the Courier on March 18, 2007. In that article, the former Arizona Governor describes what he saw on March 13, 1997:
"It was enormous and inexplicable," he said. "Who knows where it came from? A lot of people saw it, and I saw it too."
Symington was referring to a V-shaped object with lights on it seen in the skies over Phoenix ten years ago. Some estimated the lights to be the size of a football field, while others said they could have been a mile long. He continued to describe his own sighting of the triangular object: "It was dramatic. And it couldn't have been flares because it was too symmetrical." The former Arizona Governor revealed the object to be a "craft of unknown origin."
While Symington hasn't been the only political figure in Arizona to comment on the Phoenix Lights, he stands alone in his admission that they were more than just flares. When asked to comment on the Phoenix Lights in 2000, Senator John McCain said, "That has never been fully explained." He also quickly added, "But I have to tell you that I do not have any evidence whatsoever of aliens or UFOs."
Fife Symington says he called the commander of Luke Air Force Base, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and a General with the Arizona National Guard back in 1997 to ask about the lights. None of them were able to provide him with any answers and seemed "perplexed." One of the problems with the sightings were the multitude of explanations available at the time.
The V-shaped object with lights was seen in the sky around 8:30pm. The lights that were videotaped and seen around 10:30pm are what most people call the Phoenix Lights. These are often explained away as flares, but not everyone agrees. People that videotaped the 10:30pm event back in 1997 say the lights were in a triangular shape. Some of them had seen military flares being dropped on other occasions and say this was something completely different. However, authorities stayed with the flares explanation and explained the earlier events as a sighting of the Hale-Bopp Comet.
Synmington called for an investigation into the Phoenix Lights shortly after the sightings occurred, but the statement was a hollow one. Either he was not able to obtain cooperation from military authorities, or he never made much of an effort. However, with pressure mounting from the public, UFO researchers and news gathering organizations, he had to eventually take some action.
On June 19, 1997, Governor Fife Symington held a press conference in Phoenix. Dressing one of his aides up as an Alien, the Governor said that the Phoenix Lights were flares and nothing to get upset about. He also said that he was only joking when he ordered the Arizona Department of Public Safety (Arizona State Police) to investigate the sightings. Today, he still defends those actions.
"I wanted people to lighten up and calm down, so I introduced a little levity. But I never felt that the overall situation was a matter of ridicule," Symington says about the infamous press conference. But not everyone was laughing. Former Phoenix Councilwoman Frances Barwood made a serious effort to investigate the sightings in 1997.
According to her recent statements, Barwood was unable to convince federal authorities to interview even one of the seven hundred witnesses that she spoke to about the Phoenix Lights. Big surprise! Being an elected official isn't enough when it comes to getting answers about UFOs from the Military. Just ask current Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano.
Janet Napolitano called for an investigation into the Phoenix Lights during her 1997 campaign to become Arizona Attorney General and was elected to that office in 1998. Despite her former position as a U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, we can assume that she was served the same plate of disinformation from the U.S. Military that the rest of us received. What does she think of Symington's new revelation and the Phoenix Lights overall? We have asked and are awaiting her answer.
My own experience earlier that day was frightening and likely related to one or both the sightings of March 13, 1997. I was driving in from Flagstaff (north to south) on I-17 in the early afternoon. On a day when traffic was already heavy and almost at a standstill, State Patrol vehicles suddenly appeared and caused vehicles to pull over to the far right lanes. A few minutes later, military vehicles filled with troops and equipment covered by tarps went flying by at high speeds. The military procession lasted several minutes.
I was later told by other drivers who attended a seminar I was giving in Phoenix that the same thing happened that night and the next day. Others who attended my seminar reported being almost 'buzzed' by the lights while driving on various local roadways. They described huge balls of light which seemed to come down very low and keep pace with traffic. Apart from all the witness reports, more than a few people took photos and video of the Phoenix Lights.
Huge triangular objects have been a constant part of the UFO phenomenon from the very beginning. Some believe the triangle sightings date to prehistory and many point to sightings that may have occurred in the late 1800s. Most witnesses at that time assumed they were experimental kites of some sort. Then, there were all the unexplained triangle sightings in the 1950s, with and without lights. Two of the most famous involved the U.S. and British Military.
Beginning on September 13, 1952, Military Personnel aboard ships involved in NATO Operation Mainbrace saw and tracked a triangular shaped object flying at over 900 mph between Denmark and Norway. Witnesses said the object emitted a bright white light. There were additional UFO sightings during the NATO exercise as well which may have included saucer and cigar shaped crafts.
In July of 1955, a dark colored boomerang hovered completely still over Lasham Airfield, Hampshire, England, during the National Gliding Competitions. Seen by trained military observers, experienced civilian pilots and untrained spectators, the object hovered for thirty seconds before moving off to the southwest.
A triangular-shaped UFO captured the attention of the world's press in November of 1989 when a huge, dark triangle with sparkling bright lights underneath was seen by citizens and police in Liege, Belgium. More sightings followed. In 1990, Belgium Military Officials announced that two F-16 jet fighters scrambled from a NATO base chased a triangular shaped object for over an hour. One jet locked the object in on radar. On the pilot's screen it looked like a diamond.
There have been recent sightings of unexplained lights near Phoenix and triangular shaped craft over New Mexico and other parts of the Southwest.
The International Paranormal UFO Society asks anyone with information about the Phoenix Lights, triangular-shaped craft or other unexplained events related to the 1997 or current sightings to email us at ipus@CanYouStandTheTruth.com or write to: IPUS, PO Box 203, Lebannon IN 46052. All confidentiality requests will be honored. You can also contact our Arizona Representative by email at bill@CanYouStandTheTruth.com IPUS is the International Paranormal UFO Society. Visit our website and sign up for our free newsletter at http://www.CanYouStandTheTruth.com About the Author:
Bill Knell is a veteran Paranormal Researcher, Author and Speaker. Permission is grant to publish this article online or in print without alteration and with the inclusion of the last paragraph and IPUS url http://www.CanYouStandTheTruth.comArticle Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/phoenix-lights-ufo-mystery-2007-former-az-gov-symington-admits-to-seeing-craft-of-unknown-origin-123186.html
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