Open Minds UFO Radio: 2017 turned out to be a breakthrough year for UFOs, especially in the last month. However, there were other exciting UFO stories throughout the year, and our panel is here to discuss what those were. Host Alejandro Rojas, UFO news guy Martin Willis, and our special guest Lee Speigel, UFO journalist and media guy, share their top UFO stories of 2017.

The news cycle on this latest revelation that the Department of Defense (DoD) had a project called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) that looked into UFOs – remember the U is for “unidentified” not aliens – seems to be coming to a close. Dozens of interviews were conducted, many, if not all, can be seen at this link, and many more stories written. But it seems with all that was learned, many more questions remain to be answered.

On December 16, 2017, The New York Times posted an article that may have forever changed how the general public views the UFO topic. Luis Elizondo, who had previously claimed to work for a UFO project for the DoD, and The New York Times, shared much more detail about the project. The news made worldwide headlines and set off a weeks long media frenzy with interviews with Elizondo, jet fighter pilots who chased UFOs, and retired Nevada Senator Harry Reid, who took the lead on securing funding for the program.

The article that started it all.

However, now that we are almost a month out, the media cycle seems to be coming to an end and the story seems to be fading. But it most likely will not stay that way, because for as many questions that were answered, many more have come to light.

For example, Elizondo said he was able to get permission to release three videos of objects they were unable to identify. So far, only two of those have been released, and even these two warrant further scrutiny. One of the better-known videos was from a case that a few UFO researchers had already been examining. This was a sighting of what has been referred to as a Tic Tac shaped UFO by crewmen in the Nimitz aircraft carrier group. The sighting was in November of 2004 near of San Diego.

Robert Powell, a UFO researcher with the Scientific Coalition for Ufology (SCU), has been working with the Navy on a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request he had made on the case. He outlined his research thus far in a previous article on OpenMinds.tv. Investigative documentarian Jeremy Corbell had also been researching this case.

Most had heard of the case from a blog post made by one of the pilots who witnessed the event. An alleged video from the event was also leaked. Now it has been confirmed the video is from the Nimitz UFO encounter, but we do not know how that video got out to the public in the first place. This was the focus of another recent OpenMinds.tv article by contributor Andreas Muller from Germany. It is video from an advanced infrared camera on an F-18. Not the kind of thing that normally makes its way to YouTube.

Although some detail about this event has made it out to the public, the reports and files on the investigation of this UFO are still under lock and key. Powell has not received any of this, despite his requests. He is hopeful now that it has been revealed AATIP looked into this case more documentation will be released.

The second video, referred to as the GIMBAL video, was released with very little information as to its origins or the situation in which it was acquired. According to the To the Stars Academy (TTSA) website, an organization Elizondo now works for, the video “was captured by a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet using the Raytheon AN/ASQ-228 Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) pod.” However, the date, time and location are still kept under wraps. No doubt there is a stack of FOIA requests on this one.

So why release these videos without supporting documentation, and when will we see the third? We don’t know.

The Washington Post wrote: “Elizondo, in an internal Pentagon memo requesting that the videos be cleared for public viewing, argued that the images could help educate pilots and improve aviation safety. But in interviews, he said his ultimate intention was to shed light on a little-known program Elizondo himself ran for seven years…”

Luis Elizondo

(Credit: To the Stars Academy)

This seems to imply Elizondo was able to get the videos released under false pretense. However, I have been told that this statement by The Washington Post is inaccurate, and this is not how the videos got released. Well then, how did he get permission to release them, and what was the rationale behind it? We do not know.

There are a host of other questions. What other cases did AATIP look into? Do they have more video? Are these three the best they have? How many cases did they investigate and how many remain unknown? Even more exciting, how many of these objects do they believe exhibit technology much more advanced than what we Americans, or humans for that matter, have?

Then there is the case of the mysterious metals. The New York Times wrote: “Under Mr. Bigelow’s direction, the company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena.”

WTF? Were these metals analyzed? If so, by whom and what did they find? If the phenomena that produced these metals are still unexplained, does that imply any analysis done thus far was inconclusive? What sort of properties do these metals have? Are they extraordinary? This is kind of a big deal, but we have no answers, and the media is not even asking these questions…yet.

Does this tweet by Tom DeLonge, President and CEO of TTSA, posted two days before The New York Times article, have anything to do with these metals?

After mentioning the metals, The New York Times continued, “Researchers also studied people who said they had experienced physical effects from encounters with the objects and examined them for any physiological changes.”

Physiological changes? Did they find any?

The phrase “who said they had” implies this may have been just anecdotal in nature. This brings to mind a recent case where this claim was made in a long and wild story of a man by the name of John Burroughs, who says he came close to a UFO that appeared to land in a forest outside a base in the UK on lease to the United States Air Force. At the time, he was working security at the base and along with others, approached the object. Years later, in a declassified study on UFOs done by the British government, it was speculated that these men might have suffered some physical effects from the object.

Burroughs did have health issues he believed stemmed from this incident and had to hire a lawyer to get veterans benefits. Incidentally, Burroughs’ efforts lead him to discover the section in the classified UK report that referred to his encounter and other yet to be released UK UFO files despite the fact that the UK had claimed to had released all of their UFO files. For his research, John Burroughs was awarded the UFO researcher of the year award at the 2015 International UFO Congress. DeLonge won that very award in 2017, and his video acceptance went viral early last year. You can read more about Burroughs’ efforts here.

The reason I went off on this tangent is because this case is well known. Is this the case that is being referred to in regards to studying “people who said they had experienced physical effects?”

It feels like we learned a lot in the last few weeks. The media seems to have boiled it all down to the idea that the government has taken UFOs seriously and perhaps it is a more credible topic than previously thought. That is a good takeaway.

However, there are many more questions that need to be answered, and it is likely more revelation will be forthcoming. I would venture to guess some of those revelations will be coming very soon.

Do you have some questions I did not include here? If so, let us know what they are below.

Saarbrucken (Germany) – While the media interest in the unveiling of a secret UFO research program by the US Department of Defense through the “New York Times” is still unbroken, independent researchers are investigating the information and videos presented. Especially for the alleged UFO-encounter of the USS Nimitz Aircraft Carrier Combat Group in November 2004, which was actually well confirmed by at least two military eyewitnesses, the trace of the accompanying video leads to a German film production company, whose specialties are also 2- and 3D animation and special effects. The leading German newsblog on frontier science and the paranormal Grenzwissenschaft-Aktuell.de (GreWi) investigated. The result is all the more mysterious…

As GreWi already reported last October, the circumstances of the incident have been known at least since 2015 through an article on the US-American aviation and military website “FighterSweep.com”.

Furthermore a video of the on-board camera and tracing system (ATFLIR) of one of the fighter interceptors involved in the USS-Nimitz UFO-encounter is supposed to show the object and have been available online since 2007.

– Please find a full documentary with further information and discussion of the video HERE
– Please find another documentary HERE

In fact, since 2007 the so-called “WaybackMachine” of the internet archive “Web.Archive.org” shows a download-option for the video under the name “f4.mpg” via the website or server of the German film production company “Vision Unlimited” (VU) based at the town of Uhingen. VU’s specialties include 2- and 3D animations as well as special effects.

Understandably, this fact still raises doubts among many observers, investigators and skeptics about the authenticity and origin of the video, which is described by the “New York Times” and the “To The Stars Academy” as “officially released by the US government”.

GreWi-Editor Andreas Muller asked the manager of “Vision Unlimited”, Mr. Philip Schneider about the above described situation and he explains:
“Unfortunately, I can’t help at all. We don’t know where the file came from and can only say that it hasn’t been on the server for a long time since. Because the case is so strange, we also wanted to investigate. But quickly this showed to be fruitless because the file was on an old server and all data (LOGs etc.) are no longer available. I’ve also talked to former employees who had access to the server, but no one could tell me anything about it.” On a further inquiry to clarify that the video in question is NOT a product of “Vision Unlimited”, Schneider summarizes the situation again from VU’s point of view: “Yes correct – we have nothing to do with the video!

The search for the origin of the video through “Vision Unlimited” not only leads to a dead end, but also raises more questions than answers: Where does the video came from and how, why and by whom was it placed to the server of the VU-website?

Ultimately, only the publication of the videos raw data through an official channel of the US-Government could answer questions of origin and authenticity of the video as allegedly being of the on-board camera and tracing system on board the Nimitz-Super-Hornet. These data could then also answer critical questions about what the object actually is – or at least what it is not.

Raytheon’s “Advanced Targeting Forward Look Infrared” (ATFLIR) sensor, like the one used to track a possible UFO in a 2004 incident, is carried under the wing of this fighter jet.
Copyright/Source: Raytheon.com

While even Raytheon, the company producing the ATFLIR-system, is currently advertising that it could be their own system that “caught the first evidence of E.T. out there”, at the same time they also point out that “even so, the video images are not definitive proof that the jet pilots were chasing an actual UFO. To really be sure, we would need the raw data.”

An U.S. Navy ATFLIR, designated AN/ASQ-228, mounted under a fighter jet.

Copyright/Source: Raytheon.com

What is interesting about Raytheon’s statement, however, is that they seem to have no doubt from their side that the recordings are taken from one of their military-used ATFLIR-systems.

This article was reprinted with permission from www.grenzwissenschaft-aktuell.de.

Saarbrucken (Germany) – While the media interest in the unveiling of a secret UFO research program by the US Department of Defense through the “New York Times” is still unbroken, independent researchers are investigating the information and videos presented. Especially for the alleged UFO-encounter of the USS Nimitz Aircraft Carrier Combat Group in November 2004, which was actually well confirmed by at least two military eyewitnesses, the trace of the accompanying video leads to a German film production company, whose specialties are also 2- and 3D animation and special effects. The leading German newsblog on frontier science and the paranormal Grenzwissenschaft-Aktuell.de (GreWi) investigated. The result is all the more mysterious…

As GreWi already reported last October, the circumstances of the incident have been known at least since 2015 through an article on the US-American aviation and military website “FighterSweep.com”.

Furthermore a video of the on-board camera and tracing system (ATFLIR) of one of the fighter interceptors involved in the USS-Nimitz UFO-encounter is supposed to show the object and have been available online since 2007.

– Please find a full documentary with further information and discussion of the video HERE
– Please find another documentary HERE

In fact, since 2007 the so-called “WaybackMachine” of the internet archive “Web.Archive.org” shows a download-option for the video under the name “f4.mpg” via the website or server of the German film production company “Vision Unlimited” (VU) based at the town of Uhingen. VU’s specialties include 2- and 3D animations as well as special effects.

Understandably, this fact still raises doubts among many observers, investigators and skeptics about the authenticity and origin of the video, which is described by the “New York Times” and the “To The Stars Academy” as “officially released by the US government”.

GreWi-Editor Andreas Muller asked the manager of “Vision Unlimited”, Mr. Philip Schneider about the above described situation and he explains:
“Unfortunately, I can’t help at all. We don’t know where the file came from and can only say that it hasn’t been on the server for a long time since. Because the case is so strange, we also wanted to investigate. But quickly this showed to be fruitless because the file was on an old server and all data (LOGs etc.) are no longer available. I’ve also talked to former employees who had access to the server, but no one could tell me anything about it.” On a further inquiry to clarify that the video in question is NOT a product of “Vision Unlimited”, Schneider summarizes the situation again from VU’s point of view: “Yes correct – we have nothing to do with the video!

The search for the origin of the video through “Vision Unlimited” not only leads to a dead end, but also raises more questions than answers: Where does the video came from and how, why and by whom was it placed to the server of the VU-website?

Ultimately, only the publication of the videos raw data through an official channel of the US-Government could answer questions of origin and authenticity of the video as allegedly being of the on-board camera and tracing system on board the Nimitz-Super-Hornet. These data could then also answer critical questions about what the object actually is – or at least what it is not.

Raytheon’s “Advanced Targeting Forward Look Infrared” (ATFLIR) sensor, like the one used to track a possible UFO in a 2004 incident, is carried under the wing of this fighter jet.
Copyright/Source: Raytheon.com

While even Raytheon, the company producing the ATFLIR-system, is currently advertising that it could be their own system that “caught the first evidence of E.T. out there”, at the same time they also point out that “even so, the video images are not definitive proof that the jet pilots were chasing an actual UFO. To really be sure, we would need the raw data.”

An U.S. Navy ATFLIR, designated AN/ASQ-228, mounted under a fighter jet.

Copyright/Source: Raytheon.com

What is interesting about Raytheon’s statement, however, is that they seem to have no doubt from their side that the recordings are taken from one of their military-used ATFLIR-systems.

This article was reprinted with permission from www.grenzwissenschaft-aktuell.de.

Note: This UFO sighting is being reproduced exactly as it was reported by the primary eyewitness who sent this sighting to Open Minds via email. Source: Ed Towers

Illustration of UFO by Michael Schratt

My wife and I had a very close up experience while living in Santa Clarita Valley. This occurred in 1978 but the memory lives in our minds as it were last night. We feel highly appreciative for the experience and are not afraid to openly discuss it without any intentions of financial gain. You may publish this account and we would be most willing to discuss it in public.

It was the summer of 1978. Santa Clarita Valley is located north of the San Fernando Valley and north of Los Angeles. Santa Clarita was a small and laid-back community mostly referred to as Valencia. We recently relocated back from a two-year international management assignment followed by a two-year management assignment in Arizona. We then were transferred to California and chose Santa Clarita because of the open spacious country living, low crime statistics, no smog, and nice neighborhoods. I purchased a two-story corner house with a swimming pool.

One Friday evening, I was using a long pole with an attached brush designed to sweep the walls of the pool. Our children would probably swim early the following morning and I wanted the pool to be clean. As I reached upwards on the pole to push downwards I saw a craft approaching. The craft was at a distance equivalent one or two short blocks away and not flying parallel to streets but at an angle on a southeastern direction. It was immediately obvious to me that the craft was not a helicopter nor airplane since these would not normally fly that low and the physical characteristics did not match these. At that distance the craft seemed wider, with luminous lights in the circumference area of the frontal section (referred to as leading edge). I stared at it for a brief perplexed moment. After realizing that it was something out of the ordinary, I ran down the steps from the poolside deck platform where I had been standing. The platform was about four to five feet higher than the pool water and the opposite surrounding pool deck area. It was about 15 fast running steps from there to the backyard entry to the family room. My wife and two children were watching television there. I yelled for them to come outside and see, but only my wife Gloria came out. We both walked fast towards the side of the pool opposite the platform side where I had been standing. By that time the craft was right over our pool area at an altitude of no more than 50-75 feet and perhaps even less.

The craft had come to a stop in proximity to our pool area as we stood bellow it. The craft made no sound whatsoever. It wobbled slightly as if it were moved by the wind, but there was no noticeable wind at that moment. The craft leaned forward and downwards and then we saw a large forward angled window, located bellow the leading edge that was perhaps 8 feet in length and 3-4 feet in height. We could see an orange bluish glow from inside but no occupants or controls. As the craft leaned forward I could see light emanating from its upper section and not from the pool lights reflection since the pool lights would be unable to reflect on the upper section. The craft seemed to be manufactured as one solid piece. There were no visible seams or rivets. The bottom of the craft was concave towards the center. In the deepest section of the concave center two rectangular objects were visible, which ran the length of the deep concaved section and seemed to be a few feet apart from each other. The craft had an upper dome with porthole like windows but no internal visibility. The upper dome was round and centered in relation to the lower part of the craft with no visible seams. The total height of the craft appeared to be the equivalent of a one and half story typical track residence or less.  I calculated the height by comparing it to our two-story house. The diameter was approximately 50-75 feet or less. There were no visible markings, insignias or identification on the craft.

Under the front leading edge of the circular craft was some ski like devices with two side-by-side configurations. The design I cannot replicate even though I always scored high in I.Q, tests where design progressions (similar to mathematical progressions) had to be decided from multiple drawing choices. I also remember thinking they were too far forward from the crafts center of gravity something we studied in Group Propulsion in relation to the length and loading of aircraft. The ski-like devices were similar to the letter “S” with the top of the S facing forward but with more elaborate details filling the gaps. At the time my conclusion was they were some type of hanging or anchoring device.

Diagram of UFO description by Michael Schratt (click image to enlarge)

During the entire experience lasting some 45 seconds or a bit longer, my wife kept repeating “Oh my God!” over and over again. I tried to concentrate on details and in my mind kept repeating “take me with you.”  We were both frozen in awe and disbelief. It was like seeing a large bus that I previously described as a Greyhound bus floating over your house.  Both of us looked upwards and did not speak to each other during the sighting. There was no fear, an unprompted paralysis, and a high respect to what we were seeing.  We both had the sensation of being watched primarily because the craft maneuvered downwards at an angle towards us, and then regained a level position parallel to the ground.  As a part of my analysis during the experience I listened for other engines, other craft, or the possibility that this craft was being suspended from another craft as a hoax but concluded there were no other man-made craft in the vicinity. The craft then began to move at a very slow speed of around 20 miles per hour. I jumped on a wall that surrounded our backyard so that I could see the trajectory. I saw it between houses as it continued at that speed for at least 7 miles from our house, and heading in a southeast direction from Santa Clarita over a mountainous section of eastward Los Angeles County. I instructed my wife not to discuss it but to try to draw what she saw and then we would compare drawings. My drawings had more details. Then we began comparing the experience and both had seen the very same details.

My conclusion is that the craft wanted us to observe it or perhaps was examining us. I am 100% sure this was not a man-made craft or technology. I am also convinced by the event that U.S. Government intelligence agencies know we are being visited by extra-terrestrials and are hiding facts. To me, the only rationale reason is because they lied once about their existence (perhaps Roswell and others) and the complex structured secretive system is not able to reverse course, or that disclosure may cause the loss of statutory governmental powers as citizens realize that borders, religions and global federal governments are meaningless and helpless. My conclusion leads me to think that the visitors do not wish to work with a single government as they are roaming global skies making their presence known. There were lingering questions in my mind after the sighting. Since the craft must originate from an advanced civilization why do they need windows? My technical assumption is that an advanced civilization would have cameras on the exterior which are able to duplicate exactly what is visible outside of the craft. Why were we allowed to see the interior through the large window but not the occupants? After reporting the experience to the local Sheriff, he said they had no additional reports.  Years later after writing the experience on the internet, someone who claimed he was with NASA automated airport sciences called me and said that his call was unofficial.

The only somewhat related experience was during a father daughter overnight camping event. The event was prior to our sighting experience. Several of my neighbors were FBI agents. During the outing two of the agents who had daughters were standing close to each other looking at the visible stars. One of them whispered to the other that he heard that strange crafts were often visible in the area. I was standing a few feet away from them and could hear them. During my earlier education, I graduated and was certified in Group Propulsion Systems and had a choice to either continue studies as a Flight Engineer or Aeronautical Engineering. I selected Aeronautical Engineering and attended Northrop Institute of Technology. In Group Propulsion Systems we became highly familiar with aircraft, mechanical and electrical systems and all flight disciplines, flight and design configurations and propulsion sciences.  I am still more familiar with aircraft functions than an automobile. After two years of study I switched to business management at another university, was an early participant in IT as a systems analyst followed by executive positions in the computer and software industry eventually forming my own international management consulting and international business services integration organization. I am now an active portfolio investor and international business but retired.

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

Open Minds UFO Radio: Dr. John Alexander is a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army, where he worked in intelligence and had participated in projects where they explored paranormal phenomena. He also formed a group of colleagues in intelligence to look for government UFO secrets. Since leaving the Army, John has worked at Los Alamos and is a defense consultant specializing in non-lethal weapons.

Nick Pope worked on the UK government’s UFO project in the Ministry of Defense in the 90s. He has since continued to offer his take on the UFO topic and consults with the UK government on UFOs in regards to media relations.

In this interview, we get insight from John and Nick into the recent news broken by The New York Times, with releases by Poltico and The Washington Post within hours, that the Department of Defense has had a secret UFO project since 2007. News outlets around the world are covering the story, and these guys are in high demand, so we are very lucky to have been able to speak with them. Outside of those directly involved, these are two of the most qualified to speak on this matter.

For more about John Alexander, visit: www.johnbalexander.com

For more about Nick Pope, visit: www.NickPope.net

For more about the ongoing story and other UFO news, visit: OpenMinds.tv

Open Minds UFO Radio: Dr. John Alexander is a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army, where he worked in intelligence and had participated in projects where they explored paranormal phenomena. He also formed a group of colleagues in intelligence to look for government UFO secrets. Since leaving the Army, John has worked at Los Alamos and is a defense consultant specializing in non-lethal weapons.

Nick Pope worked on the UK government’s UFO project in the Ministry of Defense in the 90s. He has since continued to offer his take on the UFO topic and consults with the UK government on UFOs in regards to media relations.

In this interview, we get insight from John and Nick into the recent news broken by The New York Times, with releases by Poltico and The Washington Post within hours, that the Department of Defense has had a secret UFO project since 2007. News outlets around the world are covering the story, and these guys are in high demand, so we are very lucky to have been able to speak with them. Outside of those directly involved, these are two of the most qualified to speak on this matter.

For more about John Alexander, visit: www.johnbalexander.com

For more about Nick Pope, visit: www.NickPope.net

For more about the ongoing story and other UFO news, visit: OpenMinds.tv

Philip Mantle is an international UFO researcher, author and broadcaster. He also runs the Flying Disk Press, which publishes UFO books. Philip Mantle’s interest in UFO research began in l979 when he joined the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA), and Yorkshire UFO Society (YUFOS).  He is also a regular contributor to OpenMinds.tv.

In this interview, we discuss a recent article on OpenMinds.tv posted by Philip about an alleged UFO sighting at the secretive Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake. We also discuss one of Flying Disk Press’ latest books, which is a republishing of a book regarding was is referred to as the “Pascagoula sightings.” The event took place in Mississippi in October of 1973. While fishing two men witnessed a UFO and strange creatures. They later reported the event to police, who secretly taped them, but what they heard were two frightened individuals, not hoaxers.

For more about Philip visit: flyingdiskpress.blogspot.com

Read his OpenMinds.tv stories at: www.openminds.tv/author/mantle

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

The U.S. government has not acknowledged that it has investigated a UFO case and have been unable to identify it since 1969 when they closed Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force’s last official UFO research project. However, this weekend it was revealed that the Department of Defense (DoD) has had a secret UFO investigation project since 2007, and this revelation might not of come had it not have been for the efforts of rock star Tom DeLonge.

DeLonge has had a long time interest in UFOs, and OpenMinds.tv has been along for some of the ride. DeLonge sponsored a website dedicated to fringe topics where they reposted, with permission, many of our stories. We have interviewed him and have kept in contact.

Tom DeLonge during an OpenMinds.tv interview.

(Credit: OpenMinds.tv)

However, despite DeLonge telling us he was up to some big things, we had no idea how big. In fact, DeLonge sharing his beliefs in some of the more fringe ideas in Ufology made it even more difficultly to fathom that he had high-level contacts confiding in him. We finally got insight into just how important his contacts were from WikiLeaks of all places.

During the election, WikiLeaks famously posted hacked emails they received that belonged to Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the presidency. Many of them were communications with John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign manager, who was also known to be a UFO enthusiast. In these emails it was discovered he was in communication with DeLonge regarding the UFO matter (one of my OpenMinds.tv articles was among them), and that they had meetings with highly placed U.S. Air Force officials, engineers and people in the entertainment industry. Many of these individuals did not want to publicly be associated with the topic, which is why DeLonge had kept their identities hidden.

It was clear DeLonge was working with these individuals on projects he said were in the works. Reaching people at that level, even if you are a famous rock star, takes a lot of effort, and so he was awarded the OpenMinds.tv UFO Researcher of the Year award at the 2017 International UFO Congress. Many did not like that. However, I have felt it was justified. I do not believe any civilian UFO researcher has obtained the level of cooperation with high-level officials he had.

DeLonge could not be present to receive his award, but he did make an acceptance video that we played at the conference, and he allowed us to post it online. We did so with a video outlining his achievements. The video went viral and was covered by many music industry news outlets and several mainstream outlets as well.

In the video, Tom promised big news would be announced soon after the conference in February. However, days turned into weeks which turned into months with no announcement. DeLonge emailed me apologizing for the delay, but letting me know it was coming. In the meantime, he did interviews about his belief that the government was actually protecting us from aggressive extraterrestrial civilizations, and that insiders were working with him to reveal their secrets.

Honestly, this caused credibility issues. Careful, serious researchers were frustrated that he would make these unsubstantiated claims. Those who felt as he did grew impatient waiting for proof. Others felt he was defaming extraterrestrial civilizations who were here to help us. Everyone else waited patiently.

Finally, in October of this year, DeLonge announced the creation of the To the Stars Academy (TTSA). It was a corporation comprised of scientists, former intelligence officials, engineers, and other credible individuals. To me, this was shocking. It was an impressive group of individuals. One individual in particular stood out; a name I had not heard before.

His name was Luis Elizondo. He said he had worked in intelligence for the Department of Defense (DoD) on a program to look into UFO reports. I had no reason to doubt him. I also had no doubt the others in the group, who I was familiar with and admired, would have vetted him. However, it was unclear if his department only looked into UFOs on occasion, or if this was something they looked into more thoroughly. Elizondo said he was frustrated that the DoD did not take the issue more seriously, and that he and some of his colleagues were convinced they were witnessing objects demonstrating technology the U.S. or any other country in the world could posses.

The creation of the TTSA, and especially Elizondo’s claims, were huge, I felt. However, the news was met with a resounding “meh” among many UFO researchers. Some felt it was a scam to get money, and others felt it was some kind of coverup. I had the opportunity to talk to DeLonge, and another member of the group who had retired from a career in the CIA, Jim Semivan. I also had acquaintances I spoke with who were close with the other individuals in the group. I got the sense that none of them needed the money, they all had a very strong interest in the UFO topic and an equally strong desire to research more about the nature of the phenomenon. I also felt as though they did not feel they were part of a coverup or being manipulated by mysterious dark forces.

However, there was something else that was apparent. These individuals also did not hold the same views as DeLonge. Although some had personal experiences, their interest was to “follow the data” as Chris Mellon, another member put it. Some are even hesitant to conclude these mysterious aerial vehicles are a result of an extraterrestrial civilization.

I think this is where some confusion has stemmed from. Since October DeLonge had been a spokesperson for the forthcoming news, which turned out to be a ground breaking effort to investigate UFOs. However, DeLonge also mixed in his ideas about a space war going on between the U.S. government and aliens. The later was not what was revealed, and what many felt DeLonge had promised. DeLonge feels he may still be able to prove his other more shocking claims. Who knows, with everything he has accomplished thus far, maybe he will. We seem to be living in a time of the impossible being possible, for better or worse.

This brings us to the news making headlines today. It appears I, and a few of my colleagues, were not the only ones who noticed the importance of what Elizondo had claimed. Apparently, The New York Times, Politico and The Washington Post also saw its importance and began investigating Elizondo’s claims.

This past Saturday, The New York Times posted their findings, soon after Politico did the same and right after that, The Washington Post published their story. They all took different angles, but the gist is that since 2007 the DoD has been running a secret UFO project called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) ran by Elizondo. Furthermore, Bigelow Aerospace was contracted to do the work. This last piece of news was of particular interest because I was the PR person for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) around 2008 when Bigelow funded a joint project with us.

Robert Bigelow (left) and guest with a model of their plans for a lunar base.

(Credit: Bigelow Aerospace)

The other details in the project were equally as shocking. Apparently, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, democrat from Nevada, was influenced by astronaut John Glenn and Bigelow, who was a friend and donor, to initiate an investigation into UFOs. Reid sought the cooperation fellow senators and along with Ted Stevens, a republican from Alaska, and Daniel K. Inouye, a democrat from Hawaii, procured funding for the program. $22 million was earmarked for the project over the next 5 years.

The Pentagon told The New York Times they canceled funding in 2012 due to a lack of results, but Elizondo says the program was not canceled. He and others continued their work along with other DoD duties. Even after Elizondo left the project in October to join TTSA, he says he had a successor to continue running the project.

So what did AATIP find? That information is being held back, but Elizondo has given us a few things to chew on. A Pentagon briefing on the program in 2009 claimed “what was considered science fiction is now science fact,” and, according to The New York Times, “that the United States was incapable of defending itself against some of the technologies discovered.” Whoa.

To add to the shock and awe, according to The New York Times, Elizondo claimed, “Under Mr. Bigelow’s direction, the company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena.”

Bigelow Aerospace HQ in North Las Vegas, Nevada.

(Credit: Bigelow Aeropsace)

On this last issue, Ralph Blumenthal, one of the co-writers of The New York Times article, told MSNBC in an interview that indeed they had recovered material that was a technology they cold not identify. Mellon, another member of TTSA who formerly worked as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in the Clinton and Bush Administrations, among other high-level positions, confirmed to investigative reporter George Knapp, the man who put Area 51 on the map, and I, on Coast to Coast AM last night, that they did have material, but there is no information as to where that material came from.

Elizondo was also able to get three videos of unknown aerial objects released. Two of those videos are posted on the TTSA website, the third has not been released yet. One of these videos we have seen, but now it has been confirmed it is real. It is a video from an incident of a UFO being observed by personnel from the Nimitz aircraft carrier group and captured on infrared video from a jet fighter. Researcher Robert Powell has written on his investigation on this case on OpenMinds.tv.

The second video is similar, but information as to the date, time or location the video was captured has not been released.

I may be leaving out details, but I have peppered links to the big stories and videos throughout this article for you to get caught up.

To sum it all up, what we have here is truly extraordinary. The U.S. government has not admitted to a UFO investigation and determination of an object being an unknown since1969 when they closed Project Blue Book, the USAF’s official investigation into UFOs. To further state that these objects demonstrate a technology beyond our own that we can not defend against and they have recovered unknown material is – sorry, but I can not help myself – amazeballs. It is the stuff of science-fiction.

This would be a MAJOR mic drop for DeLonge, but in his mind, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Further disclosures are certainly forthcoming. Now that the cat is out of the bag, people will be clamoring for information such as where the second video came from, where the material came from and what other cases has the AATIP looked into. It has also been suggested that this has all been cronyism by Reid to funnel money to his buddy Bigelow. There are a million avenues to go down, and I am sure there will be people going down them all.

In the end, this has been an extraordinary revelation, and whether or not it is ever revealed there has been a galactic battle going on between humans and space invaders — I would not count anything out given what DeLonge has accomplished thus far — we still need to give credit where credit is due. None of this would have been revealed if it wasn’t for DeLonge’s efforts.

Stay tuned for more! We will have a special report from Leslie Kean, one of the co-authors of The New York Times article on the next Open Minds UFO Radio podcast.

Read the New Tork Times stroy here: Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program

Read the Politico story here: The Pentagon’s Secret Search for UFOs

See and read more about the video at the To The Stars Academy website here: THE FIRST OFFICIAL UAP FOOTAGE EVER RELEASED BY THE USG

See the To The Stars Press Confernce and read a transcript at OpenMinds.tv here: Watch Tom DeLonge’s To the Stars Academy UFO Press Conference Here

Read more about Alejandro Rojas’ appearance on Coast to Coast AM Sunday with George Knapp here: Coast to Coast AM Sunday – December 17, 2017

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

Open Minds UFO Radio: Alejandro and Martin catch up on some recent UFO news and the spacey stuff Alejandro has been up to.

{http://www.openminds.tv/ }

In October 2017 a curious post appeared on the facebook page of ‘Art Bell’s Midnight In The Desert Feat Heather Wade’. It showed an apparent daylight scent of a ‘UFO’ in the desert with a helicopter hovering overhead. The text to accompany the photo read: “I’ve been holding on to these pictures for 10 years and it’s time I showed someone. I took pictures of this thing in July 2007 on out radar test range in the Mojave Desert. I’ve always been nervous to show anyone but here you go.”

My curiosity peeked I dropped the post of this message whom I shall call Keith Bradshaw (real name on file) a note in a private message asking for more details. Checking the next day the post had been removed but Keith did reply to my private message. Keith made it clear from the beginning that he was worried about releasing these photos as they had been taken illegally and he regretted posting one of them on facebook. It did however tell me that there were taken at China Lake in California at about 11.30 am.

Over the next several days Keith and I exchanged numerous private messages on facebook and he eventually told be the back story behind the taking of the photos in question. He also sent me five photographs in total. Here is what Keith had to say:

KEITH’S STORY

I grew up in a town called Ridgecrest which is a U.S. Naval base in the Mojave Desert. As a kid it was very easy to get onto the base and everyone in town had passes that would allow you through the gates to get to school, swimming pools, the movie theatre etc. Everyone knew someone who worked on the base so you would get to know where the different parts of the base were. They had the bombing range and the radar range. I grew up with a kid who after High School joined the Navy. After he retired he moved back to town and got a job working in the civil service on the base monitoring radar. He said it was the world’s most boring job but he did tell me about interesting things that went on out there. Things like them having jeeps and tanks scattered all over the desert and then flipping a switch and they all would disappear. Turns out that’s what fiber optic camouflage does. People would talk about unbelievable things that turned out to be true. Planes would come from all over the world to use the radar test range out there. I have pictures of that too. Planes with markings from other countries. While I was in between jobs in 2007 I went back to town to visit some of my old friends.

While I was in town I stopped by this friend’s house and after a few drinks he started telling me how that week he had been monitoring a flying saucer. When I asked him how he knew that’s what it was he told me- first of all, in all the years he had been doing that job he never had two generals and three other men with top security clearance recording and watching everything he did. He explained how it was very simple. There were two signals on the radar screen. One would appear very low in altitude, go up to a certain higher altitude and then click off. There would be a countdown for a certain amount of time- five; four, three, two, one and then it would click back on. When this happened the first time the people in the room got very excited. The object on his screen would lower in altitude until it was no longer on the radar, move to a different position and repeat the same thing over and over at different altitudes. All the while the other signal on the radar screen would remain constant.

Curious as to what it was he was monitoring he asked around. People that he knew who physically worked on the radar range and would see what was out there told him that believe it or not it was a flying saucer. They described it as being shiny like a mirror and smooth like glass all over inside and out. It had no doors or windows only a hole cut in the top (I got the idea that the hole had jagged edges like it was cut with something) they described the inside as only having three small seats surrounded by a bird nest of fiber optic cable. The seats were molded out of the floor rather than attached to the floor. This thing was one piece with no seams anywhere.

Keep in mind that description is just a rumour as to what it was like. He didn’t actually see it himself he was just told that’s what it was. Being in between jobs and having nothing to do the next day I made my way out there. ( I’m not telling you how I was able to get there but I will say I walked a very long distance) as I got closer I could hear a helicopter so I peeked up over a hill and down in the small valley below sure enough I could see this silver disc out there. There were a few tan-colored trailers and other military vehicles on the North End of the valley. This thing would wobble along close to the ground very unstable. I don’t believe anyone could have been riding on the inside but got the idea that helicopter was remotely controlling it.

It was very wobbly as it moved along close to the ground and then it would freeze in position, go up to a certain height and sit there for a few minutes perfectly still. It made no noise that I could hear over the helicopter. It would go back down and wobble to the next position. It looked like whoever was controlling it was having fun with it sometimes because they would do little tricks with it.

Like one edge would be pointing towards the sky and then it would do a U-shaped flip to wear the other edge was pointing towards the sky then back down and wobble along the valley floor close to the ground to its next position.

At first I was too afraid to take any pictures but then it got really close to me so I started snapping some photos figuring that if I was going to be caught I might as well have some pictures. I also took a short video but then to save space on my camera I started deleting the blurry pictures. I spent maybe 10 minutes total watching this thing. I then turned around and got out of there as quickly as I could. I took my shirt off thinking the color of my skin would blend in with my surroundings better than the color of my white shirt. About halfway back I got scared and hid the camera in the desert.

That night I went back over to my friend’s house and when I told him what I had done he laughed in disbelief until I told him the path this thing followed from the North-West side of the valley to the South-East. When he realized I was telling the truth he got very angry and threw a plastic cup at me. He basically chased me out of the house telling me never to go get those pictures. I let them sit there for two days and then went back and got the camera. When I looked at the pictures there was no video and I realized that what I thought was a blurry picture was actually a blurry video that I deleted. I still kick myself for that one every time I think about it. A few years later I went back to town and ran into him at Walmart and he pretended he didn’t even know me. This is someone that I have known my whole life. We went to school together and played on the same Little League baseball teams.

I’ve been holding on to these pictures ever since. That is all there is. Sorry it’s not more exciting. I really don’t know how you would write an article about it. “

KEITH’S ALLEGED UFO PHOTOGRAPHS

Well, an interesting story and interesting set of alleged UFO photographs. Of course you cannot just take the photographers word for it that the photographs are what he says they are. With this in mind I sought out a number of people who could undertake analysis of these photographs. The first was Jason Gleaves in the UK and this is his full and unedited report with comes complete with five computer photographs highlighting the points in his report.

ANALYSIS IMAGE REPORT BY JASON GLEAVES

Metallic Disk Shaped Object Captured Near the U.S. Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake, California, U.S.

I was asked by Philip Mantle if I could conduct my own analysis on five interesting UFO images captured of a Disk Shaped Object (metallic in appearance) which appeared to be stationary appropriately 50-60 feet above a desert environment (location unknown at this point). Also in another image a helicopter (HH-1K Iroquois, helicopter (“Huey”) is also captured in flight above the right side of the object and appears to be passing slightly behind (speed unknown).

First appearance the images looked authentic but with technology of today and software (photoshop etc) you really can’t rely on image authenticity, no matter how good it looks.

More detailed enlarged and enhanced images of the metallic object appear to show sunlight and consistent reflections on the body of the object, plus in one of the images a dark oval shadow is clearly seen directly below the object again consistent where a shadow would be (without actually seeing where the Sun location/position is in relation to the object, it’s always difficult to give a more accurate Sun-object-Shadow location). I also produced a twin layer image overlay of two separate images (taken from approximately the same position/location) to see if the object had moved from its original position, I aligned the two images, to the best of my ability with similar reference points (background mountain range and cloud formation, horizon). Upon viewing the final enhancement of the overlay the Disk Shaped Object is clearly seen in two different positions, both at slightly different altitudes and one further away in relation to the other regarding their relevant positions within the two separate photographs.

A few days passed and a more detailed report and witness statement emerged giving the sighting location as (U.S. Marine Corps Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California, U.S.) this is also consistent as to the type of military helicopters reported and documented being operational in that region, and similar to the Helicopter captured in the images.

Analysis by Jason Gleaves @Ufonly (Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Ufonly YouTube) I am Ex-Royal Air Force, BAE Airbus division, I contribute on numerous UFO pages and have carried out Photo/image/video footage analysis on UFO’s and anomalies for many ufologists within our community worldwide.

ANALYSIS BY DR BRUCE MACCABEE

Another and perhaps more well known expert in the analysis of alleged UFO photographs is Dr Bruce Maccabee in the USA. Bruce is well known for his work on analyzing alleged UFO photographs. Dr Maccabee received a B.S. in physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass., and then at American University, Washington, DC, (M.S. and Ph.D. in physics). In 1972 he began his career at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, White Oak, Silver Spring, Maryland; which later became the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division. Dr. Maccabee retired from government service in 2008. He has worked on optical data processing, generation of underwater sound with lasers and various aspects of the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) and Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) using high power lasers.

ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION

My immediate impression was that the orientations of the main rotor and tail rotor blades were very much the same. What would the chance of getting the same orientation in two pictures probably many seconds to minutes apart? See the pictures A and B below. Using the position change of distant land features I estimate that the camera pointing direction has rotated to the right by about 9 degrees (based on an assumed angular picture width of 35 degrees). The UFO has also moved to the right about 7 degrees and the helicopter moved about 11 degrees to the right. The helicopter image in B is nearly the same as in B, but the pictures are not identical.

PICTURE A

PICTURE B

The helicopter is about 10% farther from the camera in B and there is a helicopter body rotation to the left of some (10 or so?) degrees.

The lack of blur of the main rotor blades plus the nearly identical rotor blade orientation suggests a hoax with a model helicopter. The nearly identical position of the tail rotor blades also suggests a hoax but the blur of the tail rotor blades argues against a hoax unless one used a model with a rotating tail rotor. Note that the blur width of the edges of the tail rotor increases in going from the center (axle) outward to the end. This is exactly what one would expect of a rotating blade and is exactly what appears to be missing from the images of the main rotor blades.

PICTURE C

A “fast shutter” (very short exposure time) can “stop” a moving object so that it moves very little during the exposure time. Therefore, if one could establish that the exposure time was short enough to effectively “stop” the motion of the main rotor while not being fast enough to “stop” a much faster tail rotor, one could explain this situation. How fast would the shutter have to be? That depends upon the rotor rate and radius (distance of the end from the axle). Consider, for example, a rotor rate of 360 revolutions per minute or 6/sec, The outer end of the rotor travels at 6 x 2 pi radians per second = 37.7 radians/sec. Assume a radius of 15 ft. The outer end of a blade is traveling at 37.7 x 15 = 565 ft/second = 6,786 inches/sec. Assume the blade is 1 ft wide at the outer end. To avoid noticeable motion blur the blade should move less than 1/10 its width or less than about 1 inch during the shutter time. So, what is this shutter time needed to register the image of the blade without noticeable blur? The answer is (1/6786 sec/inch) x 1 inch = 0.000147 seconds, much faster than any typical video camera shutter.

This analysis raises questions: (1) the near identically of the image of the helicopter in two separated-in-time frames suggests a “set up” (hoax)’; (2) the lack of blade image smear suggests very fast shutter or hoax; (3) the tail rotor blur suggests real event because difficult to hoax the blur that increases with distance from the center; There appears to be a faint slightly dark shadow under the UFO in Picture A which is not in Picture B (consistent with real) and there is only the barest hint of a shadow under the UFO in Picture B that is not there in Picture A (consistent with real.

Need to know camera type, settings etc. This might be a real event, but have to explain helicopter imagery

After spending some time analyzing the available testimonial and pictoral evidence and considering the actions or activities of the object in question I conclude that there is not enough evidence to prove that the object was not simply an unusually shaped drone operating under control of the person(s) flying the helicopter.

ANALYSIS FROM TOBIAS LINDGREN

FIRST ANALYSIS

Tobias Lindgren

Now I have analyzed the pictures.

First I want to say that I have doubts if the object is really physical. It can be computer generated. As well as lack of basic data such as picture metadata, observation site, time, date, cardinal direction, and duration. If the unidentified object is physical, the following applies:

Roughly calculated distances in the picture. The references there are is the helicopter and the shrubs in the foreground. The helicopter is a Bell UH-1Y Venom, which is 17.8 meters long. The shrubs in the desert are about one meter high.

With these measures I can find out that the helicopter is about 20 times farther away from the photographer than the shrub. If the object is at the same distance as the helicopter, it has a diameter of about 6 meters and 12 meters if it is twice as far as the helicopter, but to me it is not likely. Accordingly I estimate the object was very close to the camera at the time the picture was taken.

If the object is at the same distance as the first bush, it is about 20 cm, but my assumption is that it is closer than that, less than half the distance from the camera to the shrubs, and then it will be less than 10 cm in diameter. The object’s reflected color on the underside shows only sand and ground colours, which is only to be seen between the bushes and the camera, no green from the vegetation. Same effect in the first picture without the helicopter. The dark spot on the ground, which my brain interprets as a shadow from the object, and the object itself is merely an unfortunate coincidence and has no relation, but creates the illusion of a long distance. The real shadows are aimed at the sun, and hard to spot.

However, the most crucial fact for the object to be placed close to the camera is the big sunflower / highlight that is on the object. The size of such is proportional to the distance.

Conclusion: High hoax factor. No obvious connection with the China Lake Naval Base, except for a similar environment. ”Photoshop” or physical object less than 10 cm. Such a small object could be a toy.

SECOND ANALYSIS

Hi.

The reason for the late answer is that we have just had our annual field investigation course in UFO-Sweden. It takes all of our time in October. Strange and interesting story, I have to say. Here we also see the risk of not having all the information.

It may be easy to believe that the previous analysis was poor and insufficient, but with the information available, the result will of course will come afterwards. What makes a person get so scared that you hide the pictures for ten years? No, I do not think the military is so stupid that they fly in an open space with a “flying saucer” if they want to keep it secret. It may be the total opposite instead which is to draw attention. But it may be to be all very conspiratory. Visually, I still think it does not feel right. The object (UFO) is blurry in a way that the rest of the pictures are not, and that tells me that something is not what it seems. It can still be, as I said before, that the object is so close to the camera that it is out of focus. Had the object been out of focus because of the distance, it should get something like a bit transparent due to atmospheric depth haze in the atmosphere.

I still have no idea what the object could be. Perhaps it might be a radio-controlled “toy” that the military testing, just as written in the witnesses story. The military obviously knows what it is because it’s no coincidence that it looks like it does, if it is not computer-generated images. I draw parallels with a Swedish hoax that went viral on YouTube a few years ago: http://www.ufo.se/index.php/news/home/1563-avsloejad-ufofilmen-som-skulle-lura-vaerlden

If this had happened in Sweden, UFO Sweden would have taken us to the location at “Ridgecrest” and knocked on all doors to look for more witnesses. In recent projects where we did this, it was found that 10 percent of all people had a story they did not mention before.

Regards

Tobias Lindgren

UFO-Sweden

Tobias Lindgren, UFO Sweden and AFU Board Member, born 1972, he lives in Norrköping, Sweden. His interest in UFO study began in the late 1970’s, but only became really active as an ufologist 10 years later. Had been the head of the UFO-Sweden Report Center from 2005 to 2015. In this position, he coordinated Swedish UFO investigations, distributing incoming cases among field investigators. He is now responsible for the UFO-Sweden website. He writes regularly for the “UFO-Aktuellt” Newspaper. He is UFO-Sweden’s image analyst. Tobias is also a skilled computer artist and combines his interests in illustration and computer engineering to illustrate the most recent cases very effectively. He has also studied computer science. mathematics and physics at Linköping University and more recently, visualization and geographic information systems. He is now employed as a GIS engineer at the Swedish Aviation Authority in Norrköping and works with flight information, airplanes and visualization.

As if that wasn’t enough yet more analysis was conducted in Brazil with the help of my colleague Thiago Luiz Ticchetti. The analysis was brief and to the point…

ANALYSIS FROM BRAZIL

We have already analyzed the photos. According to our specialists, unfortunately, they are fakes:

– The reflection of the sun in the object does not correspond with the position of the sun observed in the shade of the vegetation.

– The shadow of the object itself does not match the position of the sun

– The helicopter is real.

– All the images are without EXIF

Ricardo Varela: Researcher at the National Institute of Space Research (INPE), electronic engineer at the Federal University of Brasília, master and doctor in applied computing

Inajar Kurowski: Veterinary doctor, university professor, police officer and criminal expert of the Institute of Criminalistics of Paraná, with specialization in vehicular identification and forensic ballistics. He is also a postgraduate in science methodology and a master’s degree in environmental management. Administrator of specific courses in the area, he became a specialist in examining photos and films of flying saucers

SO WHAT ARE THESE PHOTOGRAPHS?

In an attempt to get to the bottom on these alleged UFO photographs the have been analysed by five different people from around the world. Jason Gleaves from the UK is of the opinion that they are the genuine article. Dr Bruce Maccabee from the USA is not sure whether they are fake or real and the same goes for Tobias Lingren in Sweden. And last but not least Ricardo Varela and Inajar Kurowski in Brazil left us in no doubt that they believe the photographs in question to be fake.

It is therefore my hope and intention that by releasing these photographs here that we may learn more about them. Perhaps other specialists will add their comments to those above or maybe someone will come forward who can offer testimony to either support the authenticity of the photographs or the opposite, show us that they are indeed fakes.

As yet the photographer does not want his identity revealing which is something I have honoured here but I do have his name on file. Perhaps the photographer will offer more information which will allow us to determine one way or the other the authenticity of the photographs. Until then I think it is only fair to say that the jury is still out. Are these photographs fake or genuine? We shall see.

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

A witness in Ruidoso, New Mexico claims to have spotted a black disc-shaped UFO rimmed with blue lights near Ruidoso, New Mexico, according to a report submitted to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). The witness provided a couple of drawings illustrating what was seen.

The report was submitted on Thanksgiving Day, but was listed as being spotted on August 8, 2013. In the short description, the witness wrote: “Looked up to the sky, saw a black disc with dim blue lights on the edges, moved extremely fast.”

Witness drawing of object seen in New Mexico.

Click to see original. (Credit: MUFON)

The witness elaborated in the long description reproduced here verbatim:

I was looking at the night sky, when suddenly a black disc with dim blue lights on the edges came across the night sky incredibly fast. It made no sound, and it dissapeared [sic] behind the horizon. This UFO was moving extremely fast, as it only took 2 seconds to cross the entire sky.

Second witness drawing of object seen in New Mexico.

Click to original image. (Credit: MUFON)

Satellites and other objects, such as the International Space Station can be very bright and move at a quick steady pace across the sky, but these objects do not appear to be disc-shaped, nor do they have a ring of blue lights around them. If the object did appear the way this witness has described and drawn it, it would be mysterious indeed.

The vast majority of UFO sightings turn out to be mundane objects, but once in awhile there are sightings that are much more difficult to explain. MUFON conducts investigations on sightings submitted to their website, and if they share their conclusions, we will let you all know. Meanwhile, others will likely chime in and we will try to keep you up to date with any discoveries. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this sighting in the comments below.

{http://www.openminds.tv/ }

Open Minds UFO Radio: Dr. Robert Davis, an internationally recognized scientist, graduated with a PhD in sensory neurosciences from Ohio State University and served as a professor for over thirty years. He has published over forty articles in scholarly journals and lectured at national and international conferences. His research into the UFO phenomenon convinced him that the phenomenon remains unresolved, is a source of considerable debate among millions worldwide, and is a very important concern unfortunately ignored by mainstream science.  Dr. Davis serves as a member of the Board of Directors and Research Team of the Dr. Edgar Mitchell Foundation for Research into Extraterrestrial Encounters (FREE).  The FREE was established to provide a scientific exploration of the relationship between advanced physics and the UFO phenomenon.

Dr. Davis has written a book on the UFO phenomenon, entitled The UFO Phenomenon: Should I Believe?. His latest book: Life after Death: An Analysis of the Evidence, by Schiffer Publishing was recently released. In this episode we discuss FREE’s latest findings and the connection between abduction research, life after death and all of the phenomena in-between.

For more information about Dr. Bob Davis, visit: theufophenomenon.com.

His books can be found at Amazon.com.

For more information about FREE, visit: www.experiencer.org.

Based on recent data collected, as you read this, a close encounter could very well be happening somewhere in the world. The number of experiencers ranges from a single witness to hundreds. Some are reported, others are secrets taken to the grave. With reported close encounters as an ongoing phenomenon and because of multiple factors, ironically many due to the advances in technology, it has become harder than ever for anyone, private or government, to accurately separate an experience that is being misinterpreted from an authentic close encounter.

It has been 45 years since the world was first introduced to Dr. J. Allen Hynek’s “close encounter” system of classification in his book, “The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry”. Of course Steven Spielberg’s movie, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” made the system of classification a global house-hold terminology, still holding-up to this day to best categorize the types of UFO/alien encounters being experienced.

SIGHTINGS

J. Allen Hynek

(image: Northwestern University)

No current update on close encounters would be complete without an overview referencing the long history of these phenomena, which arguably stretches back to biblical times and beyond, with references to “beings from the sky” prolific throughout many of the ancient cultures and mythologies. The Nazca Lines in Peru is one such example of this compelling circumstantial evidence. Confirmed UFO encounters amidst the era of manned flight began during World War II with countless reports of a “foo fighter” phenomena, a term used by U.S. military squadrons.

Of course it was the Kenneth Arnold incident that would forever change America. On June 26, 1947, on an unusually sunny Washington day, private pilot Arnold was flying his small single engine plane from Chehalis, Washington to Yakima, Washington. At one point Arnold turned and saw nine shiny objects in the sky, flying past Mount Rainer at approximately 1,200 miles an hour. That is much faster than any conventional aircraft in 1947. When Arnold later compared their actions in the sky to saucers skipping on water, the press ran with “flying saucers” and a new era was born. While many regard this as modern America’s first UFO incident, two other lesser-known events took place in the previous century. While the 1800’s may not entirely be considered ‘modern America’, the incidents warrant mentioning; on June 1, 1853, at dawn, countless students and faculty of Burritt College in Tennessee observed two massive floating objects perform various maneuvers in the morning sky, including one of the objects morphing its shape; and in 1896/1897 a rash of sightings occurred across the U.S. originating from Sacramento, California and culminating on April 17, 1897 in Aurora, Texas, where the entire community supposedly not only witnessed the crashing of a UFO near their town, but also buried the extraterrestrial pilot in their town’s cemetery.

Closely following the Kenneth Arnold Incident, an event took place involving a supposed flying saucer that remains one of the best known, and most controversial, UFO stories to date. On July 8, 1947 Walter Haut, the Roswell Army Air Field public information officer issued a press release. It stated that the 509th Operations Group had retrieved a flying disc that had apparently crashed, near Roswell, on a ranch. The local media ran a front-page story in their newspaper, which quickly spread across the country and around the world in record time, and that was without the Internet. However, the military jumped-in and made a huge effort to correct the story, hosting a press event now stating that the crash was of a weather balloon and not a “flying saucer”. With that, after creating a brief stir, the story faded from view. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that UFOlogists rediscovered the Roswell incident with great interest. While stories eventually circulated involving alien bodies recovered from the crashed UFO, proof that the Roswell crash actually involved an alien craft remains elusive.

CONTACT

While a ‘close encounter of the third kind’ technically includes all manner of direct extraterrestrial contact, many in the UFOlogy community wanted to more specifically categorize the type of extraterrestrial contact. What resulted was the adding of two new close encounter classifications; the ‘fourth’ and ‘fifth’ kinds that covers ‘abductions’. Though these terms are not universally recognized.

Betty and Barney Hill marker.

(Credit: Kathleen Marden)

One of the first alien abduction cases in modern culture that defined the phenomena was the 1961 case of Barney and Betty Hill, which was majorly publicized. At the time, Barney and Betty Hill were like any other married couple with one possible exception: they had an interracial marriage at a time when such things were not common. On September 9, the Hills were driving at night, in their rural New Hampshire community. On a secluded country road, Betty observed what she thought was a falling star. She encouraged Barney to stop the car so they could investigate. Betty followed the “odd shaped” object with her binoculars. It flashed multi-colored lights. Curiosity getting the best of them, they drove to another location. In an area near Indian Head, the object came down and hovered about 100 feet over the Hill’s car, that was now stopped in the middle of the highway. Barney saw the object as a giant pancake. Using binoculars, Betty saw 8 to 11 figures looking out the saucer’s window. Suddenly a loud buzzing was heard that vibrated both the car and their bodies. They drove away, later claiming to have had a distortion of time experience. Some time after this event, under hypnosis, Barney and Betty separately revealed supposed terrifying experiences aboard the aliens’ craft that produced tormented dreams for years. Their story later became a popular 1966 book, as well as a 1975 TV movie starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons. The first modern abduction story is amazing and like the majority of abduction cases, somewhat difficult to prove, despite the credibility of the Hills.

Travis Walton

(Credit: OpenMinds.tv/Peter Beste)

Another famous close encounter of the third kind took place in Arizona, on November 5, 1975. Logger Travis Walton was part of a five man lumbering crew in Sitgreaves National Forest, a stone’s throw from Snowflake, Arizona. At one point, the crew spotted a saucer-shaped craft, emitting a high-pitched sound, hovering above the ground a hundred feet or so away. Travis states he left the logging truck to further investigate. After being hit by an intense beam of bright light, Walton was knocked to the ground. According to him, his logging buddies freaked, racing off in the truck and leaving him behind. After this, Travis went missing for five days. While people were out in the woods looking for him, Walton claims he woke up in a hospital bed, with three short, bald beings peering down at him. After a clear plastic mask was put on his face, he passed out. The next thing he remembered he was walking along the road as the UFO departed. The Walton abduction received extraordinary press, the story eventually becoming a book and a movie.

Close encounters of the third kind, specifically abductions, are the most difficult to assess, primarily due to the lack of direct and forensic evidence, the majority of the time only leaving testimonial and circumstantial evidence to support the encounter, many times fragmented and unclear, typically collected through hypnotic regression. Though difficult to find corroborating evidence, similar to close encounters of the first and second kinds, a significant percentage of abduction experiencers are proven to be of sound mind and body and are upstanding citizens and individuals of impeccable reputation and credibility.

A DECADE OF CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

Here is a smattering of some of the most intriguing close encounters from around the world that have taken place in the last decade:

INDIA

In the airspace above Kolkata in the early morning of October 29, 2007, hundreds of witnesses observed a fast moving UFO that was also able to morph its shape from a sphere into a triangle and then into a straight line. The object emitted a brilliant light that produced a halo with a full spectrum of colors. As it continued to move over the area, hundreds of more witnesses encountered the UFO, resulting on countless photos and videos. Shibani Banerjee went through a complete spectrum of emotions as she experienced the encounter, “At first I was like everyone else around me, thrilled and excited by what we were seeing, like children seeing fireworks for the first time. Than, as if I hit a brick wall, a horrible ominous feeling came over me and of what this thing could be. I retreated along with others, at first slowly walking which then turned into a hysterical run.” The UFO disappeared into the horizon at an impossible rate of speed leaving local and government authorities at a loss for what it was.

TURKEY

For a few days in 2007, four months in 2008 and again in 2009, UFOs besieged a wide area of western Turkey near Istanbul, along the Sea of Marmara. “The UFOs were so frequent and obvious, I brought my video camera to work and was able to easily capture the objects as they flew overhead”, stated Yalcin Yalman, a security guard handling the nightshift at the Yeni Kent Compound in Kumburgaz. Government authorities visually confirmed each time the UFOs appeared but were unable to identify what the objects were. Haktan Akdogon and other scientific analysts at the Sirius UFO Space Science Research Center had thoroughly analyzed all footage filmed by Mr. Yalman and were able to rule-out all logical explanations, stating, “we came to a definite conclusion with no doubts that these are 100% genuine”, adding about the footage, “the most significant UFO videos ever!”

CHINA

On July 7, 2010, at Xiaoshan Airport in Hangzhou, China, a UFO was spotted hovering in the airport airspace at approximately 8:40 p.m. In response, authorities had to cease all airport operations, diverting inbound flights to Ningbo and Wuxi Airports and/or delaying countless planes and halting all adjacent ground traffic. A brief video of the object was later shown on Chinese TV. While the UFO was visibly seen by countless witnesses and recorded by multiple means, it did not appear on radar.

Xiaoshan Airport in Hangzhou, China

(Credit: Xiaoshan Airport)

A Chinese aircraft engineer, who was among the thousands that witnessed the event, was adamant that the object could not have been any type of man-made aircraft. Several theories were floated, from the absurd to the plausible, including the planet Venus, a rocket launch or a helicopter with flashing lights. While analysts and skeptics were quick to dismiss the incident, multiple news and media outlets shifted and retracted their stories about government investigations into the incident, seemingly as a result of government pressure, with come Chinese officials going on record stating they knew what the object was but could not comment further due to national security. Lou Jinhong and his associates with the Shanghai UFO Investigative Research Center, had been interviewing witnesses and reviewing footage and photographs in an attempt to make some sort of definitive conclusion on what the object was. Both this organization, as well as conventional authorities, have been unable to determine the object’s true identity.

CHILE

In April of 2013, on a clear sunny day in the isolated Atacama Desert community, countless workers of the Collahuasi copper mine and their friends and families encountered a glowing flying disc maneuver in the skies above them. Several of the witnesses took photos and video of the object as it ascended, descended and moved horizontally at extraordinary speeds, unlike any aircraft today. At one point, the object hovered in one area as if intending to land, then suddenly disappeared into the east. It was later discovered that during the brief time it hovered in one place, an apparent abduction had also taken place. Initially, both the authorities, as well as the corporation that owned the mine and surrounding properties, were suppressing all information and documentation concerning this incident. Several months later, some of the video and photos that had been taken were leaked and the government and corporation had no choice but to comment on the “sighting” aspect of the incident only, declaring an investigation is taking place. Even with this announcement and the ongoing investigation, authorities sought to control all information concerning the event until they knew what they were dealing with and maintained a controlled press blackout.

The first image captured by the miners.

(Credit: CEFAA)

Over a year later and over a thousand miles away, another UFO incident occurred in Chile on November 2014, as a Chilean Navy helicopter was performing routine coastal patrol. The military aircraft visually documented the UFO with state-of-the-art recording technology while it flew in front of them at the same rate of speed for over nine minutes, until they had to break-off to return to base. Shortly after the government went public with this incident earlier this year.

AFRICA

On the evening of December 13^th, 2016, a pilot flying from Cape Town International Airport to Port Elizabeth International Airport encountered a glowing green object increasing in speed and altitude past the cockpit of their airplane, reaching to about a thousand feet into clouds above them and then returning towards earth at high speed past the cockpit of their plane. The incident forced the NSRI (National Sea Rescue Institute) to investigate the matter, conducting searches in case the unidentified aircraft had gone down for whatever reason. No aircraft was ever found. Everything from weather balloons to drones to green parachute flares to space debris and meteorites were ruled out in this case, the object classified as unidentified.

UNITED STATES

And of course it is no surprise that the U.S. continues to be at or near the top of the list for countries that continue to report close encounter events. In fact, according to the 2017 book, “UFO Sightings Desk Reference”, written by two UFO experts, Linda Miller Costa and Cheryl Costa—one a former aerospace analyst and the other a former librarian at the National Academy of Sciences and NASA, sightings have spiked across the U.S. in general. In 2015 alone, there were 11,868 reported sightings, significantly up from the 3,479 logged in 2001—and those are just the reported ones. Rather then even attempt to detail the specifics from so many encounters, here is the list of states that continue to have the most UFO sightings, in order from the most to least, with California leading with the most reports:

1. California
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. Washington
5. Pennsylvania
6. New York
7. Arizona
8. Illinois
9. Michigan
10. Ohio

AN ACCOUNTING

For years now there has been much debate on whether close encounters worldwide are on the decline, have remained steady or are actually on the rise. However a recent 2017 independent report and assessment done by Statistician/PhD student Sam Monfort with Human Factors and Applied Cognition at George Mason University, revealed that UFOs sightings have been steadily rising with 104,947 reported sightings on record over the past 100-plus years. Monfort utilized data from the previously mentioned National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC). According to Monfort’s assessment, sightings have spiked dramatically over the past 30-plus years, with the reported number jumping from around 5,000 in 1980, to roughly 45,000 in 2010. Some sociologists and psychologists speculate that the perception of there being a decline in UFO reports is due to an overall dismissal of such eye-opening news as a product of mass desensitizing, cynicism, pessimism and apathy around the world. They suggest that this is primarily because of the effects of the digital age (Internet, smartphone, etc.) and constant over-exposure to violence and other negative depictions in media, as well as an overall loss of confidence in media.

Of course the majority of close encounters of the ‘third kind’ that include alien abductions are a different matter all together, with many of the encounters never associated with actually seeing a UFO prior to the actual encounter. Additionally, a huge percentage of abductions are never reported for a variety of psychological, sociological and cultural/religious reasons, with a significant estimated percentage never knowing or realizing that they had been abducted to begin with.

One thing is for certain regarding close encounter experiences; it is most certainly an equal opportunity phenomena around the world, being experienced equally by every age group, sex, social class, culture and belief system. And while the phenomena continues to elusively proliferate, we are yet to have globally come to any absolute agreed-upon consensus of what these phenomena are and why they continue to occur, remaining just as mysterious as ever.

{http://www.openminds.tv/ }

A website called The Data Duo held a contest for the best visualization of UFO sightings data. Their data covers UFO sightings from 1960 to 2014 and reveals some interesting info.

The Data Duo’s third #DuoDare is for the best visualization of UFO sightings. The dataset includes latitude and longitude data, so they were able to produce some cool looking maps. However, there is little to be gleaned from the maps, but there are still other bits of info they obtained.

The Data Duo, Pooja Gandhi and Adam Crahen, made their best attempts at showing the data, and although I am partial to Pooja’s map, Adam is in the lead when it comes to votes. Previously, I have referred to these sorts of graphics as “infographics,” but the Data Duo refer to them as a “viz.” That is short and cooler. Here are their visualizations (vizs).

Pooja’s UFO Visualization. Click on the image to see her full interactive visualization.

(Credit: The Data Duo)

Adam’s UFO Visualization. Click on the image to see his full interactive visualization.

(Credit: The Data Duo)

An article has popped up on Bustle about Adam’s map, and they note the areas where there are more sightings and ask some experts why there might be more sightings in these areas. However, there is a problem with this. If you look at this map and a map of the United States at night, you will see the similarities.

US at night compilation photo.

(Credit: NASA)

As you can see they are very similar. This is because UFO sightings are reported more frequently in areas that have more people. Which makes sense. In order to discover where there are more sightings, it is more accurate to look at the areas that have more sightings per person. I always look at the data both ways. Here is an analysis I did of UFO sightings from the year 2014.

Top 20 States Reporting UFOs in 2014.

(Click to enlarge)

The data used by the Data Duo is from a website called Kaggle. Kaggle provides datasets for data crunchers to analyze. The UFO data Kaggle uses is from the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC). NUFORC has been receiving UFO reports for years, and they were the first to post them online. NUFORC is not actually a “they.” It is ran by a man by the name of Peter Davenport in Washington. Davenport posts his information raw.

The organization I use to compile my lists, like the 2014 data above, is from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). They have also been collecting reports for years. They investigate their reports to determine their validity. They find the vast majority to be explainable. MUFON did not get their data online until much later than NUFOC, and getting their data is difficult. In fact, I used to have access to more of it, but now I just have a monthly report they send out. Now that I think of it, I am not sure they even send that out anymore. This is why many media outlets use Davenport’s information. There is also a book out titled UFO Sightings Desk Reference: United States of America 2001-2015 that analyzes MUFON data.

I downloaded the data from Kaggle that the Data Duo used to pour it up with population data to see where the real hotspots are. Essentially I just divided the number of sightings by the number of people in each state. You can see the places that have more sightings per person are very different that the ones with the most sightings.

Top states for UFO sightings per population using Kaggle data used by the Data Duo.

It is important to read the data right. If you were looking to have a UFO experience, and you go to the area with the most reports, you could be lowering your odds. The odds are better if you go to a place having more sightings per person. Or maybe you want to be far away from UFOs, and you think you are going to a state like New Hampshire, which has very few sightings. However, New Hampshire has a lot of UFO sighting per person, so you may inadvertently have ended up smack dab in the middle of UFO country.

Even though I think the Bustle article is relying way to much on the number of sightings instead of the sightings per person, it is still an article I recommend you read. It has some interesting speculation on where aliens might visit if they were to visit Earth, or why they might be visiting the places they may be buzzing around right now.

{http://www.openminds.tv/ }

This report was originally published in the 1984 APRO Bulletin (newsletter of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization). New illustrations have been provided by Jim MacNeill. The text of the original article has been slightly modified from its original version. The original can be found here.

Encounter in Alabama

The following case is the result of a lead furnished to APRO by Bob Gribble of the Phenomena Research Hot Line. The follow-up investigation was completed by Field Investigator Ed O. Brown. The name of the witness and some identifying names of the exact location have been changed to protect the principle, as requested.

Mrs. Pat Norris, twenty eight years old, lived with her husband, Carl, and three children in a suburb of Mobile, Alabama. On the evening of February 3, 1983, she had visited a friend in Mobile, and when the friend’s husband arrived from work, Mrs. Norris left and headed home on Highway 90. As she turned off the highway, she heard an explosion. At this point, her car began to vibrate, making it difficult for her to steer. She negotiated another turn off the road she was on, brought the car to a halt, opened the car door, and leaned out to ascertain the cause of the problem.

Object Seen

Mrs. Norris continued driving, and the vibrating stopped. She turned onto another road and saw that the woods ahead were brilliantly illuminated. At first she thought that there was a helicopter search in progress because of the lights, and she was very frightened. She again stopped the car, and at this point, she sighted a huge object about half a mile west of her. She later thought that the explosion she had heard earlier was the object coming down over a clay and gravel pit in the vicinity.

Illustration of the sighting based off of the original sketches in the APRO Bulletin. Click to enlarge.

(Credit: John MacNeill)

The thing was huge—later estimated to be seven to eight stories (70 to 80 feet) high and “six telephone poles” (210 feet) wide—and appeared to be moving toward her at four or five miles per hour. The evening had been clear and cool, and she had driven with the car windows closed. After the explosion, she noted a “chopping wind, a high-pitched sound, and a roaring sound” as well as the vibration. She noted the “whipping of the wind—like a tornado.”

Fear Gone

When the object reached a point fairly close to Mrs. Norris, the object halted and all of the noise stopped. It was completely silent, and Mrs. Norris lost all the fear she had felt before. She then got out of the car to get a better look. She strained to take in every detail—feeling like a child with “unbelievable happiness.”

Carl Norris, Pat’s husband, said that although his wife told him of her sighting after it happened, he didn’t realize how important it was to her until she started checking books out of the local library pertaining to UFOs and related subjects.

Mrs. Norris estimated the time duration of the sighting as five minutes. As the craft appeared, Mrs. Norris’s attention was drawn to a top deck with a long window she estimated to be fifty-three feet and through which she viewed twenty or thirty persons, apparently oblivious of her presence, walking about as if they were changing shift. The wall behind them was curved and white. There were no instruments. The people did not appear to look out the window. The beings were pale-skinned and dressed in white one-piece suits. She judged them to be about five-feet-ten-inches tall, quite slender, but with chests larger than ours, the top of the head more prominent, and no hair. She noticed nothing out of the ordinary about their eyes. What did draw her attention was the great grace of their movements. The overall atmosphere seemed “sterile.”

Illustration of the sighting based off of the original sketches in the APRO Bulletin. Click to enlarge.

(Credit: John MacNeill)

Details Observed

Below this top-deck window was an opaque window. The area around it was all white. This lower window was in sections and was inset. The glass was tinted.

Below the center of the craft, a door was closing from right to left. All across the craft, she saw rivets and portholes. She said she could see the portholes as she peered into the craft. She saw some construction that included “huge I beams like they put ships together with, and beams holding the glass in there.” The bottom side was tiered upwards. The construction reminded her of a ship or submarine. She said it seemed possible that it could have been constructed here on Earth.

The very bottom of the craft was formed into a cross, made with one foot mirrors and an observation deck hung down and around the bottom with beings in it. In this case, unlike the top deck, the people were peering out, while overhead she heard a very low-pitched but clearly audible (almost like a growl) “announcement” coming from the area of the observation deck.

Mrs. Norris said she believed that the beings didn’t realize she was there until they were directly over her position.

She saw four pipes projecting six to eight feet out from the craft set in three or four foot square boxes. They had a hollow flange on the end like a tank cannon, and she believed “it looked like a weapon.”

The craft took a southerly turn as it went on from where she was parked. She said it was staying in the wooded area and did not cross Highway 90 again. It lit up the wooded area and the area beneath it as it moved on. It had white spotlights, and it had blue and red lights on its sides that intermingled, pointing up to the clouds and then down to Earth.

After the object was out of sight, Mrs. Norris continued home, arriving at 1:10 a.m.

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

An Irish witness at Galway recalled a UFO incident from 1986 now referred to as the Salthill UFO Sighting, according to testimony in Case 82139 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

Witness illustration.

(Credit: MUFON)

The events occurred on March 1, 1986.

“One early spring day I walked up a hill on my way to Salthill beach,” the witness stated.“It looked liked it could rain, even though there were patches of blue in the sky. As I examined the clouds, to judge if it would rain soon, a cigar-shaped object appeared in the sky between the roofs of a row of houses. As I continued walking the object moved in the sky relative to the position of the houses on the ground, due to the perspective.”

Witness illustration.

(Credit: MUFON)

Witness illustration.

(Credit: MUFON)

The witness attempted to estimate the object’s distance.

“It hovered above the roof tops about one or two miles away, not moving. It’s appearance and color made me think of a Zeppelin. Then I continued walking and the object disappeared behind the roof of a house and some trees, because I moved and the perspective changed. I expected to see it again where it should have reappeared, but it remained disappeared.”

Witness illustration.

(Credit: MUFON)

The witness then walked back to where the object was last seen.

“A slow-moving blimp should still have been in about the same position in the sky. But the object was no longer there. All this happened within a few seconds. After I reached the top of the hill I walked down to the beach promenade, I could see that there was a lot of activity in Claude Toft Park, next to the beach. It looked like a festival was going on. At the seafront, I had a clear view of the whole sky, and I asked people about having seen a blimp or if balloons had been launched for the festivities, but no one had seen anything.”

Witness-submitted image.

(Credit: MUFON)

Galway is a city in the West of Ireland in the province of Connacht, population 79,504. Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }