OT: Significant UFO sighting at O'Hare in November "covered up"

[blue2blue]

It took a Freedom of Information Act action to get the FAA to stop denying anything out of the ordinary happened but details have finally started coming out about a fairly significant UFO sighting at O'Hare Int'l Airport in Chicago on November 7:

 

 

... The sighting occurred during daylight, about 4:30 p.m., just before sunset. All the witnesses said the object was dark gray and well defined in the overcast skies. They said the craft, estimated by different accounts to be 6 feet to 24 feet in diameter, did not display any lights. Some said it looked like a rotating Frisbee, while others said it did not appear to be spinning. All agreed the object made no noise and it was at a fixed position in the sky, just below the 1,900-foot cloud deck, until shooting off into the clouds. Witnesses shaken by sighting "I tend to be scientific by nature, and I don't understand why aliens would hover over a busy airport," said a United mechanic who was in the cockpit of a Boeing 777 that he was taxiing to a maintenance hangar when he observed the metallic-looking object above Gate C17. "But I know that what I saw and what a lot of other people saw stood out very clearly, and it definitely was not an [Earth] aircraft," the mechanic said. One United employee appeared emotionally shaken by the sighting and "experienced some religious issues" over it, one co-worker said. A United manager said he ran outside his office in Concourse B after hearing the report about the sighting on an internal airline radio frequency. "I stood outside in the gate area not knowing what to think, just trying to figure out what it was," he said. "I knew no one would make a false call like that. But if somebody was bouncing a weather balloon or something else over O'Hare, we had to stop it because it was in very close proximity to our flight operations." ... All the witnesses to the O'Hare event, who included at least several pilots, said they are certain based on the disc's appearance and flight characteristics that it was not an airplane, helicopter, weather balloon or any other craft known to man. United denies UFO report They're not sure what was hanging out for several minutes in the restricted airspace, but they are upset that no one in power has taken the matter seriously. A United spokeswoman said there is no record of the UFO report. She said United officials do not recall discussion of any such incident. "There's nothing in the duty manager log, which is used to report unusual incidents," said United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy. "I checked around. There's no record of anything." The pilots of the United plane being directed back from Gate C17 also were notified by United personnel of the sighting, and one of the pilots reportedly opened a windscreen in the cockpit to get a better view of the object estimated to be hovering 1,500 feet above the ground. The object was seen to suddenly accelerate straight up through the solid overcast skies, which the FAA reported had 1,900-foot cloud ceilings at the time. "It was like somebody punched a hole in the sky," said one United employee.

 

Chicago Tribune

 

The article is written by the Trib's transportation editor, Jon Hilkevitch.

 

DO NOT get excited by the link to a video on the Trib's page for the story online -- it's just a studio interview with the Trib editor/author.

[UstadKhanAli]

Fascinating. Thanks for the post.

[Ed A.]

Here's a report from an eye witness who works as an aircraft mechanic at O'Hare:

 

interview

[blue2blue]

Yeah... it's not like the old days.

 

Growing up in the 50's there were UFO sigtings all the time. A lot of them were silly, of course, but some were pretty intense.

 

I remember one, much later, in the 70s or 80s, near my dad's condo in San Diego, near Padres Stadium in Mission Valley. Literally hundreds of people saw it, including a number of police and firemen and military personnel, too, I think. IIRC it was a VERY large-seeming ship that "loomed" across the sky for some time. I don't ever recall seeing any photos but I read a whole lot of eyewitness reports and even talked to someone who saw it. It was the talk of the area for a while and then... you know... it's just an old mystery after a while...

 

 

The only UFO I ever saw was just plain weird. It looked kind of like the old light display they used to have on the side of the old Goodyear Blimp at the end of the 70s. I was riding with two friends back from LA about 3 a.m. and I looked out and saw what I thought was the blimp -- then I looked again because I couldn't see the outline of it at all, despite the fact it was a clear night and I could see all the little lights clearly. They were in abstract geometric patterns not moving among themselves. It moved slowly toward toward the Hollywood Hills.

 

I had my two friends look -- I was in the back -- and the guy in shotgun said, wow, that looks weird but it's probably the blimp. The driver agreed it looked odd. I said, do you SEE the blimp -- or just lights? The guy in shotgun allowed as how he didn't see the blimp, either.

 

But it HAD to be the blimp.

 

I said, OK, if we get back down to Domingues Hills and the blimp is tied up at its mooring like it usually is this time of night, you guys will have to agree we saw SOMETHING really odd, right?

 

They did.

 

And we did -- see the blimp, that is. Tied up, lights out. Asleep for the night.

 

In those days the GY blimp was the only one in the nation. It was before the era of "small, cheap" blimps. The only other blimp had been destroyed by a hurricane down in Florida, IIRC.

 

Now, the guy in shotgun was pretty weirded out. The driver (a very sensitive guy whose mother was a concentration camp survivor) started talking about how it had to have been the blimp. We pointed out to him there was no way it could have turned around and beat us down here when we were almost in Watts by the time we saw it going over the Hollywood Hills.

 

The next day the driver insisted he had seen NOTHING. Nothing at all.

 

It was almost weirder than seeing whatever the hell it was. (Advertising from another galaxy? A flying lighting grid? A whole bunch of little lights flying in perfect, lockstep formation?)

 

I dunno.

 

I didn't have any religious issues, though.

 

____________

 

That said -- I DID have an exceptionally vivid dream when I was a kid in the 50s... there was a lot of UFO hysteria at the time, of course, and a lot of sightings in the southern California/Nevada area. So maybe it wasn't surprising that I had a dream -- but it was SO vivid.

 

I was just standing with a bunch of people and we saw a UFO and I had these strong "religious feelings" in the dream -- I don't know any other word for it. I grew up old skool protestant, very reserved, not evangelical/fervent at all. So I was really surprised by these feelings in the dream... and for some reason I had the sense in the dream that everything was OK and there was going to be some good new era.

 

When -- many years later -- I heard Neil Young's song with the line "Well I dreamed I saw the silver space ships coming..." I thought back to that dream and thought, yeah, I guess we're all kind of yearning and casting this in the availabe mythology -- but gee, that's provocative...

[blue2blue]

OK... I'm almost afraid to bring this up... it was election day... do you think our elections are being monitored at the interplanetary level?

 

I mean, Jimmy Carter condemning the reliability and fairness of our elections is bad enough...

[blue2blue]

 

Originally posted by Ed A. Here's a report from an eye witness who works as an aircraft mechanic at O'Hare: interview

 

 

The hole in the cloud... such an interesting detail. One other witness talked about the "craft" seeming to punch a hole in the cloud.

 

Why -- in this day and age -- didn't someone catch this on their cellphone video cam?

[spokenward]

From the Ed.A. link:

 

Around 1630 a pilot made a comment on the radio about a circle or disc shapped object hovering over gate C-17 at the C concourse in Chicago. At frist we laughed to each other and then the same pilot said again on the radio that is was about 700feet agl (above ground level).

 

 

C-17 is adjacent to the trippy tunnel.

 

see attachment.

[Ed A.]

I really liked the trippy tunnel when I was there, and the very nice ambient space music in the background. Maybe it also draws tourists from farther away than the designers originally thought .

[spokenward]

Looking for their surrendered gels, perhaps.

[cooterbrown]

I grew up in Chicagoland.

 

My grandparents lived in Park Ridge, just east of the flight path of runway 22R, which handles an incredible amount of traffic.

 

I would sometimes ride my bike down through the forest preserve and down to the corner of Mannheim and Touhy at a parking lot near the airport boundary.

 

Once, I did see one thing that didn't "look right", once, when I was about 12, or so (probably mid-1980, or so).

 

It was daylight, and I was following the approach of 747 towards the runway, when I saw a small (wedge shaped and about F-16-sized) object travel across the sky and directly over O'Hare at about 10000'.

 

It made no noise and was travelling at an impossible rate of speed with no hint of sonic boom, and it looked to make a 45 degree turn and dart up, suddenly into the clouds.

 

Don't know what it was, but it was definitely interesting.

Nothing on the news about it, either.

[Anderton]

What really fascinates me is that several airline and military pilots have reported seeing UFOs...but they're never grounded. You'd think if there was a serious chance they were hallucinating, they'd be sent packing to some other gig.

 

No question there's something out there. There's also no question that nobody knows what's out there.

 

And don't expect any word from the military..."Here's the deal folks, we realize you've spent untold billions of dollars so we can defend you from various dangers, but frankly, we have no clue what these things are and if they wanted to fry us all with death rays, there's not much we could do about it. Have a nice day!"

[elsongs]

I truly believe that there are aliens out there and that humankind is totally not alone in the universe. But still I have a hard time believing that UFOs would hang out near an airport. And besides, with all the many species we have on Earth, if or when they do arrive, why do we assume they would want to make contact with us? For all we know humans resemble toilets for them and they might be more interested in ants or giraffes or sturgeons. I know if I were an alien, I wouldn't find humans worth my time at all

Put yourself in their shoes (assuming they have feet): If we landed on a faraway plant, how would we know who's the species we should make contact with? Maybe there's more than one?

 

I also don't believe most aliens have symmetrical bodies, with a head and two eyes and walk upright. I'm sure some of them do but...come on, the universe is so large.

[claveslave]

Assuming for a moment that they were friendly, I'd love for them to land and tell everyone to STFU, divide The Earth's spoils evenly between all and tell us to be grateful for what we have and make the most of it...

 

... 50 years on with no interference and the present imbalance would be re-instated. We're a primitive bunch... and just autonomous playthings.

 

Thanks for the link.

[the stranger]

My first guess is military technology. I would assume the military is probably fifty years ahead of what the public is using and seeing, tech wise.

 

I'd be more apt to consider time travel and/or inter-dimensional travel, rather than aliens.

 

Imo, we are the aliens. We either colonized and/or seeded earth. Planted the seeds of civilization and progress. And quite possibly feed it along the way.

 

Mars was inhabited and possibly abandoned 17,500 years ago.

 

The moon is a statistical anomaly. It's position and size are absolutley crucial to our existence. One of the planets in the solar system has a moon in retrograde (or something that isn't "right" (I'm not recalling the specifics at the moment). All sorts of other strange things defy normal physics and explanation.

 

The ancient relics on this planet (and the ones on Mars, if you believe that they exist), seem to be arranged in a manner that is mathmatical and relating to fundamental resonances.

 

I have found all kinds of bizarre information researching the pyramids, tesla, religious history, other wierdness and such.

 

Ever heard of Sacred Geometry? Schumann Resonances?

HAARP?

 

Try typing "the resonant frequency of earth" into google.

 

I've been meaning to get a paper together presenting all this bizarre info into some cohesive whole, with links and whatever refs I can provide. (Tricky, considering the subject matter.)

 

One thing I think people get stuck on is thinking that aliens are automatically going to be be a) humanoid species b) existing/travelling in the third dimension and/or physical plane.

 

If other life forms, or possibly our ancestors/related species

were to travel here, I doubt they would be doing it in the 3rd dimension. They may manifest in the 3rd dimension, but that doesn't mean they will travel that way.

 

And regardless of your and/or lack of religious views, I think that our body is just a vehicle and we are more than likely (at the core) an energy based life form.

The 3rd dimension is really where it's at when your talking good fun, ya know? The physical is where it's at. That's taking into account that I haven't experienced all the various dimensions.

 

Anyway, the universe is probably just one big construct that we are bouncing around in like subatomic particles in a wonderous dance of chaos.

 

The whole deal is like one big puzzle.

[Ani]

 

My first guess is military technology. I would assume the military is probably fifty years ahead of what the public is using and seeing, tech wise. I'd be more apt to consider time travel and/or inter-dimensional travel, rather than aliens.

 

 

+1

[myshkin]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6692952930996256219

Worth a look. Just click over the first 3 minutes. DOn't necessarily have to believe everything to find quite a bit of interesting images and information in it.

[blue2blue]

Originally posted by Ed A. I really liked the trippy tunnel when I was there, and the very nice ambient space music in the background. Maybe it also draws tourists from farther away than the designers originally thought .

 

Yes... I know at least a couple people who would probably just ride back and forth all day... maybe taking the occasional break for a walk outside to the special smoking area.

[blue2blue]

 

Originally posted by claveslave Assuming for a moment that they were friendly, I'd love for them to land and tell everyone to STFU, divide The Earth's spoils evenly between all and tell us to be grateful for what we have and make the most of it... ... 50 years on with no interference and the present imbalance would be re-instated. We're a primitive bunch... and just autonomous playthings. Thanks for the link.

 

 

I'd settle for them threatening to exile into space anyone who purposefully puts his own self-interest over the good of the planet...

 

Uh oh... looks like most of us are going to the eco-criminal camp on Altair IV... including me and my Corolla...

 

 

____________________

 

 

With regard to life on other planets -- that seems likely to me but I'm not absolutely sure that visitors from those planets are the only explanation for UFO phenomenon.

 

Some things to consider: UFO sightings have tended to cluster around nuclear activities. That's led to the "concerned big-brother" theory...

 

But what if all these geometric "objects" were artifacts of some distortion of time-space CAUSED by our nuclear activities?

 

What got me to thinking about non-intelligent-visitor theories was a brief article in some pulp science or sci-fi mag in the 60s. The author put out several theories, including a novel one: that UFO phenomenon might actually be extremely simple "life" forms -- but not necessarily carbon-based ones. He mentioned crystals and viruses as life-like entities. He talked about how UFOs behave a lot like one celled organisms in a petrie dish... it was interesting, to say the least.

 

He also suggested that they might be some sort of as yet unknown psychic phenomenon... although I've never heard about sighted UFOs that didn't show up in photos. (Of course, there are apparently reliable photos of "shades" -- "holographic ghosts," as it were -- so... if a "ghost" can show on a photo I guess about anything might be possible, refraction/reflection-wise.)

[birdFEEDER]

In this post-911 era, I'm guessing that there HAD to be AT LEAST ONE security camera facing the direction of the hanger/gate in question? At the world's busiest (or second busiest, I forget), I'm sure security was beefed up, let's see the tapes!

[blue2blue]

I thought the airline and the FAA's stonewalling (at least until the FOIA action) was VERY interesting.

 

Complete denial from the FAA -- and then when the legal action was taken, all of a sudden, Uh, yeah, now that you mention it, there was a flurry of sightings and radio chatter about them. Whaddyaknow?

[Lee Flier]

 

Originally posted by birdFEEDER In this post-911 era, I'm guessing that there HAD to be AT LEAST ONE security camera facing the direction of the hanger/gate in question?

 

 

Yeah but it was hovering about 1900 feet up, supposedly... I don't think any airport cameras would've been pointed there.

[Anderton]

 

 

Actually, NASA did put itself in their shoes. Before man landed on the moon, there was a big discussion about what to do if, against all odds, there was some sort of life form. The decision was to observe, not interfere, and be as discrete as possible so as not to upset any particular balance that might exist.

[meccajay]

I myself have never seen a UFO, nor have I ever been inside of one. I do have a good friend however who got to test drive one, and said it rode real good, and handled great for it's size.

[aliengroover]

Interesting story. It's always funny how the Powers That Be act. It's like the infamous "Phoenix Lights"...countless people, including law officials, saw them, and a good number of people recorded them. They immediately came out and said that nothing happened. One state government official was outraged and remarked, "It's like 40,000 people were at a football game and afterwards they were told there wasn't a game." Until they're pressed, they'll wash right over it. And in that case, the explanations were both varied and ridiculous. Just say you're investigating it and call it a day.

 

I love how in this case they immediately came out and said they wouldn't be looking into it. Nice. To keep the football analogy, I guess the officials decided they were going to rule it an incomplete catch, even though the guy ran the ball 40 yards for a touchdown.

Peace

[Kendrix]

Interesting story. I am very open minded about this.

However tHe word "hazy" was used to describe the sighting.

All the reports make the assumption that it was a solid object.

Really odd cloud and wind behavior and/or optical offects in the

atmosphere can play a role in tricking our senses. This possibility

should not be dismissed.

 

I also dont consider that official stonewalling is evidence that an actual alien craft was involved. To me it just indicates that the autorities intend not to have any such UFO stories inflame the population. The authorities are just as apt to quash stories about some optical ilusion that is misinterpreted as a UFOas it is likely to quash a story about a genuine alien craft.

 

Depsite the altitude if it was clearly visible to the naked eye you'd think some digital photo woud have been clicked that captured the image.