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American Airlines confirms UFO contact over New Mexico on Sunday

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Re: American Airlines confirms UFO contact over New Mexico on Sunday

#121
I remember a French documentary from a while ago and a helicopter pilot said that he witnessed something similar while he was flying. A large cylinder craft flew past him rapidly and was relatively close to the helicopter to the point that this would have affected it (air displacement?), but nope.

It was as if the "UFO" flew inside its own sort of bubble, isolated from the surrounding environment. Flew right past the helicopter as if it was nothing. That's what was the most shocking.

Re: American Airlines confirms UFO contact over New Mexico on Sunday

#122
post #45

There’s an Air Force base in New Mexico. Could totally be something from there. Or aliens I don’t know

Most states have Air Force bases so this could have happened almost anywhere in the US and you could have said the same thing.

Re: American Airlines confirms UFO contact over New Mexico on Sunday

#123
I won’t be able to provide information that other people haven’t already but I have encountered one of these “aircraft”.

I own a small light sport airplane and was flying between UT and CA at 12.5k ft and saw one of these pass 1,000ft below me not far outside of Reno. ATC didn’t call it so presumably they didn’t see it on radar. It was exactly as described, small, shiny, cylindrical, no wings, and fast. If I could guess it was doing 500kts in the opposite direction. By the time I pulled out my phone to snap a picture it was gone. If it was a cruise missile it was flying over a populated area and not in restricted airspace or a MOA. Not sure what conclusions to draw other than these things are real and probably more common than people assume. It was not an airliner or private jet I’ve seen plenty of them.

Re: American Airlines confirms UFO contact over New Mexico on Sunday

#124

I think the proper term here is "Unidentified Flying Object" for a reason. The pilot clearly said it looked like a cruise missile. The notion that "Unidentified = Alien" is rather far fetched. The acronym should be more accurately called "Undisclosed Flying Object".

We've really gotta adopt a new term for this stuff. It's fine to be pedantic and say "well 'UFO' doesn't actually mean aliens in the first place", but the acronym has clearly been co-opted by pop culture to be closely tied with aliens for decades now. Even a minor change like "UFOB" (which has been used by the USAF officially) would probably make a big difference. People will continue to say UFO to mean aliens, and t…

The problem isn't with the term. Any term that means "An unknown flying thing" will come to be associated with aliens. If you start using a new term, that will just make it more exotic and interesting and "official seeming". "Authorities are reporting a UFT!" "What's that" "A UFO!!"

The interesting/curious/conspiracy-invoking concept is the unknown flying thing, whatever you call it. Whatever name you use will get associated with the interesting/curious/conspiracy aspect.

Re: American Airlines confirms UFO contact over New Mexico on Sunday

#125
I skimmed the original recording posted by the source to find where this happens (it's 1:13:03, you're welcome). The recording is from a scanner and I think either the user was actively tuning it or it was set to scan. You seem to be hearing more than one center simultaneously and things are getting cut off in odd ways.

The point is, the recording posted at the linked article is... really all of the context there is. You hear "Have any targets here? We just..." with the beginning of that sentence cut off. You never hear the pilot identify, presumably it was cut off, so I'm not even totally sure how the source identified which aircraft this was.

You also do not hear the response.

If the transmission was on 127.85 or 134.75 as the author suggests, it was either Borger Low or Amarillo High. They filed FL360 and for the type anyway it was probably Amarillo High, ZAB sector 97. Unfortunately atclive doesn't archive that sector or it seems even any near it. Any chance some other website does?

Re: American Airlines confirms UFO contact over New Mexico on Sunday

#126

I think the proper term here is "Unidentified Flying Object" for a reason. The pilot clearly said it looked like a cruise missile. The notion that "Unidentified = Alien" is rather far fetched. The acronym should be more accurately called "Undisclosed Flying Object".

It's a huge mystery how an airline pilot could possibly see a cruise missile shaped object right outside of the White Sands Missile Range. Probably aliens.

I'm not completely up to speed on modern cruise missiles, but don't they leave a smoke trail/contrail/etc behind them if they have a conventional propulsion system? Or do they burn fairly clean in flight?

Re: American Airlines confirms UFO contact over New Mexico on Sunday

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've really gotta adopt a new term for this stuff. It's fine to be pedantic and say "well 'UFO' doesn't actually mean aliens in the first place", but the acronym has clearly been co-opted by pop culture to be closely tied with aliens for decades now. Even a minor change like "UFOB" (which has been used by the USAF officially) would probably make a big difference. People will continue to say UFO to mean aliens, and t…

Yes, the term now is UAP, unidentified aerial phenomenon. There is an official UAP Task Force in the Pentagon. Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid uses it, Hilary Clinton uses it.

"Ariel phenomenon" sounds like the kind of word that will be very quickly co-opted by paranormalists and occultists.

Re: American Airlines confirms UFO contact over New Mexico on Sunday

#128

I won’t be able to provide information that other people haven’t already but I have encountered one of these “aircraft”. I own a small light sport airplane and was flying between UT and CA at 12.5k ft and saw one of these pass 1,000ft below me not far outside of Reno. ATC didn’t call it so presumably they didn’t see it on radar. It was exactly as described, small, shiny, cylindrical, no wings, and fast. If I could gu…

I'm wondering how you estimate its speed and distance Wouldn't it look identical to a smaller, slower object closer to your aircraft?

Re: American Airlines confirms UFO contact over New Mexico on Sunday

#129
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a huge mystery how an airline pilot could possibly see a cruise missile shaped object right outside of the White Sands Missile Range. Probably aliens.

There is absolutely zero chance a cruise missile would be fired without closing the airspace to civilian aircraft. The pilot was at 37,000 feet and said the object was above them. Commercial planes top out at about 42k feet and would have shown up on ADS-B. A U-2 flying at 60k would look like a long cylindrical object about the size of a cruise missile (in the same way a 747 looks small from the ground), and not show…

A320 and U-2 go the same speed. Also the U-2 has big wings and a big radar signature. Basically this makes no sense.
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