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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

#141

Post by bawolff »

Uehreka wrote: post #95
boomboomsubban wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's in American Airline's benefit to make this story get as big as possible, it's free advertising. They already know the term will be misunderstood, that is their goal.

I feel like this “all press is good press” argument gets deployed a lot as a sort of thought-terminating cliche. I don’t think it’s obvious that AA necessarily benefits from a story that does involve them but could also potentially make some people more afraid of flying.

I think the all press is good press more applies to lesser known companies. At this point everyone knows who american airlines are.

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

#142

Post by czbond »

soheil wrote: post #139

I'm so sick of the term UFO being applied to stuff like this. Even the pilot said it looked like a cruise missile but lo and behold the first conjecture in the article by the journalist is that it could be extraterrestrial and only at the end they say oh yeah it could also just be a military thing since you know there are a trillion military bases right under where it was flying over. I think we need a new term, mayb…

I think the term now in use is UAP - Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.

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

#143

Post by stouset »

l31g wrote: post #115
mike_d wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

U-2s don't fly fast.

They do when they’re flying the opposite direction as you.

Also, he’ll if we civilians know what kinds of retrofits have been made in the past several decades, particularly for the purpose of testing and development.

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

#145

Post by at_a_remove »

nayaketo wrote: post #127
micksabox wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can run as fast as you like on the Euphemism Treadmill, but you won't get anywhere.

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

#146

Post by johnohara »

Fwiw, the skies over Arizona were loaded with contrails today. Very unusual to see this kind of volume.

All of the aircraft appeared to be heading due west in the direction of Las Vegas (Nellis AFB) and southern Cal.

The last time I witnessed this degree of activity was in early 2020, one day after the drone strike on Iranian General Soleimani. The whole sky was a crisscross mesh of expanding vapor.

In these circumstances you can easily tell the difference between commercial and military aircraft simply by their speed. Military aircraft haul ass at all altitudes, without exception.

Ironic to me that this story appeared on HN today given what I've mentioned. I'm not surprised AA reported a UFO encounter two days ago either. Southwest US skies seem to have become very busy.

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

#147

Post by King-Aaron »

jcims wrote: post #140
King-Aaron wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Aside from launch where they typically have some kind of boost stage, cruise missiles fly at low altitudes with small turbofan engines. Not much of a visual exhaust signature: https://youtu.be/BGoJl8Lr46g https://youtu.be/WyeMyhKE5Yw

Ah fair enough. Thats some impressive footage by the way!

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

#148

Post by oceanplexian »

exporectomy wrote: post #128
oceanplexian wrote: post #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 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?

It’s an educated guess from years of watching and avoiding other airplanes. The reason it drew my attention was the abnormal speed, then I focused in on it and realized it was a featureless cylinder.

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

#149

Post by heavyset_go »

ianai wrote: post #94
01100011 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the first thing I thought of when I heard about this. If the US was testing its drones, I think it would prefer to keep them in a restricted airspace. On the other hand, if I were a foreign power looking to flaunt my new drone tech, I'd take it over the area that seems to be rife with sensitive bases. Still, it's most likely this is a US drone on a long range testing mission(or just flying off course due to a…

Are there reports of any foreign drones flying so far within US borders? I only recall media accounts of stuff like that happening in international waters or borders.

Sounds like a situation where if there were any witnesses to such incidents, they're probably under gag orders.

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

#150

Post by lumost »

oceanplexian wrote: post #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 gu…

tbh this seems like the perfect situation to test US air defences and radar technology.

Flying a long range unarmed stealth drone in lightly populated areas through the US would tell you a great deal about how observable the drone is to US radars. Flying dangerously through Air traffic controlled space also ensures that the military radars get pointed in your direction at some point or another.

For an unarmed small(ish) drone the risks of getting caught are likely minimal. Crash in an unpopulated area (plenty of those in the west coast), self-destruct at high altitude or simply acknowledge the spying incident and point to the SR-71/U-2 as precedent.

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