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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

#161
post #78
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…

Tell that to the people on the plane that was shot down above Ukrainian airspace.

this is a poor comparison

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

#162
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The U2 is a very well-understood and photographed airframe. Even if given engine upgrades, it wouldn't be more than a few mph faster than before. Those big glider wings limit it to a very narrow, predictable, flight envelope.

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

#163

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…

> ATC didn’t call it so presumably they didn’t see it on radar.

Not a reasonable presumption. VFR aircraft are lowest priority, and traffic calls for VFRs are very much not guaranteed. If a controller has too much to do, you won’t get traffic calls. And just because the frequency is quiet, doesn’t mean the controller is twiddling their thumbs. They could be on the landline or briefing the next controller.

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

#164

How is this not on film in 4k stereo in the age of smart phones and dash cams

A car accident occurred down the street from me the other day; I heard it, and there were eye witnesses, but there was no video.

I guess it didn't happen.

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

#165
post #155

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…

Did it leave a trail?

Nope

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

#166
post #153

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…

(a) They are common, lots of stories. (b) Completely impossible to get good video about them. a & b => bs

if something is small and fast and you are flying a plane i do not find it difficult to believe that capturing video might prove elusive

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

#167
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…

On the contrary, the USA has accidently dropped nuclear missiles from planes, and have experience all kinds of other incompetence over the decades.

https://www.amazon.com/Command-Control-Damascus-Accident-Ill...

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

#168
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…

>the pilot said it looked like a cruise missile

What percentage of commercial airline pilots do you think have ever seen a cruise missile?

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

#169
Why is everyone arguing about stuff in this thread instead of focusing on the less-interesting but still super concerning fact that something flew "right over the top" of a commercial airplane? Even in the least-interesting case of it probably a US test thing of some kind - wtf is it doing flying in commercial airspace? Can you imagine if it had hit the plane?

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

#170

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…

> ATC didn’t call it so presumably they didn’t see it on radar. Not a reasonable presumption. VFR aircraft are lowest priority, and traffic calls for VFRs are very much not guaranteed. If a controller has too much to do, you won’t get traffic calls. And just because the frequency is quiet, doesn’t mean the controller is twiddling their thumbs. They could be on the landline or briefing the next controller.

While this is true something at that closing rate and speed would have stood out like a sore thumb, it’s also probable alarms would have gone off. Source: I’ve been inside of a center facility and had the privilege of playing with a scope and asking questions.
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