U.S. government prepares to issue landmark report on UFOs
U.S. government prepares to issue landmark report on UFOs | Reuters
U.S. government prepares to issue landmark report on UFOs | Reuters
U.S. government prepares to issue landmark report on UFOs
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Retired U.S. Navy pilot recalls UFO encounter
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Pavithra George
Publishing date:Jun 25, 2021 • 12 hours ago • 3 minute read • 7 Comments
Retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich is pictured during an interview conducted over Zoom.
Retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich is pictured during an interview conducted over Zoom. PHOTO BY SCREENGRAB /Reuters
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WASHINGTON — Retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich has found herself in the glare of media attention ahead of a highly anticipated government report on UFOs, a subject she says she has little interest in, despite actually encountering one on the job.
“I don’t consider myself a whistle blower … I don’t identify as a UFO person,” the former fighter pilot told Reuters in a Zoom interview, days before the report, expected to feature her own experience and dozens of others like it, was due for presentation to Congress.
During a routine training mission with the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off the Southern California coast in November 2004, Dietrich and her then-commanding officer, fellow pilot David Fravor, were asked by another warship to investigate radar contacts in the area moving in an inexplicable fashion.
She recounted they first noticed an unusual “churning” of the ocean surface before seeing what she and Fravor have described as a smooth, white oblong object resembling a large Tic Tac breath mint flying at high speed over the water.
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When Fravor in his jet turned to “engage with” the object, “it appeared to respond in a way that we didn’t recognize” because it seemed to lack “any visible flight control surfaces or means of propulsion,” Dietrich recalled.
Footage of what Dietrich and Fravor witnessed that day, now popularly known as the Tic Tac incident, will likely be included in the upcoming report to Congress, along with two other declassified videos taken by U.S. Navy fighter jets in 2015 in similar encounters with what the government calls unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAP.
The U.S. Navy has previously confirmed the videos as authentic.
Dietrich, now a mother of three, has discussed her experience in a recent joint appearance with Fravor on the CBS News program “60 Minutes,” and has since addressed dozens of video calls from other journalists asking to know more about what she saw in 2004.
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Her answer remains the same, as it has for the past 17 years.
“We don’t know what it was, but it could have been a natural phenomenon in human activity. But the point was that it was weird, and we couldn’t recognize it,” Dietrich said, speaking from a Colorado hotel room she was sharing with her children and two dogs.
Juggling media queries amid a cross-country family move is exhausting, but Dietrich said she wants to reduce the stigma attached to reporting UFO sightings and hopes more people can speak up without fear of ridicule.
“Folks might be concerned about their careers or their church or something like that. They don’t want to be the kooky UFO person, so I guess I’m trying to normalize it by talking about it,” Dietrich said.
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Public fascination with unidentified flying objects has been stoked in recent weeks by the forthcoming report, as UFO enthusiasts anticipate possible revelations about unexplained sightings many believe the government has sought to discredit or cover up for decades.
According to preliminary details reported by The New York Times, citing senior administration officials briefed on the report, U.S. intelligence officials found no evidence that UAP observed by Navy aviators in recent years were alien spacecraft, but the sightings still remain unexplained.
Senior U.S. officials cited in the Times article said the report’s ambiguity meant the government was unable to definitively rule out extraterrestrial origins of the sightings. The Times said the report, to be presented by U.S. intelligence in conjunction with the Pentagon, covers more than 120 documented cases of enigmatic objects exhibiting speed and maneuverability exceeding known aviation technologies.
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Dietrich said she has no opinion on the report and was not privy to its contents. She would like to hear more from pilots who have had similar UFO sightings.
“There’s a common humanity, I guess, of being a little bit shocked, a little bit delighted, a little bit nervous, confused, all of that. And so, recognizing that in another human, that can be comforting in a way,” she said.
But Dietrich also voiced hope that public interest in UFOs would abate as the subject gains more mainstream attention.
“I hope I’m not the UFO, Tic Tac person for the rest of my life. This is not what I envisioned for myself,” she said.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Pavithra George
Publishing date:Jun 25, 2021 • 12 hours ago • 3 minute read • 7 Comments
Retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich is pictured during an interview conducted over Zoom.
Retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich is pictured during an interview conducted over Zoom. PHOTO BY SCREENGRAB /Reuters
Article content
WASHINGTON — Retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich has found herself in the glare of media attention ahead of a highly anticipated government report on UFOs, a subject she says she has little interest in, despite actually encountering one on the job.
“I don’t consider myself a whistle blower … I don’t identify as a UFO person,” the former fighter pilot told Reuters in a Zoom interview, days before the report, expected to feature her own experience and dozens of others like it, was due for presentation to Congress.
During a routine training mission with the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off the Southern California coast in November 2004, Dietrich and her then-commanding officer, fellow pilot David Fravor, were asked by another warship to investigate radar contacts in the area moving in an inexplicable fashion.
She recounted they first noticed an unusual “churning” of the ocean surface before seeing what she and Fravor have described as a smooth, white oblong object resembling a large Tic Tac breath mint flying at high speed over the water.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
When Fravor in his jet turned to “engage with” the object, “it appeared to respond in a way that we didn’t recognize” because it seemed to lack “any visible flight control surfaces or means of propulsion,” Dietrich recalled.
Footage of what Dietrich and Fravor witnessed that day, now popularly known as the Tic Tac incident, will likely be included in the upcoming report to Congress, along with two other declassified videos taken by U.S. Navy fighter jets in 2015 in similar encounters with what the government calls unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAP.
The U.S. Navy has previously confirmed the videos as authentic.
Dietrich, now a mother of three, has discussed her experience in a recent joint appearance with Fravor on the CBS News program “60 Minutes,” and has since addressed dozens of video calls from other journalists asking to know more about what she saw in 2004.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Her answer remains the same, as it has for the past 17 years.
“We don’t know what it was, but it could have been a natural phenomenon in human activity. But the point was that it was weird, and we couldn’t recognize it,” Dietrich said, speaking from a Colorado hotel room she was sharing with her children and two dogs.
Juggling media queries amid a cross-country family move is exhausting, but Dietrich said she wants to reduce the stigma attached to reporting UFO sightings and hopes more people can speak up without fear of ridicule.
“Folks might be concerned about their careers or their church or something like that. They don’t want to be the kooky UFO person, so I guess I’m trying to normalize it by talking about it,” Dietrich said.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Public fascination with unidentified flying objects has been stoked in recent weeks by the forthcoming report, as UFO enthusiasts anticipate possible revelations about unexplained sightings many believe the government has sought to discredit or cover up for decades.
According to preliminary details reported by The New York Times, citing senior administration officials briefed on the report, U.S. intelligence officials found no evidence that UAP observed by Navy aviators in recent years were alien spacecraft, but the sightings still remain unexplained.
Senior U.S. officials cited in the Times article said the report’s ambiguity meant the government was unable to definitively rule out extraterrestrial origins of the sightings. The Times said the report, to be presented by U.S. intelligence in conjunction with the Pentagon, covers more than 120 documented cases of enigmatic objects exhibiting speed and maneuverability exceeding known aviation technologies.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Dietrich said she has no opinion on the report and was not privy to its contents. She would like to hear more from pilots who have had similar UFO sightings.
“There’s a common humanity, I guess, of being a little bit shocked, a little bit delighted, a little bit nervous, confused, all of that. And so, recognizing that in another human, that can be comforting in a way,” she said.
But Dietrich also voiced hope that public interest in UFOs would abate as the subject gains more mainstream attention.
“I hope I’m not the UFO, Tic Tac person for the rest of my life. This is not what I envisioned for myself,” she said.
Retired U.S. Navy pilot recalls UFO encounter
WASHINGTON — Retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich has found herself in the glare of media attention ahead of a highly anticipated government report …
They have been around forever.. I saw one by Judith Gap, MT by the nuclear silo going over the mountain, but that was 20 years ago.. but I still remember it, as if it was today. Thought it was ball lightening at first.
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Watershed U.S. UFO report does not rule out extraterrestrial origin
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Steve Gorman
Publishing date:Jun 25, 2021 • 12 hours ago • 4 minute read • 47 Comments
This file video grab image obtained on April 26, 2020 courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense shows part of an unclassified video taken by Navy pilots that have circulated for years showing interactions with "unidentified aerial phenomena."
This file video grab image obtained on April 26, 2020 courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense shows part of an unclassified video taken by Navy pilots that have circulated for years showing interactions with "unidentified aerial phenomena." PHOTO BY HANDOUT/DOD /AFP via Getty Images
Article content
A U.S. government report on UFOs issued on Friday said defense and intelligence analysts lack sufficient data to determine the nature of mysterious flying objects observed by American military pilots including whether they are advanced earthly technologies, atmospherics or of an extraterrestrial origin.
The unclassified nine-page report, released to Congress and the public, encompasses 144 observations – mostly from U.S. Navy personnel – of what the government officially calls “unidentified aerial phenomenon,” or UAP, dating back to 2004.
Labelled a preliminary assessment, it was compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in conjunction with a Navy-led task force created by the Pentagon last year.
“UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security,” the report stated, adding that the phenomena “probably lack a single explanation.”
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The report marked a turning point for the U.S. government after the military spent decades deflecting, debunking and discrediting observations of unidentified flying objects and “flying saucers” dating back to the 1940s.
The report includes some UAP cases that previously came to light in the Pentagon’s release of video from naval aviators showing enigmatic aircraft off the U.S. East and West Coasts exhibiting speed and maneuverability exceeding known aviation technologies and lacking any visible means of propulsion or flight-control surfaces.
All but one of the listed sightings – an instance attributed to a large, deflating balloon – remain unexplained, subject to further analysis, the report said. For the other 143 cases, the report found that too little data exists to conclude whether they represent some exotic aerial system developed either by a U.S. government or commercial entity, or by a foreign power such as China or Russia.
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In some observations, UAP appeared to exhibit “unusual patterns or flight characteristics,” but those may stem from sensor glitches or witness misperceptions and “require additional rigorous analysis,” the report said.
Analysts have yet to rule out an extraterrestrial origin, senior U.S. officials told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The report’s language avoided explicit mentions of such possibilities.
Asked about possible alien explanations, one of the officials said: “That’s not the purpose of the task force, to evaluate any sort of search for extraterrestrial life. … That’s not what we were charged with doing.”
“Of the 144 reports we are dealing with here, we have no clear indications that there is any non-terrestrial explanation for them – but we will go wherever the data takes us,” the senior official added.
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NEAR MISSES
The study documented 11 UAP near-misses reported by pilots and a small number of cases in which military aircraft “processed radio frequency energy associated with UAP sightings.” Most reports also described objects that interrupted training or other U.S. military exercises, it stated.
The task force focused on phenomena witnessed first-hand by military aviators, with 80 reports involving detection with multiple sensors, the report said. Most were from the past few years.
The report established five potential explanatory categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, U.S. government or American industry developmental programs, foreign adversary systems and a catch-all “other” category.
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The senior official said the findings did not provide any “clear indications” that the UAP are part of a foreign intelligence-collection program or a major technological advancement by a potential adversary.
The government in recent years has adopted UAP as its term for what commonly are known as “unidentified flying objects,” or UFOs, long associated with the notion of alien spacecraft.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio was instrumental in commissioning the report, ordered by Congress six months ago as part of broader intelligence legislation.
“For years, the men and women we trust to defend our country reported encounters with unidentified aircraft that had superior capabilities, and for years their concerns were often ignored and ridiculed,” Rubio said. “This report is an important first step in cataloging these incidents, but it is just a first step.”
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STORY CONTINUES BELOW
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After the report’s release, the Pentagon announced plans to “formalize” its UAP investigation mission currently handled by the task force.
Mick West, a UFO skeptic and researcher, said the “report points largely at boring explanations, even including birds and balloons, and identified some areas where we need to improve our data gathering.”
It is not the first official U.S. report on UFOs. The U.S. Air Force conducted a previous investigation called Project Blue Book, ended in 1969, that compiled a list of 12,618 sightings, 701 of which involved objects that officially remained “unidentified.”
In 1994, the Air Force said it completed a study to locate records relating to the 1947 “Roswell incident” in New Mexico. It said materials recovered near Roswell were consistent with a crashed balloon, the military’s long-standing explanation, and that no records indicated that there had been the recovery of alien bodies or extraterrestrial materials.
archives.gov
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Steve Gorman
Publishing date:Jun 25, 2021 • 12 hours ago • 4 minute read • 47 Comments
This file video grab image obtained on April 26, 2020 courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense shows part of an unclassified video taken by Navy pilots that have circulated for years showing interactions with "unidentified aerial phenomena."
This file video grab image obtained on April 26, 2020 courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense shows part of an unclassified video taken by Navy pilots that have circulated for years showing interactions with "unidentified aerial phenomena." PHOTO BY HANDOUT/DOD /AFP via Getty Images
Article content
A U.S. government report on UFOs issued on Friday said defense and intelligence analysts lack sufficient data to determine the nature of mysterious flying objects observed by American military pilots including whether they are advanced earthly technologies, atmospherics or of an extraterrestrial origin.
The unclassified nine-page report, released to Congress and the public, encompasses 144 observations – mostly from U.S. Navy personnel – of what the government officially calls “unidentified aerial phenomenon,” or UAP, dating back to 2004.
Labelled a preliminary assessment, it was compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in conjunction with a Navy-led task force created by the Pentagon last year.
“UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security,” the report stated, adding that the phenomena “probably lack a single explanation.”
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
The report marked a turning point for the U.S. government after the military spent decades deflecting, debunking and discrediting observations of unidentified flying objects and “flying saucers” dating back to the 1940s.
The report includes some UAP cases that previously came to light in the Pentagon’s release of video from naval aviators showing enigmatic aircraft off the U.S. East and West Coasts exhibiting speed and maneuverability exceeding known aviation technologies and lacking any visible means of propulsion or flight-control surfaces.
All but one of the listed sightings – an instance attributed to a large, deflating balloon – remain unexplained, subject to further analysis, the report said. For the other 143 cases, the report found that too little data exists to conclude whether they represent some exotic aerial system developed either by a U.S. government or commercial entity, or by a foreign power such as China or Russia.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
In some observations, UAP appeared to exhibit “unusual patterns or flight characteristics,” but those may stem from sensor glitches or witness misperceptions and “require additional rigorous analysis,” the report said.
Analysts have yet to rule out an extraterrestrial origin, senior U.S. officials told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The report’s language avoided explicit mentions of such possibilities.
Asked about possible alien explanations, one of the officials said: “That’s not the purpose of the task force, to evaluate any sort of search for extraterrestrial life. … That’s not what we were charged with doing.”
“Of the 144 reports we are dealing with here, we have no clear indications that there is any non-terrestrial explanation for them – but we will go wherever the data takes us,” the senior official added.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
NEAR MISSES
The study documented 11 UAP near-misses reported by pilots and a small number of cases in which military aircraft “processed radio frequency energy associated with UAP sightings.” Most reports also described objects that interrupted training or other U.S. military exercises, it stated.
The task force focused on phenomena witnessed first-hand by military aviators, with 80 reports involving detection with multiple sensors, the report said. Most were from the past few years.
The report established five potential explanatory categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, U.S. government or American industry developmental programs, foreign adversary systems and a catch-all “other” category.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
The senior official said the findings did not provide any “clear indications” that the UAP are part of a foreign intelligence-collection program or a major technological advancement by a potential adversary.
The government in recent years has adopted UAP as its term for what commonly are known as “unidentified flying objects,” or UFOs, long associated with the notion of alien spacecraft.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio was instrumental in commissioning the report, ordered by Congress six months ago as part of broader intelligence legislation.
“For years, the men and women we trust to defend our country reported encounters with unidentified aircraft that had superior capabilities, and for years their concerns were often ignored and ridiculed,” Rubio said. “This report is an important first step in cataloging these incidents, but it is just a first step.”
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
After the report’s release, the Pentagon announced plans to “formalize” its UAP investigation mission currently handled by the task force.
Mick West, a UFO skeptic and researcher, said the “report points largely at boring explanations, even including birds and balloons, and identified some areas where we need to improve our data gathering.”
It is not the first official U.S. report on UFOs. The U.S. Air Force conducted a previous investigation called Project Blue Book, ended in 1969, that compiled a list of 12,618 sightings, 701 of which involved objects that officially remained “unidentified.”
In 1994, the Air Force said it completed a study to locate records relating to the 1947 “Roswell incident” in New Mexico. It said materials recovered near Roswell were consistent with a crashed balloon, the military’s long-standing explanation, and that no records indicated that there had been the recovery of alien bodies or extraterrestrial materials.
Project BLUE BOOK - Unidentified Flying Objects
General Information Reference Report relating to Project BLUE BOOK U.S. Air Force Fact Sheet on UFOs and Project BLUE BOOK Reference Report relating to Majestic 12 {MJ-12} Information of the "Roswell Incident" General Information The United States Air Force retired to the custody of the National...
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Watershed U.S. UFO report does not rule out extraterrestrial origin
A U.S. government report on UFOs issued on Friday said defense and intelligence analysts lack sufficient data to determine the nature of mysterious flying objects o…
