UFO

[blobrana]

A confidential UK Ministry of Defence report on Unidentified Flying Objects has concluded that there is no proof of alien life forms.

In spite of the secrecy surrounding the UFO study, it seems citizens of planet Earth have little to worry about.
The report, which was completed in 2000 and stamped "Secret: UK Eyes Only", has been made public for the first time.
Only a small number of copies were produced and the identity of the man who wrote it has been protected.
His findings were only made public thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, after a request by Sheffield Hallam University academic Dr David Clarke.
The four-year study - entitled Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK - tackles the long-running question by UFO-spotters: "Is anyone out there?"

The answer, it seems, is "no".

The 400-page report puts it like this: "No evidence exists to suggest that the phenomena seen are hostile or under any type of control, other than that of natural physical forces"
It adds: "There is no evidence that 'solid' objects exist which could cause a collision hazard."

So if there are no such things as little green men in spaceships or flying saucers, why have so many people reported seeing them?

"Evidence suggests that meteors and their well-known effects and, possibly some other less-known effects are responsible for some unidentified aerial phenomena" concludes the report.

Source BBC (Link is down just now) :lol:

[Tripitaka]

I guess that's the way of things, if you can't answer a question, deny the question exists.
 :sealed:

Tripitaka wrote:
I guess that's the way of things, if you can't answer a question, deny the question exists.
 :sealed:

Question?  What question? ;-)

[JaXanim]

I just watched Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' series once again. As you'll probably know, Sagan was convinced that the universe is teeming with life. Part 12 ('Encyclopoedia Galactica') covers the saga of alien visitation and close encounters of all kinds. The upshot of it all is why would they come here anyway? Brilliant!

JaX

[PMC]

Put it this way, if I were a discriminating boy-racer from the Tau Ceti system with my XLR GTI MK6 Saucer deluxe I'd take it for a spin over some of the more densely populated areas on Earth for a laugh before sitting back and watching the resulting furore way down below.  

Once I was done having fun with the natives, I'd start buzzing some airbases to enjoy some drag racing with the local airforces.  

Bet you anything you like, first contact between humanity and an alien culture will take place when one of the burberry clad interstellar chavs reverses his saucer into Mount Rushmore and stops to exchange insurance details.

[odin]

:lol:

[blobrana]

The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) is monitoring a mysterious situation on the KZN south coast, South Africa.

"Numerous" eye-witnesses reported an unidentified flying object crashing into the sea on Saturday.
NSRI Shelley Beach station commander, Eddie Noyons, said eye-witnesses had reported an unidentified object - possibly an aircraft - crashing into the sea behind the breaker line off-shore of the Port Shepstone High School.
Police, rescue craft and a fixed wing aircraft were alerted to the scene to investigate.

Source

Port shepstone map(76kb, 800 x 528)
Latitude 30°45'0.00"S Longitude  30°26'60.00"E

[Doobrey]

 'It's a Garbage Pod! It's a Smegging Garbage Pod'

[PMC]

Local East Anglian legend has it that UFOs have been seen following the main A120 road, which is pretty straight and runs from Colchester to Harwich, on the North Sea coast.  

I found that one out after having driven along that road twice a day for seven and a half years...

Thankfully, I wasn't stopped by tourists from Sirius B asking for directions to the Millenium Dome.  

[Hyperspeed]

I reckon most sightings are of parts falling from commercial satellite launch programs, even secret military launches.

There's a chance that a few are of 'Willo The Wisp' - the ball lightning phenomena. Japanese scientists created ball lightning in a lab using a microwave generator and the balls could either pass through ceramic plates leaving them intact, or pass through and smash them.

There was also talk lately that the Columbia disaster of 2003 may have been caused by a rare lightning that strikes up into space. It was hypothesised that the type of lightning is occasionaly seen by NASA in orbit and may have been attracted to the static/plasma generated by re-entry.

Then there's the chance that UFOs are unmanned reconnaisance craft (possibly with orbital capability). I'm sure people other than the residents of Baghdad have seen cruise missile variants flying overhead!

[PMC]

Try explaining that to USAAF Capt Mantell, who was killed in 1947 when engaging a UFO in his P-51 fighter, or to the two Iranian F-4 Phantom pilots who engaged a UFO over Tehran in the late 1960s and experienced sudden systems shutdown when attempting to get a missle lock on a UFO.  The latter pilots were very lucky, as control of their jets returned once the UFO dodged out of the way.

In the 1970s a Major Schaeffer (USAF) who while on exchange with the RAF was ordered to ditch his Lightning interceptor in the Irish Sea after a classified engagement with an unknown aircraft.  Sadly Major Schaeffer was found dead in his dinghy shortly after due to exposure.

Several eyewitnesses who have reported seeing UFOs at close range have also been recorded as suffering first degree burns consistent with exposure to gamma ray radiation.  

Try explaining that lot away "ball lightning".

[X-ray]

@ PMC

There have certainly been many incidents that could not be readily explained by the technology that was available at the time. How much of it was natural phenomena and how much was artificial, I don't know. The problem these days is that technology has advanced to the point where a UFO may very well be foreign terrestrial technology.
I have only seen one UFO (and I use that as a literal definition). It happened one evening at dusk while I was driving down a main road just north of Johannesburg in 1997. I saw in the distance something that I can only describe as a neon dash. At the time I instantly thought of the video game 'Elevator Action.' If you've played that and you remember what your character's bullets looked like, well that is what this looked like, only it was a crimson-purple colour. I suppose it would not have been out of place if they edited that 'thing' into a sci-fi film as weapons fire.
Anyway it must have been big because I had a clear view several kilometres to the horizon and it looked big from where I was.
But the thing that got me (the thing that I can't explain) was how quickly it went from one side of the horizon to the other. It must have been only 2 or 3 seconds, perfectly flat trajectory and then it was gone.

[PMC]

In the case I detailed above, where an observer developed radiation burns it was reported that the UFO was being escorted by four US Airforce helicopters flying in loose formation.  It doesn't take much imagination to hypothesise that the craft was of terrestrial origin, given that both the US and Soviets experimented with nuclear powered aircraft.

Certainly there are aircraft being tested right now which are kept hidden from the public - even the cash strapped UK has had more than it's fair share of sightings of unfamiliar shapes in the skies around our airbases and Wharton - British Aerospace's facility.  

Remember that although the F117a was first unveiled in 1988, it had been flying in prototype form for ten years and had been in regular squadron service for five.  

However, there are also some extraordinary reports - ie a Minuteman missile base being overflown by a UFO and subsequently being rendered defenceless as every electronic system on the base shut down and only restarted once the UFO had disappeared.  The Iranian Phantom pilots reported a similar phenomena and certainly aircraft (and pilots) have been lost during UFO encounters.

[Hyperspeed]

I suppose pilots might think they're being stalked by a UFO when it's possible that plasma might be attracted to the metal of their planes like a balloon is attracted to a wooly jumper.

There are many phenomena that we don't know about - look at dark matter. They can only detect it in the deepest mineshafts, and there's a powerful ray of energy that can penetrate right through the planet (only detected by changes in gravity in opposite continents or something).

:inquisitive:

[blobrana]

Hum,
As an update to the original post
Frans van Rensburg, a teacher at Port Shepstone High School, said on Monday it was simply a tornado that sucked up the sea water behind the breakers.
It was halftime during a rugby match between the first rugby teams of Port Shepstone and Ixopo when he noticed a dark cloud just before noon on a perfectly sunny Saturday morning.

Source

(the rugby score, someone told me, was Ixopo 13, Port Shepstone 12)

@Hyperspeed
neutrinos