Another UFO Encounter
Posted by Michelle Moquin on May 7th, 2012
Good morning!
Again…for those who are here for all things alien…This is really interesting.
UFO Encounters With Airplanes: Pilots, Officials Discuss Potential Safety Hazards
There’s been a buzz in the air this week — literally — about a video allegedly showing a UFO flying near a passenger plane over Seoul, South Korea.
The video, which has been viewed several million times, has brought out a myriad of theories to explain the strange-looking oval white object viewed on Saturday. When a passenger on the airline tried to zoom in on the object with a video camera as it moved upward from the ground, pacing near the plane, it suddenly flew away.
Was this an alien visitation, a computer-generated image, a water droplet on the plane window or a white plastic bag moving in the wind?
As skeptics and true UFO believers battle it out over the origin of this latest unexplained object, they are engaging in an unresolved decades-old debate: Can unexplained UFOs become a safety issue for the commercial airline industry?
Watch the video of the alleged UFO over South Korea.
“It’s beyond dispute that airline personnel see them and see them a lot,” said professional pilot David McDonald, who runs a school for pilots and aircraft dispatchers and owns charter company Flamingo Air in Cincinnati. “However, to the best of all of our knowledge, there has never been an incident where an airplane ran into one or was attacked by one.”
“[Pilots] have done evasive maneuvers to get out of the way, but that’s what we’re trained to do,” McDonald, the new international director of the Mutual UFO Network, told The Huffington Post. “Whether [the UFO] would have veered off, it’s really hard to say if they are a hazard to flight or not.”
At least one scientist — and former UFO skeptic — strongly suggested that mid-air UFO encounters could be hazardous.
“I was trying to be a conscientious scientist and let the chips fall where they may and I immediately found a great deal of bias and fear by people who shouldn’t be afraid,” said former NASA research scientist Richard Haines, referring to UFOs. “Science should not be afraid.”
After commercial pilots began sharing their UFO experiences with him, Haines created the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena. His organization offers a confidential reporting venue for pilots, crews and air traffic controllers hesitant to make UFO reports. Haines does not publish records that publicly reveal the names of pilots reporting incidents.
“Our objectives are to make flying safer for the flying public and we’re convinced there’s a potential threat posed by nearby unexplained aerial phenomena to commercial and private airplanes,” Haines recently told HuffPost.
In a number of cases, the UFO or the unexplained aerial phenomena gets close enough to an aircraft and results in some sort of electromagnetic effect on certain cockpit instruments, Haines added.
“Roughly 5 to 9 percent of the total sightings have some form of electromagnetic influence in the cockpit, so our interest is trying to alert the aviation industry ahead of time to do something positive, rational, before it’s too late, before an airplane goes down,” Haines said.
When asked about Federal Aviation Administration policies to deal with UFOs, an FAA official told HuffPost, “Our standard response is that the FAA does not track UFO activity.”
“As far as any procedures for reporting, that’s probably on an airline-by-airline basis if, in fact, they do have any procedures at all for that,” the official added.
Watch a video of former FAA official John Callahan discussing how the FAA and government handled a UFO incident in 1986.
One former FAA official, John Callahan, has been very outspoken about how his agency has handled UFO information in the past. Callahan, a former head of the FAA’s Accidents, Evaluations and Investigations Division in the 1980s, believes that Earth is being visited by extraterrestrials.
“Oh, I think we really are,” he told HuffPost. “And the government doesn’t tell you the truth all the time. Part of the stuff I was doing in my last 10 years with the government was lying to the public. I gave out disinformation — an approved tactic in the government — because the people can’t handle the truth.”
Callahan’s bold statement stems from a highly publicized 1986 case involving a Japan Airlines 747 crew who reported two UFOs that were pacing by their aircraft over Alaska; this was followed by the appearance of a third, huge circular craft.
“When the controller checked with military people, they said they did have a target [on radar] — not just one target, but a double primary target,” Callahan said.
Following the 30-minute airline close encounter, Callahan said, he was ordered to attend a meeting with members of the CIA, FBI and President Ronald Reagan’s scientific staff. He claimed he also had to hand over all information, including radar reports, about the Alaska case to them.
“After I showed them the materials three times, one of the them stepped forward and said, ‘This event never happened. We were never here. We’re confiscating all this data, and you’re all sworn to secrecy,’” Callahan recalled.
Callahan said he asked a CIA agent if it would be okay to contact the media about the UFO incident and he was told, “You can’t do that. It would frighten the American public — they can’t know about this.”
Watch a recreation of a military encounter with a UFO.
Another airborne encounter took place in 1964 over the South China Sea when Navy pilot Frederick M. Fox was behind the controls of a tanker aircraft. “All of a sudden, this dark, unlit shape showed up 20 to 30 feet off my left wing,” Fox told HuffPost. “I called to ask if there was anything else showing up on radar besides me, and when they said, ‘No, why do you ask?’ I immediately said, ‘Disregard.’”
“As I looked at this thing, it was a classic domed, saucer-shaped object about 30 feet in diameter, with no discernible lights, windows or markings. I was able to see it because of my collision lights shining off it,” Fox recalled.
For 20 minutes, while Fox performed several maneuvers and turns, the UFO stayed with him until it simply vanished, he said, adding that he decided to not report the incident because of an existing military regulation.
“There was a page that said unlawful disclosure of any UFO information is a $10,000 fine and 10 years in jail,” Fox said. “If I had mentioned anything to anybody, they would’ve grabbed me and sent me for a Section 8,” he added, referring to a military discharge when someone is deemed mentally unfit. “So I just kept my mouth shut.”
Fox spent more than 30 years with American Airlines, where, he said, he experienced other UFO sightings. He logged more than 20,000 hours in his flying career.
Mutual UFO Network’s McDonald agreed there’s a historical taboo among pilots not to discuss their UFO encounters.
“Up until just a short time ago, if you reported one of these, it was a guaranteed medical disqualification,” he said. “The airlines don’t want pilots [who say] they saw a flying saucer.”
“It’s been pretty well established that when they go and shoot their mouth off about this stuff, chances are they lose their jobs, and that’s been documented,” McDonald said.
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Readers: Pretty Cool Huh? Blog me.
Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
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michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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May 7th, 2012 at 8:48 am
Love the UFO news Michelle.
May 7th, 2012 at 8:50 am
Social Butterfly are you doing okay. I miss your input. And for all of you who put a bet down, I am happy for you. I missed out myself.
If I had read it in time I would have been on it too. I hope we can count on Luc for another tip.
Keith
May 7th, 2012 at 8:55 am
Exercise—When Less Is More
How many times have you said, “I don’t have time to exercise”? I’m sorry to tell you, but after you read this story, that excuse won’t work anymore.
A new study found that just three 30-minute sessions a week of a fancy-sounding type of activity called Modified High-Intensity Interval Training (MHIT) is an effective way to strengthen your cardiovascular system, which can lead to increased fitness, strength and weight loss.
(It’s a lot like regular interval training, which you’ve surely heard of, but the intervals are even shorter.)
If it sounds hard, don’t sweat it. Researchers found that even cardiac rehab patients can handle MHIT—and gain from it.
GOING “ALL OUT”
The gist of MHIT is that it requires just three 30-minute sessions a week, ideally spaced a few days apart. So each workout is quick, but you work very hard during those short spans.
Beyond a five-minute warm-up and a five-minute cool-down, it always involves some sort of aerobic activity, generally running, cycling or rowing.
You alternate going at an easy pace for one minute with going “all-out” the following minute, repeating that two-minute pattern 10 times in a row.
Researchers in Canada were curious to see if a three-month regimen of short bursts of MHIT might help people who were in cardiac rehab (for either heart disease or heart attack) strengthen their cardiovascular systems more than they would by following a longer, standard exercise program done at a more moderate pace.
Here’s how the study worked:
Researchers placed 22 male cardiac patients in either an MHIT program or a standard “moderate endurance” program.
Both groups focused on stationary cycling, but the MHIT group did three weekly 20-minute sessions that consisted of the intervals described above, while the traditional exercise group did three longer weekly sessions (30 to 50 minutes) at a consistent moderate pace the entire time.
Each group did a five-minute warm-up and a five-minute cool-down before and after each exercise session.
The findings:
By the end of three months, both groups of exercisers showed virtually equal improvement. Blood flow improved by 41% in the MHIT group and 42% in the endurance group, and oxygen consumption improved 27% in the MHIT group and 19% in the endurance group.
But the interesting part is that the MHIT group did it with just 90 total minutes of exercise per week, while it took the moderate exercise group a total of 120 to 180 minutes a week to achieve the same goal.
To discuss the study results, I called the study author, Maureen MacDonald, PhD, associate professor in the kinesiology department at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
She explained that when your heart is forced to work at a higher-intensity level during MHIT, you can reap the same benefits in less time.
I was surprised that cardiac rehab patients could handle such intensity, but Dr. MacDonald said that MHIT actually does not put any more stress on the heart than the standard exercise routine, because the “rest” intervals allow the heart to recover, so the heart doesn’t get overworked.
ADDING MHIT TO YOUR REGIMEN
If you’re interested in trying MHIT yourself but you have a serious health condition, Dr. MacDonald advises that you check with your doctor first.
(Dr. MacDonald did not include people with chronic heart failure in her study due to the severity of the condition.)
Otherwise, why not give MHIT a shot? MHIT needs to be done only three days a week, so you still can do strength training and stretching on other days of the week.
To try MHIT, choose your favorite aerobic exercise—whether it’s jogging, cycling or rowing—and follow these guidelines from Dr. MacDonald…
Warm up for five minutes by lightly doing whatever aerobic activity you choose, so your breathing is light.
For the one-minute intensity cycles, either increase your speed, increase your incline (such as running uphill) or increase the resistance if you are using gym equipment such as a stationary bicycle or elliptical machine.
If you can keep track of your heart rate, either through a monitor that you wear or through a monitor on the machine that you’re using, increase your heart rate to 80% to 90% of your maximum rate.
To determine your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. It should be very difficult to carry on a conversation at this pace, and your muscles should feel like they are working very hard.
For the one-minute recovery cycles, do not stop the activity, but simply slow your speed or reduce your incline or resistance back to normal.
Your heart rate should be about 10% of your maximum (or about your “warm-up” pace). You should be able to carry on a conversation easily at this pace.
After 10 of these two-minute cycles, cool down for about five minutes (or until your heart rate goes below 100 beats per minute) by lightly continuing the aerobic exercise to bring your heart rate down.
Source: Maureen MacDonald, PhD, associate professor, department of kinesiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
May 7th, 2012 at 9:00 am
How’d you like to find out that when you thought you were signing a petition to register sex offenders or get lower gas prices, you’d actually had your political party switched from Democrat to Republican?
That’s happening in California, again. Yes, again. This is a reoccurring problem for the Republican Party every election cycle.
It’s what’s known as a “bounty hunt” – paid voter registration drives that lead to accusations of massive fraud.
May 7th, 2012 at 9:01 am
By trying to register Crossroad GPS as a 501(c)(4), Mr. Rove reveals (again) the contempt in which he holds the American people.
Corssroad GPS is clearly an organization which intervenes in the political process. To suggest otherwise is an insult to taxpaying citizens.
Perhaps one way in which we can help the IRS expedite the process of ruling on Crossroad GPS’ status is to document abuses.
If you see a political ad sponsored by Crossroad GPS, you may wish to consider filing a complaint. This can be done either through a letter or through a form: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f3949a.pdf
May 7th, 2012 at 9:02 am
The corporate GOP politicians will protect him from the IRS or the corporate supreme court judges will rule in his favor
May 7th, 2012 at 9:03 am
Why don’t TV News Pundits publicly point out that Karl Rove’s attempt is UNETHICAL ?????
May 7th, 2012 at 10:20 am
Wow, love all the alien activity, also look forward to hearing more from Luc, PrP, and Tyna on the subject.
Larry, in and around Palos Verdes are stunning cliff walks that can also be jogged, I’ll note the dates you’re here and feel free to make contact w/me here to confirm. I took some bs about saying I would like to meet RobertRt when he was going to be here, so I will say to you that I’d like to meet you though obviously I do not offer myself up as a hook up to anyone, him or you included. I do not comment here to cop dates or hook up’s, I don’t need to, I have plenty of good offers. I’m always curious about my fellow commenters here though. (I also do not care if other women do do that offering/hooking up thing, that is their personal biz and I mean nothing negative in that statement, we all make personal choices). I think you know that all of that, it’s just a disclaimer for da readers who often read into anything I say : ).
Ted, I’m in love with the greenery scene of palos verdes so I am there regularly.
Luv, Zen Lill
May 8th, 2012 at 2:03 am
Zen Lill, you are just living my dream.
May 8th, 2012 at 6:13 am
Candi, my life is a bit dream like : )
…in what way did YOU mean that I’m living your dream though?
Just curious.
- ZL