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'Wow, What Is That?' Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects:
The strange objects, one of them like a spinning top moving against the wind, appeared almost daily from the summer of 2014 to March 2015, high in the skies over the East Coast. Navy pilots reported to their superiors that the objects had no visible engine or infrared exhaust plumes, but that they could reach 30,000 feet and hypersonic speeds.
"These things would be out there all day," said Lt. Ryan Graves, an F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot who has been with the Navy for 10 years, and who reported his sightings to the Pentagon and Congress. "Keeping an aircraft in the air requires a significant amount of energy. With the speeds we observed, 12 hours in the air is 11 hours longer than we'd expect."
In late 2014, a Super Hornet pilot had a near collision with one of the objects, and an official mishap report was filed. Some of the incidents were videotaped, including one taken by a plane's camera in early 2015 that shows an object zooming over the ocean waves as pilots question what they are watching.
"Wow, what is that, man?" one exclaims. "Look at it fly!"
No one in the Defense Department is saying that the objects were extraterrestrial, and experts emphasize that earthly explanations can generally be found for such incidents. Lieutenant Graves and four other Navy pilots, who said in interviews with The New York Times that they saw the objects in 2014 and 2015 in training maneuvers from Virginia to Florida off the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, make no assertions of their provenance.
But the objects have gotten the attention of the Navy, which earlier this year sent out new classified guidance for how to report what the military calls unexplained aerial phenomena, or unidentified flying objects.
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See also: 2 Navy Airmen and an Object That 'Accelerated Like Nothing I've Ever Seen'.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by legont on Tuesday May 28 2019, @05:35PM (6 children)
I wonder why the US air force does not engage them. Nowadays any flight in violation (and those definitely were) would be intercepted and, if failed to communicate, supposedly shot down.
Hence, one way or another, this is BS. Unless there is a standing order never ever shoot UFO.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday May 28 2019, @06:47PM
Not sure about "shot down" unless there was clear and convincing evidence that the flight is a threat. "Follow and intercept" still seems to be the rule unless it is flying into a security area or displaying signs of beligerency. This isn't quite "Clear and Present Danger" yet.
But the most obvious explanation is that the objects are unidentified to the Navy, but perhaps there are individuals in the Air Force who are well aware of what they are and telling the interception commands to stand down before the alert is launched.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Tuesday May 28 2019, @06:52PM
It might be difficult to engage something moving at hypersonic speeds.
Young people won't believe you if you say you're older than Google. (born before 1998-09-03)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday May 28 2019, @06:54PM (3 children)
You seem to presume that our craft are capable of shooting the objects down. Not knowing what the objects are, it's impossible to say whether they can be shot down. Obviously something is there, but how will a missile, a bullet, or a bomb affect - ohhhh - some phantom electrical charge dancing on the edge of a whirlwind? I'd call it a dustdevil, but there isn't much dust out at sea. Let's remember that we've had foo fighters since about the 1940's or so. Now I'm curious - when was the first foo fight? Wikipedia says 1944 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter [wikipedia.org]
And, of course, under "history", I'm reminded of the story contained in the "Heavy Metal" movie, with the green globe following and attacking the bomber.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Tuesday May 28 2019, @10:38PM
Ah man, haven't seen Heavy Metal in DECADES....nor Fritz the Cat.
Might have some viewing to do!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Insightful) by legont on Wednesday May 29 2019, @01:22AM
Well, the audio suggests that pilots are simply having fun locking on the "object". They do not even attempt to intercept let alone behave seriously. They are there to protect the Motherland, aren't they?
I have heard real intercepts a couple of times on my aircraft radio and they are dead serious type of communications. Come to think about it, what are the procedures anyway? Why there is no call to the intruder on 121.5? Perhaps, she would reply. Regardless, this is the law as I understand it. It'd hard to imagine that an unknown flying object is free to fly into the US airspace accompanied by laughing border security.
That's why it is likely BS.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Muad'Dave on Wednesday May 29 2019, @12:23PM
Ah yes, the Loc-Nar [fandom.com] (mature content).