 Source: AFP
WASHINGTON (AFP) — UFOs may be fodder for comedians but there was no
joking Monday when a group of former pilots recounted seeing strange
phenomena in the sky and demanded the US government reopen an
investigation into unidentified flying objects.
Several pilots
offered dramatic accounts of witnessing UFOs -- including a transparent
flying disc and a triangular craft with mysterious markings -- as they
insisted their questions needed to be taken seriously more than 30
years after the US file was closed.
"We want the US government to
stop perpetuating the myth that all UFOs can be explained away in
down-to-earth, conventional terms," said Fife Symington, former
governor of Arizona and air force pilot who says he saw a UFO in 1997.
"Instead our country needs to reopen its official investigation that it shut down in 1969," Symington told a news conference.
"We
believe that for reasons of both national security and flight safety,
every country should make an effort to identify any object in its
airspace," said a statement from the 19 former pilots and government
officials from around the world.
The subject of UFOs came up in a recent debate among US presidential
candidates, with Democrat Dennis Kucinich saying he once saw a UFO --
making him the object of ridicule and jokes by late night television
comedians.
Skeptics say UFO sightings are merely aircraft, satellites or meteors re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.
But
the retired pilots spoke to a sympathetic audience of UFO "believers"
who heard them recall their encounters with seemingly other-worldly
objects appearing out of the sky.
"Nothing in my training
prepared me for what we were witnessing," said James Penniston, a
retired US Air Force pilot, as he described seeing and touching a UFO
when he was stationed at a British air base in Woodbridge.
He
said he saw an inexplicable triangular craft in a clearing in the woods
with "blue and yellow lights swirling around the exterior."
The
UFO was "warm to the touch and felt like metal," Penniston said. One
side of the craft had pictorial symbols and "the largest symbol was a
triangle, which was centered in the middle of the others," he said.
Then
after 45 minutes the light from the object "began to intensify" and it
then "shot off at an unbelievable speed" before 80 Air Force personnel,
he said. "In my logbook, I wrote 'speed: impossible.'"
Rodrigo Bravo from Chile's air force said UFOs needed to be studied but lamented that the media often belittle the sightings.
"Sadly
the UFO subject has been contaminated with false information, out of
touch with reality, provided by unqualified people to the media," Bravo
said.
"One of our most important civil aviation cases occurred in
1988, showing that unidentified flying objects can be a danger for air
operations," he said.
"A Boeing 737 pilot on a final approach to
the runway at the Puerto Montt airport suddenly encountered a large
white light surrounded by green and red."
The pilot took a sharp turn to avoid a collision, according to Bravo.
The
panel included a former Iranian fighter pilot, Parviz Jafari, who said
in 1976 he tried in vain to fire from his jet at an "object which was
flashing with intense red, green, orange and blue light" over Tehran.
But when he approached, "my weapons jammed and my radio communications garbled."
A
former Air France captain, Jean-Charles Duboc, said in 1994 he and his
crew saw "a huge flying disc" near Paris with a diameter of about 300
meters (1,000 feet) that left no sign on radar.
The disc "became transparent and disappeared in about 10 to 20 seconds," Duboc said.
The
former pilot said like other major airlines Air France was mindful of
its image and it was difficult to raise the subject of UFOs.
A
former official with the Federal Aviation Administration, John
Callahan, said government agencies discourage inquiries into UFOs.
"'Who believes in UFOs?' is the kind of attitude of the FAA all the time," he said.
"However, when I asked the CIA person: 'What do you think it was,' he responded 'a UFO.'"
When
Callahan suggested the government tell Americans about a UFO, the CIA
official allegedly told him: "'No way, if we were to tell the American
public there are UFOs they would panic.'"
Source: AFP
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