Ufo Sighting at The Chicago O'Hare Airport
Some joke, others research
The databases of various UFO-watching groups are full of accounts filed by pilots about
sightings of unknown aircraft and anomalies that affected navigational equipment onboard
planes.
Whether any of the UFO incidents are real or merely the result of individual perceptions,
some experts say the events pose a potential safety risk to pilots and their passengers.
"There have been documented cases where safety appears to have been implicated, and
more and more we are coming to the point of view that we are dealing with an intelligent
phenomenon," said Richard Haines, science director at the National Aviation Reporting
Center on Anomalous Phenomena, a private agency.
"We must be proactive before an aircraft goes down," said Haines, a former chief
of the Space Human Factors Office at NASA's Ames Research Center.
Haines is investigating the O'Hare incident. He said he has determined that no weather
balloons were launched in the vicinity of O'Hare on Nov. 7.
"It's absurd that the military would be conducting aerial test flights" near the
airport, Haines said.
All the witnesses to the O'Hare event, who included at least several pilots, said they are
certain based on the disc's appearance and flight characteristics that it was not an
airplane, helicopter, weather balloon or any other craft known to man.
United denies UFO report
They're not sure what was hanging out for several minutes in the restricted airspace, but
they are upset that no one in power has taken the matter seriously.
A United spokeswoman said there is no record of the UFO report. She said United officials
do not recall discussion of any such incident.
"There's nothing in the duty manager log, which is used to report unusual
incidents," said United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy. "I checked around. There's
no record of anything."
The pilots of the United plane being directed back from Gate C17 also were notified by
United personnel of the sighting, and one of the pilots reportedly opened a windscreen in
the cockpit to get a better view of the object estimated to be hovering 1,500 feet above
the ground.
The object was seen to suddenly accelerate straight up through the solid overcast skies,
which the FAA reported had 1,900-foot cloud ceilings at the time.
"It was like somebody punched a hole in the sky," said one United employee.
Witnesses said they had a hard time visually tracking the object as it streaked through
the dense clouds.
It left behind an open hole of clear air in the cloud layer, the witnesses said, adding
that the hole disappeared within a few minutes.
The United employees interviewed by the Tribune spoke on condition of anonymity.
Some said they were interviewed by United officials and instructed to write reports and
draw pictures of what they observed, and that they were advised by United officials to
refrain from speaking about what they saw.
Federal agency backtracks
Like United, the FAA originally told the Tribune that it had no information on the alleged
UFO sighting. But the federal agency quickly reversed its position after the newspaper
filed a Freedom of Information Act request.
An internal FAA review of air-traffic communications tapes, a step toward complying with
the Tribune request, turned up the call by the United supervisor to an FAA manager in the
airport tower, Cory said.
Cory said the weather might have factored into what the witnesses thought they saw.
"Our theory on this is that it was a weather phenomenon," she said. "That
night was a perfect atmospheric condition in terms of low [cloud] ceiling and a lot of
airport lights. When the lights shine up into the clouds, sometimes you can see funny
things. That's our take on it."
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