UFOs

directly underneath it could see blue sky visible on the other side. After a few minutes the break in the cloud bank closed up as the clouds drifted back together. “This was extremely unusual, according to the witnesses,” Chicago Tribune transportation reporter Jon Hilkevitch told television news after interviewing the United witnesses for his story. “Airplanes just don’t react like this. They slice through clouds.”

This was definitely not an airplane, the observers said, and many seemed shaken by what they had seen. Some were awed; others afraid. “The witness credibility is beyond question, and safety was a big concern,” Hilkevitch said during a phone conversation. He noted that all observers independently described the same thing: a hovering disc making no noise as it shot up and left a clear hole in the clouds. “The only discrepancies were their size estimations and that some said it was rotating or spinning,” he told me.

Sadly, every one of these highly credible aviation witnesses to the O’Hare UFO—and there were many—has chosen to remain anonymous, due to fears for job security. One United employee told me he could otherwise be perceived as “betraying” his company. Witnesses do not want to be “caught talking to the media since the airline had officially claimed that nothing happened,” he wrote in an e-mail. These witnesses to something that’s not supposed to exist—something laughed at by their colleagues—were left alone with their unsettling observations. “I realize this is a controversial position, but with my extensive knowledge of modern aviation technologies, I know this UFO probably wasn’t created on this planet,” one told me a few months afterward.

The FAA and United Airlines at first denied having any information about the incident, but both had to acknowledge the sighting when a tape of a United supervisor’s call to the air traffic control tower was released by the FAA.

I have listened to those tapes.

“Hey, did you see a flying disc out by C17?” asked the supervisor, giving her name as Sue. Laughter is audible from tower operator Dave and a second person nearby. “That’s what a pilot in the ramp area at C17 told us,” she continues. “They saw some flying disc above them. But we can’t see above us.” The laughter continues nervously, and Dave replies, “Hey, you guys been celebrating the holidays or anything, or what? You’re celebrating Christmas today? I haven’t seen anything, Sue, and if I did I wouldn’t admit to it. No, I have not seen any flying disc at gate C17.”

About fifteen minutes later, Sue calls back again, this time reaching operator Dwight. The conversation is as follows:

Sue: “This is Sue from United.” (laughter)

Tower: “Yes.” (serious tone)

(12 second pause)

S: “There was a disc out there flying around.”

T: “There was a what?”

S: “A disc.”

T: “A disc?”

S: “Yeah.”

T: “Can you hang on one second?”

S: “Sure.”

(pause, 33 seconds)

T: “Okay, I’m sorry, what can I do for you?”

S: “I’m sorry, there was, I told Dave, there was a disc flying outside above Charley 17 and he thought I was pretty much high. But, um, I’m not high and I’m not drinking.”

T: “Yeah.”

S: “So, someone got a picture of it. So if you guys see it out there—”

T: “A disc, like a Frisbee?”

S: “Like a UFO type thing.”

T: “Yeah, okay.”

S: “He got a picture of it.” (laughs)

T: “How, how, how high above Charley 17?”

S: “Well, it was above our tower. So…”

T: “Yeah.”

S: “So, if you happen to see anything…” (she continues to laugh)

T: “You know, I’ll keep a peeled eye for that.”

S: “Okay.”

Unfortunately, the photograph Sue referenced has never been located. Also, due to the way the towers were constructed, the operators were not able to see the UFO; its location in the sky was not within their visual field through the glass window because of the roof overhang, so it hovered in what amounted to the tower’s blind spot. Planes full of passengers were landing and taking off while the “UFO type thing” sat poised in the sky overhead, and no one knew what this thing was, why it was there, or what it might do next. This taped exchange, which includes giggling, Sue’s need to proclaim she wasn’t “high,” and Dave’s admission that he wouldn’t admit it even if he had seen the disc, is a glaring commentary on the UFO taboo that infects aviation personnel even in the midst of an ongoing, possibly dangerous incident being reported by trained observers of aircraft.

Dave might have reacted differently if the flying disc had been picked up on radar, but it wasn’t. Perhaps the object had some kind of stealth capability, but at the same time we know that airport radars are not configured to register stationary objects such as this, or, at the other extreme, extraordinarily high-speed motion, because such behavior is outside the norm. The O’Hare incident is not the only example of this. Unidentified objects are often not detected on radar, even when physically present and seen by multiple witnesses, and obviously this doesn’t mean they aren’t there. In many other cases, radar tracks are captured, providing valuable data on the object’s movements. What determines this variability in detection is unknown.

Fortunately, a team of experts from Dr. Richard Haines’s group NARCAP spent five months rigorously investigating the incident and its safety implications, and analyzing all possible explanations for the sighting. Their 154-page report was co-authored by Haines; meteorologist William Pucket, formerly with the Environmental Protection Agency; aerospace engineer Laurence Lemke, also previously with NASA on advanced space mission projects; Donald Ledger, a Canadian pilot and aviation professional; and five other specialists.[40] They concluded that the O’Hare disc was a solid physical object behaving in ways that could not be explained in conventional terms. It had penetrated Class B restricted airspace over a major airport without utilizing a transponder.

The NARCAP study stated:

This incident is typical of many others before it in that an unknown phenomenon was able to avoid radar contact and, thus, official recognition and effective response. When combined with the deeply entrenched bias pilots have against reporting these sightings, the FAA seemingly had justifiable grounds for ignoring this particular UAP as non-existent.[41]

And indeed the FAA tried hard to ignore the incident despite its safety implications, but pressure from the Chicago Tribune and others forced a response. Initially an FAA spokesperson attempted to explain the incident as airport lights reflecting off the bottom of the cloud ceiling. However, the event occurred in daylight and the airport lights hadn’t been turned on yet! In a second try, a different spokesperson wrote the whole thing off as a “weather phenomenon.” Obviously, these United pilots and airport employees know how to recognize airport lights on clouds and unusual weather conditions, though it was a normal overcast day. They would not have described a flying disc, each providing the same independent description from different vantage points, if some strange weather was unfolding, and to suggest otherwise is an insult to those doing their duty by reporting the incursion.

Transportation expert Hilkevitch, who routinely covers the much less exciting, mundane events that occur on a regular basis at O’Hare Airport, was mystified by the FAA disinterest in the incident. “If this had been a plane, it would have been investigated,” he told me. “The FAA treats the smallest safety issue as very important. It will investigate a coffeepot getting loose in the galley and falling while a plane is landing.” Brian E. Smith, a former