World UFO Day 2020: 5 most credible UFO sightings in 21st century
Tales of UFO sightings have been common knowledge over the last 100 years. Every now and then we come across a report of a UFO being sighted in some part of the world. Whether it is out of the stationary ordinary lights in the sky or erratic movement of objects, people have, on several times been sure of spotting aliens and their UFOs.
On this World UFO Day, we bring to you some of the most intriguing encounters that humans have 'allegedly' had with our counterparts from the world unknown.
But before we get to that, here are some facts.
What are UFOs?
An unidentified flying object (UFO) is any aerial phenomenon that cannot immediately be identified or explained. Most UFOs are identified on an investigation as conventional objects or phenomena. The term is widely used for claimed observations of extraterrestrial spacecraft.
What does NASA say about UFOs?
NASA, in its answer to whether UFOs have been spotted or not said -- As far as we know, no astronaut has seen a “UFO” in space. Not everything they saw was immediately identified, but on the other hand there is no evidence whatsoever of anyone seeing an alien spacecraft.
When did the UFO sightings first emerge?
The first major incident with the UFO dates back to 1947 when the Roswell incident was exposed. During this incident, a UFO 'allegedly' crashed in the United States.
The Roswell incident
On being spotted, the wreckage was described as a “large area of bright wreckage made up of rubber strips, tinfoil, a rather tough paper and sticks”. The US army however, recovered the debris and stated that the wreckage was that of a weather balloon.
Several conspiracy theories have been doing rounds on what actually crashed that day. Several experts have written books on it and accounts of Area 51 being a secret base where the US govt keeps the aliens locked in also began from there.
5 Most Incredible UFO Sightings
New Jersey, USA -- 2001
For around 15 minutes just after midnight, motorist in New Jersey marveled at the sight of strange orange-and-yellow lights in a V formation over the Arthur Kill Waterway between Staten Island, New York, and Carteret, New Jersey. Carteret Police Department’s Lt. Daniel Tarrant was one of the witnesses. Air traffic controllers initially denied that any airplanes, military jets or space flights could have caused the mysterious lights, but a group known as the New York Strange Phenomena Investigators (NY-SPI) claimed to receive FAA radar data that corroborated the UFO sightings from that night.
USS Nimitz -- 2004
On November 14, 2004, the USS Princeton, part of the USS Nimitz carrier strike group, noted an unknown craft on radar 100 miles off the coast of San Diego. For two weeks, the crew had been tracking objects that appeared at 80,000 feet and then plummeted to hover right above the Pacific Ocean.
When two FA-18F fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz arrived in the area, they first saw what appeared to be churning water, with a shadow of an oval shape underneath the surface. Then, in a few moments, a white Tic Tac-shaped object appeared above the water. It had no visible markings to indicate an engine, wings or windows, and infrared monitors didn't reveal any exhaust. Black Aces Commander David Fravor and Lt. Commander Jim Slaight of Strike Fighter Squadron 41 attempted to intercept the craft, but it accelerated away, reappearing on radar 60 miles away. It moved three times the speed of sound and more than twice the speed of the fighter jets.
O’Hare International Airport -- 2006
Flight 446 was getting ready to fly to North Carolina from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, when a United Airlines employee on the tarmac noticed a dark grey metallic craft hovering over gate C17. That day, November 7, 2006, a total of 12 United employees—and a few witnesses outside the airport—spotted the saucer-shaped craft around 4:15 p.m.
The witnesses say it hovered for about five minutes before shooting upward, where it broke a hole in the clouds—enough that pilots and mechanics could see the blue sky. The news report became the most-read story on The Chicago Tribune’s website to that date and made international news. However, because the UFO was not seen on radar, the FAA called it a “weather phenomenon” and declined to investigate.
Stephenville -- 2008
The small town of Stephenville, Texas, 100 miles southwest of Dallas, is mostly known for its dairy farms, but in the evening of January 8, 2008, dozens of its residents viewed something unique in the sky. Citizens reported seeing white lights above Highway 67, first in a single horizontal arc and then in vertical parallel lines. Local pilot Steve Allen estimated that the strobe lights “spanned about a mile long and a half mile wide,” traveling about 3,000 miles per hour. No sound was reported.
Witnesses believed the event was reminiscent of the Phoenix Lights sightings of 1997. While the U.S. Air Force revealed weeks later that F-16s were flying in the Brownwood Military Operating Areas (just southwest of Stephenville), many townspeople didn’t buy that explanation, believing that what they saw was too technologically advanced for current human abilities.
East Coast GO FAST Video -- 2015
When news leaked in 2017 about the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, a video emerged that revealed an encounter between an F/A-18 Super Hornet and an unidentified aerial phenomena. Seen along the East Coast on a Raytheon Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) Pod, the craft was similar to that spotted off San Diego in 2004: a fast-moving white oval about 45-feet-long without wings or exhaust plume.
The pilots tracked the object at 25,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean as it flew away and simultaneously rotated on its axis. No explanation ever emerged.
(Source for sightings: History.com)
