USAF advises Commercial airliner to 'abandon landing' and follow UFO.

Intriguing incident from the NICAP files in which a commercial airliner loaded with passengers is advised by the USAF to 'abandon its landing' and follow an orange UFO - the two pilots were later interviewed on a television programme and make some very interesting remarks about the object and its flight characteristics (full transcript of interview at link).









Incident:

Griffiss Air Force Base "Requests" Plane Loaded With Passengers To Chase UFO - April 8, 1956, New York State

10:15 p.m. (EST) Capt. Raymond E. Ryan, First Officer William Neff, flight attendant Phyllis Reynolds, and passengers, took off in an airliner from Albany heading N then nearly due W (about 280° True) at 260 mph and 6,000 ft N of Schenectady when a brilliant white light about 2-3 miles away was spotted about 90° to the left appearing like an airliner heading in to land at Albany.
The white light moved about 90° to dead­ ahead position about 8-10 miles away at high speed estimated at about 800-1,000 mph where it changed color to orange and seemed to block the airliner’s path or risk collision, disappeared briefly, reappeared as an orange light again but standing still ahead of the airliner to the W.
Airliner contacted Griffiss AFB, Rome, NY, where controllers asked pilot to turn lights off and on to help identify aircraft and was told airliner was seen and the orange UFO to the S.
Airliner was ordered to maintain course to follow the UFO to the W, skipping its scheduled landing at Syracuse after nearly 30 mins of following the object. Promised fighter jet interception was not seen. Object disappeared at high speed to the NW (or N) towards Oswego, NY

Link

Television Interview:

Commercial Plane Follows UFO

April 8, 1956: A very brilliant light was followed across New York State by an American Airlines plane. The pilots were Capt. Raymond Ryan and First Officer William Neff. The chase was described by radio to Air Force and civilian control tower operators. The following account of the sighting is taken from a tape-recorded interview program, "Meet the Millers," On WBEN TV, Buffalo, New York, April 16, 1956

Transcript


Ryan: · . .from the time we were off the ground at Albany, until we--it's about 15 miles by air to Schenectady and it was off our wingtip, and we watched it go through a ninety degree arc, go right straight to the west, and it was-- how many seconds does it take to go through a ninety degree arc?


Int: Bruce?


Foster: How fast would you say it appeared to be going? Did it change speed very radically during the time that you saw it?


Ryan: The initial speed l would say probably was 800 to 1000 miles an hour. How fast can it--it's hard to say, just to compute that speed.


Neff: Certainly much faster than another airplane would.


Ryan: Oh much faster, much faster than a jet.


lnt: Faster than a jet?


Ryan: Yes ma 'am.


Neff: Couldn't be a jet, not at that altitude because their fuel is so critical.


Foster: Did it appear to change color at all?


Ryan: Yes it did. It changed color after it got to the west of us, probably 8 to 10 miles. It appeared--the light went out, that's what had Bill and I concerned. It went out momentarily, and we knew there was something up there, and now here we were with a load of passengers with something on our course up ahead, and what are we going to do, so we watched this where the light went out and this orange object came on--this orange light.


Ryan: We looked at one another a little bit amazed, so we decided we'd call Griffiss Air Force Base, and I thought they had the radar on. . . And they didn't have it on- It would taken them 30 minutes to energize the set.


Neff: They asked us to keep it sighted and we did, and we kept calling out our location and as we told them where we were we turned all our lights on. They asked us to turn them off and they could see us, and they asked if this object you see is orange in color. We said it was---


Ryan: Yes. They said "we have a definite silhouette in sight south of the field." Now those fellas are observers who are in the tower. They said that they could see a silhouette.


Neff: Watertown could see it and they're quite a ways north of Griffiss, and Albany saw it--two men in the tower at Albany--one an Air Force man and one a CAA man. And they saw it after we first called them, and noticed--and they looked over to the west and saw it right away.


Int: And when they saw it was it moving?


Neff: Well, we didn't get to talk with them---


Int: But to you it was moving?


Neff: Oh yes.


Int: Real fast?


Ryan: It stayed just that far ahead of us, and they asked us what our point of next intended landing was, and 1 told them Syracuse, and they wanted to be identified--our aircraft, number and serial number, and they said "well abandon that next landing temporarily and maintain the course and your altitude," so we did. They were calling scramble...

Link

Air Force Explanation:

Re: April 8, 1956 sighting by Capt. Raymond Ryan, American Airlines pilot:

"The Air Force concluded that the object viewed during this sighting was the planet Venus."

Air Force "fact sheet", 1963.

Further Links

[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

Originally posted by karl 12

"The Air Force concluded that the object viewed during this sighting was the planet Venus."

Air Force "fact sheet", 1963.

Thats funny as hell the Air force admits to ordering a passenger jet to chase VENUS.

Thanks OP interesting thread.

Very interesting, Karl. Though I have a feeling this had more to do with Cold War paranoia than any Air Force interest in aliens. I'm not making a claim as to what the object was but rather the Air Force's interest.

Im intrigued by the fact Venus can put on a big burst of speed and dart off to the west... if the captn of the plane cant tell if his plane is banking at night (which would make Venus move like that when i think about it) then he shouldnt get behind the wheel of a plane again, or at least look at his instruments.

Venus my ass. Sure was a different time though, you wouldn't have the military do that these days, theyd more likely shoot down the airliner to keep it all hush hush . And the media interviewer seemed nice and neutral.

Oh how times have changed

Purely intrigued why and how posts are still being made as to if UFO exist when there is more than ample evidence which has been confirmed by alphabet organizations.

I guess when the majority switch on the idiot boxes to listen to some reporter who makes over half a million dollars will they actually believe such craft or species exist. It is a sad fact that humans are such a predictable species that it makes our cause ever so easier.

By the way, we are alone, there is no such other living organism in the billions of stars within our known universe.

reply to post by karl 12


Interesting read
star and flag

the excuses they come up with, oh please

Thanks

Ocker

Originally posted by BigfootNZ
Sure was a different time though, you wouldn't have the military do that these days, they'd more likely shoot down the airliner to keep it all hush hush

Really now? And when has this ever happened?

reply to post by DoomsdayRex


Do i need to really post a link or is it that the search option is far more harder than i imagined for members of ats ?

Originally posted by SvenTheBerserK
Thats funny as hell the Air force admits to ordering a passenger jet to chase VENUS.

Thanks for the replies, yes it is quite an amusing one -especialy when it's noted that the pilots estimated the object's speed at 800 -1000 MPH and witnessed it 'zoom through a 90 degree arc from the wingtip to dead ahead'.

It's also interesting that the Control tower operators reported seeing a silhouette of the object and other individuals stated they witnessed it from the ground.

Found some more newspaper clippings about the incident -seems like it was quite a big deal at the time:

Articles:

Cheers.

[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

well now we know that venus is the most agile of the planets

Originally posted by guidanceofthe third kind
well now we know that venus is the most agile of the planets

Indeedy - the Venus explanation was also (ab)used to debunk the Redmond Oregon incident:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I wonder just how stupid the USAF think people actualy are?

[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

Article about Nuclear facility:

It seems from the news article as though the object may have been to his 'right' as they passed it, and then crossed in front of them as it departed to the west. If that's the case, it would almost prove that it was hovering in the area of the reactor facility

Link

Map / Flight Path reconstruction:



[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

Venus or not I find it odd that they told the commercial aircraft to pursue the UFO, I wonder what they had hoped to accomplish by doing such a thing?

This is back in the days when the airforce would scramble fighter jets to intercept UFO's because they believed them to be a possible threat. It's also back when they were more forthcoming about such things. (project bluebook etc)

I believe there is a lot more to this story than meets the eye and not necessarily aliens, maybe something to do with the cold war as DoomsdayRex mentioned.

Good find.




[edit on 7/10/09 by Chadwickus]

Originally posted by tristar
Do i need to really post a link or is it that the search option is far more harder than i imagined for members of ats ?

I was responding to BigfootNZ. But if you have evidence of the US government shooting down an airliner because of a UFO sighting, please post it.

I think this is clear proof ufos are real. How much more proof does anyone need?

Venus.... of course!!! thats what it was... dammit,

And there I was thinking that it was a UFO flying though the air and changing course with speeds up to 1000mph... cos planets do that dont they!

.... if the dept that thought that excuse up is a representation of the rest of the US military thinktank, then I really feel sorry for the men and women that go to war obeying such poorly educated, out of touch "sheep"

reply to post by Chovy


i wouldnt say its clear evidence to prove ET's exist...UFO's are anything that hasnt been identified...whether it be a bird, a balloon, a plane or an alien its still a UFO untill its identified...This story does not prove ET's exist but then...why would it need prove that? there are billions of stars in our galaxy each with planets orbiting them...there are trillions of galaxies in the universe each with billions of stars that each have planets orbiting them...you would have to be VERY arrogant to think that no other planet out there has been able to sustain life. although its never been proved...i would say its almost a certainty...but a story like this proves nothing.

the most secret technologies that our government has is probably beyond our imagination for now...military technology, flight technology, artificial intelligents, anti gravity etc etc etc....these things have to be tested somewhere...i am a strong believer of life on other planets...and im wide open to the theory of other life visiting this planet...but i think perhaps many UFO sightings that happen around the world are new flight technology being tested and this would be a good explanation to why they always have to cover it up...the USA wouldnt want russia finding out their secrets right?

[edit on 7-10-2009 by Silicis n Volvo]

reply to post by karl 12


many people would be wrong identifying venus on a star map but none are naive to think a plan could follow venus on a flight path not predetermined

reply to post by Chadwickus


they might have wanted to gauge layman reactions to ufo activity. a USAF or ET ufo could probably shoot anything down at will. so a neutral party would be safe to observe

sorry for the quoting of this post. i was trying to edit this one

[edit on 7-10-2009 by guidanceofthe third kind]

[edit on 7-10-2009 by guidanceofthe third kind]