How many UFO's did you NOT see?

A couple of weeks ago, I flew from Orlando, FL to Syracuse, NY. During the flight, I wondered just how many people actually saw the plane that I was on. I don't mean to imply that imply that it was a UFO, but just how many people actually saw something. I flew over many major cities, but unless a plane was taking off or landing, very few would have noticed the plane I was on.

Point is, if you one doesn't notice standard airplanes while watching the skies at noon, wouldn't make sense that the normal person also wouldn't see a UFO even if it were in their sky?

Obviously, those that watch the skies are going to see things, whether they are airplanes or UFOs.

Further more, if one does see an airliner once, just think of how many more that passed overhead that you didn't see?

Discuss.

great point, ive got more than 20 personal sightings/encounters but trying to wonder at how many times theyve been close if not always present.

I didnt see a bagillion UFO's

Well, not everyone pays attention to the skies while they are out. You almost have to be specifically searching for oddities in the skies to see a UFO. Unless it just sticks out like sore thumb.

My only sighting personally was a Black Triangle that was bigger than a Football stadium - So I really had no choice but to see it.

as a firefighter in the usaf living & working at firestations located adjacent to the flighlines every other 24 hour shift for 11 years and being very familiar with aircraft from many countries and many shapes and sizes...

i have lost count of how many ufos i have or have not seen.

seriously, i dunno.

nice thread,
et

Originally posted by -Blackout-
Well, not everyone pays attention to the skies while they are out. You almost have to be specifically searching for oddities in the skies to see a UFO. Unless it just sticks out like sore thumb.

My only sighting personally was a Black Triangle that was bigger than a Football stadium - So I really had no choice but to see it.

Exactly my point, unless it sticks out like a sore thumb, most things go without notice.

Even while sitting at a traffic light, most of the time, I'm watching the traffic waiting for the light to change. A UFO could be overhead and I'd never see it.

Yet, so many people come to ATS and say they have never seen a UFO. While they fail to say that they also don't spend any time watching the skies.

Originally posted by Esoteric Teacher
as a firefighter in the usaf living & working at firestations located adjacent to the flighlines every other 24 hour shift for 11 years and being very familiar with aircraft from many countries and many shapes and sizes...

i have lost count of how many ufos i have or have not seen.

seriously, i dunno.

nice thread,
et

Thanks for the post, but you didn't say whether or not you've seen a UFO.

A question for you. Seeing that you were in the flightlines for 11 years, during that time, could you estimate the number of regular airline flights that you DIDN'T see or notice for whatever reason? For example, how many times you may have had your back to the flightlines, or you went inside out of sight of the flightlines.

My point is, for every flight you saw, there was an approx. percentage that you didn't see.

For every UFO seen, how many more are there when no one is paying attention.

Someone in your line of work helps to show how little most people observe the skies.

I have a hot tub and spend time staring at the night sky. There are lots of trees around, so I probably can see well less than half the available sky. And I can NEVER NOT see an airplane. There is ALWAYS at least one visible, if not several. The nearest large commercial airport is 25 miles away.

So I guess I don't see the point here. You could just as well say, "How many angels did you NOT see today? I dunno, maybe several, but I wouldn't know. "How many coyotes did you NOT see today?" Well, at least one because I heard it howling and have seen them around before.

I do know one thing. There are a lot of folks running around today with cell phone cameras. The number of cameras randomly available in any given area is a whole lot higher than it used to be, so the chances of capturing pictures is also the highest it has been in history.

[edit on 7/18/2010 by schuyler]

Originally posted by schuyler
I have a hot tub and spend time staring at the night sky. There are lots of trees around, so I probably can see well less than half the available sky. And I can NEVER NOT see an airplane. There is ALWAYS at least one visible, if not several. The nearest large commercial airport is 25 miles away.

So I guess I don't see the point here. You could just as well say, "How many angels did you NOT see today? I dunno, maybe several, but I wouldn't know. "How many coyotes did you NOT see today?" Well, at least one because I heard it howling and have seen them around before.

I do know one thing. There are a lot of folks running around today with cell phone cameras. The number of cameras randopml;y available in any given area is a whole lot higher than it used to be, so the chances of capturing pictures is also the higherst it has been in history.

I hear you, guess you could say the same regarding angels or coyotes or anything else for that matter. The point is, if you're not looking at the skies, you're not going to see airplanes or UFOs. If you're looking at the sky 24/7 then you probably won't see a snake at your feet.

The message I'm trying to get across is to those people who come on ATS and say that they have never seen a UFO and it's probably be because they aren't looking in the right place to see them.

If someone is hoping to see a coyote, then they would need to leave the city and go to where the coyotes are being seen.

Hopefully, this helps.

Originally posted by cdesignmaster
A couple of weeks ago, I flew from Orlando, FL to Syracuse, NY. During the flight, I wondered just how many people actually saw the plane that I was on. I don't mean to imply that imply that it was a UFO, but just how many people actually saw something. I flew over many major cities, but unless a plane was taking off or landing, very few would have noticed the plane I was on.

Point is, if you one doesn't notice standard airplanes while watching the skies at noon, wouldn't make sense that the normal person also wouldn't see a UFO even if it were in their sky?

Obviously, those that watch the skies are going to see things, whether they are airplanes or UFOs.

Further more, if one does see an airliner once, just think of how many more that passed overhead that you didn't see?

Discuss.

You're an idiot!

You weren't looking for them so you didn't see them therefore they must exist.

I'm a believer and you are an idiot!

I usually hear an airplane before I see it. But I do have pretty good eyes and can see a plane, even if it is a very tiny speck. If it is a clear day, I can usually spot and track them. If I try to point it out to other people, they sometimes don't see it because their eyes are not so good. I can also see tiny satelites as they circle over if it is a clear night. Sometimes they go past and seem to glow brighter for a second and then dim out. But I can usually spot them even before they do that.

I don't make a habit of just going outside and watching the skies though. Sometimes I like to look up if it is a very clear night or a clear day. If I notice birds riding the thermals, I like to watch them do that as they circle higher and higher, until they are tiny specks.

If I hear geese overhead, I can usually find the V shaped flight formation, even if it is very high. I've tried to point those out, and sometimes other people can only hear the geese but not see them.

I've never in my life seen a saucer or something I would have to say is a UFO. I think I will see a ghost first. I've had some spooky things happen to me that seemed to indicate a spirit was present. While I have never seen a ghost, I have worked at a nursing home and when someone would die, their room would be empty, but their call light would go off.

Once I had an emergency pull cord pulled in a bathroom and no one was there. The string was pulled and would take some force to pull it downward. The pull cord was located higher up, where a standing person could reach it, but not someone in a wheelchair. The one at wheelchair height was not pulled. It was really weird because no one on that hall could walk very well without help anyway. I didn't think any of the other aides were pulling a prank because we were all sitting around the nurses station at the time.
The other aides seemed just as spooked as I was. Since it was my hallway that night to work, I had to go in the room and reset the light. When I went in, I just said out loud that whoever pulled that cord was beyond my being able to help them anymore.

I live under a flight path so I know the direction and appearance of airplanes. I have yet to see a UFO where I live and I only skywatch for about two hours of the day at the window of my house which has a very limited field of view.
I better go and not count the UFO's I haven't seen.

Originally posted by jessieg
I've never in my life seen a saucer or something I would have to say is a UFO.

I have. When I was 10 a watched two RAF Phantoms chasing a silver sphere out over the NE sea.

Not stupid lights in the night sky but during daylight.

Thats why I believe and thats why I am so acrimonious to the credulous people whe film aircraft landing and claim they are extraterestrials.

[edit on 18-7-2010 by Slippery Jim]

Originally posted by cdesignmasterThe message I'm trying to get across is to those people who come on ATS and say that they have never seen a UFO and it's probably be because they aren't looking in the right place to see them.

If someone is hoping to see a coyote, then they would need to leave the city and go to where the coyotes are being seen.

Hopefully, this helps.

Not trying to be rude and though I suspect Slippery Jim is in for a warning, I agree with the middle sentence of his post. This seems nonsensical to me. I don't recall people coming onto ATS, saying they've never seen a UFO, thefeore claiming they don't exist. I've never seen one, but I don't think they do not exist.

Kind of reminds me of the "If a tree fell in a forest and no one was there to hear it, did it make a sound?" question. I would maintain that a common sense answer suggests that it did, but I know there are some folks who would insist it takes an observer to "actualize" an event. It's just that this kind of ruminating doesn't help me understand anything, whether it is the nature of reality or whether a tree makes a sound when it falls.

I hope I'm not drifting the topic too far afield here, but it is far more important to me that people stop suggesting every light they see in the sky is a UFO and how credulous they are in claiming so. The Gilliand Ranch stuff is a good example. Every one runs out to the ranch and sees UFOs. The last one was a bright light, steady as she goes, between the ranch and Mt. Adams, meaning these guys were looking straight towards Portland International Airport. Yet you have guys claiming they are experienced pilots saying, "That's no airplane!"

Well, I'm sorry, but right place, right time, right altitude, and nighttime where all you can see is lights. It very likely was an airplane. MAYBE it wasn't, but we'll never know because it didn't stop to talk. It's not worth talking about any more than not seeing a UFO might mean you missed seeing it.

[edit on 7/18/2010 by schuyler]

Nice thread. Well one type I've seen twice is high altitude and travels horizon to horizon in about 6 seconds. I'd never see it at day, and even at night it would be easy to miss whilst you were walking about. But if it's a dark sky, even with some light pollution, it does catch your attention quite easily if you're looking up. And it definitely looks out of place. I'm not convinced you'd see it through a glass window either, and that's my regular UFO watching spot now.. But I guess due to its speed, I've not seen it UFO a thousand times

[edit on 18-7-2010 by markymint]

You're an idiot!

You weren't looking for them so you didn't see them therefore they must exist.

I'm a believer and you are an idiot!

Whoa down there cowboy.

I'm a believer because I have seen them. I was talking about those that come here claiming they don't exist but don't bother looking for them.

I don't claim that they exist because someone doesn't see them, that would be stupid and thus your statement would be true, if that were the case.

As an earlier poster stated, unless an UFO sticks out like a sore thumb, most people don't see it. Like wise, if someone wasn't looking, they wouldn't have seen the flight I was on.

Then there are the sightings in which we try to rationalize what we saw by either calling them a balloon, satellite, or some other familiar reference.

I take personal interest in silver spheres (I saw one fairly close when I was 16). For years I thought my sighting was simply a balloon. If it had looked like the Jupiter 2 from Lost in Space I would have been yelling out loud and long. But when it's something you think you can explain...then it's a different story.

So OP, makes me wonder how many sightings fall in this category as well. BTW, good post.

Good point. I would submit a photo but don't know how. Anyway it
is nothing special. I took some daytime photos of what I call a cloud
x in the sky ( trail maybe ) and 2 out of four showed a small black
roundish thing that I did not see when I took the pic. It must have
been a bird but LOL there is no way to know. Since I have to do a few
chores before I hit the hay I just wanted to say that I took a few pics
today of the sun..some kind of looked like two suns together but LOL
again another pic showed only one. A non professional I simply used
the inside dark material of a 3.5 floppy and tried real hard not to look
at the sun..Some of the pics came out real pretty and interesting.
If I were a professional and got some scientific "proof" of an anomaly
I'd sure share it..but this is just another example of anything can
show up using flimsy, cheap methods in photography.

Originally posted by -Blackout-
Well, not everyone pays attention to the skies while they are out. You almost have to be specifically searching for oddities in the skies to see a UFO. Unless it just sticks out like sore thumb.

My only sighting personally was a Black Triangle that was bigger than a Football stadium - So I really had no choice but to see it.

I agree. The few UFO's I've seen have been because I've been looking at the sky at that particular moment. Not really "searching" for UFO's, but random moments when you look at the stars/sky for no particular reason.

I have to say that the UFO's I've seen would've been undetectable even if you're looking slightly to the side of them. All very vague, or fleeting.

It's a scientifically established fact that we filter out huge parts of our impressions too. This movie I think sums it up pretty good.