Terrified airline pilot DUCKS as he sees UFO heading straight to cockpit

Would a Foo Fighter show up on radar?

From what I have read, these types of sightings are not rare.

I wonder if this could've been a drone?

So, The UFOs Issue comes into Breaking News.... Hmmmm...
Something is changing...
S&F.

Arken
So, The UFOs Issue comes into Breaking News.... Hmmmm...
Something is changing...
S&F.

I agree.

We have all seen vague reports on ATS, or reports that were ridiculed by the MSM, but the way this one is being handled is very very different.

ProfessorChaos
I have to ask, is ducking part of the official manual on how to avoid oncoming objects when piloting a large aircraft?

Just goes to show that all the training in the world can't trump natural reactions.

Exactly what I thought, you got to be kidding me, lucky hes not a fighter pilot that's all I have to say about that!!

reply to post by IsaacKoi


Great find IsaacKoi,

This confirms again that commercial and military planes are confronted daily by unknown craft either it's drones or something from out there.. But the stories from pilots nowadays are the ones most trustworthy I think ..

Fylgje
I wonder if this could've been a drone?

I'm not a drone expert, but I do know that 34,000 feet is above the ceiling for at least some of them:

www.military-history.org...

Predator Drone Specifications...
Speed: Cruise speed around 84 mph (70 knots), up to 135 mph
Range: Up to 770 miles (675 nautical miles)
Ceiling: Up to 25,000 feet (7,620 meters)...

Actually, drones can fly quite high:

The stratosphere lies roughly between 40,000 and 150,000 feet in altitude. Commercial airliners often ply its lower reaches, but above about 55,000 feet the traffic is limited to a few military reconnaissance planes, unmanned weather and scientific balloons, and at rare intervals, a rocket arcing upward on its way to orbit. The stratosphere is mostly empty, cold, and quiet, closer to the blackness of outer space than to the din of human commerce.

Like so much in aviation, that is about to change. The technology to turn the stratosphere into the domain of the drones is already well under development. The Zephyr, a high-altitude, solar-powered drone designed by British company QinetiQ and weighing under 120 pounds despite having a 74-foot wingspan, stayed aloft for two continuous weeks in a summer 2010 test in Arizona. In September 2010, Boeing announced that it had been awarded a contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop the Solar Eagle, a craft that will eventually be able to fly above 60,000 feet for five continuous years. And many of the information technologies needed perform detailed surveillance from these platforms are already found in common consumer electronics devices.

blogs.scientificamerican.com...

Just to give an indication of how high they can actually go, and at that height with the pilot not expecting it, it's possible it was a drone.

I also note however, the pilot made no mention of wings or tail section. It's an open case for me.

Sinter Klaas
Chicken...

And he calls himself a man.

If it wasn't a ufo... I'd get it... But a real man will keep watching what the hell the hell the thing is that might kill him...

As if ducking would save him...

Some people let go of their stirring wheel, when something happens on the road... It will cause casualties when you let go your only way of control... In a plane this isn't any different, is it ?

If I was that guy, I would definitely mess with the one that made the chicken move public...
Pilots have an image to up hold.

he wasn't exactly driving a formula 1 or a raptor.

i'd duck too, was it a dynasty?

WWJFKD
Great post S&F

I remember a time in the late 90s I was doing a large theatrical production, filming in an independent film and going to my regular place of employment. Rinse and repeat for about a week. I was getting maybe half an hour of sleep in a 24 period.

Driving home one night from the film. I see a huge pile of dirt in my lane, I fully swerve out of my lane into the oncoming and of course there was no pile of dirt in the first place.

Not saying this is the case here but sleep deprivation can really mess with your head.

the airlines have a history of not over working their crews.
i know, my fight to HK was cancelled because the crew would be over the limit of flight time between flights.
lost a day of my vacation, too.

same with truckers.

I remember being so tired once that i started hallucinating while driving. the first instance I saw a woman waving her arms frantically in front of me and I slammed on the brakes. The girl I took to country jam that day looked and asked what was wrong. I looked at her and asked if she saw the lady in the middle of the road. she just looked at me with confusion and said no.
About 10 miles later I was driving and looked out the passenger window and saw and guy who looked like he belonged in the 1920's riding what I can only describe as a unibarrel (it looked just like a unicycle except it had a wooden keg instead of a tire.) he looked over at me, Smiled, and waved. about a half mile later i pulled over at a gas station and told my friend that she was driving. I was done. when she asked why I just told her i couldnt do it anymore.
and for the record there were no hallucinogens ingested or any other drugs or alcohol for that matter.
Just really really tired.

reply to post by IsaacKoi


Very interesting reads! Thanks!
S & F

they should put a video camera in each and every airplane windshield that could record the whole flight but with HD like the Russians do in their cars , that will be interesting when something like that happens again.

It’s almost like some of the extra-terrestrials out there are trying to wake us up to the fact that not only do extra-terrestrials exist but they are visiting are planet every day.

Its sounds like he just thought he saw something and got scared, then was embarrassed...

reply to post by IsaacKoi


Isaac: I shared his with my Mississippi pilot of the Cessna 172 that in April had a similar object ( shape, size and color) pace his aircraft under his wing at 3500 feet moving at 145 mph. His object was Mylar colored, shaped similar to a rugby ball and around a yard wide. It had a triangular shaped fin on its surface which faced him versus being on the back side as it moved with the plane. We obtained 6 sets of radar data provided to the Joint Surveillance System. Only on one did it show the object. The movements tracked were showing the object moving around where he was headed. It made a 120 degree turn and changed speed after the turn. This is on the list of potential top 10 cases in MUFON for 2013. The pilot wanted to know more but not sure who is doing this investigation. Regards, Rich Hoffman, MUFON State Director Alabama & Mississippi

the airlines have a history of not over working their crews.

Not true at all! Just ask any airline pilot. They're constantly tired, often fatigued, but as long as it is legal, they're flying. If they cancelled due to hours, it is a legal matter, nothing else.

On topic... this whole report stinks to me. Really - the pilot is going to admit to seeing a UFO and "ducking out of the way"? The fact the guy/girl sat in the right-hand seat says "I didn't see anything" either suggests they are protecting themselves, or they really didn't see anything.

It has happened that pilots have seen perfectly explainable things, and reacted to them in strange ways. Good example is a 777 flying over the Pacific. Captain was taking a break, first officer snoozed on the flight deck. He re-awoke in a slightly lucid state, and mis-took Venus for an aircraft flying head-on. He reacted by pushing the control column forward sending the aircraft abruptly into a dive. The pitch-over was so hard it injured several passengers and a crew member.

Something about this UFO report seems off... like it is an attempt to discredit. I don't say that lightly - the Captain could easily lose his job over it. It could be an attempt to dissuade crews from reporting these things, especially as the use of drones increases. How can they be flown covertly when pilots are reporting these incidents every 5 minutes? They are not small - Global Hawk is the size of a Boeing 737.

TCAS relies upon Mode C/Mode S transponders fitted in other aircraft to paint targets, and the aircraft weather RADAR would not pick up another aircraft. The only thing crews can do is carry binoculars and have a good look if they see something odd (better yet, try and get a photograph for the private collection, ready for defense later should someone try to discredit/ridicule - most crews carry some form of camera these days). Calling ATC is always a good idea, too. It "marks the tapes" when the incident occurred so it can be referenced later.

SAd thing is this pi,ot might have destroyed his career, you know theyre gonna ground him for reporting a UFO

reply to post by HomerinNC


I know several commercial pilots who have reported UFO's and not been "grounded". However the ones that DUCK away from an object no radar or crew members can collaborate....Yeah. Probably grounded....

Does the pilot say how large the object was? I cannot find any reference to him mentioning that. I can only find the reference to a 1 metre balloon by the folks doing the report. Although I realise that even a small solid item would cause a lot of damage at that speed, I find it strange that no mention of the estimated size is given in the early sections of the report.

With the number of toy balloons released these days, pilots probably know what a baloon looks like or at least are trained to recognise them. I do not think that anything baloon-like would harm the aircraft and would not warrant ducking or a fear of collision and subsequent damage. Any balloon would just flow over the aircraft along with the airflow.

As others have said, maybe the First Officer thought it best for his career to deny having seen anything.