UFO Cover Story: Air Canada Pilot Mistakens Venus for USAF C-17 and Enacts Emergency Dive

A trained and experienced pilot mistakes the planet Venus for another aircraft? Unlikely. How many times does the average person see the planet Venus? Can you imagine how many times a single pilot witnesses the planet Venus in a career of flying?

SOURCE:www.tsb.gc.ca...

The Air Canada Boeing 767–333 (registration C–GHLQ, serial number 30846) was operating as flight ACA878 from Toronto, Ontario, to Zurich, Switzerland. Approximately halfway across the Atlantic, during the hours of darkness, the aircraft experienced a 46–second pitch excursion. This resulted in an altitude deviation of minus 400 feet to plus 400 feet from the assigned altitude of 35 000 feet above sea level. Fourteen passengers and 2 flight attendants were injured. The seatbelt sign had been selected "on" approximately 40 minutes prior to the pitch excursion. The flight continued to destination whereupon 7 passengers were sent to hospital and were later released.

A detail of the exact incident...

Over the next minute or so, the captain adjusted the map scale on the ND in order to view the TCAS target 5 and occasionally looked out the forward windscreen to acquire the aircraft visually. The FO initially mistook the planet Venus for an aircraft but the captain advised again that the target was at the 12 o'clock position and 1000 feet below. The captain of ACA878 and the oncoming aircraft crew flashed their landing lights. The FO continued to scan visually for the aircraft. When the FO saw the oncoming aircraft, the FO interpreted its position as being above and descending towards them. The FO reacted to the perceived imminent collision by pushing forward on the control column. The captain, who was monitoring TCAS target on the ND, observed the control column moving forward and the altimeter beginning to show a decrease in altitude. The captain immediately disconnected the autopilot and pulled back on the control column to regain altitude. It was at this time the oncoming aircraft passed beneath ACA878. The TCAS did not produce a traffic or resolution advisory.

They are blaming his actions on fatigue, etc. Sounds like a cover story to me. He probably saw one of those gigantic, walnut-shaped UFOs that have been seen in the north Atlantic routes and Arctic routes.

Wikipedia Alaska UFO Incident Entry: en.wikipedia.org...

Where the first objects disappeared, Captain Terauchi now noticed a pale band of light that mirrored their altitude, speed and direction.[3] Setting their onboard radar scope to a 25 nautical miles (46 km) range, he confirmed an object in the expected 10 o'clock direction at about 7.5 nmi (13.9 km) distance,[4] and informed ATC of its presence. Anchorage found nothing on their radar, but Elmendorf ROCC, directly in his flight path, reported a "surge primary return" after some minutes.[3]
As the city lights of Fairbanks began to illuminate the object, captain Terauchi believed to perceive the outline of a gigantic spaceship on his port side that was "twice the size of an aircraft carrier". It was however outside first officer Tamefuji's field of view.[11] Terauchi immediately requested a change of course to avoid it.[4] The object however followed him "in formation", or in the same relative position throughout the 45 degree turn, a descent from 35,000 to 31,000 ft, and a 360 degree loop.[12] The short-range radar at Fairbanks airport however failed to register the object.
Anchorage ATC offered military intervention, which was declined by the pilot, due to his knowledge of the Mantell incident.[4] The object was not noted by any of two planes which approached JAL 1628 to confirm its presence, by which time JAL 1628 had also lost sight of it. JAL 1628 arrived safely in Anchorage at 18:20.

This sighting was widely covered on several documentaries on The Discovery Channel, The History Channel and possibly others in shows such as UFO Hunters, UFO Files, etc. In these shows, the “mother ship” was described as enormous (as in a mile wide/diameter) and shaped something like a slightly flattened walnut, a detail not covered in the Wikipedia article for some reason. In fact, Wikipedia is known for downplaying details in “fringe” topic items.

Whatever happened during the Air Canada incident will be a mystery on official records, as it was explained away as a mistaken planet Venus. In reality, it probably was something far more mysterious as to warrant such a quick cover-up.

NOTE: Do not step into the pitfall of Occam’s Razor, which states that the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one, for just because an explanation is simple does not necessarily mean it is true, and just because an explanation seems outlandish or complex does not mean that it is not the correct one.

Also, do not step into the pitfall of “keep it simple, stupid,” a.k.a. KISS. These mindsets are what people in power, TPTB, want the masses to religiously believe in. They don’t want you/us thinking outside the box. They want to control your perceptions and interpretations of reality by luring you into the dance of those who ridicule unconventional thought.

All of this being said, the Air Canada incident seems more like a cover story about something *no one* wants to officially talk about, namely how the flight almost collided with a UFO. The presence of an USAF C-17 only 1,000 feet below the aircraft is highly suspect (that a military aircraft would be in such close proximity to this incident when practically the ENTIRE SKY is available in the north Atlantic at night). Thoughts?

Another thought: The USAF C-17 might have been equipped with holographic projection (or just plain projection) technology, the latest innovation that has been reported on many other scientific-minded articles. Apparently the US military has technology capable of projecting images over future battlefields/battlespaces. This could have been a test of such technology in projecting the image of a UFO in front of the advancing civilian airliner. I highly doubt this, but cannot completely discount it, either.

I love the fact that you're looking into this in the first place. Sounds very interesting to me. I wonder what would come about if more people looked into it as well.

Great thread!

Very interesting article. I didn't know we had UFO sighting inside Air Canada, but I'm glad we finally have some in Canada. =P

Originally posted by psyan
Very interesting article. I didn't know we had UFO sighting inside Air Canada, but I'm glad we finally have some in Canada. =P

For some reason, there seems to be a lot of UFO activity around the Arctic Circle. I find it a little strange that commercial air travel, in fact all kinds of air travel, is banned from getting too close to the Arctic Circle. Maybe it has something to do with compass malfunction, maybe not. Historically, though, I think a few major UFO incidents happened in Canada. Many incidents happened in the US near the Canadian border.

reply to post by GhostLancer


Great feedback. Do you happen to listen to channelers by any chance?

reply to post by GhostLancer


I'm a little confused--I looked at the source document and it says the event happened last year. Is that right or am I on crazy pills?

"Aviation Investigation Report
Pitch Excursion
Air Canada
Boeing 767–333, C–GHLQ
North Atlantic Ocean, 55°00'N 029°00'W
14 January 2011"

reply to post by OnTheCustp


OK nevermind. Wow, this is embarrassing--I was so excited to have found this site and within 10 minutes I incorrectly spelled my username AND overlooked a very important detail about this news story. :-)

CNN and other news sites make it sound like it just happened--NOT that a report was recently released that "explains" what happened 15 months ago. (Right? Oh man maybe I AM losing it).

Originally posted by GhostLancer
A trained and experienced pilot mistakes the planet Venus for another aircraft? Unlikely.

Which means it is entirely possible.

Originally posted by OnTheCustp
reply to post by GhostLancer

 

I'm a little confused--I looked at the source document and it says the event happened last year. Is that right or am I on crazy pills?

"Aviation Investigation Report
Pitch Excursion
Air Canada
Boeing 767–333, C–GHLQ
North Atlantic Ocean, 55°00'N 029°00'W
14 January 2011"

edit on 17-4-2012 by OnTheCustp because: To correct myself

Yes. This is an update of an old story. If I am remembering the correct incident, it was covered in the media at the time and it certainly did sound like some sort of "unusual event" involving "evasive action" by the pilot. I do have to wonder if we are getting the full story (or the real story). I guess the "pilot diving to avoid Venus" is possible, but I have to wonder if that is what really happened.

If it WASN'T Venus, I doubt we'll ever get the real story.

The story does have at least the ring of a fabricated "cover story" to it. Guess the only people who know are the crew who were inside the cockpit.

Originally posted by GhostLancer

Originally posted by psyan
Very interesting article. I didn't know we had UFO sighting inside Air Canada, but I'm glad we finally have some in Canada. =P

For some reason, there seems to be a lot of UFO activity around the Arctic Circle. I find it a little strange that commercial air travel, in fact all kinds of air travel, is banned from getting too close to the Arctic Circle. Maybe it has something to do with compass malfunction, maybe not. Historically, though, I think a few major UFO incidents happened in Canada. Many incidents happened in the US near the Canadian border.

I thought the polar route for planes went right through the Arctic circle?

Originally posted by Luckyxfactor
reply to post by GhostLancer

 

Great feedback. Do you happen to listen to channelers by any chance?

Thanks. What is "channelers?" Sounds interesting, but I've never heard of it/them. Unless you mean "channelers" in the classic sense, like people and/or objects that "channel" energy.

Originally posted by OnTheCustp
reply to post by OnTheCustp

 

OK nevermind. Wow, this is embarrassing--I was so excited to have found this site and within 10 minutes I incorrectly spelled my username AND overlooked a very important detail about this news story. :-)

CNN and other news sites make it sound like it just happened--NOT that a report was recently released that "explains" what happened 15 months ago. (Right? Oh man maybe I AM losing it).

No worries. It's one of those strange stories that is both "Breaking News" and yet OLD news because it took the TSA nearly two years to release a report about an incident that lasted several minutes. Why so long if it had been just a simple event?

Originally posted by Pauligirl

Originally posted by GhostLancer

Originally posted by psyan
Very interesting article. I didn't know we had UFO sighting inside Air Canada, but I'm glad we finally have some in Canada. =P

For some reason, there seems to be a lot of UFO activity around the Arctic Circle. I find it a little strange that commercial air travel, in fact all kinds of air travel, is banned from getting too close to the Arctic Circle. Maybe it has something to do with compass malfunction, maybe not. Historically, though, I think a few major UFO incidents happened in Canada. Many incidents happened in the US near the Canadian border.

I thought the polar route for planes went right through the Arctic circle?

Here's a link to an image from the Wikipedia source: upload.wikimedia.org...

However, I might have been too general using the term "Arctic Circle." I think I should have said North Pole. While the Cold War eliminated many/most Arctic Cirlce routes, they were re-established in the late 90s and early 2000s. Still, these routes do not allow aircraft to fly anywhere near the North Pole, by about as far as the width of the state of Florida or more. Visually, you can't really see the pole from that far. Maybe it has something to do with the northern lights, magnetic anomalies... or something... else.

If you have the app called "Night Sky," like the one I recently got for my new iPhone, it uses a built-in level in the iPone, cell tower triangulation and GPS (global positioning system) to determine the angle your phone is pointing. With this, you can identify every star, planet and satellite in the sky above (and even through the Earth below your feet). The point is, there is a button you can press in Night Sky that allows you to see EVERY ORBITING SATELLITE around our planet, as viewed from orbit of our planet. Seeing this astonished me, because the majority of satellites around our planet are concentrated around the northern and southern poles. Yes, they are elsewhere and almost everywhere, but they are the densest around the poles, especially the north pole, the Arctic Circle.

reply to post by GhostLancer


Canadian Airlines discussed the issue. Their trans-Atlantic flights involve only 2 flight crew members. US trans-Atlantic flights require a minimum of 3 flight crew members. The Canadian pilots are only to nap for up to 30 mins specifically to avoid falling into a deep sleep and acting in a manner the Canadian pilot did.

As much as I would like for a UFO to land and greet everyone, I think in this case the issue is exactly as described. How many of us have gone brain dead from a long cross country drive where the land features are the same?

Imagine the same at 35k feet over ocean.....

Originally posted by Xcathdra
reply to post by GhostLancer

 

Canadian Airlines discussed the issue. Their trans-Atlantic flights involve only 2 flight crew members. US trans-Atlantic flights require a minimum of 3 flight crew members. The Canadian pilots are only to nap for up to 30 mins specifically to avoid falling into a deep sleep and acting in a manner the Canadian pilot did.

As much as I would like for a UFO to land and greet everyone, I think in this case the issue is exactly as described. How many of us have gone brain dead from a long cross country drive where the land features are the same?

Imagine the same at 35k feet over ocean.....

In this case, almost every reasonable person might agree that a well-seasoned pilot would NEVER mistake VENUS for an oncoming aircraft. Most non-pilot civilians have seen VENUS countless times in our lives, and we have never mistaken it for an object about to crash into our location. Further, the pilot himself told the copilot about the location of the C-17, and that all was well. This is obviously a cover story involving **something** no one wants to talk about.

No experienced pilot worth his salt mistakens VENUS for an oncoming aircraft.

Originally posted by GhostLancer
A trained and experienced pilot mistakes the planet Venus for another aircraft?

GhostLancer, interesting thread and who knows, maybe the pilot did mistake Venus for another aircraft but it certainly wouldn't be the first time this excuse has been (ab)used in an official capacity to debunk UFO sightings, there's a thread below dealing with highly dubious UFO explanations and it looks like the planet has been a convenient scapegoat for quite a few compelling cases:

USAF "force fit" debunks

Originally posted by GhostLancer

They are blaming his actions on fatigue, etc. Sounds like a cover story to me. He probably saw one of those gigantic, walnut-shaped UFOs that have been seen in the north Atlantic routes and Arctic routes.

Wikipedia Alaska UFO Incident Entry: en.wikipedia.org...

I don't know if you've seen it but Internos has authoured a great thread here about this incident and FAA Official John Callahan makes some revealing comments below about how the CIA and the FBI instructed him to 'forget' about evidence involved in the case:

UFO: A Cover Up No: 3 (Mr. John Callahan)

John Callahan, retired Division Manager, Accidents Evaluation and Investigation, Federal Aviation Administration in Washington, D.C.,was told by the CIA that the UFO case he was evaluating never happened and the general public was never to be informed of the incident.

Cheers.

reply to post by karl 12

This is exactly what we need to further the legitimacy of UFO sightings. Star.

Originally posted by GhostLancer
No experienced pilot worth his salt mistakens VENUS for an oncoming aircraft.

They are human... not Gods.

Maybe some one who's good at these sorts of things could work out precisely the direction of the plane in relation to Venus at the time the pilot woke up. If Venus was directly in front of the plane then case closed.However if Venus was out of his line of sight then there could be more to this interesting story than meet the eye.