Air traffic control says UFOs in UK 'around one a month'

Hey all,

Just heard a BBC radio4 clip from the BBC website.

The presenter asks Richard Deakin Head of UK Air traffic control about UFO's.

It's only a 41sec clip.

Head of UK Air Traffic Control Richard Deakin is responsible for making sure over 6,000 flights move safely through the airspace every day. During an interview with the Today programme's Simon Jack, he was pressed about whether his staff encounter unidentified flying objects.Source BBC.

Just thought i'd put it out here on the board, incase someone wanted to have a listen.

Linky here news.bbc.co.uk...

303

3 words
project blue beam

Just one a month?

I'd say it's a lot more than that ... But at least it's coming in the news now.

Originally posted by CaLyps0
3 words
project blue beam

Two words
Doesn't exist .

reply to post by 303inMyBrain


Good find, that is actually quite interesting. an average of 1 a month that air traffic control cannot identify. Of course they could be military objects they don't know about, but hey only one needs to actually be a real UFO

Shame we cannot really do a follow up on this, there is nowhere to take it. But an admission from him is quite interesting non the less

You beat me 2 it, that is a MAJOR ADMISSION on average 1 UFO per month is tracked by UK air traffic Controllers!! thats good enough for me! hope the guy keeps his job!

Originally posted by CaLyps0
3 words
project blue beam

3 more words

project blue beam ...... is a myth

I wonder what he means by "Don't perform to normal traffic patterns." Does he mean they don't fly in the designated air lanes or do they behave erraticely, do they perform maneuvers that can't be replicated by man? not enoug info from the answer he gave. One a month, that's 12 a year, would love to know every countrys stats on this, imaging how many it would be then!

Originally posted by bsalert
You beat me 2 it, that is a MAJOR ADMISSION on average 1 UFO per month is tracked by UK air traffic Controllers!! thats good enough for me! hope the guy keeps his job!

UFO means unidentified flying object....

A UFO to an air traffic controller could be ANY NUMBER OF THINGS .... it does not mean automatically that it is an alien flying an interplanetary/interdimensional craft ..=)

It simply means they spotted an unidentified object.. a big shiny balloon would qualify ... and they "Don't perform to normal traffic patterns."

Originally posted by bsalert
You beat me 2 it, that is a MAJOR ADMISSION on average 1 UFO per month is tracked by UK air traffic Controllers!! thats good enough for me! hope the guy keeps his job!

Did I miss something in that clip , how is this a major admission and why would he be at risk of losing his job .
If he had said one Alien spaceship a month then great but when it comes to Air traffic control there are lots of things that can cause an unknown return .

Originally posted by bsalert
You beat me 2 it, that is a MAJOR ADMISSION on average 1 UFO per month is tracked by UK air traffic Controllers!! thats good enough for me! hope the guy keeps his job!

I'm surprised it's not alot more unidentified airplanes.
Especially london has been a real mess the last few summers due to #loads of general air traffic and experimental aircraft/ultralight.

Unidentified sure, not all airplanes have transponders, aliens, probably not.

Originally posted by Ivar_Karlsen

Originally posted by bsalert
You beat me 2 it, that is a MAJOR ADMISSION on average 1 UFO per month is tracked by UK air traffic Controllers!! thats good enough for me! hope the guy keeps his job!

I'm surprised it's not alot more unidentified airplanes.
Especially london has been a real mess the last few summers due to #loads of general air traffic and experimental aircraft/ultralight.

Unidentified sure, not all airplanes have transponders, aliens, probably not.

Lets take that further.. rc planes don't have transponders... balloons don't have transponders ( and those can get to be quite large ) ... there are lots of things in the air without transponders..

The big issue here is that a professional in aeronautics can say UFO and understand it from it's technical, literal meaning, and the average "I want to believe" civilian will see the word UFO and automatically think aliens and space ships....

Originally posted by miniatus---->Lets take that further.. rc planes don't have transponders... balloons don't have transponders ( and those can get to be quite large ) ... there are lots of things in the air without transponders..

Yeah some rc planes are definitely large enaugh to show up on radar.

We had an rc plane crossing right in front of us on final approach to Kastrup couple of years ago.

ATC came on line immediately wondering wtf that was.

I thought that was quite an interesting answer and he wasn't goaded or prompted too much for a response was he?

reply to post by miniatus


the traffic radar doesn't track any targets under 45 knots ot 42 mph. I'm a pilot and I see halfway hidden aircraft all the time, and at my sons house one can see way more than the usual amount of ufo's. His house is in a dip with trees surrounding....something about the micro enviroment, I swear.

by half-hidden I mean associated with the clouds or hidden in a cloud or disguised as a cloud that has too much illumination and strait line travel, slower than a fanjet....faster than a prop job!!

Originally posted by GBP/JPY
reply to post by miniatus

 

the traffic radar doesn't track any targets under 45 knots ot 42 mph. I'm a pilot and I see halfway hidden aircraft all the time, and at my sons house one can see way more than the usual amount of ufo's. His house is in a dip with trees surrounding....something about the micro enviroment, I swear.

by half-hidden I mean associated with the clouds or hidden in a cloud or disguised as a cloud that has too much illumination and strait line travel, slower than a fanjet....faster than a prop job!!

edit on 17-8-2012 by GBP/JPY because: Yahuweh.....cool name

That seems to go against what was said... it goes against some of my personal experiences aboard airplanes as well.. not disputing you.. but perhaps it varies by region? see below... a friend of mine on base had told me that they had an object on radar that was barely moving.. so they obviously saw it... they scrambled jets when "it" wouldn't respond to calls to identify itself.. but visually nothing was there.. they attributed it to a glitch..

Originally posted by Ivar_Karlsen

Yeah some rc planes are definitely large enaugh to show up on radar.

We had an rc plane crossing right in front of us on final approach to Kastrup couple of years ago.

ATC came on line immediately wondering wtf that was.

Project blue beam

3 more words

YES IT DOES !

It's just not what some think it is

reply to post by 303inMyBrain


He says objects thare are object IDENTIFIED that dont conform to normal traffic patterns. Not that there were unidentifiable objects. We could be talking private aircraft , balloons or secret military craft that were not on scheduled flight patterns.

reply to post by 303inMyBrain



I don't know if "one a month" is a large or small number.
But keep in mind that air traffic control radar systems have always had problems with "radar ghosts" which are generally characterized as "false returns". Radar systems have changed a lot, and a lot of "spurious returns" are filtered out.

So really the idea that there do remain some unidentified returns is not that unusual. The question is, are these real targets (real unknown objects) or something else? Unless you have the "unknown returns" correlated with a visual sighting by aircraft crew or ground crew, then you really don't have much of anything.

I guess it also depends on how persistent the object is.
I also understand that these radar systems "filter out" certain types of returns, so it is possible that some "real anomalies" that reflect radar signals are simply filtered out and never seen by anyone.

Another factor: I think radar operators are trained to focus on returns which have an IFF signal and other data points - indicative of authorized traffic. I'm curious what procedures they have for "anomalies" and if such anonalies are even shown on most ATC radar screens...