Major update on DUer who saw UFO at O'Hare International Airport

[Selatius]

This news feed is apparently unedited. The FAA apparently does not want to change its story about the incident even though this thing was seen by pilots, aircraft technicians, and other workers at O'Hare. FAA says it was "weather":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXkeJuzlWI8

[bananas]

1. Is he the DUer who saw it?

Good interview.
And what was the website mentioned - ct.com?

[Selatius]

2. I don't know, but there were several threads back about a DUer who saw it.

I don't know if he is being interviewed here. The DUer works at O'Hare.

[bananas]

26. This was a columnist for the Chicago Tribune

so it's probably not the DUer.
He must have meant "ChicagoTribune.com" when he said "ct.com".
Here's his photo at the newspaper website:

Jon Hilkevitch

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/columnists/chi-0701010141jan01,0,5874175.column

In the sky! A bird? A plane? A ... UFO?
Video: UFO over O'Hare Airport?

Published January 1, 2007

It sounds like a tired joke--but a group of airline employees insist they are in earnest, and they are upset that neither their bosses nor the government will take them seriously.

A flying saucerlike object hovered low over O'Hare International Airport for several minutes before bolting through thick clouds with such intense energy that it left an eerie hole in overcast skies, said some United Airlines employees who observed the phenomenon.

Was it an alien spaceship? A weather balloon lost in the airspace over the world's second-busiest airport? A top-secret military craft? Or simply a reflection from lights that played a trick on the eyes?

Officials at United professed no knowledge of the Nov. 7 event--which was reported to the airline by as many as a dozen of its own workers--when the Tribune started asking questions recently. But the Federal Aviation Administration said its air traffic control tower at O'Hare did receive a call from a United supervisor asking if controllers had spotted a mysterious elliptical-shaped craft sitting motionless over Concourse C of the United terminal.

<snip>

[New Earth]

36. the DU'er is purduejake

here is his original thread, before it was reported in the news:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=245&topic_id=30262&mesg_id=30262


this is another thread on it when it was first published...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=245&topic_id=30262&mesg_id=30262

[Mind_your_head]

3. Did you see/listen to this?

Pilot Audio UFO Report - O'Hare Airport Chicago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqZwkETKl3U&mode=related&search=

[nicknameless]

33. Another on YouTube: "UFO Secrets - Black Box Recordings"

About 43 minutes long. From the History Channel.
I don't know when it was first broadcast. Some time after August 2005.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVlCw90iAUg&mode=related&search=

[BanzaiBonnie]

4. Of course the Government denies...

Saying it was the weather. RIGHT.

Big daddy government has to protect us because we are stupid.

[WI_DEM]

5. I honestly do believe there is something to the numerous UFO sightings

and that the government isn't telling all because they don't want to cause a panic. I wonder what they would think if they came face to face with W!!??

[Peace Patriot]

13. "Take me to your weeder!" ?? n/t

[kster]

39. Then they realized they were in America

and that our weeder was Bush, so they got the hell out of here.

[cboy4]

6. Is this a joke, or are there people arguing that a flying saucer from

outer space was spotted buzzing over O'Hare International Airport???

[WI_DEM]

7. UFO

Unidentified flying object doesn't necessarily mean its from outer space.

[Selatius]

8. I think the chances are better it was a government aircraft.

People mistook F-117s back in the 1970s and 1980s for alien craft when the government was testing it.

[hunter]

11. I agree.

The boys are out with their toys.

[cboy4]

9. So by UFO, you mean it could be a new version of stealth aircraft

the government is testing at night.....or some other Skunk Works-like project?

We're not talking Martians or anything like that?

[Occulus]

18. These sort of things sound very very skunky to me

When something goes upward through the clouds so fast is leaves a visible hole, you know something unusual is going on. I personally think ALL the 'UFO' sighings of the past several decades have been us perfecting field propulsion. And then there's this.

The second agency interested in Heim's work was the Gravity Research Foundation of New Boston, New Hampshire. In 1956, Heim sent the Gravity Research Foundation a 17-page progress report. It summarised his philosophy (syntrometry) and his theory (principle of dynamic contrabarie) for coupling general relativity with quantum dynamics for propulsion applications. Sample calculations for an expedition to Mars appeared at the end of the report.

By an apparent coincidence, the US air force immediately acquired an intense appetite for general relativity and quantum dynamics research. During September 1956, the General Physics Laboratory of the Aeronautical Research Laboratories (ARL) at Wright-Patterson air force base in Dayton, Ohio, hired Joshua N. Goldberg. He was to direct a strong in-house programme that coordinated support of research into gravitational and unified field theories. The ARL programme generated more than 70 papers that were published in peer-reviewed journals, and compiled 18 technical reports. None cited Heim's work, but it is possible that the undocumented purpose for creating Goldberg's programme may have been to reconstruct or replicate Heim's work from fundamental principles.

The literature evinces formal interest in Heim's work by the Gravity Research Foundation and RIAS. ARL possessed the resources during the paranoia of the cold war to study Heim's theory. Subsequently, I believe at least one of those agencies must have thoroughly examined Heim's theories.

If this is all true, it very well could explain the things we called "UFO sightings". IMO, black projects are a very distinct place for all of these to come from- no aliens required.

Heim's work could be the 'culprit', and maybe always was. Here's more.

[CoffeeCat]

35. That's certainly an explanation...

However, if it was some top-secret government project--why would they
release it and allow it to hang over O'Hare for several minutes--before
buzzing through the clouds?

If our government was conducting secret research--wouldn't they
do their testing in a more sparsely-populated area than Chicago?

[Ghost in the Machine]

46. Part of the test, maybe?

Apparently, it passed the first test, coming in undetected by radar... maybe they could have been trying some kind of cloaking device, such as a hologram field for invisibility. Does it sound reasonable that if they were able to design this, that they could be "invisible" by hiding behind a hologram of the sky, or whatever their current surrounding was?

I ask in all seriousness, and hate to answer your question with another question. Anyone here with the knowledge of these techniques (making holograms, etc.) want to take a stab at this?

Thanks

Ghost

[John Q. Citizen]

10. Exactly. Something is happening, but what it is remains unknown. n/t

[Clark2008]

17. Now we know where all that missing money slated for Iraq went.

[Recursion]

24. I loved that line from "Independence Day"....

"Where did all the money for this come from?"

"You don't think they really spent $500 on a hammer, $800 on a toilet seat, do you?"

[puebloknot]

34. You are so right. It also doesn't follow that when people...

...report "high strangeness," they are necessarily cooking on a limited set of burners!

It's interesting to see how people come out of the woodwork with their "plausible denials" -- usually consisting of "I never saw anything like that," and asserting that anyone who did must just be seeking attention.

There are many possible explanations for the unusual things that people witness. Those who deny they *could* be craft from outer space usually rely on the idea that *our* physics won't allow them to get to us because we can't get to them! I, who witnessed a UFO with my daughter, years ago, had that explanation handed to me by a professor of physics!

The one thing that demonstrates a lack of maturity is to pounce on people who report sightings because they don't have physical proof. Maybe what we are seeing does not originate from or reside in physical space as we know it. That doesn't necessarily suggest space travel, either.

There are some things we simply do not have an answer for!

Throwing stones and casting aspersions on people's integrity and/or their mental fitness is the province of the insecure. *Something* certainly stirs them up!

Thanks for your level-headed comment.

[Recursion]

23. Who said outer space?

UFO just means it's an unknown/unidentified flying object. There are plenty of those. The Air Force gets a lot of cover from the fact that anybody who says "UFO" is hooted at as a loon -- it's no coincidence that drawings of sighted UFOs often bear a striking resemblance to aircraft that are unveiled a few years later.

[cboy4]

28. That's why I asked the question....I wasn't clear about what

people were thinking/saying the reported UFO in Chicago was.

[Recursion]

30. Well, that's the "U" in "UFO": we don't know

And while I very much doubt it's an extraterrestrial craft (or indeed that such craft exist), the notion of one (if they existed) buzzing O'Hare isn't ludicrous: it's one of the busiest airports in the world with a ton of radio activity. If I were some hypothetical explorer it's exactly the sort of activity I would want to check out.

[New Earth]

37. not a joke!

a DU'er posted about it here on DU right after it happened, before it was reported in the news...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=245&topic_id=30262&mesg_id=30262

he's around somewhere and will prob. see this thread soon.

[eagler]

12. Nice story but without photos I don't buy it.

nt

[Peace Patriot]

15. Well, several commercial pilots (trained to sort out lights, weather balloons,

weather phenom, etc.), ground technicians (tend to be reliable people), and others saw something they couldn't explain, and they all saw the same thing. Sounds like they were all pretty busy, landing aircraft, etc., so nobody got a photo.

I have a close friend who flew AF fighter jets, who chased a UFO back in the '50s, and when he got on the ground, all records of it were destroyed and he was told "this didn't happen."

Sure makes you wonder. Lots of reports like this from trained people.

[Jacobin]

20. It didn't show up on radar

[John Q. Citizen]

53. Halo saucers? n/t

[blues90]

14. They always say it's the weather

All these years and it's still the weather and everyone is seeing things . Pretty worn out excuse if you ask me .

I don;t think people are willing to say they saw something and take a chance on ending up of some sort of list as a nut case . .

I know I saw something many years ago and it was not the weather .

It doesn't matter , perhaps one day something will land or many will land and then there will be no claims it was weather .

As long as people refuse to be courious we will learn nothing but what they want us to learn .

[eagler]

16. You would think that out of all who saw it

someone would have a photo - otherwise its probably a big hoax.

[cboy4]

19. Just remember, there's a difference between being curious and being

paranoid about flying saucers.

This thing obviously used to fly around at night.

Imagine how many people jumped up and down thinking they saw a spacecraft. :tinfoilhat:

[puebloknot]

32. I saw something, along with my teenage daughter. And...

...if I'm on some nutcase list, so be it.

You saw something, too? Come on in here to my padded cell. The weather's fine!

[Horse with no Name]

21. I'm inclined to think it was an un-budgeted aircraft

of some sort.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

22. In this day of cell phone cameras

why the hell didn't a single person get a picture. I agree that these people saw something, and that it was a UFO - and Unidentified Flying Object. Beyond that, we just don't know - and it's impossible to prove something without concrete empirical evidence.

[Buzz Clik]

27. My thoughts as well.

We have comedy club meltdowns, car explosions, and Saddam's hanging immortalized on cell phone cameras, but not a single image of this tinfoil hat episode.

Beam me up, Scotty. Nothing to see here.

[puebloknot]

31. I take it you're not a Trekkie!

If you were, you would *know* that they were using their camera cloaking device.

Just to beam you down a little, my daughter and I had an incredible UFO sighting in California, about 15 years ago. We aren't cultists, we're both provably (when I typed "provably," this program changed it for me to "probably"; must be the tinfoil brigade, messing with my spelling) bright (wanna see our Mensa credentials?), and to this day we're still amazed by it all. It was at night in our case, but we were too shaken and amazed to even think about taking pictures. Not a plane -- just a huge football-sized crescent of undulating orange energy. Not weather. It had been raining and the fire department, one block down the street, saw nothing. But there were reports of UFO sightings in Santa Monica(probably 30 miles away) in the next day's paper.

A friend, who was a respected war correspondent in WWII, and in civilian life worked as a reporter for the L.A. Times, was out on assignment in Southern California, with a photographer, when they had a UFO sighting. The photographer got some good shots of the thing. Before 24 hours had passed, *someone* from "the government" dropped by and confiscated the pictures.

So, how do we know there aren't any images of that UFO in Chicago? *We* aren't seeing any, but someone may be.

Cheers!

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Skip Intro]

29. Is it more kooky to scoff at or entertain the possibility of extraterrestrial craft?

Personally, I would think those that immediately try to dismiss the idea of alien craft entirely score a little higher on the kook-ometer than those who allow for the possibility.

ahhhh - that's all.

[WindRavenX]

38. not when it's less probable

The idea that no one in recorded history has gathered any physical evidence of UFOs mean it is quite unlikely they're "aliens". Doesn't eliminate the possibility of it, but compared to the other options, it's the less logical.

[Skip Intro]

40. but there is evidence, or purported evidence

Assuming most ufo reports focus on events in the sky, there is supposed evidence: there are thousands of videos and pictures, by ordinary people, by pilots, from space looking back at earth - all kinds of strange stuff in the sky. And crop circles continue to appear. If one tenth of it is real, if one percent of it is real, holy shit, something is out there.

I think its just as plausible, on the physical evidence (I'm assuming you mean from landed craft), that such an occasion to collect that type of evidence would be rare, and that some agency has been tasked with containing such "experiences."

To even talk about it in a manner that assumes such things are really happening opens oneself up to blind ridicule. But it may be real. We may well have visitors from other planets/galaxies/dimensions/times observing us, at least. There is, I would think, a high probability that intelligent (probably redefining the word) life exists elsewhere. So the argument really is, not are they out there, but are they here. How can you rule it out?

[WindRavenX]

42. There hasn't been physical evidence

The overwhelming evidence are pictures and first hand accounts-- all of which are highly prone to error and influence from culture, hallucinations, or other altered states of mental activity.

There has been no physical evidence that has been allowed to be though roughly examined by skeptics, and that is a crucial step.

Simply put, there isn't evidence to suggest anything out of the ordinary.

[frogcycle]

48. what about bush?

[WindRavenX]

52. I think of him more as a remnant of a Neanderthal

No offense to the geico caveman ;)

[Zhade]

44. "Purported evidence" isn't evidence. It's an assertion.

Saying one has evidence is not, itself, evidence. Isn't this self-evident?

Plausability is also NOT evidence.

Is there any *actual* evidence at all of this object?

(Full disclosure: when I was a kid, I thought I saw a UFO. However, I don't thus assume it WAS an alien spacecraft. That wouldn't be intellectually honest on my part.)

[Skip Intro]

47. Well, I can't help thinking some of the vids/pics are not faked.

And I can't help thinking of the likelyhood of other intelligent life.

But as far as physical proof, I know of none.

That really doesn't prove anything, though, does it?

[Mind_your_head]

49. I DID see a "UFO" as a kid.....I REALLY did!!!!

It turned out that this UFO (reported just not by ME, but by SCORES of other people) eventually became IDENTIFIED (an "IFO????").


This really did happen.....it was late 70's/early 80's.....an automotive delearship was promoting itself over the skys of Chicago on warm summer evenings.....they put some of those scrolling letter nets under the wings of a biplane (those scrolling letter thingys were new tech back then!)....THOUSANDS of people reported a UFO (although when it was close enough to read you knew it was a promo for something)

Anyways, a UFO only means that it can't be immediately explained. It doesn't mean "aliens from space" necessarily (although it could be?).....it's a challenge to discover/flesh out the truth of what was experienced.

Peace and "seeking the truth" is ALWAYS a virtue to be admired,
M_Y_H

[Pithlet]

50. I recently had a similar experience.

Over New Years I was on I-40 going toward Memphis when I saw something so strange it startled me. It was way too large to be an airplane. It looked just like a giant banana with a bulge in the middle, and it just hovered there, and looked to be several thousand feet in the sky, maybe about a mile or so away, and just huge. Thankfully I wasn't driving so I could really get a good look at it without risking an accident. I remember thinking that this stuff never happens to a die hard skeptic like me. I knew there must be an explanation for this, but I had no idea what it could be. My husband and I had a "What the hell is that thing" moment until we finally got close enough to see what it was. A small plane was pulling the biggest banner I'd ever seen over the Liberty Bowl. It was yellow with a picture of the Geico lizard on it.

[lovuian]

41. The ? is Why coverup a weather balloon Why hide the report?

Why tell your employees to be quiet??? Ya mean a AIRPORT doesn't have ANY cameras on the GATES or runways in this world of Homeland Security... Hell I have 4 at my stop site

this is obvious Governemnet coverup which tells me THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

[originalpckelly]

43. I know. This is something they know about or are worried about.

If it's ours, they're probably shitting themselves that it got close to an airport. If it's not, then they're probably afraid of telling us they don't know and can't do anything about it.

[Tom Joad]

45. Noam and I think it was weather. Nothin' from outer space, at least.

[Forrest Greene]

51. Is There Something "Wrong"

...with Martians?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

54. As it happens...

there was a high level of chemtrail activity over that airport that day.