By DOUGLAS CHARLES
While we wait and wait for the United States government to release their unclassified report on UFOs that was requested by the Senate Inteligence Committee, a treasure trove of pilot encounters with UFOs were recently uncovered in a database of aviation incident reports maintained by NASA.
That report, by the way, was supposed to cover items such as how the data is collected and processed, how it is shared, and what threats or risks have been identified, and was supposed to be submitted to the congressional intelligence and armed services committees within 180 days of the bill being approved. That was in June of 2020. What’s the delay?
In the meantime, Micah Hanks over at The Debrief conducted his own research which revealed several NASA incident reports involving UFOs.
In an investigation by The Debrief, several incident reports we obtained that were filed with the NASA-maintained Aviation Safety Reporting System reveal pilot close encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena, more commonly known as UFOs, spanning several decades. A number of the incidents involve observations by pilots and crew members of what appeared to be unrecognized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or other unidentified flying objects operating within unsafe distances from their aircraft, raising concerns about the risks they may pose to aviation safety.
The Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) functions as the Federal Aviation Administration’s voluntary confidential aviation safety incident and situation reporting network. According to a Program Briefing featured at its website, the ASRS is “an important facet of the continuing effort by government, industry, and individuals to maintain and improve aviation safety.” Designed to collect and analyze safety incident reports related to all aspects of aviation, the ASRS maintains an online database described as “a public repository which serves the FAA and NASA’s needs and those of other organizations world-wide which are engaged in research and the promotion of safe flight.”
The program has its origins in a fatal incident that occurred on December 1, 1974, involving the crash of TWA Flight 514. The flight had been inbound to Dulles Airport under turbulent, cloudy conditions when the plane accidentally descended below the minimum safe altitude, and crashed into a Virginia mountaintop. The crash resulted from a misreading of an approach chart, which the crew aboard TWA Flight 514 had interpreted differently from flight controllers at nearby Dulles.
The very lengthy and detailed summary of The Debrief’s investigation of NASA’s aviation incident reports database uncovered several stories from pilots who had mysterious encounters with UFOs, including one who saw what he says appeared to be a small aircraft, moving at a high rate of speed.
“[W]e watched it skimming over the tree tops below and to the right of our flight path. It was moving at a fast speed southwest toward Windham High Peak,” the pilot stated in his incident report. “It had a very sparkling appearance like sun shining on a mirror with rainbow colors.”
He continued, “As we watched the UAV I banked to the left [and] the UAV turned around and came toward us at a high rate of speed.”
The pilot was now on what appeared to be a collision course with the craft.
“As I got 3/4 of the way through the turn [the object] was within 50 yards of my right wing, [and] quickly got in front of me and followed me around the turn getting closer until it was off my left wing, probably no more than 25-30 yards away,” he stated.
After getting a good look at the UFO, the pilot said the craft was around six feet tall, and between two and three feet wide, was “extremely radiant” on top with a black half sphere under the radiant top and what appeared to be an antenna under the half sphere.”
“As it got off my left wing, my passenger looked up and saw two more UAVs come out of the cloud directly over us,” the pilot continued. “At that point I told my passenger we were returning immediately to the airport, [and] I pushed the nose down and picked up speed. The UAVs then headed to the west at a fast speed.
“We could not see any kind of wings, rotors, or form of propulsion.”
That encounter is just one of many uncovered by The Debrief during their investigation.
Another incident report filed by a different pilot who witnessed an object approximately five miles away that closed on his aircraft at astronimical rate of speed, and “estimated the closure took less than a minute and as he accelerated his aircraft away from the craft it followed, maneuvering at a speed much [higher] than his.”
There also reports of more near midair collisions with UFOs, as well as reports of pilots’ encounters with several “mystery missiles.”
