With the raid of Area 51 coming up (or maybe it’s already happened
(depending on when this gets published)), it’s just the perfect
time to write about UFO sightings. Now, I’m a firm believer that
there are aliens out there. It would be very self-centered to think
that in an infinite universe (with an infinite amount of galaxies and
star systems), we’re the only life to have ever evolved. That being
said, I’m not entirely sure that alien species have ever actually
been to Earth.
But, here are 8 of history’s most famous (or infamous) UFO
sightings!
Kenneth Arnold
The first UFO sighting we’re going to talk about occurred in 1947.
In fact, a lot of the fascination with aliens and UFOs that we have
today can be traced back to this first “encounter”.
While flying his small airplane near Washington’s Mount Rainier,
pilot Arnold Kenneth saw something unusual in the sky. According to
him, he saw nine big, blue glowing objects that were flying in a V
formation. According to him they were flying at nearly 1,700 miles
per hour (how he calculated that number without any special tools is
beyond me).
Like any pilot, he assumed that these were just military planes, but
this was far too fast for any human-made airplane.
His report made the national news, and soon after thousands of other
people began claiming that they also saw alien aircrafts and, in some
cases, actual aliens. This is a trend we’ve been seeing a lot ever
since — whenever a UFO sighting makes the news, many people begin
reporting to have seen UFO’s themselves.
Roswell
Another UFO sighting that took place in 1947! Coincidence? I don’t
think so!
Unlike the story of Kenneth Arnold, the rancher William Brazel didn’t
actually see any flying saucers in the sky. No, what happened to him
was much more mysterious and unusual. When he was walking across some
of his New Mexico pastures, he found metallic rods, metal and plastic
scraps, and unusual “papery” chunks. Soon after he reported the
wreckage that occurred in one of his fields, the Roswell Army Air
Force arrived and retrieved all the materials.
Ever since then, conspiracy theorists have been sure that there was a
real UFO crash, and that alien bodies were collected from those
fields, dissected, and studied.
But, those are nothing but conjectures (according to the US
government). The fact that there was a crash is true. That can’t be
denied. However, what crashed wasn’t a UFO, but a military-grade
air balloon that was created as part of a military project called
Project Mogul.
Whether that’s true or there was an actual UFO crash in Roswell,
the field has become a tourist attraction, and there’s even a
spaceship-shaped McDonald’s there!
Lubbock Lights
A few years after Roswell, in August of 1951, three Texas Tech
professors saw a semicircle of flying lights above them. As with
Kenneth Arnold’s story — these lights were flying incredibly
fast. They reported what they saw to the news, and over the next few
days dozens of other people claimed to have seen these lights fly
across the sky too. One Texas Tech student, a freshman named Carl
Hart Jr. even took photos of the event. These got published in the
newspaper.
The prevailing assumption as to the origins of these lights is that
they were birds that were reflecting the luminescence from the street
lamps. However, all the people who were there claimed that the flying
objects were way too fast to be birds. They’re sure that what they
saw was a UFO (or several).
Levellan
Another six years after the events in Texas, in 1957, dozens of
citizens in Levellan, Texas (common theme here, with Texas, no?)
reported seeing a rocket and that as they saw it fly by, their cars
were interfered with (engines died, headlights stopped working,
radios stopped playing music, etc.).
Even though the police initially suspected that all these reports
were an elaborate prank, some officers actually came forward and said
that they experienced the electrical interference as well!
Project Blue Book was assigned to investigate the case, and they
concluded that an electrical storm caused the interference. But the
suspicious thing here is that there were no reported thunderstorms in
that area on that day… Suspicious?
Tehran
And, finally, we’ve come to the first UFO sighting story that
didn’t take place in the United States. In 1976, tens of concerned
citizens of Tehran, Iran called the police to report that they saw a
bright light in the sky. Several fighter jets (F-4!) were sent out to
investigate the airspace above Tehran, and as they approached the
unidentifiable flying object, their instruments blacked out… So,
with no other options, the pilots had to return to their base.
When a second F-4 was flown out to the location it was able to lock
its radar on the objects. But then, according to the pilot, the
object released a large beam of light that the pilot thought was a
misfile. As he was preparing to launch missiles in a counter attack —
his plane started malfunctioning. That’s two F-4 planes that
malfunctioned because of a UFO.
The governments of the United States and Iran claim to have been able
to come up with reasonable explanations for these occurrences after
extensive investigations, however, neither government has made these
records public.
Rendlesham Forest
In 1980 US Air Force pilots that were stationed in Rendlesham bases
reported seeing, again, colorful lights flying in the sky. This was
just 100 miles away from London, so naturally they had to investigate
this. They claimed to have discovered a spacecraft, and on the
following day others in the area confirmed that nearby trees were
damaged by a falling object. To add to the mystery, the nearby area
had a spike in the level of radiation.
When the British government investigated they found that no threat
was detected to their country. So, what did they do? They just
dropped the case.
Or did they?
The Belgium Wave
In late November of 1989, thousands of Belgian citizens reported
seeing large, triangular flying objects in the sky. However, just as
with the Rendlesham Forest occurrence, when the Belgian Air Forces
investigated the air space, they found no threat and stopped the
investigation.
Honestly, who has a chance to investigate UFOs and just drops the
entire study because they can’t find anything? Something isn’t
right here!
Area 51
And, of course, what kind of article about UFOs and aliens would this
be if I didn’t mention Area 51?
Area 51 is the colloquial name of a classified United States Air
Force facility located in Nevada. Nobody in the public knows what
this station is for and what the military does there. All satellite
images of the area are blurred for the public, and the security
around Area 51 is higher than any other military base in America
(including bases that are launch sites for nuclear missiles!
What do you think goes on there? What needs to be protected more than
a nuclear arsenal?
If the Area 51 raid goes through — maybe we’ll find out!
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