Eye Witness Statements

National Press Club Conference on UFOs - Witness Statements (Steve Kaeser, 11-22-2007)
The following is the individual witness testimony distributed to those who attended the Briefing at the National Press Club.

Jean-Charles DUBOC

My name is Jean-Charles DUBOC, and I am a retired Air France Captain.
During Air France Flight 3532 from Nice to London, on 28 January 1994, 1 observed, with my crew, a daylight UFO near Paris. We had few passengers on board and none of them had reported that observation to the crew.
The time was 1:00 P.M, and the visibility was excellent with some altocumulus clouds.
That object had been identified initially by a steward who was in the cockpit and by the copilot as a weather balloon, but when I identified it, it looked quite different.

In fact this UFO was in evolution and it looked to have a bank angle of 45°. It seemed to be a huge flying DISC. It stabilized and stopped moving .
We observed it over one minute on the left on our plane, surprisingly totally stationary in the sky, and it disappeared progressively .
This large object was below us at the altitude of 35, 000 ft (we were at 39 000 if), at a distance of about 25 nautical miles.
The color was red brown with blurred outlines.
The apparent diameter of this object could be compared to the diameter of the moon, or the sun. That means that it was about 1000 feet wide.
We had no idea of the structure of the UFO that seemed to be embedded in a kind of magnetic or gravitational field, with no lights or visual metallic structure, which gave it a really fuzzy appearance.

The most incredible aspect is that it became transparent and disappeared in about 10 to 20 seconds. My co-pilot, chief steward and I quickly realized that what we were seeing did not resemble anything known to us, and we reported our sighting to Reims traffic control. Simultaneously, the radar of the Operational Centre of the Air Defense (the CODA), registered a one-minute spot crossing the track of our plane.
When I recorded the estimated position of the UFO on an aeronautical map I was surprised to realize that its position was near the base of Tavemy, which hosts the headquarters of the French Strategic Air Command.
This sighting has been studied by the French military COMETA group under the direction of General Denis Letty and with the participation of several high ranking officers of the French Defense, as well as by GEPAN under the French National Space Centre .

The investigations determined this could not have been a weather balloon, and estimated the approximate length of the UFO to have been 800 feet.
This sighting remains unexplained.

Jean-Claude Ribes, position statement.

My name is Jean-Claude Ribes and I am an astronomer, working for the French Centre National de Ia Recherche Scientifique from 1963 to 1998. I contributed to the French COIvIETA report, a three-year military study on UFOs and National Security released in 1999, and more recently to the book Phenomenes aerospatiaux non identifies, under the direction of Yves Sillard, chairman of the Steering Committee of GEIPAN.
He asked me to represent him and GEIPAN here today. General Denis Lefty, chairman of the COMETA group, also asked me to represent him here, because he was unable to attend.
The COMETA report was written mainly by high-ranking military people from the French High Studies Institute for National Defense.
It analyzes the possible explanations for UFOs and their implications in terms of Defense, with the extraterrestrial hypothesis presented as the most logical one, even if not formally proven. Some recommendations are made, including that all managers of the Army, Police, Politics, and pilots be informed about UFOs; that detection systems be modified to take UFOs into account; and that the French government contact the United States and other allied countries to initiate cooperative action on the subject. So far, these recommendations have not been implemented.

However, last March, my country took a big step forward. Jacques Patenet, current director of GEIPAN, released the French UFO files to the public. They were posted on a website - more than 1,600 sightings spanning five decades. Some cases involved multiple sightings and physical evidence such as bum marks and radar tracking.
Others documented UFOs with flight patterns or accelerations defying the laws of physics. M. Patenet told the press at the time that we do not have any proof at all that extra-terrestrials are behind the unexplained phenomena. Nor do we have any proof at all that they aren't.

GEIPAN's Steering Committee plays an important role, with representatives from the Army, Police, Civil Aviation, Meteorology and the scientific community. This Committee insures the best conditions for gathering reports by instructing the agencies involved in investigations, and by protecting any witnesses who request anonymity for fear of ridicule.
My personal opinion is that UFOs should be taken seriously and studied without prejudice. There may be several possible explanations, such as rare atmospheric phenomena, but some cases strongly suggest actual flying machines with characteristics well beyond our terrestrial capacities. If these cases could be completely proven as such, then the extraterrestrial hypothesis would probably be the most likely explanation for these advanced craft. Admittedly, it is a fantastic possibility, but not an irrational one, given the data that we have.

Parviz Jafari

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen
My name is Parviz Jafari, and I am a retired General of Iranian Air Force.
At about 11 pm on the evening of 1 8th September 1976, citizens were frightened by the circling of an unknown object over Tehran, the Capital city of Iran, at a low altitude. It looked similar to a star, but bigger and brighter. They reported it to the tower and it was seen by the tower man too. He alerted the Air Force command post and Deputy General Yousefi decided to scramble an F-4 jet to investigate.
The pilot in the first jet lost instrumentation and communications when he got too close to the brilliant object, so he headed back. About 10 minutes later, they scrambled a second jet, which I was piloting. At the time I was Squadron commander.
I approached the object, which was flashing with intense red, green, orange and blue light so bright that I was not able to see its body. The sequence of flashes was extremely fast, like a strobe light. We locked on it with radar; it was at 30° left, at a range of 25 miles. The size on the radarscope was comparable to that of a 707 tanker.
Four other objects with different shapes separated from the main one, at different times during this close encounter. Whenever they were close to me, my weapons were jammed and my radio communications were garbled. One of the objects headed toward me. I thought it was a missile. I tried to launch a heat-seeking missile to it, but my missile panel went out. Another followed me when I was descending on the way back. One of the separated objects landed in an open area radiating a high bright light, in which the sands on the ground were visible.
We could hear emergency squash all the way, which was reported by other airliners flying at the time and continued for another couple of days. During my interview at H.Q, after the incident, an American colonel took notes, but after it was over I could not find him to talk with. Later, a once-classified document was released here in America through the Freedom of information Act.
The Defense Intelligence Agency documented the event in great detail, and it was sent to NSA, The White House and the CIA. The DIA assessment said this case is a classic that meets all necessary conditions for a legitimate study of the UFO phenomenon.
I would be happy to answer questions and tell you more.

Rodrigo Bravo Garrido

Declaration For The Press Conference At The National Press Club In Washington D.C., United States Of America
Since the beginning of Chilean history, there have been reports of unidentified phenomena, sometimes called UFOs, observed in our skies.
Over the years, we have increased our capacity to explain many of the sightings, but some continue to remain without a scientific or logical explanation. For that reason, in October of 1997, the Department of Civil Aeronautics, the Chilean equivalent of the American FAA, set up the Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena, known as the CEFAA. This agency handles the best reports of unidentified aerial phenomena in cooperation with aeronautic specialists.

In 2000, the Aviation branch of the Army of Chile assigned me to research anomalous aerial phenomena, which they knew were real, and their affect on aerospace security. I then graduated to become a military pilot, and learned that the Aviation Amy had in its files many reports of UFO incidents from military pilots. A link was then established between our Army office and the CEFAA, and as a result, nine official cases have been documented. This has helped to create awareness among the flight crews about UFOs, and they now cooperate with flight security to report any abnormal situation.

One of our most important civil aviation cases occurred in 1988, showing that unidentified flying objects can be a danger for air operations. A Boeing 737 pilot, on a final approach to the runway at The Tepual Airport in Puerto Mont City, suddenly encountered a large white light surrounded by green and red. The light was moving in the opposite direction of the airplane, coming straight at it. The pilot had to make a steep turn to the left in order to avoid a collision. The phenomenon was observed by the control tower personnel.

In 2000, the crew of a Chilean plane from the Aviation branch of the Army, flying South of Santiago, observed a long cigar-shaped object, a brilliant gray. It flew parallel to the right side of the aircraft for two minutes and then disappeared at a very high speed. This object was detected by the radar of the Control Center of Santiago, which notified the crew minutes before the incident.
Sadly, the UFO subject has been contaminated with false information, out of touch with reality, provided by unqualified people to the media. This has moved the issue away from a scientific and specialized study where it belongs.
In light of that problem, we now make the call to all the countries that are presently working on this issue in a serious and factual way, to unite their efforts. We would like this to include the United States of America. This cooperative effort would help all of us counteract the potentially unsafe effects of UFOS on air operations around the world.
New cases are being documented by pilots, traffic controllers, operations staff at the word's airports, and by many others with the proper training to determine if a flying object is something unusual. The true origin of these UFOs is unknown, yet they do affect aviation all around the planet, and this must be addressed.

Oscar Alfonso Santa Maria Huertas

I am Oscar Santa Maria Huertas, official pilot of the Peruvian Air Force, currently retired.
On April 11, 1980, at 7:15 in the morning, 1800 men were in formation at the Air Base of La Joya, Arequipa. They all observed a stationary object in the sky, which looked like a balloon, at about three miles distance, and approximately 1,800 feet altitude. It was luminous because it reflected the sun.
My unit commander ordered me to takeoff in my Sukoi -22 jet to shoot down the spherical object. It was in restricted airspace, without clearance, and we were concerned about espionage.
I approached the object and strafed sixty-four 30mm shells at it. Some projectiles went towards the ground, and others hit the object fully, but they had no effect at all. The projectiles didn’t bounce off; probably they were absorbed. The cone-shaped wall of fire that I sent out would normally obliterate anything in its path.

The object then began to ascend, and move farther away from the base. When I was at about 36,000 ft., it made a sudden stop, forcing me to veer to the side since I was only 1500 feet away. I flew up higher to attack it from above, but just as I had locked on to the target and was ready to shoot, the object made a straight vertical climb evading the attack.
Two more times I had the object on target, when the object was stationary. Each time, it moved away at the very last minute, when I was just about to fire, always eluding my attack.

I decided to climb at full thrust to get above the object, but it began to ascend almost parallel to my plane, and when I reached 63,000 ft., it stopped. At this point, I came to within about 300 feet of the UFO.
It was about 30 feet in diameter. It was an enameled, cream-colored dome, with a wide, circular, metallic base. It had no engines, no exhausts, no windows, no wings or antennae.
It lacked all the typical aircraft components, with no visible propulsion system. It was at that moment that 1 realized this it was not a spying device, but that it was a UFO, something totally unknown. I was almost out of fuel, so I couldn’t t attack or maneuver my plane, or make a high speed escape.
I was afraid. I thought I might be finished. When I had calmed down, I radioed for another plane to come and have a look, trying to hide my fear. They said no, it's too high, just come back.
I had to glide part way down due to lack of fuel, zigzagging to make my plane harder to hit, always with my eyes on the rearview mirrors hoping it wouldn’t t chase me. It didn't.
I had spent 22 minutes maneuvering with this object. After I landed, the object remained stationary in the sky for two hours, for everyone at the base to see.
A US Department of Defense document titled UFO Sighted in Peru described the incident, stating that the vehicle's origin remains unknown.
It still gives me chills to think about it.

Oscar Alfonso Santa Maria Huertas DNI: 40315515
Press Release: Peru And The Chulucanas Incident.

First Case Of A UFO Investigation Officially Disclosed.
I am Dr. Anthony Choy, founding member of the Office of Investigations of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena (OIFAA), and an investigator for this office. This agency was established by the Peruvian Air Force in December 2001.
I am the author of Project 33, the first integral study on the UFO phenomenon in Peru. I traveled all over my country for about three years, speaking with witnesses, obtaining audio-visual information such as photographs and videos, and collecting data for this study.
On October 13, 2001, in the northern city of Chulucanas, and before hundreds of people, eight spheres of light, of an intense red-orange color, were recorded on video. We were the first ones to obtain this video and we gave it to the air force.
These objects were suspended in the air for over five hours, moving in an apparently intelligent manner, and in absolute silence until they disappeared.
A few days later, on October 25th, the luminous tear-shaped object of some 25 meters diameter (approx. 80 feet) was recorded over the countryside near the city. Within a few minutes, the apparent landing of light spheres in the woods was also recorded.
In February of 2002, the Air Force's 01 FAA ordered me to investigate these sightings.
Taking responsibility for the so-called Chulucanas Incident, in February 2003 Peruvian Air Force Colonel Jose Raffo Moloche, Director of Aerial and Space Concerns, made an open statement to the media acknowledging that the Chulucanas Incident was the first official UFO investigation in Peru.

The preliminary conclusion was that the sightings, although being physically real, had no explanation. The case remains open, and the investigation continues independently
The climax occurred on August 6 of 2004 when, in collaboration with the American television channel of Univision, we were able to record for 55 minutes a distant object of unknown nature and origin, moving at great velocity in the sky, going up and down, and right and left.
I believe the Air Force in Peru has done the right thing by opening an office to conduct these investigations. The evidence we have from actual UFO cases and incidents that have taken place in our country show that the UFO phenomenon remains one of the greatest challenges to our current knowledge of science and technology.

Ray Bowyer

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen and thank you for coming today. My name is Ray Bowyer and I fly a civilian airliner as Captain. I have been invited here due to my sighting last April of multiple as yet unidentified objects over the Channel Islands region of the English Channel. This encounter lasted for 15 minutes with the first object being visible from 55 miles distant.
On nearing the object a second identical shape appeared beyond the first. Both objects were of a flattened disk shape with a dark area to the right side. They were brilliant yellow with light emanating from them. I estimated them to be up to a mile across.

I found myself astounded but curious. But at 12 miles distant these objects were becoming uncomfortably large, and I was glad to descend and land the aircraft.
Many of my passengers saw the objects, as did the pilot of another aircraft 25 miles further south. There is also possible radar information still being investigated.

A team headed by Dr. David Clarke looking at this case will shortly publish a report but I understand that at this time no definitive solution has been discovered to explain the sighting.
I have taken note of the differences between the British and U.S reporting system. It appears that attitudes on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean are very different when it comes to the required reporting and recording of this type of event.
Air Law stipulates quite clearly that if an operating crew of an aircraft see another aircraft a place that it should not he, then at the earliest opportunity the whole scenario is to be reported to the relevant authority.

In my case the British Civil Aviation Authority knew within 20 minutes of the sighting what was seen, as described in the flight log faxed directly to the relevant CM office. The military were informed by Jersey Air Traffic Control at the same time.
This is not an option; it is an obligation that crews react in this manner.
In my experience, having reported the incident as required has had no negative effect. And there was no problem with me talking about it on British television.
Indeed, my company Aurigny Air Services have offered every support to date. The assistance of Jersey ATC in releasing recorded information to myself and the investigating team has been a great benefit. I did not feel that I was in any danger of being ridiculed, because all I did was report what actually happened, as was my duty.
I heard about the multiple witnesses sighting at Chicago O Hare Airport a year ago, on November 7, 2006. I was surprised to hear how this was handled. Despite many pilots and airport personnel witnessing the object hovering over the terminal, there was no investigation by the FAA. It appears that pressure may have been applied to crewmembers by their company not to discuss this incident.
These witnesses were afraid to talk about what they saw, due to concerns about job security. The FAA told the witnesses that what they saw was actually not what they saw but that it was simply weather,
I would have been shocked if I was told that the CAA would obstruct an investigation, or if the CAA told me that what I had seen was something entirely different. But it seems that pilots in America are used to this kind of thing, as far as I can tell.
I would urge all aircrew to report whatever they see as soon as possible, and to stand up and be counted. It is only when crucial witnesses such as professional pilots make reports that the authorities will be kick-started into a broader investigation of these phenomena.

Nick Pope position statement

My name is Nick Pope, formerly with the British Ministry of Defense.
Since 1950 the British Government has received over 10,000 UFO reports. Responsibility for this subject rests with the Ministry of Defense, whose remit is to look for evidence of any potential threat to the UK, or anything else of any defense significance. From 1991 to 1994 I was the desk officer responsible for these investigations.

Most UFO sightings turned out to be misidentifications of things such as aircraft, satellites and meteors, but in around 5 per cent of cases no explanation could be found. These cases include incidents where reliable witnesses such as police officers and pilots reported structured craft performing speeds and maneuvers significantly in excess of anything they had seen military jet aircraft perform.
Other cases included in this category involved UFOs tracked on radar and incidents where photos or videos were produced and where the MoD's technical experts found no evidence of fakery.

The MoD takes no position on the nature of the UFO phenomenon but I and some of my colleagues were privately convinced that whatever was going on, there were important defense, national security and flight safety issues involved.
In March 1993 I investigated a case where a UFO was seen by about 60 witnesses, including military personnel at two air force bases. Witnesses included a patrol of air force police, together with a meteorological officer with 8 years experience. This latter witness described a triangular-shaped craft midway in size between a c-i 30 and a Boeing 747.

He said that it was emitting a low frequency humming sound and he said it moved slowly at first, before accelerating away many times faster than a military jet. My Head of Division's brief to the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff concluded In summary, there would seem to be some evidence on this occasion that an unidentified object (or objects) of unknown origin was operating over the UK.
The case file - published on the MoD website also mentions related enquiries from the US authorities, asking if the UK had a black program that might explain some UFO sightings involving large triangular-shaped craft. That's interesting, given the US government's public position that UFOs are no longer investigated.

Britain's best known UFO sighting occurred in 1980 and involved USAF personnel from two military bases in the UK. There were multiple witnesses and an object was seen to land in a place called Rendlesham Forest. A Geiger counter was used to take radiation readings at the landing site and the assessment undertaken by the MoD's Defense Intelligence Staff stated that the levels recorded seemed significantly higher than the average background. We are fortunate to have two of the witnesses to these events here today and I should like to hand over to one of them now, so that he can give you the specifics. Thank you.

James Penniston Statement

My name is James Penniston, United States Air Force Retired.
In 1980, I was assigned to the largest Tactical Fighter Wing in the Air Force, RAF Woodbridge in England. I was the senior security officer in charge of base security.
At that time I held a top-secret NATO and US security clearance and was responsible for the protection of war-making resources for that base.
Shortly after midnight on the 26th of December 1980, Staff Sergeant Steffens briefed me that some lights were seen in Rendlesham Forest, just outside the base. He informed me that what ever it was didn’t crash... it landed. I discounted what he said and reported to the control center back at the base that we had a possible downed aircraft. I then ordered Amn. Cabanzak, AIC Burroughs to respond with me.
When we arrived near the suspected crash site it quickly became apparent that we were not dealing with a plane crash or anything else we d ever responded to. There was a bright light emanating from an object on the forest floor. As we approached it on foot, a silhouetted triangular craft about 9 feet long by 6.5 feet high, came into view. The craft was fully intact sitting in a small clearing inside the woods.

As the three of us got closer to the craft we started experiencing problems with our radios. I then asked Cabansag to relay radio transmissions back to the control center. Burroughs and I proceeded towards the craft.
When we came up on the triangular shaped craft there were blue and yellow lights swirling around the exterior as though part of the surface and the air around us was electrically charged. We could feel it on our cloths, skin and hair. Nothing in my training prepared me for what we were witnessing.

After ten minutes without any apparent aggression, I determined the craft was non-hostile to my team or to the base. Following security protocol, we completed a thorough on-site investigation, including a full physical examination of the craft. This included photographs, notebook entries, and radio relays through airman Cabansag to the control center as required.
On one side of the craft were symbols that measured about 3 inches high and two and a half feet across.
These symbols were pictorial in design; the largest symbol was a triangle, which was centered in the middle of the others. These symbols were etched into the surface of the craft, which was warm to the touch and felt like metal.

The feeling I had during this encounter was no type of aircraft that I have ever seen before.
After roughly 45 minutes the light from the craft began to intensify. Burroughs and I then took a defensive position away from the craft as it lifted off the ground without any noise or air disturbance. It maneuvered through the trees and shot off at an unbelievable rate of speed. It was gone in the blink of an eye.
In my logbook, (that I have right here) 1 wrote, Speed: IMPOSSIBLE. Over 80 Air Force Personnel, all trained observers assigned to the 81st Security Police Squadron, witnessed the takeoff.
The information acquired during the investigation was reported through military channels. The team and witnesses were told to treat the investigation as top secret and no further discussion was allowed.
The photos we retrieved from the base lab (two rolls of 35 mm) were apparently over exposed.

Statement By Charles I. Halt

My name is Charles I. Halt. I retired from the US Air Force in 1991 as a Colonel. I was a base commander at two large installations and at the time of my retirement was Director, Inspections Directorate for the DOD 1G. In that position I had inspection oversight of all military services and defense agencies.
In 1980 I was the Deputy Base Commander of RAF Bentwaters, the large twin base complex in East Anglia England. At the time this was the largest Tactical Fighter Wing in the Air Force.
In late December 1980 I was called upon to investigate a strange event that was distracting our Security Police from their primary duties. Early on the morning of December 26, 1980 our police patrolmen discovered strange lights in the forest east of the back gate of RAE Woodbridge. Three patrolmen were dispatched into the forest to investigate. They reported discovering a strange triangular craft sitting on three legs. The craft was approximately 3 meters on a side. The craft had multiple lights. It rapidly maneuvered and quickly left the area.
I was not immediately aware of the details only being told of strange lights and assumed there was a reasonable explanation.
Two nights later the family Christmas party was interrupted by the on duty police commander. He told of strange events and claimed it was back. Since my boss had to present awards I was tasked to go out and investigate. I fully expected to find an explanation.
I took two senior Security Police, Disaster Preparedness expert and the reporting On Duty Police Commander. At the site we found the three 1 1/2 indentations in the ground in a triangular pattern. [SHOW PLASTER CAST]

We discovered mild radiation, and evidence including broken branches. We suddenly observed a bright red/orange oval object with a black center. It reminded me of an eye and appeared as though blinking.
It maneuvered horizontally through the trees with occasionally vertical movement. When approached it receded and silently broke into five white lights, which quickly vanished. We moved out of the forest into a pasture and observed several objects with multiple lights in the Northern sky. They changed in shape from elliptical to round.

Several other objects were seen to the South. One approached at high speed and sent down a concentrated beam near our feet. Another object sent down beams into the weapons storage area. The whole time we had difficulty communicating with the base as all three radio frequencies kept breaking up. This activity continued for about an hour.
During this entire event I had my pocket recorder and taped the event as it unfolded. A copy of the tape was released without my knowledge. This is the original recorder and tape.
I have no idea what we saw but do know whatever we saw was under intelligent control.

John Callahan

What I am about to tell you now, is about an event that never happened.
I am John Callahan, and I was Division Chief of the Accidents, Evaluations and Investigations Division of the FAA in Washington, for 6 years during the 1980's.
In early January of 1987, 1 received a call from the Air Traffic Quality Control Branch in FAA's Alaskan regional office, requesting guidance on what to tell the media personnel who were overflowing their office. The media was requesting information about the UFO that chased a Japanese 747 across the Alaskan sky for some 31 minutes at flight levels between 31000 and 35000 ft. on November 17, 1986. Somehow, the word had got out.
What UFO; when did this take place; why wasn't Washington Headquarters informed? I asked.
Hey, he replied, who believes in UFOs? I just need to know what to tell the media to get them out of here.
The answer to that question was easy: Tell them it's under investigation. Then, collect all the data - the voice tapes and data disc for both the facility and the military. Send then overnight to the FAA Tech Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Japan Air Lines flight 1628, a cargo jet with a pilot, co-pilot and one crewmember, was just north of Anchorage, and it was about 11 pm when the pilot first reported the UFO. He described it as a huge ball with lights running around it. He said it was about 4 times bigger than a 747, and he saw it with his own eyes. So did the other two-crew members.
Over the course of 31 minutes, the UFO jumped miles in a few seconds, changing places to different spots around the 747, in one sweep of the radarscope.
After receiving the data from Alaska almost two months later, I briefed my boss Harvey Safer and the FAA Administrator Admiral Engen, and Safer and I went to the FAA Tech Center to observe the playback.

The FAA had developed a program capable of recreating the traffic on the controller’s scope, or plan view display. I instructed the FAA specialist to synchronize the voice tapes with the radar data so we could hear everything the controller and pilot said. I videotaped the radar display.
Later that day, I requested that the FAA automation specialists plot the radar targets along the route of flight and explain what each target was doing. I videotaped the resulting chart.
The print out and radar play back displayed primary targets in the vicinity of the 747. These target returns were displayed about the same time and place as the pilot advised viewing the UFO.
Both the radar and manual controller observed the primary target. The military controllers also viewed the primary target on their radar and identified it as a double primary. The pilot and crew viewed the target on their radar and were able to see the huge UFO at the same time as it approached their aircraft.

If this craft had been a leer jet or military aircraft at the wrong attitude, that would have been clear. The FAA has procedures that cover tracking unidentified aircraft violating another's airspace - but it has no procedures for UFOs.
Back at FAA headquarters, I gave Administrator Engen a quick briefing and showed him the video. He set up a briefing with President Reagan's scientific staff, and told me my function was to give them a dog and pony show and hand this event off to them, since the FAA does not deal with UFO s.
I brought along a copy of the video and all the data print outs available at the time.
One of the scientists asked a number of questions, such as, what is the range of the radar, what is the frequency of the radar, what is the band width, what is the formula for the height equipment, etc.

I was impressed with the response from the FAA experts. At the end, one of the three people from the CIA said, This event never happened; we were never here; we re confiscating all this data and you are all sworn to secrecy.
What do you think it was? I asked the CIA person.
A UFO and now they have over 30 minutes of radar to go over, he responded.
Well let's get a TWIX out and advise the American public that we were visited by a UFO, I suggested.
No way, if we were to tell the American public there are UFOs they would panic, ho informed me.
Some time after the briefing, the detailed FAA report which included extensive interviews with the pilot and crew, the chart prepared at the Tech Center; and facility voice tapes arrived at my office and were placed on a small table waiting for the CIA to request more data.
The material stayed there until I retired 2 years later, and I' ve had it ever since.
Most people including FAA controllers really aren’t t familiar with how the FAA radar system works and why all aircraft traveling through our airspace are not caught on radar or displayed on the controllers PVD. But I am.
The system and organization of the FAA is not configured to identify and track these types of performances.

Final Statement Fife Symington

In 1997 during my second term as Governor of Arizona, I saw something that defied logic and challenged my reality.
I witnessed a massive delta-shaped craft silently navigate over Squaw Peak, a mountain range in Phoenix, Arizona. It was truly breathtaking.
To my astonishment this apparition appeared, and it was a solid structure; this dramatically large, very distinctive leading edge with some enormous lights was traveling through the Arizona sky.
I still don t know what it was. As a pilot and a former Air Force Officer, I can definitively say that this craft did not resemble any man made object I d ever seen. And it was certainly not high- altitude flares because flares don t fly in formation.

The incident was witnessed by hundreds, if not thousands of people in Arizona and my office was besieged with phone calls from very concerned Arizonians.
The growing hysteria intensified when the story broke nationally. I decided to lighten the mood of the state by calling a press conference where my chief of staff arrived in an alien costume. We managed to lessen the sense of panic but at the same time, upset many of my constituents.

I would now like to set the record straight. I never meant to ridicule anyone. My office jamake inquiries as to the origin of the craft, but to this day, they remain unanswered.
Eventually the Air National Guard Force claimed responsibility stating that their pilots were dropping flares. This is indicative of the attitude from official channels. We get explanations that fly in the face of the facts. Explanations like weather balloons, swamp gas and military flares.
I was never happy with this silly explanation. There might very well have been military flares in the sky later that evening, but what I and hundreds of others saw had nothing to do with that.
I now know that I am not alone in witnessing something extraordinary. There are many high ranking military, aviation and government officials who share my concerns; some of them have joined me here today. There is absolutely no doubt as to the veracity of what these men have told you.
They have fought in wars, guarded top-secret weapons arsenals and flown countless passengers thorough the world's skies.
Incidents like these are not going away. One year ago, Chicago's O'Hare airport experienced a UFO event that made national and international headlines.
Pilots and many other airline employees observed a metallic disc hovering over the United Airlines terminal for several minutes.
It then shot straight up and cut a hole in the clouds. The FAA did not investigate, dismissing the sighting as weather.

We want the US government to stop putting out stories that perpetuate the myth that ALL UFOs can be explained away in down- to-earth, conventional terms. Instead, our country needs to reopen its official investigation that it shut down in 1969. The US government can no longer shun an international dialogue about this, and we invite the government to work in cooperation with the countries represented at this table.

When it comes to events of this nature that are completely unsolved, we deserve more openness in government, especially our own.