FAA Release of Radar Data Signals a new ‘Openness Policy’
on UFOs
Significant support for the testimony of multiple witnesses of a UFO
seen near Stephenville Texas on January 8, 2008 came in the form of
radar data recently released by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).
Responding to a series of Freedom of Information requests by the Mutual
UFO Network (MUFON), the FAA supplied 2.8 million radar returns from
five sites covering the area where the UFO was sighted. A report by
MUFON titled, "Special
Research Report, Stephenville, Texas," provided a detailed
analysis of raw data released by the FAA. The authors of the MUFON Stephenville
Report, Glen Schulze and Robert Powell, stated: "data was obtained
that indicates unidentified aircraft without transponder beacons which
were not military jets, were found in the same compass direction and
time frame as cited by the witnesses (Stephenville Report, p. 5)."
The radar returns supported witness testimonies that the object was
at times stationary and also able to accelerate at tremendous speeds.
Schulze and Powell claimed that some of the radar data confirmed that
the object reached speeds up to 2100 mph. This was done without creating
a sonic boom. They note:
Much more important than the possible sudden acceleration shown by
the object is its trajectory heading. This object was traveling to
the southeast on a direct course towards the Crawford Ranch, also
known as President Bush’s western White House. The last time the object
was seen on radar at 8:00pm, it was continuing on a direct path to
Crawford Ranch and was only 10 miles away (Stephenville Report, p.
7).
Schulze and Powell also revealed the extent of military activity in
the area using log books and radar returns from Carswell Air Force Base,
and were able to distinguish these from the sighted UFO. The radar returns
confirmed witness testimonies of significant military aerial activity
in relation to the UFO despite initial denials by military authorities.
Schulze and Powell further examined the data in terms of witness testimonies
of the UFO being chased by jets at a very low altitude. They concluded:
The Selden witnesses also indicated that the unknown object returned
and was being chased by jets at very low altitude. These chase jets
do not show up on radar. If their altitude was below 2000 feet, as
described by the witnesses, then they would have been too low to be
detected by the nearest FAA radar (Stephenville Report, p. 7).
In what appears to be a notable national security lapse, they continue:
During this entire episode of over an hour, there is no indication
that any of the military jets reacted to this unknown aircraft, that
was without a required transponder, and that was headed directly to
the Western White House.
Two questions arise here. First, why would military authorities allow
a UFO to get so close to the Crawford Ranch? Second, why would the FAA
allow radar data to be released that confirm an apparent national security
breach at the "Western White House" involving a UFO? Answers
to these questions may be found by first examining past FAA policy on
releasing UFO information, and the role of senior national security
officials in dictating this policy to senior FAA officials.
Earlier FAA policy concerning UFOs appear to have two elements. One
was to deny witness or pilot sightings of UFOs regardless of the credibility
and/or number of witnesses. The second was to remove any radar evidence
that could confirm witness testimonies of UFOs. These elements of what
appears to be a long standing policy of the FAA regarding UFOs is exemplified
in two well documented cases.
The first concerns the 2006 multiple witness sighting of a UFO over
O’Hare International Airport. In a comprehensive report of the O’Hare
incident titled: "Report
of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon and its Safety Implications at
O’Hare International Airport on November 7, 2006," by Dr Richard
Haines, he notes:
According to the FAA nothing was detected by radar at this location
or time of day or seen by air traffic controllers from the main tower.
An examination of primary radar data supplied by the FAA confirmed the
first claim. Nevertheless, an FAA inbound ground controller remarked
about the "UFO" (UAP) … long before the object had departed.
(O’Hare Report, p. 5).
Furthermore, Haines reported on the result of FOIA requests for tower
logs and communications that: "clearly showed (1) three separate
telephone inquiries from the United ramp tower (and management) concerning
the UAP [UFO] and (2) a written notation of one of these calls in the
FAA’s tower’s Daily Record of Facility Operations" (O’Hare Report,
p. 19). More incriminating was a series of interviews with United Airline
employees by a journalist for the Chicago Tribune, Jon Hilkevitch, wherein
it was alleged that they were "told
to not talk about what they saw to anyone." Was the management
of United Airlines muzzling its employees because of FAA pressure, and
was the FAA muzzling its own employees? Regardless of the answers to
these questions, the FAA’s policy seemed to be one of dismissing testimonies
of a UFO at O’Hare international airport regardless of witness reliability
and quantity.
The second documented case involves a former section chief for the
FAA, John Callahan, who revealed what occurred to radar and other evidence
of a UFO witnessed in the vicinity of a Japanese Airline 747 flying
over Alaska in 1986. After the event, Callahan requested all the data
to be transferred first to Atlantic City for initial analysis by him
and his team, and then to Washington D.C. for a personal viewing by
the FAA Administrator, Vice Admiral Donald Engen. He subsequently describes
what happened after Admiral Engen saw the data:
Well a few minutes later the Admiral calls down and says, I have
set up a briefing tomorrow morning at 9:00 am in the round room. Bring
all the stuff you have Bring everybody up there and give them whatever
they want… They [a group of national security officials] brought
in three people from the FBI, three people from the CIA, and three
people from Reagan’s Scientific Study team – I don’t know who the
rest of people were but they were all excited. When they got done,
they actually swore all these other guys in there that this never
took place. We never had this meeting. And this was never recorded.
[http://preview.tinyurl.com/6g7nxu
]
Callahan went on to disclose in his public testimony how the data was
confiscated by the national security team from the Reagan administration
who were concerned about public reaction to the reality of UFOs. Callahan
further described how he was able to hold on to a duplicate set of data
in his office which he revealed at a May 2001 National Press Club Conference.
Callahan believed that the FAA was complicit in a cover up of what the
radar evidence clearly showed was a UFO that backed pilot and passenger
testimonies of a UFO following a Japanese 747.
For those people that say that if these UFOs existed, they would
some day be on radar and that there’d be professionals who would see
it, then I can tell them that back in 1986 there were enough professional
people that saw it. It was brought down to headquarters, FAA headquarters,
Washington D.C. The Administrator saw the tape of it. The people that
we were debriefing, they’ve all seen. Reagan’s Scientific Study team,
three of those professors, doctors, they’ve seen it. As far as I was
concerned they were the ones that verified my own thoughts about it.
They were very, very excited about the data. They had said that this
was the only time a UFO was ever recorded on radar for any length
of time where it is 30 some minutes. And they have all this data to
look at…http://preview.tinyurl.com/6g7nxu
The two well documented case studies from the 2006 O’Hare incident
and the 1987 Japanese 747 Alaska incident reveal that the FAA has been
complicit in the dismissal of credible witness testimonies of UFOs,
and more significantly of deliberately withdrawing corroborating data.
Senior national security officials in various Presidential administrations
have played key roles in dictating this policy to the FAA and its administrators.
Consequently, I now return to the earlier two questions concerning
the FAA’s release of radar returns from the Stephenville incident, and
why it authorized this release in the case of a UFO that was tracked
heading towards President Bush’s Crawford Ranch. The release of the
radar returns suggests a significant policy change by senior national
security officials within the Bush administration has occurred. Rather
than debunking UFO testimonies and withholding corroborating data, the
FAA is now releasing key data that helps confirm these testimonies.
A new policy of openness appears to be underway. The testimony of former
FAA chief Callahan wherein he revealed the role of national security
officials in secretly directing FAA policy when it comes to UFO sightings,
suggests they have approved the new openness policy. This may account
for why major television programs such Larry King Live have been running
an unprecedented series of programs on UFOs since the Stephenville sighting.
Importantly, the new openness policy may be related to a set of secret
meetings at the United Nations from February 12-14 wherein a new
policy of openness on UFOs was approved by member nations.
Furthermore, the release of radar evidence pointing to a possible national
security breach concerning the Western White House, suggests that the
UFO was something other than a classified military project. If the Stephenville
UFO was a classified military project, secrecy could easily have been
imposed, and the FAA prevented from releasing its radar data for obvious
national security reasons. Also, if the UFO belonged to a foreign nation,
it would be highly unlikely that the military jets tracking the UFO
would not have engaged with the UFO as it approached the Crawford Ranch,
as Schulze and Powell implied in their report.
A more plausible explanation for the FAA’s release of the radar data
is that senior national security officials are signaling that the Stephenville
UFO sighting was not part of any classified program, nor does it belong
to any other national government. The FAA and more senior officials
are directing the general public to contemplate a genuine enigma over
the UFOs’ origin. Consequently, it appears that the goal of the shift
in FAA policy on UFOs is that a program to acclimate the American public
to the reality of UFOs, and the possibility that they have something
other than earthly origin is well underway. It can therefore be predicted
that in the months ahead, more persuasive empirical data by the FAA
and other government agencies will be allowed to emerge into the public
arena increasingly pointing to the reality of UFOs and the possibility
of an extraterrestrial origin.
Michael
E. Salla, Ph.D
Kona, Hawaii
07/18/08
www.Exopolitics.Org
***
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