There have been stories of unusual objects in the sky throughout recorded history.
However, since the development of space travel following World War Two,
these sightings have been far more frequent, and have become almost synonymous with potential
alien visitors. Within the past eight decades, since the dawn of the space age,
there have been thousands of UFOs spotted... but some stand up to scrutiny better than others.
This is Unveiled, and today we're exploring four of the most credible UFO claims ever recorded.
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First to the New Jersey Turnpike, where traffic was famously brought to a standstill
around midnight in the middle of July, 2001, when more than seventy-five drivers pulled
over to the side of the road to stare at a peculiar set of yellow and orange lights.
These lights had appeared over a nearby river, quietly and innocuously hanging in a V-Shape,
amazing observers for some fifteen minutes… before disappearing in a flare-like whoosh.
Witnesses, including a local police Lieutenant Daniel Tarrant, were left
bewildered as to what could have produced the lights, which had acted in such an unusual way.
But, when an inquiry was made to local air traffic control, they put out a statement claiming that no
planes had been in the area that night. With the most straightforward theories discredited then,
reports say some turned to a local meteorologist for an alternative explanation… but still,
they couldn’t determine a cause to account for the lights. Nobody, it turned out, could offer even
the beginnings of an answer for what more than seventy-five people had witnessed first-hand.
At least, that was until a local group known as the New York Strange Phenomena Investigators
(or NY-SPI for short) conducted their own investigation… and claimed to have unearthed
evidence that directly contradicted the claims of the air traffic controllers. According to the
NY-SPI report, there had been a Federal Aviation Administration radar report that night, which had
indicated an enormous number of airborne objects in the area between 10:31 PM and 12:51 AM. So,
what gives? Was this a blatant coverup, or could there be a simpler, less sinister explanation?
Ultimately, whether you believe the NY-SPI report or not, one thing is certain;
a vast number of witnesses definitely saw something floating over the river that night,
and no one can really explain what it was. Our second example today was also reportedly
witnessed by a number of people. In fact, it comes from what may be one of the most crowded places on
Earth - O'Hare International Airport, in Chicago, at rush hour. According to reports in the Chicago
Tribune, it was approximately 4:30 PM on November 7th, 2006, when a ramp employee directing a United
Airlines flight out to the runway first spotted a flying object silently hovering over a nearby
gate. After informing the plane’s crew of the incident over radio, soon several more workers
at the airport had rushed out to see the object for themselves - with eventual witnesses ranging
from pilots to supervisors, as well as many of the passengers awaiting their flight. Afterwards,
they variously described the object as being a grey saucer between six and twenty-four feet long.
The UFO reportedly remained stationary over the gate for around five minutes, before shooting
upwards in a burst of acceleration, punching an oval-shaped hole in the cloud cover above.
This was already weird and unexpected, but when the FAA radar reports were consulted and no
anomalous activity had been detected, meaning that no official investigation into the object
was conducted, it got even stranger. Instead of investigating, the FAA reportedly dismissed the
incident as a common weather phenomenon, with that claim being supported by a Doctor Mark Hammergren,
an astronomer at the nearby Adler Planetarium. Nevertheless, the O’Hare sighting remains one of
the most debated UFO events in recent times. While our next sighting doesn't quite have as
many eyewitnesses to back it up, it does come from arguably an even more credible source:
the U.S. Navy. For weeks leading up to this event, in 2004, the crew of the USS Princeton had been
tasked with the mission of tracking mysterious objects that had been recently spotted off the
California coast. Objects that were said to hover at about 80,000 feet before plummeting to just
above the Pacific Ocean in less than a second. With no way to account for this bizarre technology
or speed, the crew needed to get a closer look at the objects themselves… and so, when one of
them was finally tracked down to around 100 miles from the shore, on November 14th, 2004,
the Navy knew they had to act fast. A closer ship, the USS Nimitz, was quickly sent to the scene,
and two fighter jets were immediately dispatched. Upon arrival at the location of the unknown craft,
the jets reportedly came to an area where the ocean swirled, and where a Tic Tac-shaped
something was floating just above. According to the accompanying military report, clear conditions
meant unlimited visibility... so there’s little suggestion of the sighting being a mistake.
Rather, one of the pilots, Commander Dave Fravor, has spoken at length about what he witnessed,
across multiple interviews. According to him, and to supporting statements made by another pilot
witness, Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich, the object was about the same size as the jets
they were flying, and it closely mimicked their movements. It didn’t appear to have wings or an
engine… but it was powerful. Then, when Fravor attempted to close the gap between his plane and
it, the object seemingly disappeared… only to reappear on the USS Princeton's radar almost
sixty miles away, just a few seconds later. The object had apparently instantly accelerated and
travelled at multiple times the speed of sound to get to its new location.
While the video of this incredible interaction has circulated online since 2007,
it only received mainstream attention when it was leaked by the New York Times in 2017.
Since then, the video has become one of three UFO sightings officially confirmed
by the Pentagon, in April of 2020. And, while it’s not confirmed whether the origins of the Tic Tac
craft are alien or not, whoever it does belong to seemingly has technology that’s far superior
to the US. It’s little wonder, then, that this particular case has made so many news headlines.
Finally, of course not all UFO sightings take place in the US,
and so we’re headed across the Atlantic, and to the south coast of the UK. In April 2007, a small
commercial airplane was piloted by one Captain Ray Bowyer across the English Channel. The route
was one which Bowyer had travelled many times before, but this time he came across something
unexpected. According to Bowyer, and to several supporting accounts by passengers on the flight,
the plane came within close proximity of two, apparently stationary, definitely huge UFOs.
At his upper estimate, Bowyer guessed they may have been as big as a mile wide.
According to the pilot’s account, these objects were long and thin, and omitting a brilliant
yellow light. They were situated around 4,000 feet above sea level, in an open and clear space
between a low layer of haze below (at 2,000 feet) and heavy cloud cover above (at 10,000 feet).
It wasn’t only the occupants of the plane that witnessed these mysterious objects, though,
with sightings also reported from the ground - on the nearby Channel Island of Sark.
Bowyer contacted local air traffic control while nervously approaching the yellow visions in
front of him, but they could only confirm that there were no other aircraft within the region.
As such, exactly what the pilot and his passengers saw remains a mystery. Ultimately,
they got to within around fifteen miles of the objects, and witnessed them for around
fifteen minutes, before descending to land. And although they did little more than glow,
Bowyer has continually reiterated how out of place these UFOs were.
It’s just not something you expect to see while flying halfway between England and France, is it?
Unlike many UFO sightings, which are so often derided, these four claims all share some key
commonalities that arguably help to maintain their credibility. They all occurred in a
public setting, and they all had multiple eyewitnesses… and even when they had fewer
witness, they’ve been validated by an official, authoritative source. What’s more, they all
lack any other confirmed explanation of what they were. And that’s why, while we may never get a
definitive picture for any of them, those are four of the most credible UFO claims ever recorded.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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