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Most interesting UFO incidents thread

Reivax

Critical Thinker
Reivax
Joined
Jan 6, 2011
Messages
259
While I would suggest that supernatural claims are incredulous at best, there seems to be something about UFOs that ruminates in the back of my mind. This is most likely due to the consensus that extraterrestrials most probably do exist and that it is likely that at least some of them have or at least had or will have the potential to visit our planet.

This being said, I still find it extremely unlikely that extraterrestrials do visit our planet given the lack of substantial evidence and the astronomical figures that make extraterrestrial visitation extremely implausible and technologically challenging. I am generally disappointed by the lack of concrete evidence and the inconsistencies that are regular in the majority of UFO reports. Many skeptics will easily debunk many of these claims or at least cast serious doubt on them. A part of me wants them to be true, but my desire has to be met with good evidence before I can satisfy that part of myself honestly.

So the purpose of this thread is to offer some of the 'best' or most interesting UFO cases that 'seem' to be exhaustive of naturalistic explanations. I'll start by offering the 1976 Tehran UFO incident which seems to hold some water. Do I think it is an extraterrestrial spacecraft? Probably not, but from my knowledge this case lacks an explanation, and there is something interesting going on here, even if it is just some monumental incompetence from the professionals involved or a bizarre physical phenomena.

Thanks in advance, enjoy! :D
 
The 1976 Tehran UFO story was picked over in an interminable UFO thread a year or two ago.

As I recall, a genuine F4 pilot pointed out some anomalies in the story, such as one pilot reporting being followed by an object at a range of about 3-4 miles. The F4 had no means of measuring the range to a following craft, and there's no realistic way for the pilot to estimate the distance to a single unidentified point of light at night.
 
I actually perused through that thread.:faint:

Yes, PuddleDuck(the pilot Jack by the Hedge is talking about) gave a nice explanation for what probably happened to the pilot in great detail.
 
Reivax said:
While I would suggest that supernatural claims are incredulous at best, there seems to be something about UFOs that ruminates in the back of my mind. This is most likely due to the consensus that extraterrestrials most probably do exist and that it is likely that at least some of them have or at least had or will have the potential to visit our planet.

This being said, I still find it extremely unlikely that extraterrestrials do visit our planet given the lack of substantial evidence and the astronomical figures that make extraterrestrial visitation extremely implausible and technologically challenging. I am generally disappointed by the lack of concrete evidence and the inconsistencies that are regular in the majority of UFO reports. Many skeptics will easily debunk many of these claims or at least cast serious doubt on them. A part of me wants them to be true, but my desire has to be met with good evidence before I can satisfy that part of myself honestly.

So the purpose of this thread is to offer some of the 'best' or most interesting UFO cases that 'seem' to be exhaustive of naturalistic explanations. I'll start by offering the 1976 Tehran UFO incident which seems to hold some water. Do I think it is an extraterrestrial spacecraft? Probably not, but from my knowledge this case lacks an explanation, and there is something interesting going on here, even if it is just some monumental incompetence from the professionals involved or a bizarre physical phenomena.

Thanks in advance, enjoy! :D
Click to expand...

Here's the thread where it was discussed in detail.
http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228984

Enjoy!
 
And, BTW, isn't it time for a new Squid Fishing Monthly?
 
I always found the Valentich incident rather curious. As far as reported last words go, "[It's] hovering on top of me again ...and it's not an aircraft" have to rank among the more chilling.
 
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Reivax said:
....Do I think it is an extraterrestrial spacecraft? Probably not, but from my knowledge this case lacks an explanation, and there is something interesting going on here, even if it is just some monumental incompetence from the professionals involved or a bizarre physical phenomena...
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Bikewer said:
Years ago, I read a book by Carl Sagan... I believe it was this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Ufos-Scientific-Debate-Norton-library/dp/0393007391

In which a "blue ribbon" panel examined what were considered to be the very best (or at least, most inexplicable) UFO cases.
The conclusion on all of them... "Not a shred of evidence".
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The bold parts above bring up an important aspect of UFO cases. It is quite common to hear among UFO believers that a particular incident cannot be explained. They then make a dramatic leap that this points to an intelligent alien spacecraft. In reality, a lack of a conclusion means just that; it is not known. There is simply not enough evidence to fully explain the incident, one way or another.

If you think about it the other way around, of all of the cases in which sufficient evidence exists to form a conclusion does exist, the result is thus far 100% natural phenomena, i.e. not an alien spacecraft. Of the small fraction of cases in which there is not enough evidence to reach a conclusion, what then is the most likely result? Chances are that they are too just natural phenomena.
 
Stellafane said:
I always found the Valentich incident rather curious. As far as reported last words go, "[It's] hovering on top of me again ...and it's not an aircraft" have to rank among the more chilling.
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I was hoping someone would mention this one, I also find this case intriguing. And supposedly a photographer taking photos of the sunset that day captured what he thought was the UFO Valentich sighted and a family coming back from an outing saw Valentich's plane and the green light on top of it slowly drop out of sight behind a ridge.
 
lkepress said:
I was hoping someone would mention this one, I also find this case intriguing. And supposedly a photographer taking photos of the sunset that day captured what he thought was the UFO Valentich sighted and a family coming back from an outing saw Valentich's plane and the green light on top of it slowly drop out of sight behind a ridge.
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Here's an interesting article on the Valentich case:

http://badufos.blogspot.com/2012/10/new-developments-in-frederick-valentich.html

A lot of the details from the government report were news to me, including wreckage that was found and Valentich's strong UFO beliefs.

Frederick worried about attack from UFOs and what they could do.
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Nomination: Oct 24 1968, Minot AFB incident. As highlighted in the ABC-TV new special with Peter Jennings, SEEING IS BELIEVING. Featuring new interview footage with ~half dozen personnel involved, looking back after decades. Enables viewer to evaluate key 'human factors' - critical quality of testimony, witness character, credibility, etc.

Particularly informative webpage - google:
Minot AFB UFO 24 October Documents Interviews Analysis
 
I was an officer and instructor in the Minuteman Missile Maintenance Officer's course at the time of the Minot incident. Some of my fellow instructors had been at Minot at the time and at least one other instructor in my office had been in the Malmstrom AFB Missile Wing at the time of the 1967 Malmstrom incident. Here's the problem with both incidents: Yes a whole flight (10) missiles at Malmstrom went off Strategic Alert and there were indeed some odd console displays in a Launch Control Center at Minot. And there may have been a couple of reports of "strange lights" in the sky around the same time (Or perhaps later). But initially, no one specifically reported large glowing discs hovering over a missile silo. Those stories seemed to come later and get exaggerated over time. Similar to the Roswell incident where thin sticks and foil evolved over time to be "unknown incredibly strong metal with mystical markings" and then into "recovered bodies of occupants".
You need to know that the Minuteman system was tremendously complex and missiles were going off Strategic Alert all the time (The numbers were classified but higher than you might think), and bizarre Launch Console indications were very common. This sort of thing kept my students very busy when they deployed to the field. A whole flight of 10 missiles going off alert at once? Unusual perhaps, but not only physically possible but a likely eventually given a thousand missiles on alert 24/7/365. Same for console indicators, even one indicating either "Launch Enabled" or "Launch in Progress". That said, this is a far stretch away from the chances of an actual missile launch. I'll not go into the details, some of which are still classified, but getting an actual missile to launch would take far more than a few electrical glitches from a UFO. Bottom line: Assuming there WAS a mysterious light in the sky at the time of missiles going off alert or "Launch in Progress" lights on a console please keep in mind that "correlation is not causation".
 
Reivax said:
So the purpose of this thread is to offer some of the 'best' or most interesting UFO cases that 'seem' to be exhaustive of naturalistic explanations.
Click to expand...


It's already been done. The topic has been discussed at length. This is the start of a thread which ran from October 2009 to September 2012, and contained over 17,000 posts. The thread was continued here, and ran for another several months and 1,500+ posts. Some of the most adamant alien believers, self professed experts on alien visitation, made every conceivable argument, dragged in every conceivable alleged alien sighting, and even made up a bunch of stuff for the purpose of supporting their beliefs.

In those 18,000+ posts, not a single incident was described which could not be explained by natural or known causes. And even the ones with the least obvious or unknown explanations didn't offer a mote of evidence that any sort of aliens or extraterrestrials were involved. Arguments from incredulity and appeals to ignorance were all that remained. The result of the entire discussion was an utter failure to demonstrate that there is any reason to believe the Earth has been, or is being visited by extraterrestrial beings.

Thanks in advance, enjoy! :D
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That's already been done, too. ;)

AdMan said:
How is the topic of this thread different from that (moderated) one?
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It's not.
 
GeeMack said:
It's already been done. The topic has been discussed at length. This is the start of a thread which ran from October 2009 to September 2012, and contained over 17,000 posts. The thread was continued here, and ran for another several months and 1,500+ posts. Some of the most adamant alien believers, self professed experts on alien visitation, made every conceivable argument, dragged in every conceivable alleged alien sighting, and even made up a bunch of stuff for the purpose of supporting their beliefs.

In those 18,000+ posts, not a single incident was described which could not be explained by natural or known causes. And even the ones with the least obvious or unknown explanations didn't offer a mote of evidence that any sort of aliens or extraterrestrials were involved. Arguments from incredulity and appeals to ignorance were all that remained. The result of the entire discussion was an utter failure to demonstrate that there is any reason to believe the Earth has been, or is being visited by extraterrestrial beings.




That's already been done, too. ;)




It's not.
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Maybe this time it'll work!
 
lkepress said:
I was hoping someone would mention this one, I also find this case intriguing. And supposedly a photographer taking photos of the sunset that day captured what he thought was the UFO Valentich sighted and a family coming back from an outing saw Valentich's plane and the green light on top of it slowly drop out of sight behind a ridge.
Click to expand...

Yes, I recall those details as well. However, it's difficult to know whether or not they are actually associated with the incident, or added on after the fact. Plus the photo of the "UFO" may or may not be simply a cloud. What intrigue me more are the unarguable facts of the case: The official transcript of Valentich's reports of a mysterious "aircraft" following him during his final flight, including his enigmatic last words, does exist. Valentich is gone. His airplane was never found. Whatever really happened that day, it was at the very least quite out of the ordinary.
 
Stellafane said:
Yes, I recall those details as well. However, it's difficult to know whether or not they are actually associated with the incident, or added on after the fact. Plus the photo of the "UFO" may or may not be simply a cloud. What intrigue me more are the unarguable facts of the case: The official transcript of Valentich's reports of a mysterious "aircraft" following him during his final flight, including his enigmatic last words, does exist. Valentich is gone. His airplane was never found. Whatever really happened that day, it was at the very least quite out of the ordinary.
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Sorry but we don't really know that. Maybe Valentich just decided to disappear in dramatic fashion, maybe he was planning some elaborate hoax and it went wrong, maybe he was stoned, maybe he had an interest in UFOs and misinterpreted some ordinary phenomenon causing him to crash where the wreckage couldn't easily be found.

There are plenty of mundane explanations available that fit the sparse facts of the case.
 
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