Most interesting UFO incidents thread

[Stellafane]

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.

Very interesting. Robert Sheaffer is one of my debunking heroes, and I absolutely love the way he writes. I do think he's overstating things a bit when he says "In any case, we can be quite sure of what happened to Valentich, even if we cannot say why he made that fatal flight." I think it would be a bit more accurate to state "we now have further evidence that Valentich crashed, although it unfortunately cannot be confirmed." It still leaves unanswered why he crashed (the video doesn't really help, frankly -- rather unusual for Mr. Sheaffer's usual standard of work) and what the deal was with Valentich's last voice transmissions.

Don't get me wrong -- I don't believe for a second that Velentich was abducted by aliens. More likely, I'm guessing he was a strong believer in UFO's who mistook astronomical objects/meteors for flying saucers, which combined with his flying inexperience caused him to panic and crash. It would be interesting to know what happened for certain, however.

 

[Stellafane]

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.

I'd consider all of the above out of the ordinary, wouldn't you?

 

[Garrison]

I'd consider all of the above out of the ordinary, wouldn't you?

Honestly? No. People come up with bizarre plans and stunts all the time, and they often go wrong; a quick browse of somewhere like Cracked shows that(Warning some NSFW language at that link). As for him getting stoned before flying, probably more common than you like to think. And misinterpretation; well that's pretty much a cornerstone of the UFO phenomenon.

All essentially mundane, and any of them possible in this case given how little evidence we have.

 

[GeeMack]

Maybe this time it'll work!

I'd bet against it.

 

[Stellafane]

Honestly? No. People come up with bizarre plans and stunts all the time, and they often go wrong; a quick browse of somewhere like Cracked shows that(Warning some NSFW language at that link). As for him getting stoned before flying, probably more common than you like to think. And misinterpretation; well that's pretty much a cornerstone of the UFO phenomenon.

All essentially mundane, and any of them possible in this case given how little evidence we have.

Stoned while flying I'll grant you is pretty mundane. However, your own use of the word "bizzare" would seem to indicate the other possibilities are out of the ordinary. But at this point it's probably just semantics, among the least interesting of all arguments to the layperson.

 

[TjW]

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.

I'd just like to say that artist had no conception of what a Cessna 182 looks like.

 

[Dcdrac]

The only UFo story I will be interested in is if one actually is visitors from another world

 

[lkepress]

Yeah, I think he became disoriented almost like JFK Jr. did and he crashed...but the transcript between Valentich and the ATC is still disturbing to me. And I didn't know that they actually found wreckage, I always assumed they never found anything.

 

[Stray Cat]

... And I didn't know that they actually found wreckage, I always assumed they never found anything.

You will make a first grade UFOlogist.

 

[Stray Cat]

And, BTW, isn't it time for a new Squid Fishing Monthly?

Sorry, the recession and other commitments have been keeping SFM off the shelves recently.

 

[AlBell]

The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.

 

[Stellafane]

I'd just like to say that artist had no conception of what a Cessna 182 looks like.

Yeah, but they got the UFO just right!

 

[tsig]

Yeah, but they got the UFO just right!

And the artist would have gotten it right no matter what he drew.

 

[Stellafane]

And the artist would have gotten it right no matter what he drew.

Pretty much. This particular UFO model reminds me of the "olive" type lead sinker used in fishing, except for the stylish green aura. Ironically, there's probably a vastly greater chance of spotting the sinker flying through the sky.

 

[Wolrab]

I will let the Late, Great Isaac Asimov have a word via my sig.

 

[Akhenaten]

This must score fairly highly in the "interesting" category, although I can't vouch for its authenticity:

​

 

[pakeha]

Here's my favourite

 

[Stray Cat]

Genuine.

 

[catsmate]

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.

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.

So no disappearing plane, a pilot with no experience of nighttime over-water flight and a UFO believer mindset and distinctly odd reasons for the flight.

 

[jond]

Genuine.

Thanks! That was just what I needed this morning.