UFOs Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record (14 page)

Air law stipulates quite clearly that if an operating crew of an aircraft sees another aircraft in a place that it should not be, 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 twenty minutes of the sighting what was seen, as described in the flight log faxed directly to the relevant CAA office. The military was 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.

Ever since I saw the two UFOs and reported them openly, I have been asked the one question that everyone wants answered on this subject: “So what did you see, then? What do you think it was?” In truth I still don’t have an answer that satisfies me.

There are a number of what-if’s to be considered. For example, what if it had been nighttime? Or if there had been no cloud layer between the ground and the massive objects? Their sheer brilliance would surely have been seen from hundreds of miles away by people on the ground and all overflying pilots. The surface of the sea and land would have been lit up as if by two mini-suns.

Also, four days later, there was an earthquake off the Kent coast some 200 miles away. Could they have been earthquake lights, a rare phenomenon coincident with earth tremors? Unlikely. These are not seen over water, since they are discharged directly from a fault line. And could one of them manifest as a stationary, brilliant, sharply defined object, with an exact duplicate some distance away? Highly doubtful.

Or, was the brilliance of the objects just an aside, since perhaps they were part of some secret experiment? I would be interested to know if an overflying military or government satellite had picked up this extraordinary power source or brilliant light, which would seem likely. In any case, the Ministry of Defence stated in writing that this was not a military exercise or anything belonging to them.

My conclusion for all that ask the question is simple: I believe that there were two solid craft working in unison that day, shown by the fact that their sortie was linked together in both time and space. What they were, I cannot answer. What they were doing, once again I cannot answer. What I will say is that for machines so huge that they are visible from 50-plus miles hence, from two independent sources and with radar evidence to support their provenance, I can only conclude that they were not from around here, and in that I mean they were not, can not, have been manufactured on Earth.

So, what’s next? Well, this case, like so many others, was closed before it even started, as far as the authorities are concerned. The British and French military showed their now customary “Not too worried, really” colors, since their respective airspaces were not under direct threat. I interpret this to mean “We see it, but there’s not a thing we can do to stop it or make it go away.”

I believe that what we witnessed that day, along with what many other pilots witness around the world on a regular basis,
is
known to the relevant authorities as something not originating on this planet, and this has been known for a very long time.

But what if the people of the world were informed of this? It could result in recrimination against government, religion, and authority, possibly large-scale civil unrest culminating in a new world order which might or might not be beneficial to the planet, or a myriad of other complicated and unpredictable scenarios. The authorities may do well to consider keeping the lid on Pandora’s box at this time.

On the other hand, I believe the time is coming when they will no longer be able to keep sweeping this issue under the mat. With improved technology available and with more sightings being faithfully recorded every day, the time is surely not far away. Soon they will have to confront the people with what is known. Depending on what they know, or what we might be able to learn once they do this, I suspect this might turn out to be the time when the human race will grow up. Forced to confront their own smallness in relation to Earth’s place in the universe, humans may at last face up to a future as a tiny fish in a big sea.

This whole episode has exposed a new world to me that I didn’t know existed. I’ve come to know a very unusual group of people who are fascinated with the subject of UFOs—an eclectic bunch of dedicated believers and dreamers, writers, skeptics, filmmakers, witnesses, psychotherapists, former military officials, and all hues in between. Some of the people that I have met firmly believe in extraterrestrial intelligence; others insist on refuting any idea of a greater intelligence than the human mind. Either way, the beliefs are firmly held and vocally expressed in all forms of media. And a complete industry has emerged to service the hunger for knowledge surrounding this subject.

As for myself, life has returned pretty much to normal. I still give the occasional newspaper, TV, or radio interview, but here at home in Guernsey, the incident is mainly forgotten. People have other things on their minds now, and concern about something otherworldly when the mortgage payment is due falls firmly into second or third place. Regardless, the day may be coming when the whole human race will have to face the frightening reality that we are coexistent with others in this universe. In my view, we may be well advised to get along with this now, because, frankly, we have very little choice.

CHAPTER 8

UFOs as Air Force Targets

C
ommercial passenger jets operate quite independently from military aircraft, and obviously, as described by Richard Haines, have limited options when it comes to responding to a nearby UFO. Also, at least in America, the stigma against reporting such events is high among civilian pilots, who face the possibility that, if reported, the story might be leaked to the media, compounding the derision even further. Not one witness would go on the record regarding the 2006 O’Hare case, despite the numbers who validated the incident and despite the legitimate concern about aviation safety expressed by many of them. But what happens when pilots in military jets, fully armed, encounter UFOs? Or, if electromagnetic radiation from UFOs disables sensitive equipment at military bases, as it can do in the cockpit of an airplane, does this become an issue of national security? These considerations go one step further than that of aviation safety problems caused by accidental proximity to UFOs. When is it appropriate for military jets to take aggressive action, if ever?

As contrasted with commercial aviation, the military operates within a more self-contained, less public arena. Unlike commercial pilots, who are committed to assuring the comfort and safety of often hundreds of passengers as well as protecting their personal reputations and the reputations of their parent companies, Air Force officers have a very different set of priorities. Instead, these pilots are oriented toward protecting their homelands from attack and maintaining readiness for an unanticipated invasion or terrorist assault. Military fliers are prepared to defend themselves if necessary; their jet aircraft are loaded not with passengers but with lethal weaponry that can be used either to attack or to defend.

Military pilots and their air-traffic controllers are trained to obey orders and not ask too many questions, and the system is well practiced in the arts of both reporting sensitive information and maintaining its confidentiality. Within the armed services, pilots are more likely to file reports as a matter of duty, free of the risks that commercial pilots face, because they know that such information will likely be restricted. When Air Force pilots are faced with a UFO, there are often other witnesses from a second aircraft or a base below, and information can be quickly relayed up the chain of command. These officers know that other aircraft can readily be scrambled as support in response to any unusual engagement. And they can defend themselves instantly if necessary.

Knowing this, one naturally wonders: Have military pilots ever shot at UFOs? The shocking answer is yes.

In November 2007, I was fortunate to meet and spend a few days with two pilots who have both engaged in lengthy “dogfights” with targeted UFOs. Retired Iranian general Parviz Jafari was a major in the Iranian Air Force in 1976 when he was ordered by the Air Force Command to man his Phantom F-4 II jet and approach a luminous UFO observed over Tehran. Several times during a wild cat-and-mouse chase, he and his backseat navigator attempted to launch a Sidewinder missile at additional smaller objects heading their way, but at the moment of fire their equipment shut down, returning to normal only when their jet moved away. The main object had been pursued by a second Air Force jet, was recorded on cockpit radar, and was observed from the ground by a general and experienced air navigation crews.

A second, similar event occurred four years later, in 1980, over an air base in Peru, when then Lieutenant Oscar Santa María Huertas was ordered to intercept what was at first believed to be an aerial spying device. He fired at the balloonlike object and barraged it with machine-gun shells, but they had no effect. He quickly realized this was something unknown, a UFO. Three different times he locked on to the object to fire when it was stationary, but each time, at the last instant, it shot straight upward. This UFO was witnessed in broad daylight by over a thousand soldiers and staff at the La Joya military base.

General Jafari and Comandante Santa María
¹
met for the first time at our 2007 press conference in Washington, D.C., also attended by General De Brouwer, Captain Ray Bowyer, and a number of other contributors to this book. This was an opportunity to present statements publicly, but it was also a unique opportunity for these men to converse over the course of a few days, forming the basis of an international network.

As the co-organizer and media contact for the event, and host for our panelists, I was privy to many private discussions over morning coffee and some that lasted late into the night. I will never forget the evening two days before the press conference when General Jafari and Comandante Santa María shook hands and sat down together for the first time. They had just arrived at the Washington Hotel after long journeys from very distant parts of the globe. These two unassuming gentlemen joined a small group of us at the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, weary but relieved to be among friends and excited about the momentous press event that lay ahead. General Jafari, sitting to my right, was affable and animated, and soon was responding to a host of questions from those at our table about the 1976 incident. Neither Jafari nor Santa María knew much about the other’s experience, and the conversation that followed was unplanned and spontaneous, with no tape recorders or cameras present to curtail its intimacy.

Comandante Santa María did not speak English, but shortly after Jafari began his account, a Spanish-speaking couple at the next table confessed that they couldn’t help eavesdropping, and one of them offered to translate for him. Following Jafari, he told his story, prompted by questions from those around him. Both men, each a witness to one of the most unusual events in Air Force history, discovered through the ensuing exchange how similar their experiences were. Each could identify with the fear and awe expressed by the other in the retelling of his story. As Air Force pilots on two different continents, they both had suddenly found themselves face-to-face with something utterly impossible, yet powerfully real. It was one of the most remarkable, and chilling, few hours I’ve spent since beginning this journey ten years ago, and I felt privileged to bear witness to it. Both retired military men were humble, understated, and direct, as well as entirely believable. Jafari described one speeding object coming after his Phantom F-4 jet as he prepared to return to the base. Someone at our table asked him how he felt. “At that moment,” he replied in his imperfect but colorful English, “I doubled my scare.” Santa María made a drawing of his UFO on a sugar pack served with our coffee, which I saved as a memento.

And why had the two pilots felt compelled to fire at these UFOs? General Jafari explained that he was acting in self-defense. He initially had no intention of taking any such action, because the Iranian general who ordered him and his navigator aloft was simply interested in getting a better look at the brilliant starlike object, to try to determine its identity. But Jafari soon found himself confronted with actions highly unexpected and threatening to his aircraft. Santa María’s circumstances were different. At the outset, he was told the purpose of his mission was to destroy the “espionage device” above his air base, since it had failed to respond to normal communications. Neither pilot realized how futile his actions would be when attempting to fire at a UFO.

In retrospect, there will always be a question as to whether actual aggression was displayed by the UFOs, and we have no idea as to their intention or purpose, or even whether these concepts apply. However, such incidents, although rare, do raise serious national security questions. As it stands now, there appears to be uniform agreement at the highest military levels that UFOs are not belligerent. Even when provoked by human aggression, they do not retaliate—and we have to assume they have every capability of doing so. As General Denis Letty of France assured readers in the COMETA Report, although “intimidation maneuvers have been confirmed,” UFOs have demonstrated no hostile acts to date.

Perhaps the real national security problem lies with impulsive, even if understandable, attempts by military pilots to defend themselves against what they soon discover are phenomena of vastly superior technology with unknown agendas—a truly frightening prospect. But even if pilots feel that self-defense is warranted, such actions could have disastrous consequences if they were ever successful in damaging their target, or if the object
did
respond aggressively after an attempt to destroy it. The risks in engaging militarily with something this powerful, and completely unknown, are self-evident. No one can predict the behavior of something we don’t understand. Being in attack mode also diminishes the possibility of establishing communication with the UFO, if that were possible, or of simply learning more about it through cautious observation at close range. The accounts of Jafari and Santa María give the inside stories of what two Air Force pilots experienced when attempting to shoot down a UFO. They had received no training or any preparation for dealing with such an unanticipated eventuality.