-
Out of this world: A scene from Close Encounters Of The Third
Kind and (below) Allen Ilynek
NOBODY knew more about the truth behind flying saucers and other
unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, than Josef Allen Hynek, a
pioneer of scientific investigation into the unexplained sightings
that still intrigue the world.
The astronomy professor and ufologist was born in Chicago 100
years ago today. Hynek led an extraordinary life analysing many.of
the thousands of reports made every year of extra-terrestrials,
spaceships, mysterious "crop circles", alleged UFO attacks, alien
visitors, abduction claims and inexplicable sightings usually in
remote places.
At first he was a sceptic about the existence of UFOs but his
opinions, along with his knowledge, slowly swung around. He became
concerned that not all the reliable witnesses who reported
sightings could be dismissed as wrong, even if the sights could not
be scientifically explained.
He was technical adviser to Columbia Pictures and Steven
Spielberg on the 1977 classic film Close Encounters Of The Third
Kind, the story based loosely on his own life. He was seen stepping
forward silently, pipe in mouth, to view the aliens disembark from
the "mother ship".
1111936 Hynek, with a doctorate in astrophysics, joined the
department of physics and astronomy at Ohio State University.
During World War II, at the John Hopkins Applied Physics
Laboratory, he helped develop the US Navy's radio proximity fuse
(automatic explosive device) which contributed to the Allied
victory in the war.
By 1948, Hynek, as a full professor, was invited by the US Air
Force to act as technical consultant in Project Sign, set up to
examine the flood of UFO reports causing rising public concern.
This became Project Grudge 1949-52 and Project Blue Book 1952-69,
with Hynek as chief scientific consultant_
At first he debunked any idea that flying saucers did exist. He
believed his main task for the air force was to educate the public
on scientific matters of astronomy and atmospheric phenomena. His
opinions began to shift as he realised that not all UFO sightings
could be explained away as mis-identification of known natural
occurrences. He found some reports "deeply puzzling". He was
troubled by the small but persistent percentage of reports from
competent observers
astronomers, pilots, police and military personnel containing
physical data which could not be explained away. Hynek decided many
of these must be genuine observations.
He concluded "that the UFO phenomenon is a real physical
phenomenon and represents an aspect of the natural world not yet
explored by science".
By the 1960s his turnaround and disagreement with the attitudes
of Blue Book, where he was expected to "explain away" as many UFO
reports as possible, was an open secret. He became distressed at
the "arrogant" or "superficial" attitude of most mainstream
scientists towards UFOs.
For decades, after the USAF terminated Project Blue Book, Hynek
conducted his own research. He was founder and head of the
Chicago-based civilian Centre for UFO Studies, opened in 1973. That
year, Hynek said he doubted UFOs were spacecraft from other
planets. "It seems to me ridiculous that super intelligences would
travel great distances to do relatively stupid things like stop
cars, collect soil samples and frighten people. We must look closer
to home," he said. -
In a final hypothesis he
suggested there are stars millions of years older than the sun.
"There may be a civilisation millions of years more advanced than
man's," he said. "[They] may know something that we don't
"The psychic realms, so mysterious to us today, may be an
ordinary part of an advanced technology."
In 1978, Hynek addressed the UN general assembly, in an attempt
to initiate a centralised UN authority on UFOs.
Still probing for the elusive answers, Hynek died in 1986 of a
malignant brain tumor in Scottsdale, Arizona. Ann Beveridge
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PERHAPS we need to ;seat any alien visitors as illegal
immigrants and get them first to land on Christmas Island for
processing. If they fail to meet the criteria, send them back to
outer space, or tell them they can have Afghanistan.
Pete Bateau UFOs certainly exist, there has been too much
Bay
evidence not to believe otherwise. I find it hard not to
believe, as in this vast universe surely we are not the only life
that exists.
Jual Russell SOUNDS like some people may have had one too many
Darwin stubbies. Please leave these stories for the April 1
edition,
arry Central HOW does one become a qualified UFOlogist?
Coast Can one become an Easter bunny expert?
Carl Wollongong IT'S Rudd and his cronies looking for their own
mine., . nothing to fear my friends.
Terry
IT IS Hans Solo coming to find spare parts from Autobarn for the
Millennium:Falcon:
UFO tax coming soon.
The Opinion Sydney
Sqidda Boy I BLAME the NSW State Government Sydney
ABDUCT me, abduct me!
Dave Gosford
The Papp Five Dock GRAB the shotguns and don your alfoil hats .
THIS ames IS article was just so funn . well do Sydney done I
enjoyed reading it.
y
Min Sydney SPACE Food Sticks are delicious, I say welcome.
Jono Carroll THEY are here for one purpose only, toSurry
remove
hills
the entire state of Queensland and their State of Origin team to
a planet far, far away .. may the force be with them,
Greg Mietherill Park
N A
EtIMATH"!1"0ipssoAir
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Real or fake? Send us your UFO pictures
[email protected] '
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a
Rocket, so forget the aliens
Blast off: The SpaceX rocket takes off from Cape Canaveral,
Florida yesterday
By RICHARD CLUNE
THE sightings began just before the break of dawn a strange
swirling light, spinning across the sky that stopped early risers
in their tracks.
It was definitely not a bird and moved too quickly to be a
plane.
From Melbourne to Caboolture, they gazed upwards wondering the
same thing: Could this be the UFO to end the debate about whether
UFOs exist?
It took only two hours for that question to be settled.
The unidentified flying object was identified as a private
rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
"Sadly for many, it's not aliens," said Sydney Observatory
curator Dr Andrew Jacob. "We believe it to be the SpaceX Falcon 9
rocket that was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
"lt launched at 4.45am Australian Eastern Standard Time and that
puts it over Sydney and the eastern seaboard about an hour
later.
"They always launch eastward and a little south from
Canaveral."
Developed by a California firm and subsidised by NASA, the
rocket was on its maiden test flight. Its supporters hope it will
be a cheaper way to launch satellites into space and will take over
from the space shuttle as a supply vehicle for the international
space
shuttle. The SpaceX company was set up by millionaire Elon Musk
in 2002.
Hundreds of Australians along the eastern seaboard reported
seeing the craft as it made its way across the sky.
Tamworth fireman Andrew Coe said it was a sight to behold.
"I was getting the paper when I looked up and saw the light. I
thought it was the moon but then realised it was moving, swirling.
I grabbed the boss and we observed it for a couple of minutes. It
was really interesting to see it"
Kevin Watson, of Shellharbour, reported a similar sight. He
said: "I couldn't believe my own eyes."
The rocket was also seen by workers on an oil rig in the Cooper
Basin, in far west Queensland.
"My mate spotted it first and said, 'Have a look at that!' At
first I thought it was the moon," Garth Marks said. "It moved
slowly, then disappeared."
Dr Jacob said the craft's high altitude explained the multiple
sightings.
But some remain to be convinced. UFO Research NSW spokesman Doug
Moffett labelled the rocket claims a "convenient explanation".
Z,L3LO,_
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Outback UFO an illusion A MYSTERIOUS object seen in film footage
of British miss-ile testing in the Australian desert in 1964 set
off decades of conspiracy theories about a UFO in the Outback.
When UK television viewers in the 1960s watched BBC footage of
an abandoned test of the Blue Streak missile at Woomera in South
Australia, they were shocked by what appeared to be a flying saucer
near the rocket launch pad.
The plot thickened in 1996 when documentary-maker Jenny Randles
went to investi-gate the footage. only to find the one canister
containing the evidence was missing from the National Archives.
Newly released files from the MOD reveal, far from being a UFO,
the flying saucer was just a trick of the light.
UFO tale banned BRITISH prime minister Winston Churchill banned
for 50 years the reporting of an alleged UFO incident during WWII
because it could create mass panic.
Documents released yester-day claimed that a wartime
reconnaissance aircraft photo-graphed a UFO as it crossed the
British coast, with the crew saying the mystery craft "hovered
noiselessly" near them before moving off.
The documents claimed Mr Churchill "made a declaration to the
effect, 'This event should be immediately classi-fied since it
would create mass panic among the population'."
Full report page 25
Space junk or UFO WINDHOEK: A hollow metallic ball which fell
out of the sky on remote grassland in Namibia has baffled
authorities, prompting them to contact NASA and the European space
agency for answers.
The ball, urn in circumference, was found near a village in the
north of the country. Locals heard several small explosions a few
days before it appeared.
With a 35cm diameter, it has a rough surface and appears to
consist of "two halves welded together". Made of a "metal alloy
known to man" and weighing 6kg, it made a crater 33cm deep and 3.8m
wide. Several such balls have fallen on southern Africa, Australia
and Latin America in the past 20 years.
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UFOs a war secret Churchill feared mass panic if air encounter
revealed
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LONDON: Sir Winston Churchill was accused of covering up a close
encounter between an RAF aircraft and a UFO during World War II,
newly released files reveal.
The former British prime minis-ter allegedly ordered the
incident over England's east coast be kept secret for at least 50
years because it would provoke "mass panic".
The claim, made by a scientist Who said his grandfather was one
of Mr Churchill's bodyguards, is re-. counted in declassified
Ministry of Defence UFO files made available online by the National
Archives.
Allegations of the cover-up emerged when the scientist wrote to
the government in 1999 seeking
to learn more about the incident. He described how his
grand-
father, who served with the RAF in the war, was present when Mr
Churchill and ps General Dwight Eisenhower discussed how to deal
with the UFO encounter.
The man, who is not named in the files, said Mr Churchill was
repor-ted to have exclaimed: "This event should be immediately
classified since it would create mass panic amongst the general
population and destroy one's be-lief in the church."
The incident alleg- edly involved an RAF reconnaiss-
ance plane returning from a miss-ion in France or Germany
towards the end of the war.
It was over or near the English coastline when it was
intercepted by a strange metallic object which matched the
aircraft's course and speed for a time before accelerating away and
disappearing.
Mr Churchill and General Eisen-hower "agreed to cover up the RAF
plane's UFO encounter during WWII", the files reveal.
"During the discussion with Mr Churchill, a consultant dismissed
any possibility that the object had been a missile, since a missile
could not suddenly match its speed with a slower aircraft and then
accelerate again. He declared that the event was totally beyond any
imagined capabilities of the time.
"Another person at the meeting raised the possibility of an
unidenti-fied flying object, at which point. Mr Churchill declared
that the incident should be immediately classified for at least 50
years."
The files also revealed UFOs were once taken seriously enough to
be discussed by intelligence chiefs in 1957.
The latest batch of UFO files from the National Archives
in-cludes details of a memorandum on "aerial phenomena" prepared
for a meeting of the Cabinet Office's Joint Intelligence Committee
in April 1957. And the files show that modern reports of UFO
sightings reached a peak in 1996. Cover up: Documents about a UFO
sighting were allegedly made secret by Sir Winston Churchill
LEU GU ST IQ R)
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Unidentified flying Nazis: A flying saucer allegedly developed
by Hitler's scientists and (inset) an artist's impression of the
craft
cuagjs.mBLS_ Nazi UFO flew over UK in '44 LONDON: As Hitler's
armies began to crumble he turned in increasing desperation to his
scientists to create a war-winning super-weapon.
Some, like the V2 rockets and the first jet fighters, saw action
but came too late to halt defeat.
Others were so outrageously ambitious that they never got past
the drawing board.
The idea of building flying saucers to bomb London and even New
York could have been just such a scheme.
Now it is claimed Hitler's scientists were so far advanced with
the project a prototype may have flown up the Thames.
The program, under the com-mand of SS officer Hans Kamm-Ier, was
said to have made breakthroughs in anti-gravity, according to a
report in the German science magazine PM.
It quotes witnesses who saw a flying saucer marked with the Iron
Cross flying low over the Thames in 1944.
"The Americans also treated the existence of the weapons
seriously," it said.
The magazine said the Ger-mans destroyed much of the paperwork
on their activities but in 1960, Canadian UFO experts managed to
recreate the device which, to their amazement, "did
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onthestreet Do you believe in the existence of UFOs? BELIEVE in
all possibilities
including UFOs. I'm very comforted by the fact there's
intelligent life out there. Alison Marshall Waterloo
YES. I saw one on my balcony with a friend five months ago.
There was a beam of light and it was there for three hours. Alexis
Al(ache Padstow YES. With how big the universe is and how small
Earth is, it is statistically probable. Craig Anderson Engadtne
I HAVEN'T seen any but I saw .a documentary on the History
Channel which swayed me. Kayo Shoji Ryde
2_DsLahLetg....a_ 2.0 Lo_
UFO? No, Iranians TEHRAN: It's not clear how far or how high it
can fly, or even how big it is and what
... makes it take off. But Iranian scientists claim
to have built the world's first flying saucer.
The unmanned machine is apparently designed for aerial
photography and is called the Zohal Saturn.
"It is equipped with auto-pilot, image stabiliser and GPS and
has a separate system for aerial recording with FULL HD quality,"
Iran declared, keen to show it is at the cutting edge of
science.
Pine Gap UFO files released Lucy Came in London
UNIDENTIFIED flying discs above Pine Gap space station and an
Australian sent by 'the lights" to unify the human race are among
thousands of alien claims made public by the UK Ministry of
Defence.
The files, released for the first time this week, contain more
than 8500 pages reveal-ing UFO sightings and alien abductions
discussed by sev-eral governments. They in-clude accounts of UF0s-
acitiss Britain, Norway and Australia.
One UK citizen in 2001 demanded the Ministry of Defence
investigate an alleged cover-up of flying objects seen from the
space shuttle Dis-covery over Pine Gap, near Alice Springs.
.NASA said it was debris illuniinated by the sun, but the MOD
admitted it could only offer a "disappointing" reply because "there
are some aspects which, for reasons of national security, are just
not
I open for discussion". _ In another . file, a London
mother claimed aliens chose her second husband.
"He is Australian [white] and I am Barbadian [black]," she
wrote. "We were being brought together to represent the Unity
between the Op-posite Forces -- the positive and negative
forces."
jaagstiL2. 0
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Shirley IVIacLaine: my wild affairs and hunting UFOs with
Andrew
SAMANTHA MAIDEN NATIONAL POLITICAL EDITOR
SCREEN legend Shirley Mac-LaMe has unlocked her Ex-Files,
revealing how she took Andrew Peacock LIFO spotting on a date at. a
remote Mexican volcano white he was foreign miniSter.
In a new tell-all book about her string of prominent lovers, Ms
MacLaine discloses how the future Liberal leader nearly "climbed
the sky" when they thought they saw a flying saucer and hinted that
he had secret government information about their existence.
The Oscar-winning actress is a lifelong believer in UFOs,
spiritu-ality and reincarnation and claims she slept with King
Char-lemagne when she was a Moorish peaSant girl in a past
fife.
In this life, her affair with Mr Peacock began when she was
touring Australia and later, as both travelled the world, they
enjoyed assignations in Canada, France, Cambodia, Thailand,
England, the US and Mexico.
In the book, entitled I'm Over All That And Other Confessions,
she writes: "I thought as long as 'he's the Minister for Ftireign
Affairs, I might as well give him one he'll never forget."
She claims her Australian lover, with his access to govern-ment
files, knew more about UFOs than he was willing to reveal to
her.
"Whenever I discussed my spiritual and metaphysical ideas with
him, he listened, nodded and more or less said: 'It could be, Who
knows?'
"On a UFO stakeout in Mex-ico near Mt Popocatepetl, at one
moment we thought we saw a craft and Andrew nearly 'climbed the
sky' to see if it was real.
"As foreign minister he con-
trolled all the information com-ing out of Alice Springs
(suppos-edly the underground UFO research facility in Australia).
Because he was sworn to secrecy, he 'never told me outright that
UFOs were extraterrestrial in origin and were present.
"When I told him I had gone to see Jimmy Carter to discuss UFOs,
he just smiled again. He was a trained diplomat."
Mt Popocatepetl is a repor ted hot-spot for UFO ac-tivity where'
enthusiasts claim the craft are regularly captured by Mexican
Gov-ernment disaster cameras.
in the book, the 76-year-old reveals her various "sex-capades,"
including bedding three lovers in one day. She writes about affairs
with actor Robert Mitchum, singer Yves Montand and Prime Ministers
Pierre Trudeau (Canada) and OW Palme (Sweden).
The book reveals Mr Peacock, who was single, threatened to have
the "secret service follow me if I was ever caught with anyone
else" but he didn't realise she was also bedding Mr Palme.
"Once after leaving Palme in Stockholm, I went directly to Paris
to meet Andrew. The pa-parazzi were all over me when I landed.
Andrew thought it was because of him, but it was actually about
both [Mr] Palme and him," she writes.
She describes Mr Peacock as "charming, funny and a
conserva-tive". "He used his voice like a snake oil salesman, which
always made me laugh because, as I told him, I was also in the
business of professional seduction through voice manipulation."
The Sunday Telegraph contacted Mr Peacock but he did not wish to
comment on the book.
We thought we saw a craft andAndrew nearly "climbed
the sky" to see if it was real
n Shirley Maclaine with Andrew Peacock dancing at a hall in
Washington in MB
APPIL
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lers stuns police By UGEL ADLANI
POLICE are convinced that Territorians go a little bit mad
during the full moon.
They were shocked -- and delighted that most people behaved
themselves during Tuesday night's full moon.
Superintendent John Ginnane said: "There were a few incidents
but generally it was a quiet night"
He said emergency service workers police, fire fighters and
ambulance officers firmly believed that full moon had a strange
effect on people.
And the policeman said other workers who dealt with the public
at night such as taxi drivers and nightclub bouncers were also
con-vinced of it.
"For some reason, a full
moon inspires behaviour over and above what is expected," Supt
Ginnane said.
Full moon madness doesn't occur only in troppo season.
"It happens regardless of the tune of year," Supt Ginnane said
yesterday.
Man has long believed in full moon madness -- the word lunacy
conies from lunar.
AccordMg to Wildpedia, pay-
chologists have found there is no strong evidence for weird
effects on human behavior around the time of a full. moon.
However, some studies have been inconsistent.
A survey of dog bites hi Britain showed they were much more
common during a full moon.
But a similar study in Aust-ralia found the opposite.
irs Timo Partonen of the Finnish National. Public Health
Institute carried out a study of 1400 suicides and found that
people were more likely to make an attempt on their life when there
was a new moon.
A full moon occurs when the moon is on the opposite side of the
earth from the sun.
It occurs every 29.53 days. n
ash of phe Arta spar -1' le.. irSin?' alien invasion
.
TRUE RELIEVER: Territory UFO-spotter Alan Ferguson, of Acacia
-1111s, who said he saw a "bright white light" flashing past his
house.
A f
Ruin Page It phenomena" since the first sight-ing last week.
n,
Almost all of the sightings have been in Darwin's rural
area.
The At sighting was reported by a woman who wanted to be
identified only as Shirel on April 21.
She said she saw the strange lights from her Humpty Doo home
hovering over Howard Springs.
"The lights were really low in the sky, really bright, with
flash-battgli24414said.
"Three of them formed a semi-circle and they hovered over ,the
area for at least half an hour."
There were three separate sightings on Friday night Includ-ing
British backpacker Eylie Myers who said she had "never believed in
anything like UFOs" before her strange encounter.
The 27-year-old tourist said she turned. into a "believer".
Ms Myers said she stopped her car on the side of the road to
grab her camera from the glovebox, but the light disappeared.
"It was prettAwatiwdko
There were more sightings at Coolalinga on Saturday, Acacia
Hills on Sunday andgain in Howard Springs on Tuesday.
But astronomer. Geoff Carr ;yes-terday told the Northern
Terri.t-cry News he was "far from .believ-ing any of this UFO
stuff".
"Unless aliens have found a way to travel faster than light
speed, it's a doubtful thing to believe they came to visit us," he
said.
Mr Carr said he believed 99.9 per cent of all the ITFO sightings
could be explained as simple weathe:phenomena. *.
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'Gerrys' help to rate UFO sightings THE following UFO sightings
have been reported to the NT News in the past week. We've given
each sighting a credibility rating on the Gerrymeter scale, named
in honour of the Territory's most powerful man, independent MLA
Gerry Wood, who has seen UFOs flying over his electorate in
Darwin's rural area.
THE GERRYMETER 5 Gerrys As credible as the Territory's most
honest politician, Gerry Wood
ksz.,/ 4 Gerrys Definite alien potential. Time to break out your
anti-abduction helmet
3 Gerrys Was it a shooting star? Or could it be something more
sinister?
2 Gerrys No wonder your friends call you All
..A. .1 'k 1 ?"
'Gerry Is that a UFO I can see through the wacky weed haze?
ck ?"--) qttoi
April 21, night-time, Humpty Doo/Howard Springs
Thirty eight-year-old Shirel and her family see "strange lights"
from their Humpty Coo home. The lights seem to hover over Howard
Springs.
"The lights were really low in the sky, really bright, with
flashing dots.
"Three of them formed a semi-circle and they hovered over the
area for at least half an hour." 3 GERRYS
t'gf
7e1 APRIL 2.011
April 23, 8pm, Howard Springs Susan Clarke and her family
spot a "huge spherical object that was moving horizontally
across the night sky very slowly".
"It was amazing and unnerving at the same time
"It was glowing red, orange and gold none of us had ever seen
anything like it before."
A 48-year-old woman of Woodroffe later confirms the sighting and
compares it to a similar UFO sighting in Howard Springs in
September last year.
"It was sitting there, maybe 40 metres above the house I first
thought it was a huge full moon.
"When I looked around I saw that there was a partial moon
further to the left, and I thought 'Oh my God, I'm not hanging
around here' and took off.
"It was unnerving, it was a dark, very quiet night, and really,
it scared me to bits.
"It was an enormous orb, just sitting there, as if it was
waiting for something." 4 GERRYS
Vp April 23, night-time, Stuart Highway, south of Howard
Springs
British backpacker Kylie Myers is on the way to Adelaide River,
when she suddenly sees this big light" in front of her, a few
metres above the road.
"It slowly moved to the right, then to the left ... and then it
slowly flew to the left.
"A second later somebody must have switched the light off it was
gone as suddenly as it appeared.
"i never believed in anything like that, I always thought people
would make it all up or see strange things when they are drunk, but
this really happened to me and it was pretty spooky."
4 GERRYS
April 24,10pm, Coolalinga Twenty seven-year-old Renee Miller
sees a huge yellow light over the road. "It was just there, it
wasn't the moon
or anything. "It was bright yellow and suddenly
it was gone. I have no idea what it was." 3 GERRYS
April 25, 8pm, Acacia Hilts UFO-spotter Alan Ferguson sees a
"bright white light" flashing past his house. "It just looked
like the
By ANNIE SANSON A MASS of UFO sightings has Terr-itorians
wondering if we are on the brink of an alien invasion.
There have been seven separate Top End UFO sightings reported in
the
in a semi-circle. "It was a crystal clear night and we
all saw it. We watched it for half an hour and the things
changed their shape a few times.
"It looked like a long piece with lights on the side, but every
now and again it just looked like a star.
"We weren't worried as it was too far away, but it's a bit of a
worry to hear more and more people report strange things
happening."
3 GERRYS
international Space Station a big white light," he said.
"When it moves across it looks like a satellite, except it's
huge.
"It's exactly the same thing that I saw at this time last year."
5 GERRYS
April 27,10.30pm, Humpty Doo/ Howard Springs
Humpty Doe-resident Shirei again spots mysterious lights over
Howard Springs, together with her husband and her two grown-up
children.
"We saw the same thing again there were three of them (bright
lights)
past week. Hardly a night has passed without a sight- ing of
some "unexplained
Continued Page 9
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a Sacramento Area 5i
San Francisco
Las Vegas
Conspiracy theories ;.- 1 That in 1947 a UFO crashed near the
town of Roswell and the US government seized the craft and the
bodies of several aliens
ill That the 1969 Moon landing never happened - it was filmed at
Area 51
1111 That the latest revelations about Area 51 are the biggest
cover-up of all
Shrouded in mystery: The US military says the A-12 spy plane
(main picture) was often mistaken for a UFO and (bottom left to
right) testing the A-12, a pilot ejects, a top secret transport
approaches Area 51 and an aerial view of the base
Pictures: National Geographic/Area 51's Secrets
eceleo114,1 Mob,. Artttle1a - 14...w..
Joe Hildebrand
AMERICANS have always liked to believe in something, whether it
be God, the flag or spindly bug-eyed aliens who look like an albino
version of Spiderman.
But after today they might have to strike this last one from the
list, with extraordinary new pictures of Area 51 confirming every
conspir-acy theorist's worst fear. There is
no conspiracy. The legendary top secret military base in
Nevada
and officially not anywhere has captured the imagination of
UFO-spotters for half a century.
It was 1963 when a futuristic-looking craft crashed in the
nearby desert. The US Government quickly recovered it and covered
it up, which sparked suspicions they had found an alien
spaceship.
But phenomenal pictures un-
earthed by National Geographic and to feature in its documentary
Area 51's Secrets reveal it was an A -12 spyplane, pictures of
which have been released for the first time by the CIA. The
incredibly stream-lined titanium vessel would have looked at home
in a Star Wars movie but was in fact developed by the US Government
in the 1950s.
"Nearly undetectable to radar, the A-I2 could fly at 2200 miles
an
hour (3540km/h), fast enough to cross the continental US in 70
minutes," the National Geographic website reveals.
"From 90,000 feet (27,400m), the plane's cameras could capture
foot-long (0,3m) objects on the ground below."
Area 51 workers even built fake cardboard planes and lit decoy
fires so as to fool Soviet satellites spying from overhead.
The ruse was so elaborate that even the fake planes themselves
were not intended to be seen but, rather, to cast misleading
shadows that would keep the Russians chasing red herrings.
The fires were used to simulate aircraft landings. It was an
extra-ordinarily elaborate ruse and in-credibly effective at
deceiving the Russians. The only catch was it deceived a few
Americans too.
1 . .T t I
-
A DEE Why man is convinced he saw two UFOs flying over the
northern beaches at dawn on Sunday, despite aviation experts
rejecting the claim. Xavier Figarella believes he saw two UFOs
travelling across the sky about
6am as he was waiting to watch the sun rise from his balcony. He
said the objects were travelling in a straight line but appeared to
be chang-ing shape as they moved. By the time he was able to grab
his camera, only one remained.
"It was really weird," he said. "I cannot understand what it
was." Mr Figarella said he did not believe in UFOs until he
witnessed the two objects in the sky on Sunday.
Continued Page 2
Circled:above is one of the two objects which sparked a Dee Why
man's UFO sighting.
Picture: Xavier Figarella
*MYSTERY MUM.
ive on station UFO A UK radio station known for its lively
discussions on world affairs became rather more other-wordly
yesterday when it broadcast a live account of a close brush with a
UFO from one of itssports reporters.
"Freaked out sports journal-ist. Mike Sewell said he was left
gobsmacked when he saw a huge "disc-shaped" aircraft hov-ering
above the Hertfordshire
countryside on his way to catch a flight in the early hours of
the morning.
Sewell said he was driving to Stansted airport when he saw the
UFO over the village of Coffered, near Buntingford.
He called his Radio 5 Live employers and his interview with
presenter Nicky Campbell was broadcast to millions of
listeners.
Sewell told how about 25km from Stanated at 4.15arn he saw a
"big bright light in the sky descending towards the road" and how
when it banked to the left he could see underneath it.
"It wasn't an aeroplane, and it wasnt a helicopter. Certainly of
a kind of - and I dread saying this - disc shape. It had several
tights flashing all around it." he said.
He said the craft "just sat or circled a certain area above the
field for a few mom_ents" when he lost sight of it.
"Certainly for two or three minutes I saw what, I think, was not
a normal aeroplane," said the well-respected reporter, who was on
his way to Sweden to cover a soccer match.
"I was wide awake and I'm of sound mind. I was completely
freaked out by it" Sewell said. UFO expert Timothy Good
told the station that what Sewell had seen was "clearly not a
con-ventional aircraft of any type".
"It might be extra terrestrial. it might well be one of ours.
Top secret aircraft and spacecraft have been flown by the US
mili-tar},
and by the British military for quite some time now." Good
said.
AUGUST 201i_
al SE ?I uyttielL
-
How about a time and space portal from a UFO? THIS week a
Northern Territory driver said he was freaked out by an encounter
with what he claims was a UFO, somewhere south of Tennant
Creek.
Which of course had me won-dering how come aliens only make
themselves known in remote areas of Australia? Most often to people
towing caravans to Perth.
Now there's a report of what may have been two UFO's hover-ing
over Sydney's northern beaches, so perhaps aliens are becoming
emboldened. On some sort of inter-galactic meet and greet. I'll be
one of the first out there to shake er whatever they use for
hands.
I'm fascinated by the possi-bility of life on another planet and
sometimes wonder if I were invited on board an alien craft, would I
go? Yes. I'd always regret not going, if only to answer the
question: How come everything alien is white, silver,
translucent or iridescent green?
I'd also like to be the first to describe some piece of alien
tech-nology unknown to the human
race. When abductees return to Earth after being probed, they
always describe a sick bay that sounds uncannily like the one on
the Starship Enterprise and medical equipment similar to stuff your
dentist uses.
No one abducted by super-intelligent beings has been able to
describe one item of alien technology that has advanced Earth one
jot - not even a new ; design for a paper clip or a new way to
grate cheese - so I'd like to bring back the actual blueprints 4
for a time and space portal and then build one. If I could ever get
a DA from the council. (Which seems unlikely, given the prog-ress
on next door's carport.)
A flying saucer literally in action. Picture. NICK AN DR EAN
Aliens could be avoiding us THERE'S an argument raging in
scientific circles about our ap-proach to finding life on other
planets.
Since 1984, the not-for-profit or-ganisation, SETI Institute
(Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has been patiently
sifting through radio signals from deep space in the hope of
finding a message from another world. Now, millions of home
computers, are linked across the globe via SETI@Home to join in the
listening.
However, just a few years ago, a band of SCI-FI aficionados from
Argentina and Russia -
declared that after decades, of being put on hold and hearing
nothing, zilch, nada, (a bit like ringing QANTAS), they were going
to get active and blast messages from earth into space. Something
like: "Hey! You with the pointy-head! We're over here!"
Some scientists fear we may be inviting obliteration from
ruth-less Alien exterminators. What will happen when we humans, the
"most ignorant technological race in the universe" begin
advertising the fact? Not all E.T.'s can be immobilised in under
two hours by the wily . Tom Cruise.
SETI founder, the late dad: Sagan, said that as "the newest
children" in a strange and uncer-
-lain cosmos, we should listen quietly and learn patiently.
There's now a SETI project that asks: "If we discover
intelligent life beyond earth should we reply and what should we
say?"
One of hundreds of suggestions is: "Come now! MAYDAY. HELP!"
Here's another: "If you are related to E.T. We welcome you.
If you are related to the War of World people. We are not
receiv-ing calls today. Maybe tomorrow. Have to pack."
I'd go with: "Wow! You look amazing. Have you lost weight?"
(Everyone loves that one.)
Strangely, no one's considered the idea that Aliens have known
for years that we're here and are
studiously avoiding us. Our ozone layer spells "HAZOHEM" and
visiting earth is the intergalactic equivalent of taking the kids
to Fukushima. They'd love to visit, but haven't the got the
technology in gumboots, block-out and long-handled tongs.
As for those UFO's hovering over Dee Why?
They won't be touching down any time soon. They whizzed back
beyond Betelgeuse after failing to find a place to park.
op Wendy Harmer is the co-editor of TheHoopla.coni.au , an
online news and opinion site.that keeps Australian women In the
loop".