A CBS contribution caused a sensation in the US: “60 Minutes” spoke to former Pentagon employees and Navy pilots about UFOs. One incident in 2004 is particularly thought-provoking.
“Had I seen it alone, I might not have said anything”: Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich, Navy pilot.
In the past three years, the UFO phenomenon has been back on the agenda – not least thanks to official US authorities who are suddenly taking the issue seriously: while US pilots, for example, used to be declared crazy when they saw and reported something inexplicable, now they encouraging their pilots to report every UFO they observe.
A report by the broadcaster CBS has now given the matter a boost: several former US pilots were interviewed in the TV show “60 Minutes”, who were allowed to report freely about their experiences.
In mid-April, even the Pentagon itself confirms the authenticity of cockpit recordings of filmed Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) or the Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
CBS reporter Bill Whitaker first spoke to Luis Elizondo, who from 2008 was responsible for a project at the Pentagon called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).
In other words: He should officially evaluate UAP sightings in order to identify any threats to national security – after all, a UFO can easily hide a new type of technology from a potential enemy.
He knows that it sounds “crazy” what he is doing, said the former US military, according to Elizondo. But there are UAPs. “And the question is what is it.”
AATIP relies on experts from a wide variety of areas: engineers, agents, aerospace, and electrical optics specialists. They analyze recordings that are inexplicable.
Physically impossible flight characteristics
“Imagine a technology,” explained Elizondo, “that can withstand 600 to 700 G, is 21,000 km / h fast, cannot be detected by radar, and which flies through the air as well as through water and possibly also through space.
That has no external signs of drive or wing, and that defies the laws of gravity. It is exactly what we see.” [Note: Trained fighter pilots can withstand a force of 9 G for one to two seconds.]
AATIP tries to rule out all possibilities – for example, whether it is a new Chinese cruise missile, a secret reconnaissance balloon, or its own, as yet unknown technology. “But the fact that it is in our airspace makes it imperative, makes it problematic.”
Lieutenant Ryan Graves was able to report what that looks like in the air. The former Navy pilot has regularly sighted UAPs in restricted airspace off the coast of Virginia since 2014. It was a contact that was only visible on infrared and radar images.
In 2019, other UAPs were photographed in the same area, and their authenticity has been confirmed.
How many times has the F / A-18 pilot seen such UAPs? “Every day – for a few years at least,” Graves replied. There is a video of an event that took place off the coast of Florida in 2015.
“We were just amazed by what we saw,” said the ex-pilot looking back. No exhaust can be seen on the object in the camera visor. “I don’t know what it is,” Graves shrugged – it could be anything.
The change of heart at the highest level was probably triggered by an incident that happened to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz on November 14, 2004, off the California coast – and which was witnessed by four pilots, radar images, and caught on video.
“60 Minutes” spoke to two of those Navy pilots whose statements sound incredible.
Alex Dietrich was a weapons system officer in one of the two participating F / A-18s – and spoke for the first time about what had happened. “I never wanted to be on TV,” said Lieutenant Commander Dietrich.
“But I’ve been on a government plane, I’ve been on duty, and I feel responsible for sharing what I can – now that it’s no longer a secret.”
“We saw this white object”
A destroyer in the formation, the USS Princeton, had received a more modern radar, which in 2004 located UAPs that had “lost an altitude of over 24,000 meters in less than a second”.
Two jets took off to investigate. They found an object as big as their own fighter jet. The UAP hovered over the calm sea – below was a churning patch of white water on the ocean’s surface.
The pilots just looked at each other and asked: “What is that?” Said David Fravor, the commander of the Nimitz squadron.
“We saw this white object that looked like a tic-tac. It moved [jerkily] over the white water. We flew closer. “The object, which had no visible propulsion or wings, was aligned with them.
The incident takes around five minutes. “And when it is right in front of me,” Fravor finished, “it disappeared. It was just gone. “A few seconds later, the USS Princeton can regain its target – 100 kilometers away. “
I don’t know if I would have said anything if I had flown alone and seen it,” said Aviator Dietrich. “It sounds so crazy when I say that.”
It will be exciting in June
“But they say: ‘There’s something out there,’ There is definitely something there,” says Fravor. “I don’t know who built it, who has the technology, who has the intelligence, but there was something out there that hopefully isn’t an airplane.”
That would mean that an opponent had technically surpassed the United States, he implied.
The incident was recorded – and was forgotten until Elizondo took on the matter in 2009. However, AATIP was discontinued in 2012: When Lue Elizondo left the service in 2017, he managed to get three videos approved, which caused a sensation on the Internet and in the “New York Times.”
Due to the public interest, the Pentagon has also given in and revived AATIP as a UAP task force.
In the meantime, politicians are also interested in the topic again: In December, US senators asked the secret service to provide information about UAPs.
The CBS UFO interview caused astonishment in the US – and was mentioned on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” as well as the “Late Late Show,” on which ex-President Barack Obama was a guest.
Two things stood out: On the one hand, Donald Trump’s predecessor is the type of president whom many ask for personal advice.
On the other hand, one question also revolved around the UAPs. Does he have a UFO theory, Mr. Obama?
He replied like this:
“The truth is that when I came into office, I asked, ‘Is there the lab somewhere where we’re keeping the alien specimens and spaceship?’ And they did a little bit of research, and the answer is no,” Obama said.
He acknowledged that clips of UFOs soaring through the sky are indeed real if inexplicable — for now.
“But what is true, and I’m actually serious here, is there are footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know what they are,” he said. “We can’t explain how they moved, their trajectory. They do not have an easily explainable pattern.”