The Occult Section

Birds seem to be getting a bad rap lately when it comes to airplanes and potential (or actual) crashes. It seems as though the pilot of a small airliner spotted something in the sky that he could not identify. The pilot says it looked like a large remote-controlled aircraft, but birds are being thrown into the explanation mix as well.

How odd. When I was younger, I too had a remote-controlled airplane that looked just like a dodgeball with a question mark on it...

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a mystery in the sky.

A unidentified object flying over Denver nearly caused a mid-air collision Monday evening.

As far as investigators know the object did not show up on radar.

Investigators believe the object, whatever it is, could pose a serious safety hazard to planes.

Radio transmissions from LiveATC.net confirm a nervous-sounding pilot reported a strange object at 5:17 p.m. Monday.

The pilot is heard telling air traffic control: “A remote controlled aircraft, or what? Something just went by the other way … About 20 to 30 seconds ago. It was like a large remote-controlled aircraft.”

The corporate jet, a Cessna Citation 525 CJ1, was flying at 8,000 feet above sea level over Cherry Creek when the mystery object came close enough to make any pilot nervous.

“That’s an issue because now we have something in controlled airspace that poses a danger,” former NTSB Investigator and aviation analyst Greg Feith said.

Feith listened to the air traffic recordings and believes the object could be one of three things:

- A military or law enforcement drone.
- A remote controlled aircraft.
- A large bird.

“Was this an unmanned vehicle that was part of some sort of law enforcement operation? Was this somebody that had flown a large model aircraft inadvertently into the airspace? Or was it just a bird that caught the pilot’s eye so he believed it was an aircraft but could have been a very large wing span bird,” Feith said.

Any one of those things can be catastrophic if it collides with an airplane.

Three years ago, a bird strike took down a commercial airliner that managed to land safely in the Hudson River. All the passengers survived.

FAA spokesman Mike Fergus says investigators will talk to the pilot and look at other clues.

“The threat is there from a collision standpoint. We’ll do as much as we can here to try to track back what time it was. Probably talk with some remote-control clubs, that type of thing,” Fergus said.

The mission of investigators now is to identify that mystery object before another close call, or worse.

Not sure why this was reported as a UFO story. Oh wait, yes I do. the media loves to sensationalize things. the pilot’s guess is that it’s a remote-controlled aircraft of some sort, and his panic is probably more about the fact that he almost collided with it than it being an extraterrestrial vehicle. I know here in New York City, the police supposedly now have airborne drones for surveillance and other things. It’s quite possible that this pilot saw something like that. Or perhaps some model airplane enthusiast is terrorizing Denver?

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So the UFOs that were spotted over Manhattan (and blogged about by us yesterday) weren’t UFOs at all. It seems as though the mystery has been solved! Story courtesy of the Daily News.

All those theories about Wednesday’s mystery UFO sightings over Manhattan are about to go “pop.”

A Westchester elementary school believes the puzzling orbs floating over Chelsea were likely a bundle of balloons that escaped from an engagement party they held for a teacher.

Roswell all over again!

“UFO? They’re crazy – those are our balloons!” said Angela Freeman, head of the Milestone School in Mount Vernon. “To me it was the most automatic thing. But it’s all over YouTube.”

A parent was bringing about 40 iridescent pearl balloons to the school for language arts teacher Andrea Craparo when the wind spent a bunch away around 1 p.m.

“They looked big and they were all together, so it looked like one UFO,” said fourth-grader Nia Foster, 9.

Awestruck gawkers began calling the NYPD and the FAA starting about an hour later when mysterious flying objects appeared over Manhattan.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service said the wind was blowing south at 5 to 10 m.p.h. at the time which would make the engagement balloon theory possible.

Police have said they believe the puzzling objects were likely balloons.

The sky was very clear at the time, making high-flying objects extremely visible from the ground.

Also, helium-filled balloons tend to change shape at high altitudes as the gas expands – making them look abnormal from below, experts say.

As with anything related to the paranormal, other possibilities abound. Following with the balloon theory, some suspected an event in Times Square where a number of yellow balloons were released to celebrate a joint-tourism agreement between New York and Madrid.

Then there is author Stanley Fulham, a retired NORAD officer who recently published a book predicting the world’s major cities would be visited by UFOs on Oct. 13.

He did not return calls – and there was no word on his whereabouts.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/14/2010-10-14_ufo_nyc_kids_say_no_mysterious_floating_orbs_were_escaped_balloons_from_teachers.html#ixzz12SWiXmOk

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I live in the East Village, so I’m kind of oblivious to most things that happen west of 6th Avenue. Thankfully I have eagle-eyed friends who send me stories such as this from the Daily News when I’m too busy paying attention to the recent bomb scare in the cemetery right behind my apartment (it wasn’t me, I swear!).

So! With that said – Jason usually writes about the UFO-type stories, but I’m claiming this one because 1. it was over Manhattan, and b. it involves SHINY OBJECTS. My favorite things!

Photo via twitter @jasondiamond

A mysterious shiny object floating high over Manhattan‘s West Side set off a flurry of reports and wild speculation Wednesday that a UFO was flying over the city.

Police and the FAA said they began getting flooded with calls starting at 1:30 p.m. from people reporting a silvery object hovering high over Chelsea.

Law enforcement sources said they believed the object was likely some sort of balloon, but as of late Wednesday they had not confirmed exactly what it is.

A Daily News reporter could see a tiny, silver dot floating approximately 5,000 feet above 23th St. and Eighth Ave., where dozens of people gathered late in the afternoon to catch a glimpse.

“It’s been hovering there for a while. I’m just kind of baffled,” said Joseph Torres, 49, of Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, who spotted the object after leaving a movie. “How can it be ordinary? There is something going on.”

Despite clear skies, it was not easy to make out the tiny object shimmering overhead.

“You really have to look up to see it,” said one witness, who gave only his first name, Rico. “It’s a little crazy. I guess that’s why they call it an unidentified flying object because they don’t know what it is.”

Not long after the first sightings, messages began appearing on Twitter linking to a month-old press release announcing the publication of a book by a retired NORAD officer predicting that UFOs would buzz the earth’s major cities on Oct. 13.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it received several calls to its operations center but after reviewing radar data, the agency could not find anything out of the ordinary.

“We re-ran radar to see if there was anything there that we can’t account for but there is nothing in the area,” said spokesman Jim Peters. “There was some helicopter traffic over the river at that time and we checked with LaGuardia Tower. And they said they had nothing going low at that time.”

“Nothing that we can account for would prompt this kind of response,” he said.

Peters said if it was a weather balloon or any kind of organized balloon release, authorities should have been notified in advance. Police officials said they had received no notification.

They’re watching us!!! Everyone run!!!!!!!

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