Pilots report close encounters with UFO over Arizona: 'Something just passed over us'
Two
pilots on different aircraft reported having close encounters with a
mysterious object flying high above Arizona last month, according to the
Federal Aviation Administration.
The
sightings occurred within minutes of each other on the afternoon of
Feb. 24, some 40,000 feet above southern Arizona near the New Mexico
border. ABC News obtained the audio recording of the conversation
between the pilots and the Albuquerque Air Route Traffic Control Center,
released by the FAA.
The news comes amid a series of reports of military pilots coming into contact with what they believed to be UFOs and the disclosure of a secret, but now-defunct Pentagon program to track such incidents.
The
pilot of a Learjet 36 belonging to Phoenix Air, with the tail number
N71PG, reported the initial sighting. He asks the controller: "Was
anybody above us that passed us like 30 seconds ago?
"Negative," the controller responds.
"OK. Something did," the Learjet pilot says.
"It's a UFO," another pilot chimes in.
"Yeah," the Learjet pilot laughs.
PHOTO: Albuquerque Air Route Traffic Control Center in Albuquerque, N.M. (Google)
A
few minutes later, the controller radios to American Airlines Flight
1095, an Airbus A321. He asks the pilot, "Let me know if you see
anything pass over you here in the next 15 miles."
The pilot seems puzzled and responds, "If anything passes over us?"
"Affirmative.
We had an aircraft in front of you at 37 [thousand feet] that reported
something pass over him and we didn't have any [radar] targets, so just
let me know if you see anything pass over you," the controller says.
"All right," the pilot says.
The
Learjet pilot joins the conversation, saying, "I don't know what it
was, it wasn't an airplane but it was -- the path was going in the
opposite direction."
PHOTO:
An American Airlines plane takes off from the Miami International
Airport, Nov. 12, 2013 in Miami. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
About
a minute later, the American Airlines Flight 1095 pilot radios back to
the controller to report a bizarre sighting in Arizona's airspace.
"Yeah,
something just passed over us, like a -- I don't know what it was. But
it was at least two, three thousand feet above us. Yeah, it passed right
over the top of us," the pilot says.
"OK, American 1095, thank you," the controller responds.
The controller later asks, "American 1095, can you tell if it was in motion or just hovering?"
"Couldn't
make it out whether it was a balloon or whatnot. But it was just really
beaming light or could have had a big reflection and was several
thousand feet above us going opposite direction," the pilot says.
"Roger," the controller responds.
The American Airlines pilot later radios to the controller again, asking if the unidentified object was a "Google balloon."
"Doubtful," another pilot chimes in.
The voice of another pilot adds, "UFO."
PHOTO: An undated stock photo of an airplane. (STOCK/Getty Images)
The
controller was unable to verify that any other aircraft was in the area
at the time of the reported sightings, according to a spokesperson for
the FAA.
"We
have a close working relationship with a number of other agencies and
safely handle military aircraft and civilian aircraft of all types in
that area every day, including high-altitude weather balloons," the
spokesperson told ABC News in an email Wednesday.
Royal
Canadian Navy Lt. Marco Chouinard, a spokesman for the North American
Aerospace Defense Command, told ABC News in an email Wednesday that
NORAD assets were not involved in the Feb. 24 incident.
Comments
Post a Comment