I am not a pilot, but I spend a lot of time in/around general aviation airports for work. When I first started, I thought it would be funny to joke with the pilots about UFOs. For context, this was before the February shoot downs, before Grusch, before the Mexico hearings, and before my interest in UAPs.
On one of my first projects, I was at a small airfield talking with the airport manager about some upcoming work. I noticed he had photos of fighter Jets behind him as well as the typical military memorabilia you might see from retired service members. He seemed nice and I figured I’d joke around with him.
“Ever see anything up there?” I asked.
“If I told you I’d have to kill you.” He retorted.
Believing this was a joke, I laughed it off. He did not.
“I’m actually serious. I don’t think they were aliens, but I have absolutely seen things I could not explain.” He continued.
Unsure of how to proceed, I regrettably let the conversation drift away to his new crop duster and a home-built motorized paraglider doing touch and goes on the nearby runway. Had it been a few months later, I would have pressed harder but at the time I was genuinely surprised at his seriousness.
Fast forward a few months and I was at another GA airport for a meeting. I noticed a couple older gentleman watching an airshow on the terminal TV. I had seen these guys before and new them to be friendly. The US hearings had just occurred and I brought it up.
“Did you guys hear about those pilots who testified to Congress?” I asked.
“I heard about that but I didn’t watch. What did they say?” One of the men responded.
“They said they see UFOs all the time. They said there’s all sorts of shapes and sizes and that weve actually recovered downed UFOs. Have you ever seen anything?” I said.
“I haven’t, but I’m not surprised. My son trains with the navy off the coast of Virginia and he says they see black spheres in translucent squares all the time. They don’t even report them anymore. No one really knows what they are. Some spycraft or something maybe.” One of the gentleman said.
“I’ve never seen anything either, but I was on base when someone almost hit one.” The other gentleman said.
He went on to explain that he was in Iraq during desert storm. While prepping for a flight, a pilot returned mad as all hell. When they asked what was wrong, he said he had almost hit something in the air. When asked what it was, he said he had no explanation. He said it wasn’t a plane or a helicopter but that was hovering outside the airfield in restricted airspace and that it came within feet of his aircraft. He was mad as ATC hadnt warned him it was there and that he had to maneuver to narrowly miss the object while in his landing pattern.
I have no idea if any of these stories are true. I have since asked several other pilots if they have ever seen anything and the majority have not. Some have been outright rude in response, others have been open to the possibility but had never seen anything anomalous.
It seems the military guys have more sightings than hobbyists or private jet pilots. I’ve only met one commercial pilot and he hadn’t seen anything either. Even if he had, he was shy and seemed uncomfortable to have been asked. Many had seen other interesting phenomena such as ball lightning, meteors, and one had even seen the northern lights from his plane.
If you’re a pilot and you have seen something, drop your story below. I’ve thought about putting up flyers at GA airports asking for stories, but I don’t know what I would do with them and I don’t want pranksters to take advantage of my openness to experiencers. I don’t have the time or resources to investigate on my own. Perhaps MUFON should look into a grassroots flyer campaign at these airports.
submitted by /u/sarahpalinstesticle
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