F-16s Pursue Unknown Craft Over Region

Washington Post ^ | July 27, 2002 | Steve Vogel

[steveo]

"It was this object, this light-blue object, traveling at a phenomenal rate of speed," Rogers said. "This Air Force jet was right behind it, chasing it, but the object was just leaving him in the dust. I told my neighbor, 'I think those jets are chasing a UFO.' " Click link to read the rest of the story.

[steveo]

On your mark, get set...

[Rome2000]

It was a bunch of illegal aliens trying to beat the deadline to register for the November elections.

[fire_eye]

Okay... I'll go for it.

Osama bin Goatroper on his flying carpet, looking for a place to, ah... "relieve himself".

[Jack Black]

This was reported on Fox News too.

[dirtboy]

It was Hillary on her broom, she forgot to file a flight plan before she took off.

"This Air Force jet was right behind it, chasing it, but the object was just leaving him in the dust.

She must have been going to a fundraiser...

[GBA]

"Pilots with the D.C. Air National Guard's 113th Air Wing, which flew the F-16s from Andrews, reported nothing out of the ordinary, NORAD officials said.

"It was a routine launch," said Lt. Col. Steve Chase, a senior officer with the wing, which keeps pilots and armed jets on 24-hour alert at Andrews to respond to incidents as part of an air defense system protecting Washington after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Rogers remains convinced that what he saw was not routine. "It looked like a shooting star with no trailing mist," he said. "I've never seen anything like it.""

Routine launch?!? Like this just happens all the time?!? F-16s get left behind while chasing some unknown in US airspace?!?

[blam]

"This was reported on Fox News too."

Yup. I saw it (FOX) too.

Eyewitnesses said that the jets were manauvering behind the object but the pilots said that they never saw anything. Also, I think they said that NORAD had alerted them of the object.

[Reactionary]

This story is really something, since it's the first time that I know of that there's been a confirmation from the government that they scrambled jets to intercept an unknown object in our airspace.

[dighton]

Foolish humans!
Your puny single-engine jets are no match for our light blue objects! The earth will be ours!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[gg188]

I'm east of the Rockies, south of the Ohio, north of the Pecos and west of the Atlantic. What number do I call?

[Kermit]

The idea that UFO's are alien spacecraft is almost certainly wrong. There can be no doubt that there are UFO's. People on the ground saw the blue light. The fighter pilots saw the blue light. The blue light showed up on radar. UFO's exist.

[null and void]

K-Mart?

[Momaw Nadon]

[LibKill]

RE: Kang and Kodos.

One of the great Simpsons moments.

The doorbell rings, Homer opens the door. Kang and Kodos are on the doorstep.

Homer: "Oh, GREAT! MORMONS!

Kang: "Actually we're quantum presbetyrians."

[Thud]

In a galaxy far away, a long time ago:

THE HOME-MADE UFO

Ingredients: some flimsy plastic laundry bags of the sort you get from dry cleaners when they return pants, small candles, strips of thin balsa about 1" x 12", large tacks or small nails, scotch tape, scissors, aluminum foil, matches, a paranoid military air base with fighter aircraft, one vehicle, and some intoxicated college students.

Scotch tape the balsa strips into a cross holding the bottom of the laundry bag open. Make certain they are secure to the bag. Stick the tack or nail through the center bottom of the cross pointing up. Stick the candle firmly to the sharp end of the tack/nail.

Cut some long thin aluminum foil strips (1/2" x 6" is fine) and scotch tape them to the balsa strips.

Fluff the bag open, light the candle and see if the sucker will fly as a hot air balloon. Do this where you can't be observed, where there is no wind, and far away from possible air traffic. It would help if you have a BB gun to bring it down in case it gets away from you. The test is to make certain you didn't weigh it down too much with aluminum foil strips. You want this thing to climb fast.

Make another one. Find a spot near the air base which is as close in as possible, with a line of sight to the control tower, but safe from base security or other possible trouble, and where you can hop in the car and get away fast.

Wait until night - about 2 am. Go there and launch the UFO.

The aluminum foil strips act as radar reflectors and make the thing appear as a big blip on the control tower's radar screens. They won't be able to pick it up visually and will think it is a much larger object much farther away.

The slight movements of the balloon as it sways in the breeze will appear on radar as though the UFO, perceived to be far away, is darting back and forth at incredible accelerations.

With any luck they'll launch some fighters to investigate.

[Honcho]

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Wed Jul 3, 4:01 PM ET

F-16 Fighting Falcons from the U.S. Air Force's 21st Fighter Squadron fly over southern Arizona in a picture released on July 3, 2002.

[_Jim]

... a nearly full moon (as was last night), a little optical troposphereic ducting (owing to air-masses with differing humidity and temperature conditions) ... and it happens every time (ufo reports) ...

"Caution: Objects in sky may appear closer than they really are."