UFOs - Leslie Kean [119]
Later that day, I asked the FAA automation specialists to plot the radar targets along the route of flight on a chart and explain what each target was doing along the 747’s flight path.
The hardware and software engineers put together a large chart that showed every target along the flight of the 747 during its reported encounter with the UFO. They hung it on the wall and pointed out: This is when we first saw the UFO; this is when the pilot saw the UFO; this is when the military saw the UFO; all the way down the whole chart. I videotaped the chart.
The printout and radar playback displayed primary targets in the vicinity of the 747. These target returns were displayed about the same time and place as the pilot reported viewing the UFO. The pilot and crew viewed the target on their own radar and were able to actually see the huge UFO simultaneously, as it approached their aircraft. Anyone who watches this play back can see and hear this, but of course when the CIA saw it, their people said you can’t see it because it’s not there. The question I always ask is: Who are you going to believe, your lying eyes or the government?
Both the radar and manual controller observed the primary target. The military controllers also viewed the primary target on their radar and identified it as a “double primary,” which means it was large enough to be more than one aircraft.
During the briefing at the FAA Tech Center in Atlantic City, I asked both the hardware and software engineers (these were the same people who had built the air traffic control system) to tell me what those dots in the vicinity of the JAL aircraft were. The hardware engineers said, “This target over here is a software problem, and this one over here is also a software problem.” Every time, all the way down: It’s a software problem; there is nothing wrong with our hardware system. So, I said, “Fine, that makes sense to me.”
Then the software guy got up and said, “This target over here, it’s a hardware problem and this one here—a hardware problem.” There were no software problems, and there were no hardware problems. “Well,” I asked, “what do we have if we don’t have anything? Do we have a target there or not?” One of the technicians stated, “My religion forbids me to believe in UFOs,” so I said, “Fine,” and got ready to leave.
When I arrived back at FAA headquarters, I gave Administrator Engen a quick briefing of the playback and showed him the video of the radar scope synchronized with the voice tapes. He watched the full half hour, and then set up a briefing with President Reagan’s scientific staff, and told me my function was to give them a dog-and-pony show and hand this operation off to them, “since the FAA does not control UFOs.”
At the briefing, we looked at the data printouts and played the video for the people there two or three times—the participants turned out to be the CIA, the president’s scientific group, and a bunch of grunts. We talked for an hour and half or so, and the scientists asked a number of questions—very intelligent questions, in fact. They wanted to know things like the speed of the radar antenna, the frequency and the bandwidth, and the algorithm for the height-finding equipment. The FAA people we brought into the room were technical engineers—hardware and software specialists—and they gave those answers like they were high school math coaches. They spit that stuff right out; it was really amazing to watch these FAA experts work.
At the end, one of the three people from the CIA said, “This event never happened; we were never here. We’re confiscating all this data, and you are all sworn to secrecy.”
“What do you think it was?” I asked the CIA person.
“A UFO, and this is