UFOs - Leslie Kean [34]
Reports show the event lasted from about five to fifteen minutes. Then, with many eyes now fixated on it, the suspended disc suddenly shot up at an incredible speed and was gone in less than a second, leaving a crisp, cookie-cutter-like hole in the dense clouds. The opening was approximately the same size as the object, and those directly underneath it could see blue sky visible on the other side. After a few minutes the break in the cloud bank closed up as the clouds drifted back together. “This was extremely unusual, according to the witnesses,” Chicago Tribune transportation reporter Jon Hilkevitch told television news after interviewing the United witnesses for his story. “Airplanes just don’t react like this. They slice through clouds.”
This was definitely not an airplane, the observers said, and many seemed shaken by what they had seen. Some were awed; others afraid. “The witness credibility is beyond question, and safety was a big concern,” Hilkevitch said during a phone conversation. He noted that all observers independently described the same thing: a hovering disc making no noise as it shot up and left a clear hole in the clouds. “The only discrepancies were their size estimations and that some said it was rotating or spinning,” he told me.
Sadly, every one of these highly credible aviation witnesses to the O’Hare UFO—and there were many—has chosen to remain anonymous, due to fears for job security. One United employee told me he could otherwise be perceived as “betraying” his company. Witnesses do not want to be “caught talking to the media since the airline had officially claimed that nothing happened,” he wrote in an e-mail. These witnesses to something that’s not supposed to exist—something laughed at by their colleagues—were left alone with their unsettling observations. “I realize this is a controversial position, but with my extensive knowledge of modern aviation technologies, I know this UFO probably wasn’t created on this planet,” one told me a few months afterward.
The FAA and United Airlines at first denied having any information about the incident, but both had to acknowledge the sighting when a tape of a United supervisor’s call to the air traffic control tower was released by the FAA.
I have listened to those tapes.
“Hey, did you see a flying disc out by C17?” asked the supervisor, giving her name as Sue. Laughter is audible from tower operator Dave and a second person nearby. “That’s what a pilot in the ramp area at C17 told us,” she continues. “They saw some flying disc above them. But we can’t see above us.” The laughter continues nervously, and Dave replies, “Hey, you guys been celebrating the holidays or anything, or what? You’re celebrating Christmas today? I haven’t seen anything, Sue, and if I did I wouldn’t admit to it. No, I have not seen any flying disc at gate C17.”
About fifteen minutes later, Sue calls back again, this time reaching operator Dwight. The conversation is as follows:
Sue: “This is Sue from United.” (laughter)
Tower: “Yes.” (serious tone)
(12 second pause)
S: “There was a disc out there flying around.”
T: “There was a what?”
S: “A disc.”
T: “A disc?”
S: “Yeah.”
T: “Can you hang on one second?”
S: “Sure.”
(pause, 33 seconds)
T: “Okay, I’m sorry, what can I do for you?”
S: “I’m sorry, there was, I told Dave, there was a disc flying outside above Charley 17 and he thought I was pretty much high. But, um, I’m not high and I’m not drinking.”
T: “Yeah.”
S: “So, someone got a picture of it. So if you guys see it out there—”
T: “A disc, like a Frisbee?”
S: “Like a UFO type thing.”
T: “Yeah, okay.”
S: “He got a picture of it.” (laughs)
T: “How, how, how high above Charley 17?”