The
Chicago O'Hare UFO sighting occurred on on
November 7, 2006, when people at Chicago O'Hare
International Airport
reported seeing a saucer or disc-shaped UFO. The incident garnered national media
attention.
The sighting
At
approximately 4:30 p.m on Tuesday November 7, 2006, federal
authorities at Chicago O'Hare International
Airport received a report that a group of twelve airport
employees were witnessing a metallic, saucer-shaped craft hovering over gate
C-17.
According
to eyewitness reports, the strange object was first spotted by a
ramp employee who was "pushing back" United Airlines flight 446 which was
departing Chicago for Charlotte, North Carolina
. The ramp worker then apprised the flight
crew of UA446 of the existence of the spinning, metallic object
above their aircraft, and it is believed that both the pilot and
co-pilot of this aircraft also witnessed the object at that
time.
According to
Jon Hilkevitch of the
Chicago Tribune in an
interview on
CNN's
Glenn Beck program: "The disk was visible
for approximately two minutes and was seen by close to a dozen
United Airlines employees, ranging from pilots to supervisors, who
heard chatter on the radio and raced out to view it." The
UFO was then seen to suddenly accelerate straight up
through the overcast skies. Witnesses reported that the object left
behind an open hole of clear air in the cloud layer and that the
mysterious hole disappeared or "closed" within a few minutes. So
far, no conclusive photographic evidence of the UFO has surfaced
although it was reported to Hilkevitch that one of the United
Airlines pilots was in possession of a digital camera at the time
of the sighting and may have photographed the event.
Reaction from the Federal Aviation Administration and United
Airlines
Both United Airlines and the
Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) first denied that they had any information
on the O'Hare UFO sighting until the
Chicago Tribune, who
was investigating the report, filed a
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request. The FAA then ordered an internal review of air-traffic
communications tapes to comply with the
Tribune FOIA
request which subsequently uncovered a call by the United
supervisor to an FAA manager in the airport tower concerning the
UFO sighting.
The FAA stance concludes that the sighting was caused by weather
phenomenon and that the agency would not be investigating the
incident. UFO investigators have pointed out that this stance is a
direct contradiction to the FAA's mandate to investigate possible
security breaches at American airports such as in this case; an
object witnessed by numerous airport employees and officially
reported by at least one of them, hovering in plain sight, in
restricted airspace, over one of the busiest airports in the world!
Many witnesses interviewed by the
Tribune were apparently
"upset" that federal officials declined to further investigate the
matter.
Media coverage
The Chicago O'Hare airport UFO story was picked up by various major
mainstream media groups such as
CNN,
CBS,
MSNBC,
Fox
News,
Chicago Tribune,
NPR. Such widespread coverage of a UFO sighting
by today's mainstream media is somewhat unusual.
Leaked newsroom footage of Jon Hilkevitch interview
A video
surfaced in the spring of 2007 showing an unedited pre-interview
discussion of the Chicago O'Hare Airport UFO sighting between
Jon Hilkevitch (the Chicago
Tribune transportation reporter who reported the Chicago UFO
story) and Jim Wagner a news anchor with
CLTV, a 24 Hour news channel in Oak Brook,
Illinois
.The video shows both men having an off-air
discussion about the amount of international media reaction to the
UFO story as well as discussing United Airlines alleged "flip-flop"
on the event and the FAA's explanation as "weather phenomenon" that
according to Hilkevitch's sources "just doesn't wash." Hilkevitch
also mentions that photographs were possibly taken by a pilot with
a digital camera and that the story is "the most read story in the
history of CT.com (chicagotribune.com)" with almost a "million
hits."
Hilkevitch then goes on to say that he is hearing from: "serious
researchers at major US universities who've attempted to do their
own investigations and, when they go to the government to try to
get information, they get stonewalled." Hilkevitch continues by
saying "So there really is this universal feeling that the
government knows more than it's willing to tell."
After the actual on-air interview is conducted both men continue to
chat about the reaction to the event until the screen goes dark and
only the audio is heard. The video finally ends with an unknown
person off camera saying "It would've landed but uh..." at which
point the camera then shuts off.
See also
References
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
