UFO radar contacts

[El_Spectre]

Hello all,
I'm in the process of re-evaluating a bunch of stuff I believed since I was a teen... sadly, bigfoot and and nessie are history :)

Fascinating to look at this stuff with a better understanding of biology...

But here's my question:

Any number of UFO sightings have been explained, the only thing that still bugs me is this: On a number of occasions in the 90s, air forces (I'm thinking Belgium and/or Germany) reported tracking something unknown in their airspace. There supposedly exist a number of radar tracks of these objects, including them accelerating in at incredible speed (i.e. straight up 10,000' from a standing start in a few seconds).

If these are real, it's tough to blow them off as mistakes and swamp gas :) However, I heard about these on some TV show years ago, and it may have totally distorted the truth.

I'm really curious about this... Radar is a pretty accurate technology these days, and would have to be considered fairly hard evidence.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Are these good explanations (other than something really being there) ? Did the show just distort a mundane event?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Thanks y'all,
--David

[jmercer]

I've heard the same rumors, but I've never seen any public records of the events. So until I see some evidence that these things actually occurred, it sort of comes under the heading of "Urban Legends".

BTW, welcome to the forums!

[El_Spectre]

Thanks for the welcome... I've been lurking a bit since attending TAM3 last month, decided to participate.

I've tried to dig up info... as you'd imagine, web searches for 'UFO' return a bajillion hits.

[DangerousBeliefs]

Hey!

I'm still hopeful for Nessie... or at least large unknown aquatic species.

UFOs do not mean "aliens"... there are lots of possible reasons for such anomalies from software glitches to weather phenomena. And of course, that's not to say that I don't think ETs are real... I just highly doubt they're "buzzing" Earth.

[geni]

I can't help you on the 90's but a lot of the older ones from the 50's were due to radar not really being as a good as claimed.

[El_Spectre]

Large unknown aquatic species is possible... the ocean is a big place. A scottish lake, not so much (particularly since they've probed it w/sonar).

I'm sure aliens exists (big damn universe for only 1 planet to have life), and am not convinced they CAN'T be visiting... but until I see something like evidence, I can't get behind it.

[El_Spectre]

Originally posted by geni
I can't help you on the 90's but a lot of the older ones from the 50's were due to radar not really being as a good as claimed.

Yeah, this involved jets being scrambled to intercept, and fighters have good radar.

[Lavie Enrose]

I decided to post the two sides of the story and allow people to use their critical thinking skills to make up their own minds.

THE UFO BRIEFING DOCUMENT CASE HISTORIES
1989-1990: UFO SIGHTING WAVE IN BELGIUM (http://www.ufoarea.com/events_belgium.html)

BELGIUM 1990: A CASE FOR RADAR-VISUAL UFOS? (http://members.aol.com/TPrinty/Belg.html)

[MRC_Hans]

Good links! The objective one points out some very important issues:

There was no correlation between radar contacts and visual sightnings.

Visual sightings were reasonable consistent with conventional aircaft sightings.

Radar sightings were not inconsistent with various false echo phenomenon.

Hans

[Traveller]

As an air traffic controller I have watched the skies over the UK for the last 40 years - with the naked eye and with radar. In all that time I have never seen anything which gave me cause to believe that it was of extra terrestrial origin. Nor do I know of any controller who has, and I have had extensive contact with controllers in other countries during my career.

These days, radar is extremely reliable and very accurate but can still give anomalous indications. I have personal experience of a radar return appearing many miles away from its actual position - as have the crew and passengers of the aircraft to which I gave sudden avoiding action as a result.

It is not generally realised, perhaps, all aircraft entering the UK's airspace (and I think this is the same for other countries) are tracked by the air defence radars. If they cannot be associated with a known flight fighters can be sent to investigate. I believe thatthis is the origin of many of the stories of fighters being scrambled to chase UFOs.

[MRC_Hans]

Exactly! An unidentified radar contact will be investigated. It has been like this since the cold war. So, fighters are scrambled to look for it, they intercept the indicated position, find nothing, and return to base.

Afterwards, UFO enthusiasts can say "The Airforce had to send fighters to investigate".

Hans