'Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation' Season 2 Episode 4: Are UFOs a threat to commercial planes?
Spoilers for 'Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation' Season 2 Episode 4 'Airline Encounters'
The debate rages on. Are UFOs a threat? Answers have been divided and to just add to this are the testimonies by commercial airline pilots claiming to have recorded sightings. It isn't just them. The ATC personnel have been witness to strange anomalies as well, and much of it was kept under a shroud. Luiz Elizondo and Chris Mellon attempt to debunk these theories and recordings to see if the UFOs are a threat to the world's commercial airline system.
While some of the pilots saw an object, it was in this one particular case where one of these UFOs came perilously close to an airliner causing some massive panic for two pilots. With the aircraft altimeter showing abnormal signs at 35,000 ft, what was considered an equipment error at first soon turned to gripping fear as the pilot recollected the presence of a mysterious object right underneath the belly of the plane, causing the altimeter to act up.
There may have not been any damages, but what it did is pose a serious question to the pilots — did they just witness an extraterrestrial? And if it was one, was it actually a threat? At this point, it is safe to give the pilots the benefit of the doubt as what they went through is a credible theory that they were mere feet away from an imminent attack. On the flip side, the query could be, "why didn't the so-called object attack?" It is hard to speculate. Did the spaceship register the plane as zero threat?
We could probably have a different argument on whether the object's response would be the same if it was a fighter jet instead of a commercial plane. In addition to this, one of the testimonies was from a pilot who claimed to have seen a bunch of lights one below the other and it seemed to be connected by a ladder of sorts. The possibility of drones was immediately ruled out and while ATC saw nothing on the radar, the startling development was another plane heading from the opposite direction saw the same object.
At well over 525 mph and a height of 35,000 ft, miles as a distance close in faster and this recording was even captured by the pilot who executed evasive maneuvers. The same pilot also saw his first UFO in December 2009 near Las Vegas, which is quite close to the secretive Area 51. So the working theory was whether he saw some top-secret developmental phase aircraft.
This is definitely food for thought. As for the actual question, the threat is something we can only wait and hope to be a dud theory. There might be enough evidence around, but the fact that there has been no actual attack is the only consolation.
'Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation' Season 2 airs on Saturdays 10 pm ET on History.