Editorial

Who’s up there and what are they doing?

Posted 3/16/23

Since the infamous Chinese spy balloon incident last month, much of our attention has returned to the skies above us.

As was reported, three more objects were shot down over U.S. and Canadian …

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Editorial

Who’s up there and what are they doing?

Posted

Since the infamous Chinese spy balloon incident last month, much of our attention has returned to the skies above us.

As was reported, three more objects were shot down over U.S. and Canadian airspace in a span between February 10 and 12. Little is known about them, other than reports that one was the size of “a small car” and that the three objects “did not pose a kinetic military threat, but their path and proximity to sensitive Defense Department sites and the altitude they were flying could be a hazard to civilian aviation.” We may never know more than that.

The Hudson Valley has always held a certain fascination for what lies above us. Pine Bush has managed to capitalize on the phenomenon with its annual UFO Fair that is more family entertainment than science and with the Pine Bush UFO & Paranormal Museum dedicated to local encounters with things largely unexplained.

It is, perhaps because of these recent newsworthy occurrences, that more of our attention is focused on our skies. For whatever reason, the internet has been abuzz lately with reports of unusual sights and sounds. Some reported loud booms, others saw bright lights.

One observer was able to describe what he saw in greater detail. William Glass, a retired Air Force Captain, knows what types of lighting patterns can be found on aircraft. He knows, for example, that a plane’s taillight should be red and flashing. Yet what he saw one night while driving along Rock Cut Road in the Town of Newburgh did not fit the lighting patterns of typical aircraft. He reported three white lights and one red light in a square, none of which were flashing. He also had the presence of mind to contact the Stewart Air National Guard Base and was told that it wasn’t the C-17s making all that noise.

So what can we might of these occurrences? Spies? Extraterrestrial aliens? Weather balloons?

To date, there has never been any definitive proof of extraterrestrials visiting our shores, just lots of blurry photos and unconfirmed and unexplained encounters. There have also been a number of official investigations, including the famous Air Force Project Blue Book, commissioned to investigate more than 12,000 reported UFO sightings between 1947 and 1969. It concluded that “no UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force has ever given any indication of a threat to our national security” and “there has been no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as unidentified are extraterrestrial vehicles.” A more recent study by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence examined 144 incidents reported between 2004 and 2021, but only identified one, according to a report by Nextgov.com. That one was attributed to a large, deflating balloon. The others remain officially unexplained, “although the report suggests everything from ice crystals, bird flights, problems with sensors and commercial drone flying as possible explanations.”

One suspects that most of these sightings and incidents will remain unexplained for the foreseeable future. That will leave much to the imagination.