UFO Magazine - June 2001
The Intrigue of Mass Sightings
What Makes for Good Evidence?

Written by Diana Botsford

I've been accused of being everything from a debunker to a believer on the subject of UFOs.  What seems like vacillation is actually a hard-core case of fence sitting. Although I've seen my share of genuine UFO cases, the excessive quantity of hoaxes has caused me to look before I leap.  Photographic evidence doesn't turn me on - I've spent too many years in the film industry creating visual effects on films like <i>Dusk 'Til Dawn</i> to get excited about a picture with a flying disk in it.  Especially when the light source is in the wrong direction or there's a funky line around the edges of the craft.  But when I hear about sightings containing multiple witnesses, I immediately want to know more.  Mass sightings are the quickest way to push me off the fence and into the camp of supporting the UFO phenomena. Perhaps they are not tangible evidence but they are certainly the next best thing.  Individuals can exaggerate claims, crowds can't.

Sightings with many witnesses have perplexed researchers and debunkers alike. How can you ignore repeated accounts of the same exact occurrence? You can't. Sure, mass hysteria might work if they'd all drunk out of the same Kool-Aid bottle, but not when complete strangers detail exactly the same incident.  Mass sightings are a significant contributor to the case for the ET hypothesis. The key however, is in determining if the reported phenomena can be attributed to military craft or not.

When examining recent cases, it's essential to consider the possibility that military test craft were the actual cause. The current level of technology available in the US military as well as abroad includes flying machines that can 'move at lighting speeds', look 'like black triangles' from the ground, or can make 'sudden turns on a dime'.  The X-33 and 38 are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the abilities of current day aeronautics. And though they may not account for all sightings, you can't ignore the fact that they exist.

For example, on December 2nd, 1999, China's city of Shanghai reported that nearly 100 people saw a cylindrical object with a flaming orange tail moving over the western part of the city.  The sighting lasted approximately an hour.  At the same time, mainstream news was reporting that China had finally bumped the US out of the lead in stealth aircraft.  A convenient coincidence?  Perhaps.  But worthy of consideration.  If China is testing new secret aircraft, it's quite likely they are flying over civilian airspace - taunting their public.  And if the people have never seen these machines before, it's also quite possible they looked alien. To the witnesses, it <i>was</i>alien!

Go back a few decades, however, and the military test craft explanation doesn't work.  The infamous 1952 flap in Washington, D.C. is a terrific example where there were dozens of corroborating witness reports from both civilian and military individuals. Air traffic control tracked these UFOs two weekends in a row and also had old-fashioned eyeball visual contact with a "huge fiery orange sphere" over Andrews AFB.  F94 interceptor pilots reported locking their radar onto some of these objects only to have them break free within a few seconds. 

Photos of craft flitting about the capitol building in addition to eyewitness reports from radar technicians, pilots and civilians on the street, continues to puzzle the most steadfast skeptic on this case.  Remember, photographic tricks were not commonplace in 1952.  Nor were military test craft that can immediately change velocity from 7200 mph down to 24 mph and up again. And although the military strived to show that the radar blips were due to weather inversions, their own post event report -- <i> A Preliminary Study of Unidentified Targets Observed on Air Traffic Control Radars</i> could not justify all the instances of sightings.  Thus, the mass sightings of Washington, D.C. 1952 is still considered unsolved.

Another intriguing case of a mass sighting took place in September of 1965 including French naval submarines off the coast of Martinque.  Over 300 trained personnel witnessed, "a large luminous object (that) arrived slowly and silently from the west".  The UFO is reported to have made two complete and distinct loops directly over the submarines and then taken off for parts unknown. The weather was clear, the waters calm and the claims heavily substantiated by additional witnesses - <i>trained witnesses<i> - from a weather observatory tower on land.  It's difficult to dismiss these sort of accounts to weather balloons when they involve a substantial group of people who are skilled military personnel.

Other mass sightings throughout the globe - from Mosquiero, Brazil to Bonnybridge, Scotland - continue to underline the fact that the UFO phenomenon cannot be easily written off.  On the other hand, the debacle behind the Phoenix, AZ mass sightings of 1997 demonstrate that it is essential to investigate these cases in a scientific manner and without early conjecture being released to the mass media.   When these cases become tainted by preemptive reports, even those who didn't see the craft will climb on the bandwagon.

Professional methodology and cooperation are vital. If the data is amassed correctly, mass UFO sightings can be an undeniable means of study for those wishing to determine the fact and fiction behind the mystery.  I continue to support any and all investigations concerning mass sightings.  They may not be the iconic <i>smoking gun</i> we're all looking for, but are still worthy additions to the ever building case of the UFO phenomenon.