Something Out There? No!

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” Carl Sagan

Last week, the US Navy released three videos of encounters with 'unidentified flying objects'. The tin-foil hat brigade, with too much time on their hands during the Covid-19 lockdown, went into hyperdrive.

This saga has a backstory, much of which the main-stream media are getting wrong.  

Let me set the scene. The first video — titled FLIR — records an incident that took place on 14 November 2004 in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California. Two F/A-18 Hornets from the USS Nimitz reported chasing a UFO.

One of the Hornets captured infrared video with its targeting pod. Simultaneously, naval vessels and other military planes in the vicinity reported radar sightings. By some accounts, similar incidents occurred in the following days although no video evidence is available.

The second series of incidents involved the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Atlantic Ocean. These events took place from the summer of 2014 to March 2015 with five F/A-18 Hornet pilots reporting UFOs.

The Navy released two infrared videos of these encounters — GIMBLE and GO FAST. Like the Nimitz incident, radar contacts identified the presence of an object. One of the videos appears to show something travelling at very high speed at sea level. 

These videos first emerged to the public domain in December 2017 in a New York Times story featuring Luis Elizondo, a former US Defence staffer. The media alleges that Elizondo 'leaked' the videos.

This untrue statement gives the tale a disquieting edge, suggesting a cover-up. In truth, Elizondo attained proper consent to use the videos. Various branches of the military did not know this, leading to some confusion. Thus, with the Navy's 'official' release in April 2020, the story became a significant event. 

Of course, speculation is rife. Why did the Navy decide to make public the footage and confirms its existence? Are we being prepared for an alien encounter or is a Covid-19 distraction exercise underway? Meanwhile, the videos are shoe-horned into every crackpot conspiracy out there. This is often the way these days.

The truth is more prosaic. Could the release be anything to do with the thousands of 'freedom of information' requests they've received? These requests, placed with various agencies, have fed conjecture of a cover-up. Yet, as insiders note, the US military is a massive entity.

So, just because one section has certain evidence doesn't mean the whole institution knows. Accordingly, when replying to FOI requests with "we don't have such footage" the author was mistaken but honest.  

The fact that the footage sat idle and unreported elsewhere suggests nothing more than lax procedures. 

I reckon the US Navy is fed up with all the fuss and having concluded the videos show nothing unusual, they released them.
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The Navy hasn't given out any of the radar or other sensor data that accompanies these incidents. That's no surprise. Such details are sensitive as it gives away information about military capabilities that are secret. 

As expected, a great deal of stuff is now buzzing about on the Internet. To some folks, these videos affirm the presence of aliens or beings from another dimension. To others, these sightings are trial runs of drones that will later spread Covid-19. 

Then you have pseudo-scientists asserting that the object in the FLIR clip is travelling at 40,000 miles an hour while pulling 60Gs. To them, this is direct evidence of advanced alien technology. 

Consider that an F/A-18 Hornet will break up at about 16G, while the pilot dies at approximately 9G. When asked to produce calculations to verify their findings, these 'experts' go silent. I can only surmise because it's nonsense.

The Navy has not stated what it believes is happening the videos. Radar data and other sensors likely provide a full explanation, but again for reasons of secrecy that's not something we are going to get. Thus, the lack of a full account is feeding the frenzy. 

Further, not knowing the explanation for the sightings does not mean we can jump to the conclusion its aliens. Such a leap would need a substantial amount of evidence.  

So here comes Mick West, who does share his calculations and draws conclusions from the available data. As Mick points out, there are simple explanations for these three events. He debunks the claims made about the FLIR video and in a series of YouTube clips covers the other encounters. 

The details, including the maths used to calculate speeds, are all given. The role of the sensor unit on the F/A-18 Hornet is critical, plus an understanding of parallax and trigonometry.

I'm sorry to say and rather glad that ET hasn't arrived nor has a portal opened to another dimension. With all this Covid-19 nonsense, we don't need another conspiracy firestorm. 

Not everyone will accept these mundane explanations. All that does is place the ball in their court — show us your evidence. 
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By the way, if you want to fake your own ET video clip, below is an example using my iPhone and the sensor lights on the back of my watch. A bit of editing, some mood music and ten minutes later, bingo. ​