Slashdot Mirror


CIA on UFO Sightings: 'It Was Us'

mrflash818 sends word that the CIA has taken the blame for a majority of early UFO sightings. In a tweet, the agency said, "It was us," and linked to a document summarizing their use of U-2 spy planes from 1954-1974 (PDF). "High-altitude testing of the U-2led to an unexpected side effect — a tremendous increase in reports of unidentified flying objects," the CIA wrote in the document, which it wrote in 1998. "In the mid-1950s, most commercial airliners flew at altitudes between 10,000 and 20,000 feet and [many] military aircraftoperated at altitudes below 40,000 feet. Consequently, once U-2s started flying at altitudes above 60,000 feet, air-traffic controllers began receiving increasing numbers of UFO reports." [T]he CIA cross-referenced UFO sightings to U-2 flight logs. "This enabled the investigators to eliminate the majority of the UFO reports," the CIA wrote, "although they could not reveal to the letter writers the true cause of the UFO sightings."

9 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Oh yeah? by halivar · · Score: 5, Funny

    If I was a Sleestak alien overlord, that's exactly what I would say.

  2. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Russian spy planes. What do you think the CIA was looking for?

  3. That's not all.. by gurps_npc · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wait till they declassify the Elvis sighting reports... It was really President JFK, disguised by plastic surgery after he secretly resigned !

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
  4. Re:So the CIA = Aliens? by zlives · · Score: 5, Funny

    that would explain the anal probes

  5. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by bondsbw · · Score: 5, Funny

    )

    There it is.

    --
    All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
  6. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Weather Balloons - Swamp Gas - Reflections of the Sun against ice particles in clouds - The planet Venus, Mars, Jupiter - Sputnik II - The Jupiter II - The USS Enterprise - that just about covers it...

  7. Where are the anal probe results? by uCallHimDrJ0NES · · Score: 3, Funny

    I am submitting a FOIA request to get that anal probe data.

    --
    Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
  8. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
  9. Well... by Holistic+Missile · · Score: 3, Funny

    I guess this identification chart is now obsolete:

    http://xmb.stuffucanuse.com/xm...

    --
    When you're dead, you don't know you're dead. It only affects the people around you. Same thing when you're stupid.