UFO Sightings over Stephenville, TX Continue
The vast media attention on the Stephenville, Texas UFO sightings continued with more reports of UFOs, not only in and around Stephenville, but also in other cities in Texas: San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Austin, Cisco, McKinney, and as far west as the Texas-Louisiana border. Although these collateral reports are to be expected to a degree, many of these have been sent in by very reliable witnesses, and seem to be quite legitimate.
MUFON has said they will also be investigating sightings from the other Texas locations.
It is only natural to have many follow-up sightings in a case as big as the Stephenville case, and there is a reason for this. With so many people aware of the reports, more eyes are trained on the skies, and therefore more "unusual" things are seen. Secondly, if these UFOs are spreading out across Texas, there is simply more to see. And thirdly, a small percentage of folks are simply wanting to get on the bandwagon. All of these points need to be considered when examining a sighting.
Also, photographs and video are beginning to be displayed across the Internet, and several of these have been shown on CNN, NBC, CBS, FOX, and many other local television stations. I have been sent two very interesting videos that I will display soon on YouTube, as soon as I have time to edit them properly, and receive more information from the videographers. I have seen a couple of interesting photographs, and several fairly interesting videos, but the jury is still out on these.
These are being looked at closely, as an investigator hates to show the world evidence until he has confidence in it.
I have talked to a couple of the folks at MUFON after last weekend's assessment of the locals sighting reports in Stephenville, and all indications are that there is a real phenomena going on in the Texas farming community. Ken Cherry, the Texas Director of the UFO organization, has stated that it would take until the end of the year to actually publish a report, but all indications from his public statements tell us that we do have UFOs over Stephenville. He has not elaborated anything more other than this one statement.
"We believe there is some sort of phenomenon in action here," said Cherry. "We see a pattern. But it will take months to investigate."
Anytime a wave of sightings makes major news outlets, you can bet there will be some debunkers come forward to try to spoil the soup. The Stephenville wave is no different. This time, the culprit is the military.
When the sightings were first made public, the UFO was described as a mile long, half as wide, and followed by F-16 fighter jets. One very important fact about this report was that it was made by an experienced airplane pilot, Steve Allen, which made his sighting very reliable, and difficult to debunk. There were also several individuals with Allen who also saw the UFO and planes. It is difficult to tell a pilot he doesn't know what an airplane looks like in the sky.
Because the two jets were mentioned, the local military immediately denied that there had any of their aircraft in the air on January 8, the day of Allen's sighting.
Major Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, has said no F-16s or other aircraft from his base were in the area the night when many sightings were reported. But, on January 23, CBS reported that the military had issued a retraction of this earlier statement. Lewis stated:
"In the interest of public awareness, Air Force Reserve Command Public Affairs realized an error was made regarding the reported training activity of military aircraft. Ten F-16s from the 457th Fighter Squadron were performing training operations from 6 to 8 PM Tuesday January 8, 2008, in the Brownwood Military Operating Area (MOA), which includes the airspace above Erath County."
This statement was met with total disbelief by UFO enthusiasts, who quickly pointed out the fallacies of Lewis' position. Pilot Steve Allen was soon on video showing the routes used by the Air Force Reserve unit jets, and proved that it was nowhere near the location of the sightings.
Also, it is common knowledge that the Air Force does not deploy ten jets at once in training missions. Witnesses pointed out that even if there were 10 jets in the air at once, it would not explain what they saw. The case for the UFOs over Stephenville seems to be beating the odds of most cases, with UFOs being taken seriously by the media this time. Isn't it about time?
MUFON has said they will also be investigating sightings from the other Texas locations.
It is only natural to have many follow-up sightings in a case as big as the Stephenville case, and there is a reason for this. With so many people aware of the reports, more eyes are trained on the skies, and therefore more "unusual" things are seen. Secondly, if these UFOs are spreading out across Texas, there is simply more to see. And thirdly, a small percentage of folks are simply wanting to get on the bandwagon. All of these points need to be considered when examining a sighting.
Also, photographs and video are beginning to be displayed across the Internet, and several of these have been shown on CNN, NBC, CBS, FOX, and many other local television stations. I have been sent two very interesting videos that I will display soon on YouTube, as soon as I have time to edit them properly, and receive more information from the videographers. I have seen a couple of interesting photographs, and several fairly interesting videos, but the jury is still out on these.
These are being looked at closely, as an investigator hates to show the world evidence until he has confidence in it.
I have talked to a couple of the folks at MUFON after last weekend's assessment of the locals sighting reports in Stephenville, and all indications are that there is a real phenomena going on in the Texas farming community. Ken Cherry, the Texas Director of the UFO organization, has stated that it would take until the end of the year to actually publish a report, but all indications from his public statements tell us that we do have UFOs over Stephenville. He has not elaborated anything more other than this one statement.
"We believe there is some sort of phenomenon in action here," said Cherry. "We see a pattern. But it will take months to investigate."
Anytime a wave of sightings makes major news outlets, you can bet there will be some debunkers come forward to try to spoil the soup. The Stephenville wave is no different. This time, the culprit is the military.
When the sightings were first made public, the UFO was described as a mile long, half as wide, and followed by F-16 fighter jets. One very important fact about this report was that it was made by an experienced airplane pilot, Steve Allen, which made his sighting very reliable, and difficult to debunk. There were also several individuals with Allen who also saw the UFO and planes. It is difficult to tell a pilot he doesn't know what an airplane looks like in the sky.
Because the two jets were mentioned, the local military immediately denied that there had any of their aircraft in the air on January 8, the day of Allen's sighting.
Major Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, has said no F-16s or other aircraft from his base were in the area the night when many sightings were reported. But, on January 23, CBS reported that the military had issued a retraction of this earlier statement. Lewis stated:
"In the interest of public awareness, Air Force Reserve Command Public Affairs realized an error was made regarding the reported training activity of military aircraft. Ten F-16s from the 457th Fighter Squadron were performing training operations from 6 to 8 PM Tuesday January 8, 2008, in the Brownwood Military Operating Area (MOA), which includes the airspace above Erath County."
This statement was met with total disbelief by UFO enthusiasts, who quickly pointed out the fallacies of Lewis' position. Pilot Steve Allen was soon on video showing the routes used by the Air Force Reserve unit jets, and proved that it was nowhere near the location of the sightings.
Also, it is common knowledge that the Air Force does not deploy ten jets at once in training missions. Witnesses pointed out that even if there were 10 jets in the air at once, it would not explain what they saw. The case for the UFOs over Stephenville seems to be beating the odds of most cases, with UFOs being taken seriously by the media this time. Isn't it about time?