Post by swamprat on Mar 2, 2019 16:26:46 GMT
Sigh..... We knew it was gonna get worse!
It's a UFO; it's a spaceship; no, it's a drone
By Jon Wilcox
Feb 25, 2019
High above a Victoria H-E-B, the glowing orb of light hovered in the darkened sky.
And Goliad mother Rose Mejia, 37, and her 16-year-old did the only thing they could.
“We started screaming,” said Mejia.
With hundreds of reports of unidentified flying objects made each year in Texas, the sight witnessed by Mejia and her daughter was hardly unique. But with the commercial, non-military drone industry rapidly growing in the U.S. and projected to reach $30 billion by 2020, the number of drones reported as legitimate UFOs are increasing, too.
“A significant amount of UFOs that we investigate are hobby drones,” said Ken Jordan, who serves as the Texas chief of investigations for Mutual UFO Network. MUFON is a decades-old California-based nonprofit that investigates and studies UFO sightings internationally.
In Texas, the organization receives about 800 such reports each year, and every one is vetted, investigated and reported on by trained network volunteers. After identifying information is redacted, the reports are then published online.
Victoria drone enthusiast John Hampton, 33, said if the object above H-E-B, 1505 E. Rio Grande St., was a drone, the pilot was acting irresponsibly. Federal Aviation Administration guidelines require drones never to be piloted over people. They should not be used to scare people, said Hampton, who owns almost a dozen drones.
“That’s a very terrible idea,” he said.
And although Hampton said he would prefer to personally confront a pilot who was flying irresponsibly, complaints can be made through an FAA hotline.
Even weeks after Mejia’s sighting about 9 p.m. one night in early February, the woman said she isn’t completely sure what she saw. But she does know the experience left her rattled.
“I’m not going to lie. I really got scared,” she said.
Above the H-E-B parking lot, she saw a bright, white light framed by three smaller lights of red, white and blue. The object was low enough for her to hear a loud buzzing sound like a “loud, ugly motor.”
Officials with the Victoria Police Department and Victoria County Sheriff’s Office said their drones were not active at that time. Police officials said they were unable to search records to determine how many similar reports they have received.
Although the object above H-E-B demonstrated an ability to maneuver by rocking back and forth in the air, Mejia was alarmed to find the object had followed her as she stopped later that night at a gas station miles away on Southwest Moody Street. There, she noticed the object was low enough to pass through two utility poles, further puzzling her.
“That sh-- was no airplane,” she said.
Drones masquerading as true UFOs – a term that encompasses extraterrestrial spacecraft, secret government technology and other theoretical objects that can’t be readily explained – have become common in recent years, Jordan said.
Even in daylight, observers may mistake drones for UFOs, but programmable LED light kits, some of which are designed for hoaxes, make confusion even more likely, he said. Those lights can be bright enough for drones to be visible up to 20 miles away in the right conditions.
“They think that it’s funny,” said Jordan, adding, “It will really confuse people ... It’s not right to scare people.”
Although Jordan said determining whether an object in the sky is a mere drone or something truly unexplained can be difficult, he offered a few tips.
First, although some commercial drones can now measure up to several feet across, they are far smaller than real UFOs, which Jordan claims can measure from 20 feet long to miles in diameter.
In fact, Jordan said about two years ago he determined a video purportedly of a UFO in San Antonio in fact showed a drone after noticing the drone’s body was illuminated as it passed a street light. Another time, he discovered a supposed spaceship that was flying near a family’s home was actually a neighbor wearing a colander with lights attached.
Observers should also pay attention to an object’s altitude and flight time because drones are restricted to fly beneath 400 feet and always have to land eventually. Spacecraft, interdimensional or conventional, can easily fly above that height and have no limitations for how long they can fly, he said.
Finally, real UFOs are soundless, but drone motors are generally noisy. Above all else, observers should practice skepticism in considering the origins, or even existence, of a UFO.
People should “do their own research,” he said: “Don’t believe anything until you check it out yourself.”
www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/it-s-a-ufo-it-s-a-spaceship-no-it/article_03f79c72-393b-11e9-868c-9bb099c5ca8e.html
It's a UFO; it's a spaceship; no, it's a drone
By Jon Wilcox
Feb 25, 2019
High above a Victoria H-E-B, the glowing orb of light hovered in the darkened sky.
And Goliad mother Rose Mejia, 37, and her 16-year-old did the only thing they could.
“We started screaming,” said Mejia.
With hundreds of reports of unidentified flying objects made each year in Texas, the sight witnessed by Mejia and her daughter was hardly unique. But with the commercial, non-military drone industry rapidly growing in the U.S. and projected to reach $30 billion by 2020, the number of drones reported as legitimate UFOs are increasing, too.
“A significant amount of UFOs that we investigate are hobby drones,” said Ken Jordan, who serves as the Texas chief of investigations for Mutual UFO Network. MUFON is a decades-old California-based nonprofit that investigates and studies UFO sightings internationally.
In Texas, the organization receives about 800 such reports each year, and every one is vetted, investigated and reported on by trained network volunteers. After identifying information is redacted, the reports are then published online.
Victoria drone enthusiast John Hampton, 33, said if the object above H-E-B, 1505 E. Rio Grande St., was a drone, the pilot was acting irresponsibly. Federal Aviation Administration guidelines require drones never to be piloted over people. They should not be used to scare people, said Hampton, who owns almost a dozen drones.
“That’s a very terrible idea,” he said.
And although Hampton said he would prefer to personally confront a pilot who was flying irresponsibly, complaints can be made through an FAA hotline.
Even weeks after Mejia’s sighting about 9 p.m. one night in early February, the woman said she isn’t completely sure what she saw. But she does know the experience left her rattled.
“I’m not going to lie. I really got scared,” she said.
Above the H-E-B parking lot, she saw a bright, white light framed by three smaller lights of red, white and blue. The object was low enough for her to hear a loud buzzing sound like a “loud, ugly motor.”
Officials with the Victoria Police Department and Victoria County Sheriff’s Office said their drones were not active at that time. Police officials said they were unable to search records to determine how many similar reports they have received.
Although the object above H-E-B demonstrated an ability to maneuver by rocking back and forth in the air, Mejia was alarmed to find the object had followed her as she stopped later that night at a gas station miles away on Southwest Moody Street. There, she noticed the object was low enough to pass through two utility poles, further puzzling her.
“That sh-- was no airplane,” she said.
Drones masquerading as true UFOs – a term that encompasses extraterrestrial spacecraft, secret government technology and other theoretical objects that can’t be readily explained – have become common in recent years, Jordan said.
Even in daylight, observers may mistake drones for UFOs, but programmable LED light kits, some of which are designed for hoaxes, make confusion even more likely, he said. Those lights can be bright enough for drones to be visible up to 20 miles away in the right conditions.
“They think that it’s funny,” said Jordan, adding, “It will really confuse people ... It’s not right to scare people.”
Although Jordan said determining whether an object in the sky is a mere drone or something truly unexplained can be difficult, he offered a few tips.
First, although some commercial drones can now measure up to several feet across, they are far smaller than real UFOs, which Jordan claims can measure from 20 feet long to miles in diameter.
In fact, Jordan said about two years ago he determined a video purportedly of a UFO in San Antonio in fact showed a drone after noticing the drone’s body was illuminated as it passed a street light. Another time, he discovered a supposed spaceship that was flying near a family’s home was actually a neighbor wearing a colander with lights attached.
Observers should also pay attention to an object’s altitude and flight time because drones are restricted to fly beneath 400 feet and always have to land eventually. Spacecraft, interdimensional or conventional, can easily fly above that height and have no limitations for how long they can fly, he said.
Finally, real UFOs are soundless, but drone motors are generally noisy. Above all else, observers should practice skepticism in considering the origins, or even existence, of a UFO.
People should “do their own research,” he said: “Don’t believe anything until you check it out yourself.”
www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/it-s-a-ufo-it-s-a-spaceship-no-it/article_03f79c72-393b-11e9-868c-9bb099c5ca8e.html