sighting in Geelong, victoria, 7pm, 10 april 09

[rockmum]

hi, just wondering if anyone else spotted a ufo, 10-april, approx 7pm, we were on the freeway driving back to wyndham, so we were goin through geelong
my daughter saw it,, shes nearly 13, she sat in the front seat so ofcourse i miss out!!!
my husband noticed she was staring out the window for a while, then suddenly she turns around breathless, covering her mouth and could barely speak, then she muttered, '' I Saw a ufo:, then started crying in shock..
she explained it as 1st she saw this reddish coloured object in the sky moving around, then it zoomed to another part of the sky, she saw it closer then, it was round, a bright silvery colour, and about 2 red lights on the side, there was also something on the top of it, she said it then zoomed again, this time out of sight

hope anyone can reply to this, my daughters pretty shaken up, what do u reckon????, thanks

[stephenb]

(*sigh*)

I guess someone has to post something here.

Rockmum, once your daughter has calmed down enough and extracted herself from the fetal position, perhaps she could goto this site and fill out the obligatory on-line form:

http://www.mysticaluniverse.com/ufo/reports/NewUFOrpt.htm

Err, and the fact that you were in the vicinity of AVALON AIRPORT probably has something to do with it.

Perhaps there may be other internet forums who can help you with this 'incident'.

[erick]

Yes indeed Laura, since you daughter could not work out what it was, it was an unidentified flying object. (Maybe it wasn't flying, but the image seemed to be?)

Was it a spacecraft piloted by intelligent beings from somewhere else in the Universe? - very very highly unlikely.

Could it be explained if more information was available to your daughter, you and others? - very very likely.

There are lots of lots of things seen that aren't identified or readily explained by those that see them. But the vast majority do have an explanation.

See this extract from Wikipedia's entry on UFOs:-

Studies show that after careful investigation, the majority of UFOs can be identified as ordinary objects or phenomena (see Identification studies of UFOs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identification_studies_of_UFOs)). The most commonly found identified sources of UFO reports are:

Astronomical objects (bright stars, planets, meteors, re-entering man-made spacecraft, artificial satellites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_satellites), and the moon)
Aircraft (advertising planes and other aircraft, missile launches)
Balloons (weather balloons, prank balloons, large research balloons) Much less common sources of UFO reports include:

Other atmospheric objects and phenomena (birds, unusual clouds, kites, flares)
Light phenomena (mirages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage), Fata Morgana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage#Fata_Morgana), moon dogs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_dog), searchlights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searchlight) and other ground lights, etc.)
Hoaxes A study (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book#Project_Blue_Book _Special_Report_No._14) by the Battelle Memorial Institute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battelle_Memorial_Institute) of US Air Force reports included these categories as well as a "psychological" one. However, the scientific analysts were unable to come up with prosaic explanations for 21.5 % of the 3200 cases they examined and 33 % of what were considered the best cases remained unexplained, double the number of the worst cases. (See full statistical breakdown in Identification studies of UFOs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identification_studies_of_UFOs)). Of the 69 % identifieds, 38 % were deemed definitely explained while 31 % were thought to be "questionable." About 9 % of the cases were considered to have insufficient information to make a determination.
The official French government UFO investigation (GEPAN/SEPRA), run within the French space agency CNES between 1977 and 2004, scientifically investigated about 6000 cases and found that 13.5 % defied any rational explanation, 46 % were deemed definitely or likely identifiable, while 41 % lacked sufficient information for classification.
An individual 1979 study by CUFOS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUFOS) researcher Allan Hendry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Hendry) found, as did other investigations, that only a small percentage of cases he investigated were hoaxes (<1 %) and that most sightings were actually honest misidentifications of prosaic phenomena. Hendry attributed most of these to inexperience or misperception.[49] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidentified_flying_object#cite_not e-48) However, Hendry's figure for unidentified cases was considerably lower than many other UFO studies such as Project Blue Book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book) or the Condon Report (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condon_Report) that have found rates of unidentified cases ranging from 6 % to 30 %. Hendry found that 88.6 % of the cases he studied had a clear prosaic explanation, and he discarded a further 2.8 % due to unreliable or contradictory witnesses or insufficient information. The remaining 8.6 % of reports could not definitively be explained by prosaic phenomena, although he felt that a further 7.1 % could possibly be explained, leaving only the very best 1.5 % without plausible explanation.

You can read more here:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identification_studies_of_UFOs

There are much more exciting things to see in the sky. Perhaps your daughter would like some binoculars or a telescope to see incredible things - beyond our galaxy even!

Eric :)

[ngcles]

Hi Rockmum & All,

Rockmum, I was going to post something along the lines of what Erick has written but instead, I'd suggest you simply read Erick's reply carefully and thoroughly.

It is simply excellent and I couldn't have put it more calmly, clearly respectfully and all-round better in any way at all. :thumbsup::thumbsup: Erick and well done mate -- an absolutely spot-on reply in every possible possible!!

The only thing (here I go ...) I'd possibly add by way of clarification one one point, is to say that even of those very small number of reports that don't have a plausible explanation, that doesn't automatically mean it was in fact an alien space-ship. It just means we can't exactly nail what it was for a whole host of reasons. Most (perhaps all) of these "inexplicable ones" do have an actual natural explanation -- it just that we haven't been able to find it yet.



Best,

Les D