From: "Tom Burnett" 
To: "UFO UpDates - Toronto" 
Subject: Re: UFO UpDate: UFO ROUNDUP, Volume 2, Number 50
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 12:12:21 -1000
> From: Masinaigan 
> Date: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 11:37:44 EST
> To: updates@globalserve.net
> Subject: Fwd: UFO ROUNDUP, Volume 2, Number 50
>      UFO ROUNDUP
> Volume 2, Number 50
> December 28, 1997
> Editor: Joseph Trainor
> BRITISH JETLINER SIGHTS
> GIANT UFO OVER YORKSHIRE
>      On Monday, December 8, 1997, a Boeing 737,
> owned by British Midland Airways, took off from
> London's Heathrow Airport for a flight to Belfast,
> Northern Ireland.
>      At 2:15 p.m., the jetliner was flying over
> Liverpool on a northwesterly heading.  Then one of
> the passengers spotted a very large UFO off the right
> wingtip at an estimated distance of 150 miles
> (240 kilometers).
>      According to Miles Johnston of the British UFO
> Research Association (BUFORA), "It was a very big,
> black, thin vehicle, with a very bright white tip.  It moved
> at all times very slowly but was of considerable size.
> Relative width-to-length ratio of 20:1."
>      The UFO was described as "a cigar-shaped object"
> 2,000 feet (667 meters) long.
>      The UFO "was seen almost on the horizon (at)
> approximately the same height as the Boeing 737,
> 33,000 feet...This would position the UFO approximately
> over Yorkshire," Johnston reported, "The UFO was
> observed by a passenger on the plane for 15 minutes."
>      Below the UFO was "heavy thick cloud" cover that
> made it impossible for the object to be seen from the
> ground.  "After 15 minutes, the object flew slowly flew
> into very high clouds over the region."  Prior to that,
> "the object was visible at all times in bright, clear
> sunlight."  (See Filer's Files #51 for December 24, 1997.
> Many thanks to George A. Filer of MUFON for this
> report.)
I originally let this go because I thought someone else would
speak up, but I guess not.
It is absolutely impossible, using Mk1, Mod0 eyeballs, to see
much of anything at a distance of 150 miles horizontally through
the atmosphere, much less identify it's shape and size.  The AQ
(fire control) radar in an F-14 can paint targets at about that
distance but it is well beyond visual range.  Aircraft, even
large ones with landing lights on flying directly towards an
airborne observer are not visible past 15 or 20 miles. It should
be possible to see a shuttle or large rocket launch at that
distance for a few seconds as it reached the upper atmosphere but
it would not be identifiable as anything but a bright light.
Furthermore, at a cruising speed of around 480 knots, an observer
in the window seat of a B-737 would not be able to see an
external object for more than a few seconds in any case unless it
were on a similar flight path, which means it was probably in a
commercial air corridor. I have flown on commercial airliners a
little.  Observing the tips of the aircraft's wings through the
double-pane plexiglass is difficult.  Identifying an object
within your field of view on the ground from 33,000 feet is no
easy chore.  Identifying something in the air at a distance of
more than about 15 miles through optics like that is
problematical at best.
This report sounds remarkably like another heavy aircraft at the
same altitude on a similar flight path with a horizontal
separation of about 10 miles. Would any other pilots or airline
passengers care to comment?
Aloha
Tom Burnett
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