Chicago O’Hare UFO: The truth is out there, but not everywhere

August 24, 2010 – The purported UFO that pilots and other eagle-eyed professionals reported seeing almost four years ago, hovering above Gate C-17 at O’Hare International Airport, never went away.

Don’t get me wrong. The aviators, United Airlines ramp workers, managers and aircraft mechanics all said they witnessed the dark gray, metallic, disk-shaped UFO leave the restricted airspace over O’Hare with such tremendous force and velocity on Nov. 7, 2006, that it pierced a hole of crisp blue air in the cloud-covered sky.

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t receive e-mails or phone calls from UFO enthusiasts and researchers asking for an update to my exclusive Tribune story from New Year’s Day 2007.

The article was breaking news of a possible (or impossible) visit by extraterrestrials. It also disclosed efforts by the Federal Aviation Administration and United officials to claim that they knew nothing about the UFO reports, despite the witness accounts.

So I wasn’t surprised Tuesday when my old story was Googled widely after an appearance Monday night on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” by author Leslie Kean. Kean interviewed me several times for her new book, “UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record,” which is about reported UFO sightings by highly respected, reputable witnesses.

Read more: www.chicagotribune.com

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At approximately 4:30 p.m on Tuesday November 7, 2006, federal authorities at Chicago O’Hare International Airport received a report that a group of twelve airport employees were witnessing a metallic, saucer-shaped craft hovering over gate C-17.

According to eyewitness reports, the strange object was first spotted by a ramp employee who was “pushing back” United Airlines flight 446 which was departing Chicago for Charlotte, North Carolina. The ramp worker then apprised the flight crew of UA446 of the existence of the spinning, metallic object above their aircraft, and it is believed that both the pilot and co-pilot of this aircraft also witnessed the object at that time.

According to Jon Hilkevitch of the Chicago Tribune in an interview on Fox News’ Glenn Beck program: “The disc was visible for approximately two minutes and was seen by close to a dozen United Airlines employees, ranging from pilots to supervisors, who heard chatter on the radio and raced out to view it.” The UFO was then seen to suddenly accelerate straight up through the overcast skies. Witnesses reported that the object left behind an open hole of clear air in the cloud layer and that the “mysterious” hole disappeared or “closed” within a few minutes. So far, no conclusive photographic evidence of the UFO has surfaced although it was reported to Hilkevitch that one of the United Airlines pilots was in possession of a digital camera at the time of the sighting and may have photographed the event.

Both United Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) first denied that they had any information on the O’Hare UFO sighting until the Chicago Tribune, who was investigating the report, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The FAA then ordered an internal review of air-traffic communications tapes to comply with the Tribune FOIA request which subsequently uncovered a call by the United supervisor to an FAA manager in the airport tower concerning the UFO sighting.

The FAA stance concludes that the sighting was caused by weather phenomenon and that the agency would not be investigating the incident. UFO investigators have pointed out that this stance is a direct contradiction to the FAA’s mandate to investigate possible security breaches at American airports such as in this case; an object witnessed by numerous airport employees and officially reported by at least one of them, hovering in plain sight, over one of the busiest airports in the world. Many witnesses interviewed by the Tribune were apparently “upset” that federal officials declined to further investigate the matter.

Wikinews has related news: United Airlines employees spot UFO at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport

The Chicago O’Hare airport UFO story was picked up by various major mainstream media groups such as CNN, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, Chicago Tribune, NPR.

On February 11, 2009 The History Channel aired an episode with the title “Aliens at Airport” in which they had also reconstruct the whole incident.

A video surfaced in the spring of 2007 showing an unedited pre-interview discussion of the Chicago O’Hare Airport UFO sighting between Jon Hilkevitch (the Chicago Tribune transportation reporter who reported the Chicago UFO story) and Jim Wagner a news anchor with CLTV, a 24 Hour news channel in Oak Brook, Illinois. The video shows both men having an off-air discussion about the amount of international media reaction to the UFO story as well as discussing United Airlines alleged “flip-flop” on the event and the FAA’s explanation as “weather phenomenon” that according to Hilkevitch’s sources “just doesn’t wash.” Hilkevitch also mentions that photographs were possibly taken by a pilot with a digital camera and that the story is “the most read story in the history of CT.com (chicagotribune.com)” with almost a “million hits.”

Hilkevitch then goes on to say that he is hearing from: “serious researchers at major US universities who’ve attempted to do their own investigations and, when they go to the government to try to get information, they get stonewalled.” Hilkevitch continues by saying “So there really is this universal feeling that the government knows more than it’s willing to tell.”

After the actual on-air interview is conducted both men continue to discuss the reaction to the event until the screen goes dark and only the audio is heard. The video finally ends with an unknown person off camera saying “It would’ve landed but uh…” at which point the camera then shuts off.

source: en.wikipedia.org

Chicago Tribune transportation reporter Jon Hilkevitch describes the phenomena that leads to periodic explosions of interest in his 2006 story about a UFO reported above O’Hare airport.

This is a captured TV broadcast off air footage of the UFO O’Hare video.