CBS’s Sunday night show, 60 Minutes shed light on the UFO sightings noticed over the skies of Massachusetts. The Pentagon, after years of denial regarding the acknowledgement of unidentified aerial phenomena, UAP, more commonly known as UFOs, has finally admitted that there is something out there.
Bill Whitaker, CBS News correspondent reported on Sunday night’s 60 Minutes, “We have tackled many strange stories on 60 Minutes, but perhaps none like this. This story caused a natural buzz about flashes of light and other phenomena that are unexplainable.
60 Minutes Episode
During the episode which aired on Sunday, Whitaker interviewed former military pilots and intelligence officials. These individuals have previously expressed their concern about potential national security threats posed by UFOs in restricted areas U.S airspace areas.
A former Navy pilot told the CBS News correspondent that he saw UFOs that surpassed U.S. military aircrafts “every day for at least a couple of years.”
The existence of mysterious sightings in the sky are a cause of concern for the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee. They have ordered a delivery report to be presented by the director of national intelligence and secretary of defense next month to provide more details on the matter.
A Veteran’s Story
Luiz Elizondo spent 20 years of his life running military intelligence operations worldwide reaching Afghanistan, the Middle East and Guantanamo. He never considered UFOs as something viable until 2008. During that year he was asked to join the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or “AATIP” at the Pentagon.
ADVERTISEMENT
He declared that the aim of the AATIP was quite simple. It was to gather and analyze information involving anomalous aerial vehicles, something the world identifies as UFOs. He said, “We call them UAPs.”
Elizondo opened up about the questions raised as the team explores and investigates the information they have.
“We’re not just simply jumping to a conclusion that’s saying, ‘Oh, that’s a UAP out there.’ We’re going through our due diligence,” Elizondo stated. “Is it some sort of new type of cruise missile technology that China has developed? Is it some sort of high-altitude balloon that’s conducting reconnaissance?”
“Ultimately, when you have exhausted all those what-ifs and you’re still left with the fact that this is in our airspace and it’s real, that’s when it becomes compelling, and that’s when it becomes problematic.”
“I'm not telling you that it doesn't sound wacky. What I'm telling you, it's real,” says Luis Elizondo, a 20-year veteran of covert military intelligence operations, about UFOs. “What is it? What are its intentions? What are its capabilities?” https://t.co/N8Z0JM2tH5 pic.twitter.com/fVUZ3hQaIq
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) May 16, 2021
History Of UFO Reports
In the last 15 years there have been more than 5,500 UFO reports made to the National UFO Reporting Center.
ADVERTISEMENT
According to Patch, 1,882 reports of mysterious sightings in the sky have been made by residents of the state of Massachusetts. In the interview, Luiz Elizondo explained that even though some UFO viewings are easily explained, there are some which spark deeper insight and curiosity.
In the year 2021 so far, there have been 15 UFO reports in Massachusetts including the following, as reported by Patch.
- a silent object “flying relatively low beneath a clouded sky” for five minutes on March 16 in Hyannis.
- a sphere hovering near the lighthouse in Gloucester Harbor on March 29.
- a bright light over Danvers on February 27.
The Interviewees
Many who had experienced UFO sightings spoke and described what they had witnessed during 60 Minutes. Retired Naval Cmdr. David Fravor encountered an oblong craft flying erratically through his airspace at incredible speed during a training mission he was part of in California, 2004. Fravor mentioned that it was nothing like he had ever seen before in nearly 20 years of his flying experience.
He called it “other worldly.” Fravor tried to get closer to the craft as it continued to gain altitude, “and when it gets right in front of me, it just disappears.”
Kenneth Arnold is another amongst many who had come across UFOs during his time in the air. Arnold was a businessman piloting a small plane when he saw nine high-speed, crescent-shaped objects zooming along at tremendously fast rates, “like saucers skipping on water.”
Even though the objects he claimed to see were not saucer-shaped, his analogy led to what we know today as the popularized phrase, “flying saucers.”
Below are excepts from the interviews of Navy pilots:
A Twitter Trend
Twitter users were one of the first to react to the reports regarding UFOs, creating memes that represent society today following the government’s announcement.
The government is now saying that UFO's are real.
And for the first time I'm like "Wait a minute! Are UFO's not real??!"— Trevor Moore (@itrevormoore) May 17, 2021
The US Government: “Aliens and UFO’s are real”
Us, too worn out by the crushing boot of capitalism to care: pic.twitter.com/d6KpFgeBQW
— 5hahem aka Dr. Durag (@shaTIRED) May 17, 2021
Me when I see UFOs trending https://t.co/4QgWglpCE4
— cesar (@jebaiting) May 17, 2021
gov: there are no UFOs
Americans: yes there are what are you hidinggov: there are UFOs
Americans: bullshit what are you hiding— ☠️ HAPPY ☠️ (@happyroadkill) May 17, 2021
The UFO phenomenon has been present for decades, yet it still remains identifiable.
