It’s Not Surprising That the Reported UFO Sighting… [Derived Headline]

It’s not surprising that the reported UFO sighting over O’Hare International Airport has captured the imaginations of many around the world. Who can resist a good UFO story? And this one’s better than most. Generally, UFO sightings tend to happen in places like the Big Bend country of Texas, where there’s lots of sky, plenty of dirt and not too many people.

But this one happened over O’Hare.

To recap, on Nov. 7, a dark gray flying saucerlike object – some said it was spinning, some not – hovered over the airport for several minutes before shooting through thick clouds with such speed that it left an eerie hole in the overcast sky. That was the account from some United Airlines employees – including a pilot and a mechanic – who said they observed the phenomenon.

The powers that be then got snarky: Officials at United at first professed no knowledge of the incident. Strange, because it was reported to the airline by as many as a dozen of its own workers. Then the Federal Aviation Administration says its air traffic control tower at O’Hare did receive a call from a United supervisor asking if controllers had spotted a mysterious, elliptical-shaped craft sitting motionless over Concourse C of the United terminal.

But FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said no air traffic controllers saw the object, and a preliminary check of radar found nothing.

“Our theory on this is that it was a weather phenomenon,” Cory said. “That night was a perfect atmospheric condition in terms of low (cloud) ceiling and a lot of airport lights. When the lights shine up into the clouds, sometimes you can see funny things.”

Let the officials deny UFOs exist. They always do. But the more they blame some vague weather phenomenon, the more the O’Hare sighting will blaze in the firmament of ufology. We don’t know what happened at O’Hare, but the thought that we’re not alone in the universe, that aliens are traveling great distances to visit, is strangely comforting. Nice to know we may not be alone in universe

(c) 2007 Bismarck Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.