Was there really a UFO at O'Hare in Chicago? In a word - yes. No matter how one slices and dices the information coming out of the Windy city's major airport, there was an object that a dozen or so witnesses saw and it has yet to be identified. Unless of course you actually believe it was the weather.
That's the description from the FAA. "Our theory on this is that it was a weather phenomenon," a spokesperson 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. That's our take on it."
Certainly the Chicago Tribune's transportation reporter Jon Hilkevitch had no clue what kind of bandwidth firestorm he would unleash on his newspaper's servers when he did the legwork on this story.
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He probably had no choice but to do a follow up and writes in the Sunday edition:
Covering UFOs seemed to be stretching the definition of my job, transportation reporting. I looked at the clock on the newsroom wall and decided to give Mr. Davenport two minutes. But he was onto something.
The UFO story, published Monday here, became the most-read piece to appear on chicagotribune.com. It was the top story on the Tribune Web site for four straight days, garnering more than 1 million page views from people around the world.
The reaction is proof that we live in a curious world. Maybe a curious universe too.
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Indeed we do, and many cannot discount those that are certain they saw something and were told by the government that no investigation would be undertaken. Plus it doesn't help when the first answer out from the feds is that no event took place.
The first Tribune article noted that the FAA originally told the paper that it had no information on the alleged UFO sighting. But the federal agency quickly reversed its position after the newspaper filed a Freedom of Information Act request.
An internal FAA review of air-traffic communications tapes, a step toward complying with the Tribune request, turned up the call by the United supervisor to an FAA manager in the airport tower, the FAA said.
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I think it is quite clear that these folks saw something. Hilkevitch's first report noted that some said the saucer-like object looked like a rotating Frisbee, while others said it did not appear to be spinning. All agreed the object made no noise and it was at a fixed position in the sky, just below the 1,900-foot cloud deck, until shooting off into the clouds.
Was it a big-time hoax? Was it military or was it a visit from beyond? The curiosity is there, but will we ever know?
Related:
O'Hare UFO and the Phoenix Lights: The Difference May be Video
O’Hare UFO Controversy: Witnesses Say Yes, Feds No
O’Hare UFO: Hoax or Real Sighting?
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