O'Hare Airport UFO, 2006
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In November 2006, a UFO encounter took place over Chicago’s O’Hare airport that involved multiple trained observers, including pilots, flight controllers, and airport personnel.(1) The sighting is one of many to involve aviation workers, and adds to the body of evidence proving that pilots and other trained observers see UFOs more often than public confessions would tend to indicate. The case of the O’Hare UFO also reveals the extent to which airlines, airports, and regulatory authorities still intervene to stop these sightings from reaching the general population.
The Event
On November 7th, 2006, Chicago was overcast, with a low cloud ceiling at about 1900 feet, or 580 meters. Around 4 p.m., staff at the O’Hare International Airport were handling a high volume of traffic when many noticed a stationary gray object hovering directly above an airport gate.(2)
The first evidence for the UFO’s appearance comes from Craig Burzych, Inbound Ground Controller for the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA. At 3:58 p.m., Burzych was recorded advising the pilot of Gateway Airlines Flight 5668 to “use caution” as someone had reported a “UFO or flying disc” above C concourse.(3)
The next witness to see the object and come forward about it was an anonymous former radio news anchor and reporter known as “J.H.,” who happened to have experience with many types of aircraft. J.H. was on her way to the airport with a friend when she first noticed the object in the sky, sometime after 4 o’clock, at the intersection of Mannheim Blvd. and Irving Park Rd. Observed from the side, the UFO was evenly elliptical, thicker than a Frisbee. Other people on the road had seen it too, and were trying to take pictures.
J.H. and her friend watched from this position for less than a minute before they parked at the International Terminal. For roughly 10 minutes after, they stood and watched the UFO at an estimated distance of a quarter mile, or .4 km. J. H. guessed that at least 15 witnesses across the lot were already looking at it, with several taking pictures. She estimated that the UFO was hovering 300 to 400 feet below the cloud ceiling. From this angle, the object appeared to be taller in the middle, with narrower, rounded edges. Later calculations estimated that the object was between 18 and 88 feet wide, or about 5.5 to 27 meters.(4) It was completely featureless, with no lights, and no apparent engines or exhaust, with a lightly reflective surface like ceramic or buffed metal. Reflecting the tarmac below, its bottom appeared to be dark gray while the top seemed to almost “absorb” the whitish color of the clouds. J.H. also noted some “fuzzy” distortion in the air around it, which she thought may have been due to the object rotating rapidly, though she wasn’t sure of this.(5)
A United ramp mechanic, known only as Mr. X. X., was on the tarmac directing a United plane back at Gate C17, when he claimed that he felt inexplicably compelled to look straight up. He was startled when he spotted a round, rotating, metallic object silently hovering an estimated 500 to 1000 feet above him. The mechanic radioed the operations center then notified the cockpit crew in the Boeing 737-500 he was directing. He estimated that his sighting lasted only around two minutes, and that at least 10 others had also spotted the UFO.(6)
The mechanic’s notice prompted the two 737 pilots parked at gate C17 to open their side windows for a better look. The First Officer, who had over 13,000 flying hours at the time of his sighting, later described it as being perfectly round and silent, dirty aluminum in colour, and very stable. The two reportedly watched the object for five minutes.(7)
Another two witnesses were aviation mechanics for United, one of whom shared his story anonymously. “Joe,” as he is known, was in the cockpit of an empty Boeing 777 with his coworker close to 4 o’clock when they heard a pilot on the radio mentioning a disc-shaped object over gate C17. While taxiing the plane past C Terminal, the mechanics observed a dark gray, ovular object hovering 100 to 200 feet below the cloud layer, which they watched for 30 to 60 seconds. Joe later stated that what he saw “definitely was not an aircraft,” although it was “hazy” on its bottom and both ends but clearer on top. Two unique details of Joe’s report are his claims that the object left a trail and that he saw “aircraft in the vicinity or aircraft chasing the object.”(8)
The last verified sighting comes from a United manager who was working in a station operations center around 4:30 p.m. when he heard about the UFO by radio and ran outside his office for a look. The manager described it as a dark metal “elliptical” object hovering in place over C17 at roughly 1000 feet. He watched it hover there for about a minute.(9)
The UFO remained in place for a total of at least 13 to 14 minutes according to J.H., who had the longest observation.(10) The UFO then shot upwards at great speed, creating a circular hole in the cloud layer as it disappeared from sight. While most witnesses underneath the object reported a straight upward departure, the manager and J.H., who each stood farther away, noted a lateral movement eastward covering between 200 and 400 ft before hitting the clouds.(11) J.H. also reported that there was no noticeable acceleration of the object, and no sonic boom either.(12) No more than 14 minutes later, the wind had closed the hole in the clouds.(13)
Witness reports differ as to when the UFO departed, with estimates ranging from 4:18 to 4:34 p.m. The United manager and the ramp worker both said the object took off after 4:30, but communications from the mechanics taxiing the plane confirm that the UFO was visible between 3:57 and 4:18 p.m., with the UFO gone when they checked back around 4:20.(14) Considering the discrepancies in times, it’s possible that the UFO disappeared after it was first reported ahead of 3:58, then later returned - possibly twice.(15)
Aftermath
After the UFO’s departure, the airline manager immediately called the United operations center to confirm the sighting, then went out to speak with other witnesses. He also noted that the next aircraft into Gate C17 experienced electrical problems. The FAA reported no radar returns corresponding with the sightings, although it’s worth noting that their radar systems aren’t designed for stationary objects or those traveling at high speeds.(16)
Some of the witnesses later claimed that United Airlines officials had interviewed them after the incident, and had them write reports and draw sketches of the UFO. They also advised employees not to speak about their sightings, however, at least one witness in a CNN TV interview said that his airline’s management never pressured him to stay quiet.(17)
The director of the National UFO Reporting Center, or NUFORC, Peter Davenport, started receiving witness reports on the date of the incident, and later published the full witness reports on the Reporting Center’s website.(18) Reports submitted to NUFORC reveal more sightings before and after 4 p.m.. At 12:15 p.m. - nearly four hours before the main sighting - two witnesses in Wood Dale, Illinois, just west of O’Hare, saw several circular white objects hovering over the airport. The UFOs hovered silently in place for 15 minutes, and once, two of them “bounced off of each other” before they all flew away. The testimony also states that one or more UFOs “emitted other objects,” and noted other aircraft in the vicinity.(19)
Another possible witness is an anonymous person who submitted their testimony in January, 2007 to AboveTopSecret.com under the pseudonym “Ramp Agent X.” This witness claims to have been one of three baggage handlers who saw the UFO while ferrying luggage near concourse C. The witness described it as a shiny, gray “fat disc” at over 1000 ft altitude. Uniquely, he or she claimed it shifted a bit from side to side. Ramp Agent X pointed the object out to the cockpit crew in the nearby plane, and said the pilot clearly radioed-in after seeing it.(20)
Another sighting took place near 5 p.m. in Aurora, Illinois, roughly 26 miles, or 42 km, southwest of O’Hare. A family on the back porch of their house saw a silent, round, “very shiny” silver object that hovered level with the few surrounding clouds. The sighting only lasted 20 to 30 seconds, but the father estimated its altitude around 1000 feet, and presumed that it was round in shape.(21)
The first media coverage of the O’Hare incident was 8 days after the fact, on November 15th, when Davenport was interviewed on Coast-to-Coast radio by George Noory. Nearly a month later, Davenport and a witness were interviewed on the Jeff Rense radio program, and the sightings made the Chicago Sun newspaper on Christmas day.(22)
The day after his appearance on the Jeff Rense show, Davenport contacted the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune’s transportation reporter, Jon Hilkevitch, spoke with Davenport, and interviewed six of the witnesses. On December 29th, Hilkevitch was interviewed on Chicagoland Television, or CLTV, and three days later on NPR, but it was his January 1st article for the Tribune that brought the story to international attention. It became the most-read article ever on the Tribune’s website, quickly gaining over 1 million visits around the world. The same day that the article was published, Hilkevitch and the host of CLTV news were heard excitedly discussing the case before going live.(23) In the following weeks, many more outlets published coverage of the events, including the CNN and MSNBC websites.(24) On January 6th, “Joe” the mechanic was interviewed in shadow for CNN television, the first witness to appear on TV.(25)
Hilkevitch stated in an interview that he was impressed by the case and described all the witnesses he had spoken to as aviation professionals and credible observers. Hilkevitch reinforced the point that the witnesses didn’t claim that the object was a spaceship from another planet; they stressed that the object was unidentified, and presented a safety hazard, having violated restricted airspace. The witnesses who later spoke to the media all said that they were certain the object was not an airplane, helicopter, blimp, weather balloon, light or weather phenomenon, or any known human construction.(26)
Official Response
Even though witnesses were adamant in their accounts, authorities at the airline, airport, and even the regulatory agencies played down the incident to the point of lying about the evidence.(27) Officials at both United and the FAA initially told Hilkevitch that they had no information on the sighting, despite the fact that several staff members reported it to the airline. United spokeswoman, Megan McCarthy, stated officials also had no record, including nothing in the duty manager’s log. United and the FAA had to admit to knowledge of the incident after Hilkevitch and NARCAP, or the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, filed Freedom of Information Act requests. A review of the air-traffic communications they obtained uncovered four recordings in which controllers and pilots discussed the UFO.(28) When questioned by CNN reporters, a spokesperson for United Airlines said that the event was “not something United would investigate,” and directed further inquiry to the FAA. The Transportation Security Administration, or the TSA, and Chicago Department of Aviation did the same thing. However, the FAA spokesperson, Elizabeth Isham Cory, claimed that her agency did not have the “power” to investigate.(29) Years later, Hilkevitch characterized the actions of United and the FAA as a cover-up.(30) He even claimed that university researchers contacted him with similar stories of being stonewalled by the government.(31)
Cory claimed that none of their controllers saw the object, and a preliminary check of radar found nothing out of the ordinary. She concluded that the event was caused by a “weather phenomenon,” and indicated that the FAA wouldn’t be investigating further. She also suggested that the supposed UFO was merely the reflection of the airport’s lights off the low cloud cover, despite the event concluding past 4:30 p.m., several minutes before sunset.(32) Witness J.H. also definitively confirmed that it was still light out, and no airport lights were on.(33) Hilkevitch further revealed that the weather experts and astronomers he spoke to said the light-reflection explanation was “bunk.”(34)
After this hypothesis met with resistance, the FAA shifted the focus to the hole left in the clouds. Years later, FAA spokesperson, Tony Molinaro, claimed there was an "absence of any kind of factual evidence" on the event. Molinaro pointed to the natural phenomenon of “fallstreaks,” often called “hole-punch clouds,” suggesting witnesses must have seen the round hole and imagined the round object that made it.(35)
Debate
For her 2010 book, UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record, investigative journalist Leslie Kean included a chapter on the O’Hare case. Kean spoke to weather experts and found that the U.S. National Weather Service reported a temperature of 53 degrees F at 1900 feet that day, which is well above freezing and not cold enough to produce a fallstreak. Furthermore, Kean points out that fallstreaks occur when ice crystals from a higher cloud deck fall down onto a lower one. This ran counter to the FAA spokesperson’s explanation which held that vapour somehow ascended through the clouds, defying gravity.(36)
The night of the incident, Davenport contacted Dr. Richard F. Haines, a former NASA research scientist and ufologist with decades of experience in aviation. Haines had previously helped form NARCAP in 1999, providing a way for pilots and air traffic controllers to make confidential UFO reports.(37) Haines led an investigation of the incident assisted by meteorologist William Pucket, aerospace engineer Laurence Lemke, Canadian pilot and aviation professional Donald Ledger, and five other specialists.(38) The team confirmed that no weather balloons were launched in the vicinity of O'Hare on the date of the incident.(39) They also calculated that the energy it would take to evaporate the surrounding cloud so quickly is around 100 megawatts (MW), equivalent to the power consumed by a Boeing 747 cruising for over 7 hours.(40) By comparison, airborne objects like aircraft, rockets, and artillery rounds, do not cut holes in the clouds they pass through. The team also noted several other cases as far back as 1947 where UFOs cut holes through clouds.(41)
On March 9th, Haines’ team produced a report on his investigation totalling over 150 pages. Their report concluded that an “apparently solid” object was present and that it posed potential safety risks. They also verified the UFO’s location as being “very likely” outside the viewing range of the main tower and United ramp control towers. Given the failure of O’Hare’s radar to detect the UFO, the authors expressed their hope that the report would help build the case for a government investigation, and underscore the need to monitor a wider range of electromagnetic phenomena in our skies.(42)
While several witnesses insisted that people were taking photos during the incident, many of the photos presented to the public have been proven fake. No photograph of the O’Hare UFO has ever been confirmed as genuine through rigorous analysis.(43)
The O’Hare case was the focus of a 2009 episode of UFO Hunters. The hosts interviewed Hilkevitch, as well as NARCAP's executive director, Ted Roe, and William Puckett, who had both contributed to the NARCAP report. The episode also included the first TV interview with controller Craig Burzych, who confirmed that he and his staff in the tower didn’t see the UFO, despite the fact that their sightline would have allowed them to see it.(44) The case was also reviewed in the 2011 documentary Secret Access: UFOs on the Record which featured both Kean and Haines.(45)
Better than most UFO sightings, the incident at O’Hare showcases the difficulties that witnesses that work in aviation face in communicating their experiences to the public, and to independent investigators. The FAA has long tried to shirk the UFO question, and to dodge responsibility for investigating sightings. Their policy states that members of the public that witness UFOs should contact UFO reporting groups or local law enforcement.(46) What’s more, pilots who report their sightings, and especially those that speak to the media, can face repercussions from their superiors. For example, the pilot of Japan AirLines flight 1628, was grounded shortly after reporting his UFO sighting over Alaska in 1986, and had to spend several years at a desk job before being reinstated as a pilot.(47)
Not all airlines are similarly secretive, however. For example, in June of 2007, Aurigny Airlines Captain Ray Bowyer, was flying near Alderney island south of England when he, his passengers, and another pilot in a nearby plane, spotted two large, “brilliant” white, cigar-shaped UFOs during the flight. Bowyer disclosed that his airline actively encouraged him to go public after being asked about the sighting from the press.(48)
Conclusion
The incident at O'Hare Airport is a recent reminder that mass UFO sightings still occur, and that in America, at least, witnesses and investigators still get stonewalled by all authorities in their search for explanations. There are many cases on record from around the world to prove that pilots and other airline workers do see UFOs, and report them through all the proper channels. But there is reason to believe that there would be many more cases known to the public if airlines and regulatory agencies were more transparent with the evidence.
In November 2006, a UFO encounter took place over Chicago’s O’Hare airport that involved multiple trained observers, including pilots, flight controllers, and airport personnel.(1) The sighting is one of many to involve aviation workers, and adds to the body of evidence proving that pilots and other trained observers see UFOs more often than public confessions would tend to indicate. The case of the O’Hare UFO also reveals the extent to which airlines, airports, and regulatory authorities still intervene to stop these sightings from reaching the general population.
The Event
On November 7th, 2006, Chicago was overcast, with a low cloud ceiling at about 1900 feet, or 580 meters. Around 4 p.m., staff at the O’Hare International Airport were handling a high volume of traffic when many noticed a stationary gray object hovering directly above an airport gate.(2)
The first evidence for the UFO’s appearance comes from Craig Burzych, Inbound Ground Controller for the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA. At 3:58 p.m., Burzych was recorded advising the pilot of Gateway Airlines Flight 5668 to “use caution” as someone had reported a “UFO or flying disc” above C concourse.(3)
The next witness to see the object and come forward about it was an anonymous former radio news anchor and reporter known as “J.H.,” who happened to have experience with many types of aircraft. J.H. was on her way to the airport with a friend when she first noticed the object in the sky, sometime after 4 o’clock, at the intersection of Mannheim Blvd. and Irving Park Rd. Observed from the side, the UFO was evenly elliptical, thicker than a Frisbee. Other people on the road had seen it too, and were trying to take pictures.
J.H. and her friend watched from this position for less than a minute before they parked at the International Terminal. For roughly 10 minutes after, they stood and watched the UFO at an estimated distance of a quarter mile, or .4 km. J. H. guessed that at least 15 witnesses across the lot were already looking at it, with several taking pictures. She estimated that the UFO was hovering 300 to 400 feet below the cloud ceiling. From this angle, the object appeared to be taller in the middle, with narrower, rounded edges. Later calculations estimated that the object was between 18 and 88 feet wide, or about 5.5 to 27 meters.(4) It was completely featureless, with no lights, and no apparent engines or exhaust, with a lightly reflective surface like ceramic or buffed metal. Reflecting the tarmac below, its bottom appeared to be dark gray while the top seemed to almost “absorb” the whitish color of the clouds. J.H. also noted some “fuzzy” distortion in the air around it, which she thought may have been due to the object rotating rapidly, though she wasn’t sure of this.(5)
A United ramp mechanic, known only as Mr. X. X., was on the tarmac directing a United plane back at Gate C17, when he claimed that he felt inexplicably compelled to look straight up. He was startled when he spotted a round, rotating, metallic object silently hovering an estimated 500 to 1000 feet above him. The mechanic radioed the operations center then notified the cockpit crew in the Boeing 737-500 he was directing. He estimated that his sighting lasted only around two minutes, and that at least 10 others had also spotted the UFO.(6)
The mechanic’s notice prompted the two 737 pilots parked at gate C17 to open their side windows for a better look. The First Officer, who had over 13,000 flying hours at the time of his sighting, later described it as being perfectly round and silent, dirty aluminum in colour, and very stable. The two reportedly watched the object for five minutes.(7)
Another two witnesses were aviation mechanics for United, one of whom shared his story anonymously. “Joe,” as he is known, was in the cockpit of an empty Boeing 777 with his coworker close to 4 o’clock when they heard a pilot on the radio mentioning a disc-shaped object over gate C17. While taxiing the plane past C Terminal, the mechanics observed a dark gray, ovular object hovering 100 to 200 feet below the cloud layer, which they watched for 30 to 60 seconds. Joe later stated that what he saw “definitely was not an aircraft,” although it was “hazy” on its bottom and both ends but clearer on top. Two unique details of Joe’s report are his claims that the object left a trail and that he saw “aircraft in the vicinity or aircraft chasing the object.”(8)
The last verified sighting comes from a United manager who was working in a station operations center around 4:30 p.m. when he heard about the UFO by radio and ran outside his office for a look. The manager described it as a dark metal “elliptical” object hovering in place over C17 at roughly 1000 feet. He watched it hover there for about a minute.(9)
The UFO remained in place for a total of at least 13 to 14 minutes according to J.H., who had the longest observation.(10) The UFO then shot upwards at great speed, creating a circular hole in the cloud layer as it disappeared from sight. While most witnesses underneath the object reported a straight upward departure, the manager and J.H., who each stood farther away, noted a lateral movement eastward covering between 200 and 400 ft before hitting the clouds.(11) J.H. also reported that there was no noticeable acceleration of the object, and no sonic boom either.(12) No more than 14 minutes later, the wind had closed the hole in the clouds.(13)
Witness reports differ as to when the UFO departed, with estimates ranging from 4:18 to 4:34 p.m. The United manager and the ramp worker both said the object took off after 4:30, but communications from the mechanics taxiing the plane confirm that the UFO was visible between 3:57 and 4:18 p.m., with the UFO gone when they checked back around 4:20.(14) Considering the discrepancies in times, it’s possible that the UFO disappeared after it was first reported ahead of 3:58, then later returned - possibly twice.(15)
Aftermath
After the UFO’s departure, the airline manager immediately called the United operations center to confirm the sighting, then went out to speak with other witnesses. He also noted that the next aircraft into Gate C17 experienced electrical problems. The FAA reported no radar returns corresponding with the sightings, although it’s worth noting that their radar systems aren’t designed for stationary objects or those traveling at high speeds.(16)
Some of the witnesses later claimed that United Airlines officials had interviewed them after the incident, and had them write reports and draw sketches of the UFO. They also advised employees not to speak about their sightings, however, at least one witness in a CNN TV interview said that his airline’s management never pressured him to stay quiet.(17)
The director of the National UFO Reporting Center, or NUFORC, Peter Davenport, started receiving witness reports on the date of the incident, and later published the full witness reports on the Reporting Center’s website.(18) Reports submitted to NUFORC reveal more sightings before and after 4 p.m.. At 12:15 p.m. - nearly four hours before the main sighting - two witnesses in Wood Dale, Illinois, just west of O’Hare, saw several circular white objects hovering over the airport. The UFOs hovered silently in place for 15 minutes, and once, two of them “bounced off of each other” before they all flew away. The testimony also states that one or more UFOs “emitted other objects,” and noted other aircraft in the vicinity.(19)
Another possible witness is an anonymous person who submitted their testimony in January, 2007 to AboveTopSecret.com under the pseudonym “Ramp Agent X.” This witness claims to have been one of three baggage handlers who saw the UFO while ferrying luggage near concourse C. The witness described it as a shiny, gray “fat disc” at over 1000 ft altitude. Uniquely, he or she claimed it shifted a bit from side to side. Ramp Agent X pointed the object out to the cockpit crew in the nearby plane, and said the pilot clearly radioed-in after seeing it.(20)
Another sighting took place near 5 p.m. in Aurora, Illinois, roughly 26 miles, or 42 km, southwest of O’Hare. A family on the back porch of their house saw a silent, round, “very shiny” silver object that hovered level with the few surrounding clouds. The sighting only lasted 20 to 30 seconds, but the father estimated its altitude around 1000 feet, and presumed that it was round in shape.(21)
The first media coverage of the O’Hare incident was 8 days after the fact, on November 15th, when Davenport was interviewed on Coast-to-Coast radio by George Noory. Nearly a month later, Davenport and a witness were interviewed on the Jeff Rense radio program, and the sightings made the Chicago Sun newspaper on Christmas day.(22)
The day after his appearance on the Jeff Rense show, Davenport contacted the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune’s transportation reporter, Jon Hilkevitch, spoke with Davenport, and interviewed six of the witnesses. On December 29th, Hilkevitch was interviewed on Chicagoland Television, or CLTV, and three days later on NPR, but it was his January 1st article for the Tribune that brought the story to international attention. It became the most-read article ever on the Tribune’s website, quickly gaining over 1 million visits around the world. The same day that the article was published, Hilkevitch and the host of CLTV news were heard excitedly discussing the case before going live.(23) In the following weeks, many more outlets published coverage of the events, including the CNN and MSNBC websites.(24) On January 6th, “Joe” the mechanic was interviewed in shadow for CNN television, the first witness to appear on TV.(25)
Hilkevitch stated in an interview that he was impressed by the case and described all the witnesses he had spoken to as aviation professionals and credible observers. Hilkevitch reinforced the point that the witnesses didn’t claim that the object was a spaceship from another planet; they stressed that the object was unidentified, and presented a safety hazard, having violated restricted airspace. The witnesses who later spoke to the media all said that they were certain the object was not an airplane, helicopter, blimp, weather balloon, light or weather phenomenon, or any known human construction.(26)
Official Response
Even though witnesses were adamant in their accounts, authorities at the airline, airport, and even the regulatory agencies played down the incident to the point of lying about the evidence.(27) Officials at both United and the FAA initially told Hilkevitch that they had no information on the sighting, despite the fact that several staff members reported it to the airline. United spokeswoman, Megan McCarthy, stated officials also had no record, including nothing in the duty manager’s log. United and the FAA had to admit to knowledge of the incident after Hilkevitch and NARCAP, or the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, filed Freedom of Information Act requests. A review of the air-traffic communications they obtained uncovered four recordings in which controllers and pilots discussed the UFO.(28) When questioned by CNN reporters, a spokesperson for United Airlines said that the event was “not something United would investigate,” and directed further inquiry to the FAA. The Transportation Security Administration, or the TSA, and Chicago Department of Aviation did the same thing. However, the FAA spokesperson, Elizabeth Isham Cory, claimed that her agency did not have the “power” to investigate.(29) Years later, Hilkevitch characterized the actions of United and the FAA as a cover-up.(30) He even claimed that university researchers contacted him with similar stories of being stonewalled by the government.(31)
Cory claimed that none of their controllers saw the object, and a preliminary check of radar found nothing out of the ordinary. She concluded that the event was caused by a “weather phenomenon,” and indicated that the FAA wouldn’t be investigating further. She also suggested that the supposed UFO was merely the reflection of the airport’s lights off the low cloud cover, despite the event concluding past 4:30 p.m., several minutes before sunset.(32) Witness J.H. also definitively confirmed that it was still light out, and no airport lights were on.(33) Hilkevitch further revealed that the weather experts and astronomers he spoke to said the light-reflection explanation was “bunk.”(34)
After this hypothesis met with resistance, the FAA shifted the focus to the hole left in the clouds. Years later, FAA spokesperson, Tony Molinaro, claimed there was an "absence of any kind of factual evidence" on the event. Molinaro pointed to the natural phenomenon of “fallstreaks,” often called “hole-punch clouds,” suggesting witnesses must have seen the round hole and imagined the round object that made it.(35)
Debate
For her 2010 book, UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record, investigative journalist Leslie Kean included a chapter on the O’Hare case. Kean spoke to weather experts and found that the U.S. National Weather Service reported a temperature of 53 degrees F at 1900 feet that day, which is well above freezing and not cold enough to produce a fallstreak. Furthermore, Kean points out that fallstreaks occur when ice crystals from a higher cloud deck fall down onto a lower one. This ran counter to the FAA spokesperson’s explanation which held that vapour somehow ascended through the clouds, defying gravity.(36)
The night of the incident, Davenport contacted Dr. Richard F. Haines, a former NASA research scientist and ufologist with decades of experience in aviation. Haines had previously helped form NARCAP in 1999, providing a way for pilots and air traffic controllers to make confidential UFO reports.(37) Haines led an investigation of the incident assisted by meteorologist William Pucket, aerospace engineer Laurence Lemke, Canadian pilot and aviation professional Donald Ledger, and five other specialists.(38) The team confirmed that no weather balloons were launched in the vicinity of O'Hare on the date of the incident.(39) They also calculated that the energy it would take to evaporate the surrounding cloud so quickly is around 100 megawatts (MW), equivalent to the power consumed by a Boeing 747 cruising for over 7 hours.(40) By comparison, airborne objects like aircraft, rockets, and artillery rounds, do not cut holes in the clouds they pass through. The team also noted several other cases as far back as 1947 where UFOs cut holes through clouds.(41)
On March 9th, Haines’ team produced a report on his investigation totalling over 150 pages. Their report concluded that an “apparently solid” object was present and that it posed potential safety risks. They also verified the UFO’s location as being “very likely” outside the viewing range of the main tower and United ramp control towers. Given the failure of O’Hare’s radar to detect the UFO, the authors expressed their hope that the report would help build the case for a government investigation, and underscore the need to monitor a wider range of electromagnetic phenomena in our skies.(42)
While several witnesses insisted that people were taking photos during the incident, many of the photos presented to the public have been proven fake. No photograph of the O’Hare UFO has ever been confirmed as genuine through rigorous analysis.(43)
The O’Hare case was the focus of a 2009 episode of UFO Hunters. The hosts interviewed Hilkevitch, as well as NARCAP's executive director, Ted Roe, and William Puckett, who had both contributed to the NARCAP report. The episode also included the first TV interview with controller Craig Burzych, who confirmed that he and his staff in the tower didn’t see the UFO, despite the fact that their sightline would have allowed them to see it.(44) The case was also reviewed in the 2011 documentary Secret Access: UFOs on the Record which featured both Kean and Haines.(45)
Better than most UFO sightings, the incident at O’Hare showcases the difficulties that witnesses that work in aviation face in communicating their experiences to the public, and to independent investigators. The FAA has long tried to shirk the UFO question, and to dodge responsibility for investigating sightings. Their policy states that members of the public that witness UFOs should contact UFO reporting groups or local law enforcement.(46) What’s more, pilots who report their sightings, and especially those that speak to the media, can face repercussions from their superiors. For example, the pilot of Japan AirLines flight 1628, was grounded shortly after reporting his UFO sighting over Alaska in 1986, and had to spend several years at a desk job before being reinstated as a pilot.(47)
Not all airlines are similarly secretive, however. For example, in June of 2007, Aurigny Airlines Captain Ray Bowyer, was flying near Alderney island south of England when he, his passengers, and another pilot in a nearby plane, spotted two large, “brilliant” white, cigar-shaped UFOs during the flight. Bowyer disclosed that his airline actively encouraged him to go public after being asked about the sighting from the press.(48)
Conclusion
The incident at O'Hare Airport is a recent reminder that mass UFO sightings still occur, and that in America, at least, witnesses and investigators still get stonewalled by all authorities in their search for explanations. There are many cases on record from around the world to prove that pilots and other airline workers do see UFOs, and report them through all the proper channels. But there is reason to believe that there would be many more cases known to the public if airlines and regulatory agencies were more transparent with the evidence.
Notes:
1) Haines saying he’s collected over 3000 reports in Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, directors, Secret Access: UFOs on the Record (Break Thru Films, History Channel, 2011), 1 hr., 27min, at 44:10.
2) Directly above Gate C17: National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; Richard F. Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon and its Safety Implications at O'Hare International Airport on November 7, 2006. Case 18,” National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, March 9, 2007, Rev. July 24, 2007, 6 - 7, 39, 40; Jon Hilkevitch, “In the sky! A bird? A plane? A ... UFO?” Chicago Tribune, January 1, 2007, 1; New York Post, “FAA audio of UFO over Chicago O'Hare Airport in 2006 | Special Report | The Basement Office |”, YouTube video, 8:14, December 22, 2020, at 0:06.
3) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 5, 17, 37 - 38, 40.
4) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 5 - 7, 16 - 17; Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1 - 2; Hilkevitch in an interview on Melissa Block, “UFO Is Reported at O'Hare; Feds Are Silent,” NPR, January 1, 2007, at 0:30, 2:10; Kean, “6: Incursion at O’Hare Airport, 2006,” in UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record (Harmony Books: NY, New York, USA, 2010), 65.
5) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 5, 18, 41, 44, 119 - 20, 123, 125; Sunset time for November 7, 2006 from Chicago was 4:37 p.m., Time and Date AS, “Chicago (60645), USA — Sunrise, Sunset, and Daylength, November 2006,” TimeAndDate.com; Kean, “6: Incursion,” 65.
6) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1; Block, “UFO Is Reported,” at 0:20; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 5 - 7.
7) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 2; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; TribuneNation, “Jon Hilkevitch on his Chicago O'Hare UFO story,” YouTube video, 4:27, August 24, 2010, at 2:41; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 16; Hilkevitch in a news interview, likely from January 3 to 5, “O'Hare UFO Leaked News Footage seconds before Broadcast,” AVIMOAS, YouTube video, 8:53, February 3, 2009, at 1:30.
8) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1; Note that in National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/21/2006 4:08:16 PM 16:08, the witness reports a time of 4:30 but audio recordings are timestamped showing they were parked before 4 p.m. and finished taxiing by 4:20, so he either was mistaken about the time or was referring to later radio discussion; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 9 - 10; CNN footage from January 6, 2007 in “Chicago O’Hare Airport UFO Sighting 7/11/06,” The Spiderman, YouTube video, 16:36, January 24, 2019, at 0:30; It’s very likely that Joe was the United taxi mechanic recorded in later communications with Ground Controller, Burzych, saying: “We saw it a half hour ago… a whole bunch of us over at the Charlie concourse… We thought it was a balloon but we’re not sure.” New York Post, “FAA audio of UFO over Chicago O'Hare Airport in 2006 | Special Report | The Basement Office |”, YouTube video, 8:14, December 22, 2020, at 6:35.
9) One was a ramp ramp mechanic, the other was a supervisor who left after 30 seconds thinking it was just a bird. Smith, “O'Hare UFO sighting”; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 13 - 14.
10) Duration of event: Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 17, 120, 133, 136.
11) Angle of departure: Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 14, 17, 129, 133, 140 - 41, “Ramp Agent X” and those two with him felt the UFO shot “straight up,” but noted that two other witnesses he spoke to said it went eastward; Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 2; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54.
12) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 122, 125, 129.
13) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 5.
14) Note further that the manager’s original time estimate was 4:40, which the Reporting Center amended to 4:30 believing it was more accurate and would be corroborated by communications records.
15) “Report of an Unidentified,” 5, 14, 17; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report. Reported: 11/21/2006 4:08:16 PM 16:08.
16) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 5, 14, 17; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report. Reported: 11/21/2006 4:08:16 PM 16:08.
17) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 2.; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 20.
18) Davenport delayed sharing these testimonies in order to help the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, or NARCAP, obtain as much first-hand information as possible ahead of the response from the airline, which could potentially jeopardise future witness cooperation. Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 21, 112; Peter Davenport, “DISC-SHAPED UFO REPORTED OVER O'HARE AIRPORT,” TheUfoChronicles.com, November 18, 2006.
19) National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 1/3/2007 8:30:12 PM 20:30.
20) Original formatting: “rampagentX”; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 17, 22, 118, 137 - 39.
21) National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 12/13/2006 5:43:45 PM 17:43; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 142.
22) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 112 - 13.
23) Correction: The Hilkevitch news interview with Jim (last name unknown) is likely from January 3 to 5, not January 1st the same day as the article publication. “O'Hare UFO Leaked News.”
24) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 2; Block, “UFO Is Reported,” at 0:30; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 112 - 17, lists publications by date; Kean, “6: Incursion,” 65; Hilkevitch in a news interview, likely from January 3 to 5, “O'Hare UFO Leaked News,” at 1:00, worldwide media interest at 0:20, 4:09, 6:15.
25) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 10; CNN footage from January 6, 2007 in “Chicago O’Hare Airport.”
26) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 2; Hilkevitch in an interview on Block, “UFO Is Reported,” at 2:08, Hilkevitch states the witnesses didn’t claim the object to be a “spaceship from another planet,” however one witness in “In the sky!” 1, said “I don't understand why aliens would hover over a busy airport… it definitely was not an [Earth] aircraft,” with Hilkevitch’s addition implying or assuming the witness meant extraterrestrial; Hilkevitch in TribuneNation, “Jon Hilkevitch on,” at 0:40, 2:58; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 10; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 14.
27) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1; Hilkevitch in Block, “UFO Is Reported,” at 1:50.
28) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1 - 2; Hilkevitch in “UFO Is Reported,” at 2:55, 3:13; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 19.
29) CNN footage from January 6, 2007 in “Chicago O’Hare Airport,” at 2:18.
30) Hilkevitch in TribuneNation, “Jon Hilkevitch on,” at 3:30; “Aliens at the Airport,” UFO Hunters, Season 2, Episode 11, February 11, 2009, at 8:50.
31) Note that this fact wasn’t disclosed “years later” as the previous sentence might suggest. Hilkevitch in a news interview, likely from January 3 to 5, “O'Hare UFO Leaked News,” at 4:25.
32) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1 - 2. However, records show that the sunset time for that day was at 4:37 p.m., which is three minutes after the latest estimate for the UFO’s departure. Sunset time for November 7, 2006 from Chicago, 4:37 p.m., Time and Date AS, “Chicago (60645), USA — Sunrise, Sunset, and Daylength, November 2006,” TimeAndDate.com; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 17, the United manager gave a time of 4:34 p.m..
33) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 122, 125.
34) Hilkevitch in a news interview, likely from January 3 to 5, “O'Hare UFO Leaked News,” at 7:34.
35) Kean, “6: Incursion,” 70 - 71.
36) Kean, “6: Incursion,” 70 - 71; further explanation of fallstreak impossibility in Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 48.
37) Stern and Sundberg, dirs., Secret Access, at 43:29; National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, “About NARCAP,” NARCAP.org, https://narcap.org/about-narcap, Accessed May 3, 2023.
38) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified”; Kean, “6: Incursion,” 68.
39) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 2.
40) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 51 - 54; MW statistic from Solar Sena, “Megawatt (MW) – A Unit to Measure Power,” SolarSena.com, April 26, 2021, https://solarsena.com/what-megawatt.
41) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 45 - 47.
42) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 99.
43) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 108 - 11.
44) “Aliens at the Airport,” UFO Hunters; Joseph Flammer, UFOs over America: Scariest Cases (Schiffer Publishing: Atglen, PA, USA, 2016), 48 - 49.
45) Stern and Sundberg, dirs., Secret Access, at 34:35.
46) Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), “Section 8. Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) Reports,” FAA.gov, https://faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/atc_html/chap9_section_8.html, Accessed May 3, 2023.
47) JAL1628 Flight case: Shukan Shincho, "Terauchi's London interview of December 1986. JAL Pilot's UFO Story Surfaces after 20 Years,” JapanToday, December 8, 2006; Inquirer article in “Color photos of simulated radar data,” The Black Vault, 14.
48) Evening Standard staff, “'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot,” Evening Standard, June 22, 2007; “'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot,” AVIMOAS, YouTube video, 6:19, February 4, 2009.
Sources:
“Aliens at the Airport.” UFO Hunters. Season 2, Episode 11. February 11, 2009.
https://imdb.com/title/tt1366205. https://play.history.com/shows/ufo-hunters/season-2/episode-11.
“UFO Hunters: Aliens Spotted at Chicago Airport (S2, E11) | Full Episode | History”. YouTube video. https://youtu.be/0PSTkEN5n_A [US only].
The Black Vault. Collected documents at “Japanese Airlines JAL 1628 UFO Encounter, November 17, 1986.” TheBlackVault.com. September 21, 2018; Updated: June 17, 2020. https://theblackvault.com/documentarchive/ufo-case-japanese-airlines-jal1628-november-17-1986.
Block, Melissa. “UFO Is Reported at O'Hare; Feds Are Silent.” NPR. January 1, 2007.
https://npr.org/2007/01/01/6707250/ufo-is-reported-at-ohare-feds-are-silent.
CNN footage from January 6, 2007 in “Chicago O’Hare Airport UFO Sighting 7/11/06.” The Spiderman. YouTube video, 16:36. January 24, 2019. https://youtu.be/kmkzEIIgy1k, at 0:24.
Davenport, Peter. “DISC-SHAPED UFO REPORTED OVER O'HARE AIRPORT.” TheUfoChronicles.com. November 18, 2006.
https://theufochronicles.com/2006/11/disc-shaped-ufo-reported-over-ohare.html.
Evening Standard staff. “'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot.” Evening Standard. June 22, 2007. https://standard.co.uk/hp/front/milewide-ufo-spotted-by-british-airline-pilot-6592519.html.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). “Section 8. Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) Reports.” FAA.gov. https://faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/atc_html/chap9_section_8.html. Accessed May 3, 2023.
Flammer, Joseph. UFOs over America: Scariest Cases. Schiffer Publishing: Atglen, PA, USA, 2016. 42 - 50. https://archive.org/details/ufosoveramericas0000flam.
Haines, Richard F., et al. “Report of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon and its Safety Implications at O'Hare International Airport on November 7, 2006. Case 18.” National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena. March 9, 2007. Rev. July 24, 2007.
https://web.archive.org/web/20141107022114/http://www.narcap.org/reports/TR10_Case_18a.pdf. [152pg version: https://narcap.org/s/TR10_1edition.pdf; May 14, 2007, 128pg version lacks images but has corrected info (see Table 1 on pgs 8-9): https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5cf80ff422b5a90001351e31/t/5d02ec731230e20001528e2c/1560472703346/NARCAP_TR-10.pdf ]
Hilkevitch, Jon. “In the sky! A bird? A plane? A ... UFO?” Chicago Tribune. January 1, 2007.
https://web.archive.org/web/20071117073414/www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/columnists/chi-0701010141jan01,0,5874175.column?page=1&coll=chi-newsnationworldiraq-hed.
Hilkevitch, Jon in a news interview, likely from January 3 to 5, “O'Hare UFO Leaked News Footage seconds before Broadcast.” AVIMOAS. YouTube video, 8:53, February 3, 2009. https://youtu.be/AlhiAFHHTM4.
Kean, Leslie. “6: Incursion at O’Hare Airport, 2006,” in UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record. New York, NY, USA: Three Rivers Press, 2010. 65 - 72. https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780307716842/page/64/mode/2up. https://google.ca/books/edition/UFOs/Mzc6R2LH24kC?hl=en&gbpv=0.
“'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot.” AVIMOAS. YouTube video, 6:19. https://youtu.be/p5tnCxA2nDI.
National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena. “About NARCAP.” NARCAP.org. https://narcap.org/about-narcap. Accessed May 3, 2023.
National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report. Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54. https://nuforc.org/webreports/reports/053/S53392.html.
National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report. Reported: 11/21/2006 4:08:16 PM 16:08. https://nuforc.org/webreports/reports/053/S53541.html.
National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report. Reported: 12/13/2006 5:43:45 PM 17:43. http://nuforc.org/webreports/reports/053/S53969.html.
National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report. Reported: 1/3/2007 8:30:12 PM 20:30. http://nuforc.org/webreports/reports/054/S54407.html.
Sena, Solar. “Megawatt (MW) – A Unit to Measure Power.” SolarSena.com. April 26, 2021. https://solarsena.com/what-megawatt.
Shincho, Shukan. "Terauchi's London interview of December 1986. JAL Pilot's UFO Story Surfaces after 20 Years.” JapanToday. December 8, 2006. https://www.ufocasebook.com/jal1628surfaces.html. Originally on https://web.archive.org/web/20081123052116/http://www.japantoday.com/jp/kuchikomi/443.
Smith, Ryan. “O'Hare UFO sighting in 2006 one of the most famous reported.” Chicago Tribune. March 20, 2013.
https://chicagotribune.com/redeye/ct-redeye-xpm-2013-03-20-37880251-story.html.
Stern, Ricki, and Anne Sundberg, directors. Secret Access: UFOs on the Record. Break Thru Films, History Channel, 2011. 1 hr., 27min. https://imdb.com/title/tt2187348. https://youtu.be/AowbJkAVFLo. https://youtu.be/EyDnZMPWtU4.
Time and Date AS. “Chicago (60645), USA — Sunrise, Sunset, and Daylength, November 2006.” TimeAndDate.com. https://timeanddate.com/sun/@z-us-60645?month=11&year=2006.
TribuneNation. “Jon Hilkevitch on his Chicago O'Hare UFO story.” YouTube video. 4:27. August 24, 2010. https://youtu.be/3TVF4c90xGA.
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1) Haines saying he’s collected over 3000 reports in Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, directors, Secret Access: UFOs on the Record (Break Thru Films, History Channel, 2011), 1 hr., 27min, at 44:10.
2) Directly above Gate C17: National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; Richard F. Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon and its Safety Implications at O'Hare International Airport on November 7, 2006. Case 18,” National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, March 9, 2007, Rev. July 24, 2007, 6 - 7, 39, 40; Jon Hilkevitch, “In the sky! A bird? A plane? A ... UFO?” Chicago Tribune, January 1, 2007, 1; New York Post, “FAA audio of UFO over Chicago O'Hare Airport in 2006 | Special Report | The Basement Office |”, YouTube video, 8:14, December 22, 2020, at 0:06.
3) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 5, 17, 37 - 38, 40.
4) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 5 - 7, 16 - 17; Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1 - 2; Hilkevitch in an interview on Melissa Block, “UFO Is Reported at O'Hare; Feds Are Silent,” NPR, January 1, 2007, at 0:30, 2:10; Kean, “6: Incursion at O’Hare Airport, 2006,” in UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record (Harmony Books: NY, New York, USA, 2010), 65.
5) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 5, 18, 41, 44, 119 - 20, 123, 125; Sunset time for November 7, 2006 from Chicago was 4:37 p.m., Time and Date AS, “Chicago (60645), USA — Sunrise, Sunset, and Daylength, November 2006,” TimeAndDate.com; Kean, “6: Incursion,” 65.
6) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1; Block, “UFO Is Reported,” at 0:20; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 5 - 7.
7) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 2; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; TribuneNation, “Jon Hilkevitch on his Chicago O'Hare UFO story,” YouTube video, 4:27, August 24, 2010, at 2:41; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 16; Hilkevitch in a news interview, likely from January 3 to 5, “O'Hare UFO Leaked News Footage seconds before Broadcast,” AVIMOAS, YouTube video, 8:53, February 3, 2009, at 1:30.
8) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1; Note that in National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/21/2006 4:08:16 PM 16:08, the witness reports a time of 4:30 but audio recordings are timestamped showing they were parked before 4 p.m. and finished taxiing by 4:20, so he either was mistaken about the time or was referring to later radio discussion; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 9 - 10; CNN footage from January 6, 2007 in “Chicago O’Hare Airport UFO Sighting 7/11/06,” The Spiderman, YouTube video, 16:36, January 24, 2019, at 0:30; It’s very likely that Joe was the United taxi mechanic recorded in later communications with Ground Controller, Burzych, saying: “We saw it a half hour ago… a whole bunch of us over at the Charlie concourse… We thought it was a balloon but we’re not sure.” New York Post, “FAA audio of UFO over Chicago O'Hare Airport in 2006 | Special Report | The Basement Office |”, YouTube video, 8:14, December 22, 2020, at 6:35.
9) One was a ramp ramp mechanic, the other was a supervisor who left after 30 seconds thinking it was just a bird. Smith, “O'Hare UFO sighting”; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 13 - 14.
10) Duration of event: Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 17, 120, 133, 136.
11) Angle of departure: Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 14, 17, 129, 133, 140 - 41, “Ramp Agent X” and those two with him felt the UFO shot “straight up,” but noted that two other witnesses he spoke to said it went eastward; Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 2; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54.
12) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 122, 125, 129.
13) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 5.
14) Note further that the manager’s original time estimate was 4:40, which the Reporting Center amended to 4:30 believing it was more accurate and would be corroborated by communications records.
15) “Report of an Unidentified,” 5, 14, 17; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report. Reported: 11/21/2006 4:08:16 PM 16:08.
16) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 5, 14, 17; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report. Reported: 11/21/2006 4:08:16 PM 16:08.
17) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 2.; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 20.
18) Davenport delayed sharing these testimonies in order to help the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, or NARCAP, obtain as much first-hand information as possible ahead of the response from the airline, which could potentially jeopardise future witness cooperation. Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 21, 112; Peter Davenport, “DISC-SHAPED UFO REPORTED OVER O'HARE AIRPORT,” TheUfoChronicles.com, November 18, 2006.
19) National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 1/3/2007 8:30:12 PM 20:30.
20) Original formatting: “rampagentX”; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 17, 22, 118, 137 - 39.
21) National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 12/13/2006 5:43:45 PM 17:43; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 142.
22) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 112 - 13.
23) Correction: The Hilkevitch news interview with Jim (last name unknown) is likely from January 3 to 5, not January 1st the same day as the article publication. “O'Hare UFO Leaked News.”
24) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 2; Block, “UFO Is Reported,” at 0:30; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 112 - 17, lists publications by date; Kean, “6: Incursion,” 65; Hilkevitch in a news interview, likely from January 3 to 5, “O'Hare UFO Leaked News,” at 1:00, worldwide media interest at 0:20, 4:09, 6:15.
25) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 10; CNN footage from January 6, 2007 in “Chicago O’Hare Airport.”
26) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 2; Hilkevitch in an interview on Block, “UFO Is Reported,” at 2:08, Hilkevitch states the witnesses didn’t claim the object to be a “spaceship from another planet,” however one witness in “In the sky!” 1, said “I don't understand why aliens would hover over a busy airport… it definitely was not an [Earth] aircraft,” with Hilkevitch’s addition implying or assuming the witness meant extraterrestrial; Hilkevitch in TribuneNation, “Jon Hilkevitch on,” at 0:40, 2:58; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 10; National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report, Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 14.
27) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1; Hilkevitch in Block, “UFO Is Reported,” at 1:50.
28) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1 - 2; Hilkevitch in “UFO Is Reported,” at 2:55, 3:13; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 19.
29) CNN footage from January 6, 2007 in “Chicago O’Hare Airport,” at 2:18.
30) Hilkevitch in TribuneNation, “Jon Hilkevitch on,” at 3:30; “Aliens at the Airport,” UFO Hunters, Season 2, Episode 11, February 11, 2009, at 8:50.
31) Note that this fact wasn’t disclosed “years later” as the previous sentence might suggest. Hilkevitch in a news interview, likely from January 3 to 5, “O'Hare UFO Leaked News,” at 4:25.
32) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 1 - 2. However, records show that the sunset time for that day was at 4:37 p.m., which is three minutes after the latest estimate for the UFO’s departure. Sunset time for November 7, 2006 from Chicago, 4:37 p.m., Time and Date AS, “Chicago (60645), USA — Sunrise, Sunset, and Daylength, November 2006,” TimeAndDate.com; Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 17, the United manager gave a time of 4:34 p.m..
33) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 122, 125.
34) Hilkevitch in a news interview, likely from January 3 to 5, “O'Hare UFO Leaked News,” at 7:34.
35) Kean, “6: Incursion,” 70 - 71.
36) Kean, “6: Incursion,” 70 - 71; further explanation of fallstreak impossibility in Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 48.
37) Stern and Sundberg, dirs., Secret Access, at 43:29; National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, “About NARCAP,” NARCAP.org, https://narcap.org/about-narcap, Accessed May 3, 2023.
38) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified”; Kean, “6: Incursion,” 68.
39) Hilkevitch, “In the sky!” 2.
40) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 51 - 54; MW statistic from Solar Sena, “Megawatt (MW) – A Unit to Measure Power,” SolarSena.com, April 26, 2021, https://solarsena.com/what-megawatt.
41) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 45 - 47.
42) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 99.
43) Haines et al., “Report of an Unidentified,” 108 - 11.
44) “Aliens at the Airport,” UFO Hunters; Joseph Flammer, UFOs over America: Scariest Cases (Schiffer Publishing: Atglen, PA, USA, 2016), 48 - 49.
45) Stern and Sundberg, dirs., Secret Access, at 34:35.
46) Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), “Section 8. Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) Reports,” FAA.gov, https://faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/atc_html/chap9_section_8.html, Accessed May 3, 2023.
47) JAL1628 Flight case: Shukan Shincho, "Terauchi's London interview of December 1986. JAL Pilot's UFO Story Surfaces after 20 Years,” JapanToday, December 8, 2006; Inquirer article in “Color photos of simulated radar data,” The Black Vault, 14.
48) Evening Standard staff, “'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot,” Evening Standard, June 22, 2007; “'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot,” AVIMOAS, YouTube video, 6:19, February 4, 2009.
Sources:
“Aliens at the Airport.” UFO Hunters. Season 2, Episode 11. February 11, 2009.
https://imdb.com/title/tt1366205. https://play.history.com/shows/ufo-hunters/season-2/episode-11.
“UFO Hunters: Aliens Spotted at Chicago Airport (S2, E11) | Full Episode | History”. YouTube video. https://youtu.be/0PSTkEN5n_A [US only].
The Black Vault. Collected documents at “Japanese Airlines JAL 1628 UFO Encounter, November 17, 1986.” TheBlackVault.com. September 21, 2018; Updated: June 17, 2020. https://theblackvault.com/documentarchive/ufo-case-japanese-airlines-jal1628-november-17-1986.
Block, Melissa. “UFO Is Reported at O'Hare; Feds Are Silent.” NPR. January 1, 2007.
https://npr.org/2007/01/01/6707250/ufo-is-reported-at-ohare-feds-are-silent.
CNN footage from January 6, 2007 in “Chicago O’Hare Airport UFO Sighting 7/11/06.” The Spiderman. YouTube video, 16:36. January 24, 2019. https://youtu.be/kmkzEIIgy1k, at 0:24.
Davenport, Peter. “DISC-SHAPED UFO REPORTED OVER O'HARE AIRPORT.” TheUfoChronicles.com. November 18, 2006.
https://theufochronicles.com/2006/11/disc-shaped-ufo-reported-over-ohare.html.
Evening Standard staff. “'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot.” Evening Standard. June 22, 2007. https://standard.co.uk/hp/front/milewide-ufo-spotted-by-british-airline-pilot-6592519.html.
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Haines, Richard F., et al. “Report of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon and its Safety Implications at O'Hare International Airport on November 7, 2006. Case 18.” National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena. March 9, 2007. Rev. July 24, 2007.
https://web.archive.org/web/20141107022114/http://www.narcap.org/reports/TR10_Case_18a.pdf. [152pg version: https://narcap.org/s/TR10_1edition.pdf; May 14, 2007, 128pg version lacks images but has corrected info (see Table 1 on pgs 8-9): https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5cf80ff422b5a90001351e31/t/5d02ec731230e20001528e2c/1560472703346/NARCAP_TR-10.pdf ]
Hilkevitch, Jon. “In the sky! A bird? A plane? A ... UFO?” Chicago Tribune. January 1, 2007.
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Hilkevitch, Jon in a news interview, likely from January 3 to 5, “O'Hare UFO Leaked News Footage seconds before Broadcast.” AVIMOAS. YouTube video, 8:53, February 3, 2009. https://youtu.be/AlhiAFHHTM4.
Kean, Leslie. “6: Incursion at O’Hare Airport, 2006,” in UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record. New York, NY, USA: Three Rivers Press, 2010. 65 - 72. https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780307716842/page/64/mode/2up. https://google.ca/books/edition/UFOs/Mzc6R2LH24kC?hl=en&gbpv=0.
“'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot.” AVIMOAS. YouTube video, 6:19. https://youtu.be/p5tnCxA2nDI.
National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena. “About NARCAP.” NARCAP.org. https://narcap.org/about-narcap. Accessed May 3, 2023.
National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report. Reported: 11/13/2006 2:54:54 PM 14:54. https://nuforc.org/webreports/reports/053/S53392.html.
National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report. Reported: 11/21/2006 4:08:16 PM 16:08. https://nuforc.org/webreports/reports/053/S53541.html.
National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report. Reported: 12/13/2006 5:43:45 PM 17:43. http://nuforc.org/webreports/reports/053/S53969.html.
National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report. Reported: 1/3/2007 8:30:12 PM 20:30. http://nuforc.org/webreports/reports/054/S54407.html.
Sena, Solar. “Megawatt (MW) – A Unit to Measure Power.” SolarSena.com. April 26, 2021. https://solarsena.com/what-megawatt.
Shincho, Shukan. "Terauchi's London interview of December 1986. JAL Pilot's UFO Story Surfaces after 20 Years.” JapanToday. December 8, 2006. https://www.ufocasebook.com/jal1628surfaces.html. Originally on https://web.archive.org/web/20081123052116/http://www.japantoday.com/jp/kuchikomi/443.
Smith, Ryan. “O'Hare UFO sighting in 2006 one of the most famous reported.” Chicago Tribune. March 20, 2013.
https://chicagotribune.com/redeye/ct-redeye-xpm-2013-03-20-37880251-story.html.
Stern, Ricki, and Anne Sundberg, directors. Secret Access: UFOs on the Record. Break Thru Films, History Channel, 2011. 1 hr., 27min. https://imdb.com/title/tt2187348. https://youtu.be/AowbJkAVFLo. https://youtu.be/EyDnZMPWtU4.
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TribuneNation. “Jon Hilkevitch on his Chicago O'Hare UFO story.” YouTube video. 4:27. August 24, 2010. https://youtu.be/3TVF4c90xGA.
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