Post by uforn on Jul 7, 2010 17:23:43 GMT 1
Why Airline Pilots Reports On UFO's Arnt Made Public
Because it Would Be Bad for Business
Say you were on a plane and heard this: "This is your captain speaking. Passengers on the left can see Boston Harbor. Passengers on the right can see a UFO." How confident would you be in the pilot?
Although airliners officially keep very quiet about UFO sightings made by their employees, those same employees are often quite vocal. Their employers would wish they kept quiet for a variety of reasons. With major studies reveal the drunkenness of airline pilots recently released, they do not the public thinking they hire drunken pilots or overwork their pilots.
The public has lost confidence with most major airlines for issues concerning fees, security and dependability. Pilots claiming to see UFOs might be the last straw for the industry, while customers race for trains and boats. A lot of the times pilots and co-pilots claim to see UFOs, none of their passengers seem to have noticed anything. That can make even those who believe in UFOs to be skeptical of the pilot's physical state.
Why Are Pilots Seeing Things?
Airline pilots have a very stressful job with long shifts. It has only been recently that major American airlines have tried to limit a pilot's shift to twelve hours or less. Before that, they could be working days straight. Fatigue brings perhaps more believable hallucinations than does inebriation. Falling asleep at the controls of 747 is more of a problem than you might think.
Even the National Transportation Safety Board is so worried about pilot fatigue that they have tried to stress to airlines about the dangers since 2001. One of the signs of someone so tired that they should not be handling a pillow, let alone a Boeing, is that they will see flashing or moving lights. This is also a signal that a migraine is on the way, triggered by stress, lack of sleep and possibly caffeine withdrawal.
Case In Point
On January 6, 1995, a British Airways flight over Manchester Airport, a strange report came in. Pilot and first officer claimed to have seen a UFO over England. It looked like bright lights that sped by at remarkable speeds unknown to modern aircraft.
It later turned out to be an experimental RAF craft nicknamed "The Silent Vulcan", which does travel at mind-boggling speeds. The pilots, Captain Roger Willis and First Officer Mark Stewart, report that although British Airways allowed for them to keep their jobs, they were mercilessly teased by all co-workers. But if the public got a hold of the story at the time, they may have assumed the pilot and first officer were under the influence.
In Conclusion
Airlines would probably love to meet extraterrestrials (perhaps a new target audience?). However, it is not an airline's job to determine whether Earth has been visited by aliens. It is their job to get customers from Point A to Point B as quickly and as safely as they can (and, preferably, make a profit in the process). Since the average airline customer does not believe in UFOs, then the airlines will keep any supposed UFO sightings by their employees quiet.
Resources:
USAToday.com. "Alcohol Tests Catch 11 Pilots a Year." Alan Levin. Nov. 12, 2009. www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-11-11-drunk-pilots_N.htm
CNN.com. "Pilot fatigue is 'like having too much to drink'." Stephanie Chen. May 15, 2009. www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/05/15/pilot.fatigue.buffalo.crash/index.html
Unexplainable.net. "British Airways No Strangers to UFOs." www.unexplainable.net/artman/publish/article_1065.shtml
"The Silent Vulcan." www.ufo.se/ufofiles/english/issue_1/uksilvlc.html
UFO Evidence.org. "Why Don't Pilots See UFOs?" www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc615.htm