Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency release is a translated abstract of an article by V. Lyustiberg, a science commentator for APN. The article appeared in Pravda Ukrainy on 17 February 1968. It reviews eyewitness UFO accounts and concludes that UFOs are a myth. It argues that photographs are unreliable and that the few convincing images probably show ball lightning. It explains glows on clouds as welding reflections, aircraft signals or distant lightning, and says a November 1957 'saucer' over Sofia was a NATO balloon.
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AUTHOR: Lyustiberg, V. (Science commentator for APN) TITLE: Are flying saucers a myth? SOURCE: Fravda Ukrainy, no. 40, 17 Feb 68, p. 4, cols. 2-7 TOPIC TAG: apophenomenon, unidentified flying object, atmospheric optic phenomenon ABSTRACT: Various eywitness accounts of UFO's are described. It is concluded that UFO's are a myth. The single and chance appearance of UFO's complicates or completely excludes the possibility of investigation. Storeoscopic photography is not reliable: it is impossible simultaneously to follow from two points the accurate outlines of a solid flying object. All pictures made by one-objective cameras have room for doubt. It is true that there are pictures which do not raise doubts. They always show objects of round or oval shape with diffused outlines, probably ball lighting. The nature of ball lightning is unknown because of the utter lack of information about the time and place of its formation. It cannot be described as being of outer space origin. Even during superficial analysis, it is found that the mysterious flarus on clouds are reflections of electric velding, signals from aircraft near airports, or remote summer lightning. The November "aucer" of 1957 above Sofin turned out to be a scouting balloon of NATO. When the Western public has here its attention distracted from politics or economics, there appear flying saucers, Loch Ness monsters, or Snowmen. (b)(3) (b)(3) 7 (b) (3) (6) (3)
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 1 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.