Documents / Official release
This file, held under a National Aeronautics and Space Administration title, contains an English translation of the 1999 COMETA report "UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?", produced by a French association of former IHEDN auditors and first published in a special issue of VSD. It opens with a 2001 letter from Carol Rosin arranging a meeting. The report covers pilot testimonies, close encounters in France, GEPAN/SEPRA research and defense implications. Attached material includes a Leslie Kean article, a NARCAP description and a news item about a UFO at Barnaul airport.
From the source:Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: N/A. Released with redactions. NARA Record Group 255, catalogue id 413270. This file contains an independent report on UFOs written by the French association COMETA (previously published in the French magazine VDS in 1999), which details the results of a study by the Institute of Higher Studies for National Defence. The file also includes a letter from Carol Rosin in which she notes that she was spokesperson for von Braun during the last years of his life.
“Raytheon”1 page
Pilot encounters with UFOs Study challenges secrecy (and denial) LESLIE KEAN SAN FHANCISCO BACK IN JANUARY, Agence France Presse reported thnt a Siberian airport was shut for I¼ hours while a luminescent unidenti fied flying object hovered above its runway. Although it's hard to imagine such an event taking place in the in dustrialized United States, a compel ling October 2000 study by a retired aerospace scientist from NASA-Ames Research Center shows that similar in cidents have occurred in America 1 skies over the last 50 years. "Aviation Safety in America - A Previously Ne glected Factor" presents more than I 00 pilot and crew reports of encoun ters with unidentified aerial phenome na (UAP) that appear to have compro mised aviation safety. Author Richard F. Haines, formerly NASA's chief of the Spnce Human Factors Office and a Raytheon con tract scientist, is chief scientist for the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NAR· CAP), a research organization found ed last year. In stunning detail, pilots and crew describe a range of geomet ric forms and lights inconsistent with known aircraft or naturaJ phenomena. Bizarre objects paced aircraft at rela tively near distances, sometimes dis abling cockpit instruments, intern1pt ing ground communications, or dis tracting the crew. The data include 56 near-misses. Impulsive responses by pilots to an ap proaching high-speed object can be hazardous; in a few cases, such vio lent evasive reactions injured passen gers and flight attendants. However, Haines states that there is no threat of a collision caused directly by UAP "because of the re-ported high degree of maneuverability shown by the UAP." While flying over Lake Michi gan in 1981, TWA Capt. Phil Schultz saw a "large, round, silver metal ob ject" with dark portholes equally spaced around the circumference that "descended into the atmosphere from above," according to his hand-written report. Schultz and his first officer braced themselves for a mid-air colli sion; the object suddenly made a high speed tum and departed. Veteran Japan Airlines 747 Capt. Kenju Terauchi reported a spectacular prolonged encounter over Alaska in 1986. "Most unexpectedly, two space ships stopped in front of our face, shooting off lights," he said. "The inside cockpit shined brightly and I felt wann in the face." Despite the Federal Aviation Administration's determina tion that he and his crew were stable, competent and professional, he was grounded for speaking out. In 1997, a Swissair Boeing 747 over Long Island just missed a glowing, white, cylindrical object speeding to ward the plane. According to an f'M Civil Aviation Security Office memo randum, pilot Philip Bobet said that "if the object was any lower, it may have hit the right wing." Ground-systems operators have also been affected by UAP. "The ele ment of sulJ}rise means a decrease in safety because it diverts the attention of air-traffic controllers that should be focused on landing planes. That is o danger," says Jim McClenahen, a recently retired FM air-traffic-control specialist and NARCAP technical adviser. "Aviation Safety in America" does not attempt to explain the origin of these mysterious objects. But Haines writes that hundreds of reports, some dating back to the 1940s, "suggest that they IUAPsj are associated with a very high degree of intelligence, deliberate flight control, and advanced energy management." In the 1950s, pilots and crews reported seeing flying discs, cigar-shared craft with portholes, and gyrating lights, all with extraordinary technical capabili ties. Documents show the unexplained objects were considered a national ~e curity concern. By order of th~ Joint Chiefs ofStaff, commercial pilot., were required to report sightings and the un• authorized release of a Uf'O report could cost them 10 years in prison or a $1 0,000 fine. To keep this information from the public, officials ridiculed and de• bunked legitimate sightings, angering some pilots. According to the Newark Stnr Ledger in 1958, more than fl() commercial pilots who hnd reported sightings, each with nt least 15 years of major airline experience, blasted the censorship policy and deninls as "bor dering on the absolutely ridiculous." 1l1ese pilots said they were intenu gated by the Air f'orce, sometimes all night long, and then "treated like in• competents and told to keep quiet," ac cording to one pilot. "11,e Air force tells you that the thing that paced your plane for 15 minutes was a mirage or a bolt of lightening," he told the Stor-Led~er. "Nuts to that. Who needsit?" /\s a result, many pilots "forget" to repor1 their sight• ings at all, one pilot said. According to a 1952 Air f'orce Sta tus Report on UFOs for the AirTechni cal Intelligence Center, pilots were so humiliated that one told investigators, "If a space ship flew wing-tip to wing tip formation with me, I would not report it." The vast majority of sight ings by American pilots are still not reported. The media perpetuate the censorship and ridicule, handicapping the collection of valuable data. In contrast, other countries arc openly investigating the impact of UAP on aviation safety. A I m.m f'rench study by retired generals from the r-rench Institute of Higher Studies for National Defense and a government agency with the National Center for Space Studies examined hundreds of well-documented pilot reports from nround the world. The study could not explain a I 9!l4 Air f'rance viewing of a UAP that instantaneously disappeared as confirmed by radar and a 1!195 Aerolineas Argentinas Boeing 727 encounter with a luminous object that extinguished airport lights as the plane attempted to land. "Aeronautic personnel must be sensitized and prepared to deal with the situation," the repor1 stntes. They must first "accept the possibility of the presence of extraterrestrial craft in our sky." Then, "it is necessary to over• come the rear of ridicule." In 19!l7, the Chilean government formed the Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena (CE FM) following publicly acknowl edged observations of unidentified fly. ing objects at a remote Chilean air port. Both the f'rench group and Gen. Ricardo Bermudez Sanhuesn, presi• dent of the CEFM, have made over tures to the U.S. government for coop• eration on this issue, with no response. General Bermudez, and Air force Gen. Denis Letty, chairman of the French group. said in recent inter views that the Haines study has inter national significance and should be taken seriously. 13rian E. Smith. current head of the Aviation Safety Program ot NASA· ,/\mes, agrees. "There is objective evi dence in pilot repor1s of unexplained events that may affect the safety of the aircraft, " he says. "Yet getting people to talAY. MAY:I. Wll
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 94 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.