UFOs: Are Pilots Credible Witnesses?

I may have spoken a little "tongue in cheek" in an earlier post, but here's the gist of it.

I have been flying for over 30 years, 20 military and 10 with a major US airline. While I appreciate the regard some of you hold concerning a pilot's view, I have to tell you that we all are still victims of perception. Sizes and distances are sometimes quite difficult to determine, especially at night.

However, that being said, we are well versed in identifying other aircraft. Additionally, we are pretty fair judges of proper flight characteristics.

So I would consider pilots "credible" but I would not consider them unimpeachable.

reply to post by JoeBarna


Hi Joe,

Thanks for your input.

Its unfortunate for someone like you, an experienced pilot to be questioned by people who do not have a clue what they are talking about.

The problem I see with this thread and the forum in general is that skeptics claim to be 'experts' on more or less anything related to UFOs. According to them, every sighting of a UFO has an explanation which of course is non-ET. If you dare question their skeptical knowledge you will be confronted with arrogance and have your character assassinated, which I have seen happen many times during my short time on this forum. Pity.

reply to post by Dastardly666


I know, right! Those damned skeptics! If it was not for them, at least everyone would believe even if we don't necessarily have the answers!

By your above response, it is clear you have not actually read and understood any post here; instead you twist them to fit your prejudices, such as claiming any disagreement to be "character assassination", for example.

Originally posted by JoeBarna
So I would consider pilots "credible" but I would not consider them unimpeachable.

I think that the two terms get confused, "credible" being used to mean "unimpeachable".

I think all witnesses are credible, in that their reports should be taken seriously, unless they prove themselves to be otherwise.

reply to post by Arken

We are not dealing with mental projections or hallucinations on the part of the witness, but with the real physical phenomenon.

Are you saying that pilots are not at all susceptible to hallucinations?

Indeed most human eye-witnesses and by extension pilots are generally poor observers even if keyed-in to the fact that they should be observing. Now pilots might be better than the average citizen but I've seen nothing to suggest that. With that being said I imagine there are pilot UFO reports that are not hallucinations. Many may be unidentified aircraft, tricks of light, odd cloud formations, etc etc etc. Anecdotal or eye-witness testimony alone will never be enough to prove alien visitation or even the UFO phenomenon however intriguing it may be.

I have heard this for years, that somehow pilots are "trained observers" who are better equipped to report UFOs than any other group of people. I'm willing to believe that about military pilots, whose training is intense and the best in the world, and I'm willing to concede that pilots have more time in the sky than most, but that's all/

I am a pilot myself. I have been through commercial ground training, but never went further. (It gets expensive when you start renting multi-engine airplanes.) My ticket is a mere ASEL: Airplane, Single Engine, Land, and not particularly noteworthy, but I can attest to the quality of civilian pilot training. It's really no big deal. There is no special 'training in how to observe' in ground school. None. Basically you are taught to watch the skies so you don't hiy anything and to watch the ground for a place to land. That's it.

So while I respect commercial pilots immensely and am thankful for their skills in getting a great big airplane from Point A to Point B, I don't think there is any real evidence that pilots are somehow "better" observers than anyone else. That's just a myth we keep hearing.

Originally posted by WingedBull
reply to post by Dastardly666

 

I know, right! Those damned skeptics! If it was not for them, at least everyone would believe even if we don't necessarily have the answers!

By your above response, it is clear you have not actually read and understood any post here; instead you twist them to fit your prejudices, such as claiming any disagreement to be "character assassination", for example.

All I said was that if anyone disagreed with your skeptic head then you will go on the attack as you have demonstrated with your reply and to other posters on this thread.

I have read the thread and posts which is about whether pilots being credible witnesses. You said no without providing a shred of evidence to support your claim. Have you spoken to all the pilots around the globe to determine your answer? Are you a pilot to know what pilots can and cannot identify? What is your experience with pilots? None right.

You jump on threads claiming things only to suit your skeptical and close minded head and label anyone who disagrees with you as a 'UFO believer'. And you obviously do not understand the meaning of 'UFO'.

Look back through your posts on this thread and see who is twisting what.