UFOs What's Going On ... 1985 Documentary

A couple of days ago I watched a documentary I had not seen before posted by karl 12 called The UFO Experience from 1980 , as I'd watched that youtube suggested another documentary from around the same time frame (1985) again a documentary that I hadn't seen before , as with the one posted by Karl I found it an interesting watch with good first hand witness information , so I post it here for anyone who may be interested in a bit more vintage Ufology .
The thing I find totally unbelievable in this video is Philip Klass proclaiming the Cash-Landrum Incident a Hoax at 41.25 ... Manners prevent me from saying what I think of Philip Klass

This 1985 HBO documentary 'UFOs: What's Going On" discusses the Roswell Crash, Project Blue Book, the 1975 incursions over the SAC bases, the Cash/Landrum encounter, the Travis Walton abduction, and the RAF Bentwaters incident to name only the most popular.
It features J. Allen Hynek, Peter A. Gersten, Larry Fawcett, Stanton Friedman, Travis Walton, Betty Cash, and Vicky Landrum

A case of particular interest in the documentary is the Hudson Valley UFO sightings


Southern New York residents stand by 1980s UFO sightings

reply to post by gortex


Always love the older UFO docu's, even if the 80's hair styles are somewhat scary lol

reply to post by PhoenixOD


Takes me back to when I were a lad
Also it's often said but non the less true that they don't make em like that any more .

reply to post by gortex


I'll get a look shortly, I may have seen it.
As for Cash/Landrum there is no way that was hoax. Those people were also treated disgracefully by government and military lying through their teeth, and all the while knowing that Betty especially, had been gravely affected by the incident. I asked George Knapp about his thoughts on that, I didn't notice a reply, although I could have missed it.

reply to post by gortex


NSA was collecting information on UFO's?

51:20- 51:30

BTW on an unrelated note when did they change the solid light green color on: home, top, new, live, archive.. etc. to blinking?

reply to post by smurfy


Totally agree mate , I think they were victims of a messed up military test , the way Philip Klass dismisses their case in the video made my blood boil .
To say it was a hoax is ignorance beyond belief .

gortex
A case of particular interest in the documentary is the Hudson Valley UFO sightings

Something bothers me about that "UFO". The flashing light on the right looks eerily and exactly like an incandescent light bulb flashing on and off. When I first look at the video, it almost seems like a helicopter with the round set of lights being the cockpit, and the flashing light being on the tail.

It could also be that group of pilots flying in formation with one pilot keeping his lights off except for the strobe light.

Either way, I'm thinking that particular video is of a terrestrial object, unfortunately.




Great video, by the way. Another one I hadn't seen. Love these vintage UFO documentaries.

reply to post by hknudzkknexnt

they're not blinking in my browser. I did have a complete disconnect, once again though. It's happening every night now, probably an NSA artifact since my server is a NSA obliger. I was at 46 minutes into the video but, I did get to hear Vickie Landrum say about the shape. She says it was "Diamond shaped" that is what is most often quoted in texts, while illustrations often show the rhombus shape, yet in fact she is not talking about a rhombus shape with four corners, because she later says that it is rounded. That must mean the edges, once you have that, you could go the whole way and say this is another example of, 'The Kecksburg Bell' circa 1965 or 'Die Glocke' much earlier during WW2, and that was purported to be very dangerous to life and limb for anyone around in the wrong place. You could say that what Vickie meant was that the 'diamond shape' was a visualisation of the whole thing the bell above, and a tapering plume of fire beneath.
In edit, and since Phillip J. Klass is in the video here is his last will and testament about UFO's,

The Last Will And Testament Of Philip J. Klass:
To ufologists who publicly criticize me... or who even think unkind thoughts about me in private, I do hereby leave an bequeath:The UFO Curse: No matter how long you live you will never know any more about UFOs than you know today. You will never know any more about what UFOs really are, or where they come from. You will never know any more about what the U.S. Government really knows about UFOs than you know today. As you lie on your own death-bed, you will be as mystified about UFOs as you are today. And you will remember this curse.

I agree that classic ufo docs are way better than the newer more sensational history channel fare. ROD SERLING NARRATES!

smurfy
I did get to hear Vickie Landrum say about the shape. She says it was "Diamond shaped" that is what is most often quoted in texts, while illustrations often show the rhombus shape, yet in fact she is not talking about a rhombus shape with four corners, because she later says that it is rounded. That must mean the edges, ...]

Initially, neither Betty or Vickie could describe the shape of the UFO, due to the light coming from it. Only the little boy, Colby said it was diamond-shaped. Shortly thereafter, the ladies adopted his description. This is possibly an example of cross-contamination of eyewitness testimony.

Whatever shape it actually was, Vickie and Colby drew it as a rounded diamond- almost a pointed egg. There were no features described until some creative investigation by John F. Schuessler:
Quest for an Accurate Picture of the Cash-Landrum UFO

Here is a newer UFO doc, made in Australia. I'm just about to watch the OP's firstly but for anyone interested, here it is:

reply to post by skyblueworld


Great doc! Features the story of Kelly Cahill whom I believe to be the most spectacular and credible sighting of the 1990's. I can relate to the vibrations she talks about in her story, check out my sig link for my sighting...

David Hasselhoff said that the 1980s were the most 'innocent' time of American history.

Anything to do with alien invasion?

Another good one for the collection mate with probably one of the most relevant titles of the lot -held off posting on here before I'd watched the last part of the doco and it really is a great watch with some very interesting points made about Project Bluebook, government UFO documents and the possible existence of a Blue Room at Wright Patterson AFB - also have a great deal of respect for researcher Lawrence Fawcett shown in the vid and really liked the way Dr Hynek talked about 'the hypocratic oath of a scientist'.

gortexThe thing I find totally unbelievable in this video is Philip Klass proclaiming the Cash-Landrum Incident a Hoax at 41.25

... Manners prevent me from saying what I think of Philip Klass

Ah yes good old Philip -I watched him on a TV show many years ago openly mocking USAF Officers who witnessed an unidentified flying object and my opinion of him has basically gone downhill from there -Smurfy's already commented on the Cash Landrum case but there are also some very questionable opinions of his involved in the Coyne, Exeter, Val Johnson, 1975 SAC base and Sorroco incidents as well (to name but a few).

In the end I don't think even the USAF took his opinions very seriously (and the sceptical team of plasma experts on the Condon Committee also rejected his theories as 'unscientific') -the way Klass hounded and derided Dr James E. Mcdonald and mounted an 'extended, concerted campaign' against him was also an absolute disgrace and perhaps the best summation of his 'methods of investigation' I've read comes from astronomer Allan Hendry:

..Hendry objected strongly to Klass's modus operandi, which Hendry argued was based on suppressed and distorted evidence, unscientific reasoning, ad hominem attacks, smear campaigns, character assassination, scientific bait and switch tactics, and seemingly refusing to evaluate evidence that conflicted with his preconceptions.

This is all part of the Klass method of, as Hendry puts it,"using a truncated version of the information available to him and shaping it to his own ends." There is no way of winning an argument with him because, even when presented with documented evidence of the incorrectness of his position, Klass seldom concedes he is wrong. Instead he holds fiercely to a position even when it is demonstrably at variance with the facts.

Cheers!