2006-O’Hare Airport UFO Sighting

The UFO Reporting Center received an eyewitness report from an employee of the O’Hare Airport in Chicago as early as the middle of November, 2006, stating that an unknown object had hovered over the major airport for several minutes on November 7. The object then shot away from the area, creating an “eerie” hole in the cloud cover. This initial account went virtually unnoticed, viewed as just another report.

On January 1, 2007, Jon Hilkevitch of the Chicago Tribune wrote an article titled, “In the sky! A bird? A plane? A… UFO?” which broke the O’Hare sighting report to the mass media. Peter Davenport of the NUFORC, had related his findings to Hilkevitch, which listed a number of United Airline employees who had come forward with their eyewitness accounts of that day. When contacted, an United Airlines spokesman denied the reports.

The employees became upset that the airlines would not take their reports seriously. They reported that a saucer-shaped UFO had hovered above the airport for several minutes before shooting away at great speed through the clouds. The energy expelled from the burst of energy had made a strange, eerie hole in the cloud bank. The question had to be asked, Could this have been something as simple as a weather balloon, or some trick of the eye?

Although more than a dozen witnesses had seen and reported the UFO to United Airlines, when first queried by the Chicago Tribune, the Airlines denied that they had any knowledge of the events of November 7. However, the Federal Aviation Administration admitted that the air traffic control tower had received a call from a United Airlines supervisor requesting information on an “elliptical-saucer-shaped craft” hovering over Concourse C of the terminal.

FAA spokesperson Elizabeth Isham Cory stated that none of the air traffic controllers had seen the object, and they saw no radar return from an uncorrelated target. She also stated that the FAA had no plans to investigate the incident. They did, however, have a theory – the sightings were caused by a “weather phenomenon.” Hilkevitch reported that there were plenty of “chuckles” in the tower over the report.

The UFO was first seen by a United Airlines ramp worker who was directing a plane at Gate C17, according to a report by the NUFORC. He stated that his sighting occurred at 4:30 PM. He and other witnesses said the object was dark gray, and clearly visible in the clouds. The object did not show any lights, and could have been up to 24 feet in diameter. The object made no noise as it hovered over the airport.

“I tend to be scientific by nature, and I don’t understand why aliens would hover over a busy airport,” said a United mechanic who was in the cockpit of a Boeing 777 that he was taxiing to a maintenance hangar when he observed the metallic-looking object above Gate C17.”But I know that what I saw and what a lot of other people saw stood out very clearly, and it definitely was not an [Earth] aircraft,” the mechanic said.

One of the United Airline managers stated that he heard reports of the UFO on internal airline radio.”I stood outside in the gate area not knowing what to think, just trying to figure out what it was,” he said. “I knew no one would make a false call like that. But if somebody was bouncing a weather balloon or something else over O’Hare, we had to stop it, because it was in very close proximity to our flight operations.”

An important consideration in the matter is public safety, and whatever was in the area at the time posed a risk to planes and passengers. All witnesses to the events of November 7, state that the object was not a weather balloon, helicopter, airplane, or any known conventional flying craft. It is important to note that some of the reports were made by pilots, whose professional expertise involves the identification and observance of flying craft.

Pilots aboard the plane at Gate C17 were alerted to the sighting by United personnel. One of the pilots opened his cockpit windscreen to get a good look at the UFO. He saw the object accelerate through the clouds, which had a ceiling of 1,900 feet at the time.Because of the fear of losing their jobs, and probably being under instruction to not discuss the incident, all of the employees who have come forward have done so anonymously. There are reports from reliable sources that at least one photograph was taken of the object, but as of this writing, none have been made public.

United Airlines had the witnesses make drawings of what they saw, but even these drawings have not been made public. The FAA, which initially told the Chicago Tribune that it had no knowledge of the sightings, has changed their position because the Tribune filed a Freedom of Information Act request. It remains to be seen what will be revealed in this compelling UFO sighting case at O’Hare Airport in Chicago.

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