Case · UFO Afrinews No 21, January 2000
Swissair 747 near miss with white cylinder
1997 ยท 16 minutes after take-off from New York Kennedy Airport, New York, United States
Outside the region. Hind reprinted this case from elsewhere; it has a file here but no place on the map.
What was reported
Sixteen minutes after take-off from New York's Kennedy Airport, cruising at 23,000 ft (7,500 m) and 340 knots under a clear cloudless sky, Capt Phil Bobet and his two crew had a near miss with a glowing white cylindrical object that came towards the cockpit at extremely high speed. The FAA report attributed it to a weather balloon, an explanation Bobet rejected for several reasons Hind calls valid. She uses the case, taken from the MUFON UAP Journal, as a recent example of a spectacular pilot sighting worth recording even if the crew later stop giving interviews.
What Hind made of it
Hind sides with Bobet against the FAA balloon explanation.
Explanation offered
FAA report: weather balloon
In their words
-
Capt. Bobet was dismayed by the explanation for a number of very valid reasons.
Cross references
- MUFON UAP Journal, Summer 1999, No 377 (R.J. Dunant)