UFOs Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record by Leslie Kean Read Free Book Online Page B

were equipped with very large spotlights, with a diameter of more than one meter (three feet), capable of intensively illuminating the ground from an altitude of 100 meters (330 feet) or more. The integrity of these lights was variable—in some cases, witnesses reported that the lights were not illuminating the ground and were not blinding. Experts are convinced that the spotlights are of a very special nature; the size and intensity have not been seen on any aircraft before. These crafts carried a red light from underneath, at the bottom of their underside and apparently unattached to the structure, which seemed to pulsate rather than rotate. On three occasions, red light balls left the structure, and on two occasions they were seen returning to the craft.
Some of these individual performance capabilities may be explainable in isolation, but the combination of all of them makes them highly unusual, even enigmatic. The technology used by these crafts was so advanced that even today, twenty years later, it is not available.
The most important conclusion is that there must have been air activities of unknown origin in the airspace of Belgium. The number of cases and the credibility of the vast number of witnesses leave us with an intriguing mystery.
     
    The events of November 29 were extensively covered by the media and naturally the Air Force was overwhelmed with questions. The questions were addressed to the Belgian defense minister but ended up on my desk as Chief of Operations of the Air Staff. I was asked repeatedly about the origin and nature of these craft.
    The Belgian Air Force tried to identify the alleged intruder(s). We verified the radar registrations for November 29 but nothing special had been recorded. In addition, the civil aviation authorities confirmed that no flight plans had been introduced and that no special activities had been recorded by the civil radars. I was able to determine that the objects seen on November 29 could not have been helicopters, blimps, or any fixed-wing aircraft. This implied that the reported object(s) committed an infraction against the existing aviation rules.
    We were dealing with a problem. I checked further to find out if these objects could have been espionage flights made by F-117 stealth aircraft or anything similar. Because of the described performances that did not match any known technological capabilities, I was convinced that this was not the case. I also couldn’t believe that any other nation would conduct experiments with crafts using unknown technology over a populated area without any formal authorization. Nevertheless, I forwarded the question to the U.S. Embassy, which quickly confirmed that no Stealth flights or any other experimental flights had taken place over Belgium.
    Because there was no explanation for the events of November 29, and also because the sightings continued, we agreed to authorize the national defense system to scramble two F-16 fighter jets when abnormal activities were reported. The first two F-16s were sent out on December 8 after strange lights were reported, but nothing definitive was determined.
    In cooperation with the civil aviation authorities and the federal police, the Air Force established a procedure by which the F-16s could identify these phenomena. To ensure that the fighter jets would not be scrambled irresponsibly, we decided that authorization to launch the Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) aircraft would only be given when: (1) the sighting of a craft was confirmed by the police, and (2) the object was detected on radar. This meant that the radar stations had to pay special attention to slow-moving targets when notified of an observation by the police.
    This would avoid unnecessary scrambles, but it also had major disadvantages. Most of the witnesses didn’t react by calling the police, or weren’t able to call quickly enough—mobile phones didn’t exist yet—for the police to confirm the sightings. It was also problematic