Chicago O'Hare Airport Incident
Chicago O'Hare Airport Incident
[edit | edit source]On Nov. 7, 2006, at about 4:14pm a group of airline employees at one of the world's busiest airports, O'Hare International, reported seeing something that's not on the usual flight schedule—a metallic, saucer-shaped object hovering serenely in the clear afternoon sky. Before anyone could snap a conclusive photograph, the object darted upwards, piercing the clouds and leaving behind a circular hole.
The FAA, possibly scrambling for a logical explanation, eventually shrugged it off as a weather phenomenon. But here's the twist: numerous witnesses, including those who know the sky like the back of their hand, remain adamant. They're convinced that what they saw that day was truly out of this world. While the incident became a whirlwind of headlines and speculations, the actual nature of the 'O'Hare UFO' is still up in the air—quite literally.
The O'Hare UFO, initially reported by columnist Jon Hilkevitch in the Chicago Tribune, was witnessed by multiple airline workers and reported to the airport's air traffic control. Audio from the control tower conversation was later released via FOIA by the FAA. Physicist Brandon Melcher, part of the Applied Physics team, noted that the UFO's movements aligned with those of an Alcubierre drive. According to Melcher, witnesses described a metallic object around 50 feet in diameter hovering approximately 1,500 feet above an airport gate. The object then accelerated from 0 to about 1,000-2,000 feet per second almost instantly.
The FAA attributed the event to a rare 'weather phenomenon,' citing the lack of radar data as evidence. The Applied Physics group disagrees, suggesting that warp bubbles could explain the absence of radar signals. According to Melcher, the Alcubierre warp drive causes light rays to deflect away from their original path when coming from behind the object. This could explain why there was no radar signal for the object supposedly hovering over the airport gate at ORD
The sighting, which lasted for five minutes and was witnessed by at least 12 United Airlines staffers, made international headlines thanks to a tape of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) radio communications released via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Although the FAA attributed the incident to a 'hole-punch cloud' and astronomer Mark Hammergren, then with Chicago's Adler Planetarium, agreed, the case has remained unresolved — and tantalizing to UFO researchers ever since.
As first made public in the Chicago Tribune by columnist Jon Hilkevitch, the O'Hare UFO 'was reported to the airline by as many as a dozen of its own workers,' and some of those same employees reached out to the airport's air traffic control crew.
The audio from that call — between a United supervisor, hoping that the control tower had positively ID'ed the mysterious disc-shaped craft seen silently hovering over Concourse C of the United terminal — was later released via FOIA by the FAA.
'From the [witness testimony], it seems reasonable to claim that a metallic object around 50 feet in diameter was hovering ~1,500 feet above a passenger gate at an international airport within regulated airspace,' Melcher said.
'After some time, the object accelerated from 0 to about ~1,000-2,000 feet per second almost instantaneously.'
Ultimately, the FAA attributed the entire event to a freak 'weather phenomenon,' an optical illusion created by a hole-punch cloud, citing the lack of radar data as as their best evidence.
