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Government Sci-Fi The Military

Chile's Goverment Announces Unexplainable 'UFO' Footage (yahoo.com) 124

Posted by EditorDavid from the mysterious-fly-by dept.
An anonymous reader quotes Yahoo News:The report from an alleged UFO sighting by the Chilean military over two years ago has just been declassified, leaving experts completely stumped. The Chilean government agency which investigates UFOs, the CEFAA, reports that a naval helicopter was carrying out a routine daylight coastal patrol in November 2014 when the camera operator noticed an unidentified flying object ahead...flying horizontally and at a steady speed similar to that of the helicopter. The mysterious object could be seen with the naked eye but couldn't be detected with the helicopter's radar, ground radar stations or air traffic controllers. Authorities ruled out that it was an aircraft as no craft had been authorized to fly in the area.
In 2014 the CIA admitted their tests of a high-altitude U-2 reconnaissance aircraft between 1954 and 1972 coincided with a spike in UFO reports. Could this be another new military aircraft that's getting its first tests?
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Chile's Goverment Announces Unexplainable 'UFO' Footage More

Chile's Goverment Announces Unexplainable 'UFO' Footage

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  • No, it's definitely a UFO (Score:5, Funny)

    by honestmonkey ( 819408 ) on Saturday January 07, 2017 @03:40PM (#53624549) Journal
    "Could this be another new military aircraft that's getting its first tests?" Obviously, it's a UFO. No other possible explanation is possible. At last, proof of aliens! Wow! To think, we're alive at such a time.

    • Re:No, it's definitely a UFO (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jargonburn ( 1950578 ) on Saturday January 07, 2017 @03:42PM (#53624559)
      ^ This!

      Authorities ruled out that it was an aircraft as no craft had been authorized to fly in the area.

      If no aircraft had been authorized to fly in the area, then it obviously couldn't have been an aircraft!

      • Maybe Slashdot ran out of hot grits... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Xenographic ( 557057 ) on Saturday January 07, 2017 @04:57PM (#53624871) Journal

        Really? Because there's an airport right there with standard flight route. Feel free to look it up on Planefinder. More info here: https://www.metabunk.org/explanation-for-chilean-navy-ufo-video-aerodynamic-contrail.t8306/ [metabunk.org]

        Slashdot, we really need to have an intervention with all this fake news conspiracy crap. I'm only one person, I don't have time to debunk all this nonsense you keep posting. This used to have some vague relation to tech, rather than every random clickbait article you could find in the firehose.

        What's the next story going to be? That Russian lizard people hacked the Bilderbergs to steal their chemtrail recipes for the alien galactic overlord, Xenu to use in Darl's $699 Linux auditing sessions?

        • Re: Maybe Slashdot ran out of hot grits... (Score:5, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 07, 2017 @06:34PM (#53625225)

          This housewife is making experts
          furious with her one simple trick to
          remove fake news from Slashdot!!1!

        • Probably the fact that there is an airport close buy is the reason: why there was no authorized airplane at that place!.

          • > there was no authorized airplane at that place!.

            Really? Because flight records put LATAM Chile flight LA330 in the right place at the right time.

            But you won't get anyone to click your news stories by telling people that....

            • You are bad in reading?

              If that plane was there, they had not claimed there was no authorized plane around.

              If they had figured later they had made an error, and there was an authorized plane around then they had not releases this as "UFO news".

              And regardless what: an unauthorized plane or authorized plane, both would show up on radar! Or respond to radio calls.

              So the question is not rally if LTAM LA330 was the culprit, question is: how can so many things be wrong recorded or wrong reported?

              • > question is: how can so many things be wrong recorded or wrong reported?

                Given the state of clickbait journalism, the real question is how we can get real news. It's all fake news.

                I can no longer trust reporters at all. They have zero credibility until proven otherwise. I trust verifiable evidence. Period. I assume that everything is written by someone trying to summarize something in 15 minutes (if that) for maximum clicks. I do not expect fact checking or real journalism of any kind, I expect th

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          > I'm only one person, I don't have time to debunk all this nonsense you keep posting.

          Feel free to stop.

          You don't know it, because you're actually the conspiracy theorist kook on this site, but most of the fake news comes from you. Like, you know, when you tried to argue the PizzaGate scandal was real and so on, so you'll actually be solving the goal you profess to solve which is good.

          What you're really saying is that you're getting worn out being the only guy willing to prop up fake news and conspiracy

          • The problem is that you are implying I said or believed a lot of things I never did believe. I can only speak for myself, but I don't know a single person who ever read the Macedonian clickbait sites. They make money by being clicked on, not by being believed. Take this very Slashdot story for an example. I certainly clicked on it, but I find it a lot more likely that it's an Airbus 330 on a normal flight path than a UFO. So the only thing that might be proven is that they got a lot of clicks. And the

        • It's pretty official. We may be an underdeveloped nation, but we can keep track of our airplanes. The chilean army keep track of this things because they are paranoid, they worry the peruvian army might be spying us with some secret russian tech (lol). Chilean an Peruvian military have their own mini cold war going on. This might even be a move to showcase the Chilean Airforce surveilance skills.

        • This exactly. In other news, incompetent third world military is incompetent. They get advanced imaging FLIR hardware and have zero clue of the thermodynamics behind it or what things look like in IR, see commercial flight from nearby airport and think it is UFO... Not shocking at all, the only shocking thing is how desperate Slashdot is for some fake news clickbait.

          I have been using FLIR cameras for almost 20 years now, and unless you understand the principles behind what is going on, some everyday thin

          • see commercial flight from nearby airport

            Would you like to know how I know you haven't actually watched the video?

            • Did you even read the link above in Xenographic's post?

              https://yro.slashdot.org/comme... [slashdot.org]

              • Did you watch the video?

                • Yes, and the explination makes perfect sense. If there was an aircraft there (according to publically available records and airplane tracking applications), it makes perfect sense for it to be what the IR camera picked up. Thing look weird in IR because the human brain isn't used to interpreting what it is seeing, this is nothing new.

                  • Ok, then where did the plane go on visible-light filter?

                    • It is too small to see. The IR signiture of a plane is huge, which is why many missiles are IR guided. The link above that I pointed out goes through all these arguments. You really should start with a look through of the post.

                      Also, the plane is very far away from the camera, using the measuring tool in Google Earth, it looks like the aircraft was about 60 miles away, so it would be pretty tiny in visible at that range.

                    • Unfortunately for your argument, I live in Denver, so I'm very familiar with what a big ole jet airliner looks like from 60 miles away. Now that I've looked into the link a bit more, though, that page's theory indicates that the chopper would be pointing at a flight which was roughly 30 degrees from North, but the chopper's compass is never pointed past 10 degrees from North.
                    • Hm, apparently the IR camera was pointed 8 degrees clockwise from the body of the chopper. Never mind.

      • "If no aircraft had been authorized to fly in the area, then it obviously couldn't have been an aircraft!"

        It's an UFO! It says it right in the name: Unauthorized Flying Object.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Authorities ruled out that it was an aircraft as no craft had been authorized to fly in the area.

        Other authorities were mystified about burglaries reported in various cities as no burglars had been authorized to burgle in the areas.

    • Re: No, it's definitely a UFO (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 07, 2017 @03:43PM (#53624563)

      Unidentified
      Flying
      Object

      Is it identified? No.
      Is it flying? Yes.
      Is it an object? Possibly.

      • Re: No, it's definitely a UFO (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 07, 2017 @04:32PM (#53624741)

        A great way to test somebody's intelligence is to ask them what they think about the terms "UFO" and "conspiracy theory".

        Less-intelligent people will usually start talking about "aliens", "ETs", "kooks" and "tinfoil hats", and that's where their understanding ends.

        Smart people will realize that such words also have very reasonable meanings.

        Like in the case of "UFO", as you have pointed out, it just means it's some object flying in the air that cannot currently be identified. Nothing is implied about its origin, its occupants (if there even are any), its purpose, and so on.

        In the case of "conspiracy theory", it just means a theory about a group of people conspiring together to commit some act. Even the official 9/11 story is a conspiracy theory, for example; it's a theory that involves a number of people from the Middle East and other nearby countries conspiring to attack targets in America.

        It's a real shame that the mainstream media and commentators have tried to corrupt the meanings of such terms, and that so many foolish people have fallen for it. They were perfectly good terms to use within rational, evidence-based discussions. But now too many people of a lesser intellect fly off the handle whenever they hear or read them, rendering them almost useless.

        • Who corrupted the term ? CTer and later mass media and culture which forever associated it with UFO==alien, when in reality all skeptic usually point out it just means anything you see in the sky which you cannot identify readily. The acronym does not help either (unknown flying object which indicate something flying e.g. which also indicate usually intelligence and direction, rather than unknown floating/falling object or similar which would not indicate necessarily such - especially knowing that most UFO

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hey! ( 33014 )

          Actually if you don't know what you're looking at, you can't really draw any conclusions at all about what it is doing. It might not be flying. It might not even be an object.

          Let's take the "not flying" case. I have personally seen meteors appear to do impossible things -- like falling and then suddenly shooting upwards. But just because an object's angle of elevation above the horizon increases doesn't mean that object is actually increasing altitude. An airplane flying at constant speed and altitude w

        • I thought everyone knew what the real story was. After the Soviet Union fell, some of their KGB documents and defectors showed they used UFO reports in the United States and several other nations to spread distrust of their governments. But wait, as they say on TV, there's more.

          Later FOA requests some few years ago from the CIA and other agencies described how, after the defeat in WW2, the US gained several rocket scientists/engineers, including, famously, Dr. Werner Von Braun. Also imported were several

        • A great way to test somebody's intelligence is to ask them what they think about the terms "UFO" and "conspiracy theory".

          That sounds more like a great way to test for empathy. I expect those on the autism spectrum to do far better on your test.

          Highly intelligent people will know what UFO stands for, but also understand that the vast majority of the people use the term to refer to aliens. It isn't unreasonable to interpret "do you believe in UFOs?" as "do you believe in aliens?". I usually just try to clarify and ask which definition they are using, but when I'm lazy I'll just go the peanut gallery route.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Thanatiel ( 445743 )

        The use of the word UFO is implicitly biased.

        Flying implies a "machine" or possibly "creature" (*)
        Object implies "built".

        UAP should be used instead.

        (*) accurate since in fact the first OVNI ever reported was a bird.
        The pilot told about a v-shaped thing that was moving "a bit like a saucer bouncing on water".
        It would have been nothing but a journalist reported it badly (of course) only keeping the movement of the object instead of its shape ...
        This lead to a history of hysterical reports of flying saucers,

      • Are you sure it is flying?

      • Surprised they didn't find a way to blame Russia (Score:5, Informative)

        by Xenographic ( 557057 ) on Saturday January 07, 2017 @07:42PM (#53625491) Journal

        > Is it identified?

        Yes. It appears to match LATAM Chile flight LA330, callsign LXP330 [metabunk.org], which is an Airbus A320-233.

        • Unlikely.

          The story clearly says: it was not on ground radar and not on air borne radar.
          And for everyone hunting an UFO it is plain obvious to check flight plans and airports about ... well, airbuses and such.

          Do you really think Chiles authorities are so dumb that they first find an UFO, then need 2 years to find no explanation, then disclose all information and get debunked by a hobbyists web site?

          • Re:Surprised they didn't find a way to blame Russi (Score:4, Insightful)

            by Xenographic ( 557057 ) on Sunday January 08, 2017 @02:51AM (#53627191) Journal

            You seem to be assuming that the story is accurate, despite the fact that it offers few details and no primary sources

            I'm not nearly so credulous as to simply believe that journalists would let facts stand in the way of good clickbait. This goes double when someone posts verifiable, factual information that contradicts it.

            Who am I supposed to believe here, a journalist writing UFO clickbait, or people who posted information that can be verified and corroborated from other sources?

            • The story is in so far accurate as the story made world news aprox. 2 years ago when the incident happened (and I think it also was covered then here on /. )... now thy only disclosed the "internal papers" or what ever.

    • It is a UFO until the craft has been identified. After all that's what "UFO" means.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by cfalcon ( 779563 )

      > Wow! To think, we're alive at such a time.

      Truly, I have waited my entire life to see a small alien craft taking a nice fart through Chilean airspace for some alien reason.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yes, obviously it is a UFO because it is unidentified, it is most certainty flying and it is, indeed, an object.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Since when did UFO mean aliens?

    • foggy night, late night, driving into the city and past the SAC air base on a federal highway. a bluish smear pacing my car, a little ahead, overhead to the left. occasionally blinking regularly. just like a reflection of my headlights onto some new aluminum high-tension wires between the wooden poles.. in fact, exactly that.

      sun reflecting off a helicopter would look just like described....

  • I'm waiting for Wikileaks to weigh in (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I have my standards after all.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      As opposed to all those 'professional' news outlets fighting the good fight against 'fake' news, right?

  • Move along now, nothing to see here.

    • there is obviously something to see, just that nobody identified it (yet) probably some stealth military aircraft = does not show up on radar but you can see it with your eyes

  • Real UFO (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I can confirm it's a real UFO. The video is blurred beyond recognition, and you can't make out any details.

  • Chile is interesting (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Natales ( 182136 ) on Saturday January 07, 2017 @06:11PM (#53625143)
    It never ceases to amaze me how prevalent and commonly accepted are UFOs in the Chilean collective psyche. You can even do a general search in the news for UFO-related articles and come back with a bunch [emol.com] (in Spanish). In virtually all cases, the generally accepted belief is that they have an extraterrestrial origin.

    An overwhelming 85% of Chileans [huffingtonpost.com] believe in the phenomenon, compared to a 48% of Americans [huffingtonpost.com], and the topic can easily come up in any colloquial conversation among regular people as something totally accepted.

    Coincidentally, Chile is also fertile ground for "spiritual movements" that very regularly include UFO elements. As a Chilean myself, and as someone who was attracted to those movements in my 20s, I struggle to come up with a clear explanation of why Chile in particular seems to be so captivated by beliefs in the supernatural. Michael Shermer does a good job explaining generically why people believe weird things [amazon.com], but doesn't explain why certain specific cultures or countries seem to be more susceptible than others.

    I, for one, believe the reason is the lack of formal teaching of Critical Thinking as a subject, throughout the school curriculum. In the US, critical thinking is virtually part of all subjects in the new Common Core standards, from K to 12. They were even part of the old standards, at least in all science classes. Although things may be different in Chile now (I graduated high school in 85), I don't recall to have ever been taught critical thinking skills. That's something I discovered years later when I moved to the US. That in spite of having gone through a rigorous degree in Computer Science at the University of Santiago. University careers, at least back in my day, were very technical in nature, and focused very narrowly on deep subjects, without concern to create a more rounded individual. That was an exercise left to each student.

    • UFO = Unidentifed Flying Object. It is an object that flies, but has not been successfully identified. Where does "collective psyche" come into this?

      Ah, you mean aliens. Sorry, but that does not directly follow from the UFO term. So far, UFOs either get identified as something natural or man-made or stay unidentified, which simply means lack of information. You added the aliens to it. It's just your own bias.

    • Common Core launched in 2009. Those 18 year olds must be amazing at critical thinking by now. :|
    • I think it's just a lack of debunkers in your area. Korea has the same kind of weird phenomenon, but dealing with fan death [wikipedia.org]. In America, we have the constant worry that the other political party is trying to become a dictatorship.
    • I see the same thing among (South) Koreans. They believe in weird things like fan death [wikipedia.org]. It's basically gossip (or "fake news" as the media has started calling it) which has reached critical mass within the entire population - it's repeated enough that people believe it to be true because "everyone else" thinks it's true [wikipedia.org]. Most populations have enough churn from neighbors that they get enough new people who haven't been exposed to the original gossip. These people simply don't know they're supposed to co

    • Every culture has its blindspots.

      Arabs for example have a blindspot where all world events are a product of conspiracies by various entities. From real ones (USA, Israel), to quasi-entities ('The West'), to imaginary ones (Free Masonry, World Government, ...etc.) Everything that happens is planned and executed by these entities, from wars, revolutions, downing an airplane (e.g. Egypt Air 990, MetroJet). No amount of reasoning will sway the average Arab that there are other explanations that hold more to log

    • I would contend that this press release by your government is a rationally motivated move enabled by the tolerance and general credulousness of your fellow countrymen vis a vis UFOs, rather than a symptomatic lack of education among your elected leadership. To wit, the most salient line of this article: [inquisitr.com]

      (Note: None of the agencies acknowledged the possibility of an unauthorized airplane in Chilean airspace, a presence that could explain the radio silence, the lack of a clearance for landing, and the possibility of flying low enough to evade radar detection.)

      Spooky unidentified things zooming around controlled national airspace is a security threat - no matter who, or what, is in the cockpit. America has investigated UFOs quite thoroughly as well, but unlike Chi

  • There's a simple explanation... (Score:5, Funny)

    by demonlapin ( 527802 ) on Saturday January 07, 2017 @06:33PM (#53625223) Homepage Journal
    I knew a former US Army helicopter pilot. He had great stories about stuff they did. One example: find a car driving down a lonely rural road at night. Approach it with lights off. Settle in at low altitude and fifty yards behind it. Turn on the several-million-candlepower search light, then immediately bank to one side. Turn the light off. Run away. Watch the local papers for UFO sighting reports.
    • Obviously the most plausible explanation is a secret military aircraft not known to the public. My speculation is that it is the US military mach 5 capable "Aurora" aircraft. It is rumored that the Aurora uses external combustion.
      • I heard (from a drunk potato-digger in the pub last week - an unimpeachable source) that the KGB got a hack so they can apply a HCF instruction to the Aurora using an NES and 3 miles of barbed-wire.

        • I heard (from a drunk potato-digger in the pub last week - an unimpeachable source) that the KGB got a hack so they can apply a HCF instruction to the Aurora using an NES and 3 miles of barbed-wire.

          He got it wrong, the 3 miles of barbed wire is for ULF transmissions to nuclear submarines. ;-)

  • Why are all the videos and photos of UFOs always so fuzzy that you can't really tell what it looks like? Seems like a conspiracy to me!

  • Dammit, I told all my little ETs to stay out of Chile for a while. Do they listen? Of course not. I understand you have the same trouble with your little Earthlings. I just hope they don't start another war. Those pyramids almost did us in last time.

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