UFOs Sink Mir into the Ocean while the Alien Choir Sings On

Zamora compared the landed object's shape to an ellipse with a long horizontal axis, suggesting a balloon that was starting to collapse. In the excitement, Zamora ducked behind his cruiser, and lost his glasses. The object's shape when airborne looked like a teardrop. In fact, it has been established that the government was carrying out then-classified experiments using exactly such balloons in New Mexico in 1963 and 1964 (apparently the CIA was interested in using balloons for, among other things, quietly getting agents into, and out of, exotic locations). However, nobody has yet been able to tie a classified balloon experiment to the sighting's location and time. Zamora's statement that the object rose slowly, barely clearing the ground, and in taking off generated heat but "not nearly as much" as a rocket exhaust, sounds very much like a balloon ascending. Also, Zamora's observation that the flame seemed to strangely have little if any effect upon the ground might be explained if the flame were directed up ward into the balloon (which is how hot air balloons are constructed), rather than thrusting downward toward the ground. The object took several seconds to rise to a height of about twenty feet, then suddenly the "propulsion system" was turned off, and the object flew off in total silence. Watching the object depart, Zamora radioed to the police station, "it looks like a balloon." While Robinson's explanation is still being analyzed and debated in skeptical UFO circles (see www.ufoworld.co.uk/v07.txt), it makes a lot more sense than Little Green Men.

Robert Sheaffer's World Wide Web page for UFOs and other skeptical subjects is at www.debunker.com.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group