Society for the Scientific Investigation of Anomalous Atmospherical and Radar Phenomena - MUFON-CES, Inc.

September 6th, 2001

P R E S S   R E L E A S E

Military pilots encounter UFO in prohibited turkish airspace
Researchers confirm UFO flap in Turkey

According to the turkish press there was an aircraft UFO encounter [1] in prohibited airspace over Izmir-Cigli Air Base on August 6th, 2001. First Lieutenant Ilker Dincer and Lieutenant Arda Gunyer from the Turkish Aif Force took off for a training flight at 12:30 turkish time with their T-37 jet. While they were flying off the turkish Aegis coast at Candarli they suddenly sighted a cone or disk shaped flying object. The unidentified object matched altitude and speed of the turkish jet, and flew along and around the plane. A few details [2] about the pilots, the sighting and the tower radio conversation leaked out of unknown sources within the Turkish Air Force. Dincer supposedly radioed ground control during the sighting: “We are facing an unusual situation. We see an object shaped like a cross between a cone and a disc, with support legs, extremely luminous and high speed.” Dincer asked for radar confirmation: “Negative. We detect a high rate of maneuvering of your aircraft but no detection of a second object around." Dincer moved his jet closer to the UFO and, according to the pilot, the object also moved closer: “The object is now coming closer to my wings … now its behind us … I’ll get it in front of me … now it’s in front of us … hey, this is certainly going for a dogfight with us." It is uncertain how long the encounter endured. Different sources speak of 2, 15 or 30 minutes. The sighting ended, as the object disappeared at an incredibly high speed.

The T-37 "Tweet" is a jet trainer. Pilots get introduced to jet flight on those machines. Pilot and co-pilot are seated next to each other. USAF Fact Sheet [3]. Photo (C) TSK [4]

Rumours reached the media, that the turkish Department of Defence was worried and that an investigation was set up. The event would also be reported to international institutions like NASA. To counter such rumours, press spokesman Major Orhan Tamer of the the Turkish Air Force officially commented, the object was misinterpreted by the media and in real it was only a swarm of birds or a weather baloon. Disciplinary measures would be pursued against the pilots to stop them making any further statements.

The turkish Meteorology Society told the newspaper “Saba” that they had no weather baloon in this area. Such baloons would only be launched far away from the military base and they would be very easy to identify on military radar. Illobrand von Ludwiger, head of the Central European Section of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON-CES), pointed out that Dincer’s jet obviously was within military airspace at the time of the encounter, since he was able to contact ground control by VHF radio. “Off course it is possible that the pilots had an encounter with an unidentified flying object. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be an alien spaceship.”

When Major Tamer was confronted with the contradictive information of the Meteorology Society he said, General Erol Ozgil was told it was a weather baloon but he was not available for comment. This was the last official statement. The Sirius UFO Space Sciences Research Center in Istanbul announced: “It is impossible for a swarm of birds or a balloon to dogfight with a jet at such high speed. Nor could the two army pilots have been hallucinating at the same time. We definetely don’t find the Air Force’s explanation satisfying at all.” The baloon story was only a cover story and the case was not closed.

Esen Sekerkakar from the Sirius Center confirmed, that there is some kind of a UFO flap happening in Turkey at present. Prior to the the pilots’ sighting a similar object was reportedly seen less than 100 km away from the Cigli-Region. “Many sightings were videotaped not only by civilians but also by the police and military officers.” Police headquarters in Ankara had even released an official order that all recordings should be sent to them and they would forward them to the turkish military for further investigation. In mid June, the turkish Department of Religion entered the UFO discussion. According to Islam there were not only beings on Earth but also in space. UFOs could be real. In prior days a number of people had reported seeing aliens [5] in west Anatolia.

Illobrand von Ludwiger from MUFON-CES points out, that pilots are among the best UFO witnesses, because their job is to watch the sky and identify heavenly objects: “Especially turkish fighter pilots are among the best trained pilots in the world. They are trained in the Nevada desert in the USA and in east Turkey. A First Lieutenant has as much practice as a Jumbo pilot.” The former NASA scientist Richard Haines from the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena [6] has already collected 4000 UFO sighting reports by pilots. UFO encounters by military aircraft were not often at all but also nothing absolutely new. Back in 1987 two turkish F-16 fighters were supposed to have ancountered a UFO. The american historian Richard Dolan documented nearly 300 military UFO encounters [7]. The Belgian Air Force even started a UFO hunt in 1989/1990, cooperating with private UFO researchers, at a time when the country and government offices were flooded by UFO reports. Following the investigations the chief of staff of the Belgian Air Force, General Wilfried de Brouwer, had to admit: Our defence system (NATO) is defenceles against those machines."
 

Links

[1] http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/turkey010808_ufo.html
[2] http://www.caus.org/mu081501b.shtml
[3] http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/T_37_Tweet.html
[4] http://www.tsk.mil.tr
[5] http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_316229.html?menu=news.quirkies
[6] http://www.narcap.org
[7] http://www.keyholepublishing.com
 

I. v. Ludwiger

Contact:
Illobrand von Ludwiger
Director
Mutual UFO Network - Central European Section (MUFON-CES)
eMail: Illobrand.von.Ludwiger@MUFON-CES.org

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