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Case file

The source of this information comes from CUFOS and Project 1947, which means that the files are not readily available. Fortunately, Barry Greenwood provided me with what he had from CUFOS files. It included a letter from Robert Klinn to Dr. Hynek. The letter mentions that eight aircraft saw the objects. It also describes a tape transcript but only gives excerpts These are the following sections that were part of the letter:

THERE’S THREE OF THEM RIGHT NOW!

THEY’RE STILL CLIMBING AND GOING!

Federal Express 256, are those things still flying?

Yeah, they’re still trekkin’ right on. You can see the contrails on ‘em. There’s three of ‘em. They’re still gaining altitude in there, they’re WAY up THERE.

You still see them out there?

Yeah.

No, we don’t get anything up there at all.....

That’s absolutely fantastic, because they’re very much here.

Is there a rocket-launching area up there?

Chariots of fire

submarine-launched rockets/missiles at Cape Canaveral

WE’VE GOT UFOS OUT THERE!

...We’ve got a maniac’s down in the Atlantic out there. NATO forces -- THEY probably let it go.

crazy people

military warning area

Maybe it was the Navy playing around...

quite a spectacular sight...We’ve never seen anything like THAT before

sure wasn’t something normal

that phenomenon

pretty weird

crazy people

either submarine-launched missiles-- or UFOs

They came far over the ocean as you can see

CLOSE TO US IN A MATTER OF SECONDS...then they did a severe turn, ALL HEADED BACK, and climbed up at a, almost straight-up angle...2

Barry also sent me the transcript that was in their file. The Information in the transcripts is similar to that above but it does list some directions for the sighting and how widespread it was. According to the transcript, the sighting by the Air Canada flight was towards the east. They asked the en route controller if they had radar that went out that far. The controller replied in the affirmative that they went out to the east air routes that ran from the Bahamas towards the Carolinas. 

Even more interesting was that it was observed from South Carolina and Wilmington, North Carolina. These aircraft were looking south. The Fed Ex 256 flight appears to have been somewhere in the panhandle of Florida. As best I can determine, the flight was going from Memphis (A Fed Ex hub) towards Florida. They originally thought it was something from Cape Canaveral but the controller stated there was no planned rocket launches from there. The Fed Ex flight gave two different directions of their sighting. They originally stated it was at the 10 O’clock position from their aircraft. However, they also mentioned an easterly direction, which the controller informed them would be towards Brunswick. The pilots added that the sighting was in the direction of Eglin or Tyndall AFB (the transcript refers to them as “England” and “Tendil”). They also suggested it was near the Ocala Forest Bombing range. These directions indicated they were probably looking towards the Southeast and not Eastward. 

Analysis

All of the directions listed indicate that what was seen was towards the ocean off of the east coast of Florida. While Cape Canaveral had no launches on that date there was another source of rocket launches that operated off of the coast of Florida. Ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) often test their systems out on the Eastern Test Range (ETR). These missiles were usually launched in the direction of the south Atlantic, towards the coast off of South Africa. That location puts the missiles on an Eastward to Southeastward track. 

The space chronology index lists a launch of four Trident missiles from SSBN 658 (USS Mariano G. Vallejo) at 1034Z.3 This is very close to the time listed of 1040Z in the Weinstein catalogue. While there is only mention of three trails by the pilots, it could have been the fourth had not been seen or was launched at a time slightly after the first three. This launch happened about an hour before sunrise and would have been quite spectacular from the air as the missile plumes at high altitude would have been illuminated by the sun. 

saw a submarine launched missile test once from just south of Orlando, Florida in August of 1986. My fellow astronomers and I were caught off guard when we saw a bright object appear in the East and the proceed upward and southward. We knew that there were no land-based rocket launches planned so it was easy to determine that it was a submarine launched missile. It was quite spectacular. In this case, it was just a Polaris A3 missile launched by a British SSBN (August 2, 1986 0135 UTC)4. This photograph I took of the event shows the bright star Enif and the missile’s trajectory. I would expect a Trident missile test, which is a more powerful rocket, would have been more spectacular. Even more spectacular would have been multiple missiles being launched shortly after each other.

As an ex-submariner I was familiar with the test range for the SSBNs out of Port Canaveral. In 1983, I was on board USS Lafayette (SSBN 616), where we ran pre-launch missile tests for a Poseidon missile launch (the other crew got to launch the missile). While I had no idea how far we were off the coast, it was not very far. We left in the morning and came back the next day. I recall us operating at ahead flank on the surface for about an entire watch rotation (6 hours). This means we were probably 100-200 nm off the coast. Therefore, everything appears to line up with what the transcript describes.

It is interesting that there was mention of a “warning area” on the transcript and that several comments about the navy and submarine launched missiles. I am sure there were NOTAM’s issued for this but the pilots were either unaware of them or ignored them. It seems that some of the pilots had identified the source but the more exaggerated reports were the ones that were accepted as evidence. 

Conclusion

This case could easily have been explained by any UFOlogist interested in examining the case. This sighting time and location match that of the Trident missile test on that date. This can be classified as a missile launch and the sighting needs to be removed from the list.

Quelle: SUNlite 2/2020