1995 U.S. UFO sighting was actually of celestial bodies, astronomers claim

A mysterious strobe of lights that was spotted in 1995 sparking UFO rumors turned out to be celestial bodies, astronomers have claimed.

The bizarre 1995 incident happened when two American pilots flying American West Flight 564 from Dallas, Texas to Las Vegas claimed to have had a close encounter with a “UFO”.

However, the latest reports suggest that this may not be the case as previously believed.

Captain Eugene Tollefson and his co-pilot John Waller were cruising aloft, with a cabin full of passengers, when a flight attendant saw something strange in the sky.

Although there was no interaction between the plane and the UFO, the crew reported seeing strange lights in the distance among the clouds, reports Daily Express.

Waller then contacted air traffic control in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to report the object.

A transcript of the exchange can be heard where Waller said, “At three o’clock I have strobes over there. Can you tell us what it is?

When promoted about what he saw, Waller said: “There’s a strobe and it starts… uh, counter-clockwise, and uh… the duration is amazing. “

After failing to detect the mystery plane on radar systems, air traffic control called the pilots back saying, “Cactus 564…we’ve checked with Cannon and they don’t have, uh, weather balloons or anything tonight. Nobody in advance has the faintest idea. Do you still see it?”

They replied: “Negative…where we originally spotted it was between time and us and when there is lightning you could see a dark object…and, uh, that was kind of weird.”

The strange incident baffled astronomers who then attempted to analyze the situation.

Read also | It Sounds WEIRD But This Woman Is Seriously Scared Of Aliens After ‘Nine UFO Sightings’

in the 2015 Smithsonian Channel documentary ‘UFOs Declassified: Pilot Eyewitness’. a senior SETI Institute astronomer, Seth Shostak, said: “The kind of things that can fool even, I think, trained pilots are, for example, bright planets.”

Read also | NASA’s rover found an alien gate on Mars? Find out the truth

He explained that it could have been “heavenly bodies” that played a role in America West’s bizarre Flight 564 experiment.

Watch | Decryption of UFOs: what do we know about “flying saucers”?

(With agency contributions)