O'Hare Interplanetary Spaceport

It appears that O'Hare is even busier than we thought. Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune reported (on its front page!) that an unidentified flying object (or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, the currently preferred term, according to the Trib) was spotted a couple of months ago hovering over Concourse C. A number of United Airlines employees--including pilots--reported the object, and United supervisor even called the tower to find out what they saw. Officially, the tower saw nothing. Of course, until the Trib started to press and then filed a Freedom of Information Act request, the tower had not officially received a call from a United supervisor, either. Although the FAA has no explanation for the incident, the agency has no curiosity about it either, and there are no plans to investigate. United Airlines, which doesn't have to worry about FOIA requests, refuses to acknowledge anything out of the ordinary at all. Although the United employees claim they were interviewed by airline officials and asked to draw pictures of what they saw, a United spokesperson claims there is no record of any reports or discussion of any kind of incident whatsoever. Nothing to see here-move along.

You don't even have to read very closely between the lines to recognize the frustration that the United personnel feel. At least at a public level, their experience and their concerns are being completely ignored. The Trib has enough sources--"as many as a dozen" employees reported it to the airline--that it was comfortable with the report on the front page (even if it was the New Year's Day edition--how many readers assumed that this was simply part of their hangover?). Whether or not anyone believes them, the witnesses believe they saw something not of this earth. One witness reportedly has even been shaken in his or her religious beliefs.

Here's how the Trib describes what people saw:

The sighting occurred during daylight, about 4:30 p.m., just before sunset.

All the witnesses said the object was dark gray and well defined in the overcast skies. They said the craft, estimated by different accounts to be 6 feet to 24 feet in diameter, did not display any lights.

Some said it looked like a rotating Frisbee, while others said it did not appear to be spinning. All agreed the object made no noise and it was at a fixed position in the sky, just below the 1,900-foot cloud deck, until shooting off into the clouds.

When the object flew into the clouds, it reportedly left a hole in the cloud ceiling that took a few minutes to close.

The story has hit the AP, so that should give it a bit more exposure, although if the FAA and United completely shut down any information, there's little chance that any further information will be developed. But will wider awareness of this incident bring to light similar events that have been officially reported and then officially ignored?