Airline workers say they saw UFO

updated 11:06 a.m. ET Jan. 2, 2007

CHICAGO - Federal officials say it was probably just some weird weather phenomenon, but a group of United Airlines employees swear they saw a mysterious, saucer-shaped craft hovering over O’Hare Airport last fall.

The workers, some of them pilots, said the object didn’t have lights and hovered over an airport terminal before shooting up through the clouds, according to a report in Monday’s Chicago Tribune.

The Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged that a United supervisor had called the control tower at O’Hare, asking if anyone had spotted a spinning disc-shaped object. But the controllers didn’t see anything, and a preliminary check of radar found nothing out of the ordinary, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said.

Just weather?
“Our theory on this is that it was a weather phenomenon,” Cory said. “That night was a perfect atmospheric condition in terms of low (cloud) ceiling and a lot of airport lights. When the lights shine up into the clouds, sometimes you can see funny things.”

The FAA is not investigating, Cory said.

United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said company officials don’t recall discussing any such incident from Nov. 7.

At least one O’Hare controller, union official Craig Burzych, was amused by it all.

“To fly 7 million light years to O’Hare and then have to turn around and go home because your gate was occupied is simply unacceptable,” he said.

MORE FROM LIFE

Life Section Front

Deer hunters help feed the hungry Cannabis Cafe creates buzz in Oregon Nuke plant radiation caused by pipe-cutting Woman loses benefits over Facebook pics 1 found dead, several rescued from Ind. motel fire Iraqi refugees move to Mich. despite economy Michael Jackson’s doctor returns to work Doubts about earrings tied to Mrs. Lincoln Life Section Front   Add Life headlines to your news reader: