1. BALLOONS
MUFON case #65255
This is a half-inflated mylar balloon reflecting street lights. It appears to be the letter "c."
2020. "Balloon-like UFO"
Dates unknown. Supposedly Navy footage of hovering semi-aquatic UFOs taken near Antarctica in 1971. One of these is a mirage (bottom left). The others are US Navy inflatable gunnary targets.
2. FLARES
CONDON REPORT, 1969:
A series of sightings around Cape Ann, Mass. (Case 29) offered testimony of numerous witnesses as evidence of the presence of a strange object, described as a large object with numerous lights which lit and disappeared in sequence... The chairman of the NICAP Massachusetts Subcommittee, Mr. Raymond F. Fowler, continued the investigation and subsequently learned that an aircrew from the 99th Bomb Wing, Westover AFB, had dropped 16 white flares while on a practice mission about 30 mi. NE of Cape Ann. The flare drop coincided in time and direction with the observed "UFO." As Mr. Fowler suggested, the "object" enclosing the string of lights must have been constructed by imagination.
Regarding the 1997 Phoenix Lights conspiracy theory, we have some questions for ufologists:
1. What purpose do the supposed spacecraft's lights serve? Are they headlights? Are they beacons? Do the aliens know these lights are visible while they're trying to conceal themselves? Should we tell them?
2. If the government shot off flares after the fact to cover for an alien craft, as conspiracy theorists suggest, how did the government know it would work? How did they know the flares would line up just right and remain in place? Did they know it would be visible in Phoenix and that someone would film it? How could they possibly have known that no one filmed or photographed the "actual" alien spacecraft?
3. LANTERNS
Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, 2013. This "object" is actually two lanterns. The apparent submersion occurs when the top of the lanterns are visible, the top having been cooled by the same wind that's propelling them out to sea, making them seem to disappear on the infrared. The apparent division occurs when the second lantern is distictly visible, in close-up, for a brief instant.
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