# Illinois UFO witnessed by police **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 15, 2000, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326 "2000-01-15T01:17:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cheese\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cheese\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheese_Head)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/21 "2000-01-18T14:07:00Z")
Returning to the original topic, I used to live where this UFO sighting took place, in S. Illinois near St. Louis. There is a large Air Force Base there, Scott AFB. This UFO may be Air Force projcet, like the stealth blimp. Note the sighting happened early in the morning before sunrise, at 4am. Why is it UFO sightings are almost never in daylight, in big cities? They usually happen at night in rural areas, which makes me skeptical. It’s just some country boys seeing things at night. If there really were alien UFO space ships flying around, I’m sure they would be seen in daylight. ---
**Author:** ![Cheese\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cheese\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheese_Head)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/22 "2000-01-18T14:41:00Z")
A local police dept has the report of the incident on their web site. It includes a sketch of the UFO made by an officer: [http://millstadtpolice.homepage.com/aircraft.html](http://millstadtpolice.homepage.com/aircraft.html) Also, they have a photo, but apparently took it down from their site. ---
**Author:** ![meara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@meara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meara)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/23 "2000-01-18T15:22:00Z")
That sketch looks an awful lot like the stealth blimp actually. 🙂 [http://popularmechanics.com/popmech/sci/9909STMIN.jpg](http://popularmechanics.com/popmech/sci/9909STMIN.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/24 "2000-01-18T15:31:00Z")
Well, I’m glad that _someone_ on this board can successfully put in an image. Some days I feel like such a loser. ::sigh:: ---
**Author:** ![Cheese\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cheese\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheese_Head)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/25 "2000-01-18T22:04:00Z")
Call Mulder and Scully, we’ve got an XFile!! Here is another link about it: [http://www.accessnv.com/nids/news/illinois\_contents.html](http://www.accessnv.com/nids/news/illinois_contents.html) ---
**Author:** ![Cheese\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cheese\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheese_Head)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/26 "2000-01-18T22:08:00Z")
Regarding the stealth blimp, wintess say there was no noise coming from the UFO, except occasional low humming. And there was no wind at the time. How could a blimp move with no wind an almost no noise? Also, Scott AFB says nothing was flying from their base at the time. Has the stealth blimp officially been built and seen in public, or is it just rumored to exist? ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/27 "2000-01-18T22:22:00Z")
Of course, if it really _was_ a secret project, it’s rather unlikely the folks at Scott AFB would have said, “Oh, yeah, we had a super-secret stealth blimp out that night. Why do you ask?” ---
**Author:** ![WallyM7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5e925/32.png) [@WallyM7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WallyM7)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/28 "2000-01-18T22:47:00Z")
> [@](#): > > But don’t bother bringing back photographic evidence – David’s not interested in that. With good reason, considering all the fakes. Serious investigators are tired of that crap. They want to see an artifact. Crop circles, cattle mutilations and photos of hubcaps thrown in the air aren’t going to convince anyone but the most credulous. * * * Keyboard not found. Press F1 to continue. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/29 "2000-01-18T23:06:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Cheese Head: > How could a blimp move with no wind an almost no noise? Why in the world do you think a blimp needs WIND? It isn’t a hot-air balloon that moves wherever the wind takes it. Blimps have _engines_, specially designed for lighter-than-air craft. And Lockheed Martin may have found a way to muffle the noise of blimp engines. (Probably by using variable-pitch propellers similar to those used by all helicopters. Change the pitch, you change the sound the proppellers make.) I’ve been to baseball games and have seen and heard advertising blimps (Budweiser, Goodyear, etc.) fly overhead and if they were more than 500 feet above, it was actually difficult to hear them. And I have good hearing. My conclusion: The Air Force was testing a stealth blimp. And they’ll never admit they were doing so. 😉 * * * \>\< DARWIN \> \_\_ **L\_\_\_L** ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/30 "2000-01-18T23:10:00Z")
I’m not even sure the engines would have to be muffled all that much. Keep in mind that observers placed the object 1,000 feet up. Having seen blimps at football games (and more quietly, at the U.S. Tennis Center) for several years, I will say that the _Goodyear_ blimp seems silent at that range. ## Maybe the stealth blimp was in training to take on the [Weather and/or intelligence balloons that China has apparently launched into the Taiwan Straight](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000118/wl/taiwan_china_1.html) . Livin’ on Tums, vitamin E and Rogaine ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2000, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/31 "2000-01-19T00:01:00Z")
Cheese Head wrote: > [@](#): > > A local police dept has the report of the incident on their web site. It includes a sketch of the UFO made by an officer: > > [http://millstadtpolice.homepage.com/aircraft.html](http://millstadtpolice.homepage.com/aircraft.html) According to the sketch on that webpage, the officer saw white and red lights on the rear of the aircraft. If anybody were testing a super-secret stealth blimp in the area, it seems unlikely that they’d fly it over two populated towns with its lights on. More likely it was just a normal blimp, or perhaps a hot air balloon, whose gasbag was an odd triangular shape for show purposes. * * * The truth, as always, is more complicated than that. ---
**Author:** ![Felice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e4f/32.png) [@Felice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Felice)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2000, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/32 "2000-01-19T00:05:00Z")
Or perhaps it was a hot air balloon? The fact that there was no wind on the ground doesn’t mean there weren’t currents aloft. I have seen hot air balloonsin all sorts of bizarre shapes: dragons, cows, tennis shoes, beer cans, and more. * * * Felice “There’s always a bigger fish.” ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2000, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/33 "2000-01-20T04:51:00Z")
Oddly enough, today our local paper put the article about the ‘UFO’ right next to an article describing the failed missile interceptor test. Granted the two events were separated by nearly two weeks, but if the U.S. indeed has a giant floating phased-array radar it would make some sense that the events are somehow related. Perhaps the ‘sighting’ was a test of the ‘radar blimp’ in anticipation of its role in the interceptor test. Dr. Watson “A voice, and nothing more.” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/34 "2000-01-24T06:26:00Z")
I saw a UFO once. It when I was about 12 or 13. I was on the P.E. field in junior high. The weather was thin overcast. I looked up and saw a highly reflective ellipse that wasn’t moving. If it were a blimp, it would have moved. If it were a jet from nearby NAS (now MCAS) Miramar, it certainly would have been moving. It didn’t. Was it from “outer space”? Probably not. It was probably some weird refractive effect of the atmosphere. Neverhteless, I saw it, it was flying, and I could not identify it. Therefore it was an unidentified flying object. Here’s my take on UFOs: To paraphrase Carl Sagan, “If there are no other beings in the universe, it would be a huge waste of space.” On the other hand, we’re so far away from the central galaxy that it would be impractical or impossible for extraterrestrial beings to come here. WHY would they come here? I think that “UFOs” (extraterrestrial craft) do not exist. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2000, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/35 "2000-01-23T19:49:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Johnny L.A.: > **On the other hand, we’re so far away from the central galaxy that it would be impractical or impossible for extraterrestrial beings to come here. WHY would they come here?** You’re ascribing to totally unknowable (I presume) beings a system of values that is anthropocentric. The things that _they_ might find possible, practical, and a good reason to come here, might be (almost certainly _would_ be) vastly different from what we would. ---
**Author:** ![Rich\_Hall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ebca7d/32.png) [@Rich\_Hall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_Hall)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/36 "2000-01-24T02:19:00Z")
Why should they come here? They could be alien high school field trips. Our mammals are their frogs. Or, it could be the alien equivalent of senior citizens on a bus tour of Nashville. Use your imagination. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/37 "2000-01-24T04:46:00Z")
Johnny L.A. wrote: > [@](#): > > we’re so far away from the central galaxy that it would be impractical or impossible for extraterrestrial beings to come here. The “central galaxy”? If you mean “the center of our galaxy” then yes, we are quite far away from it (over 20,000 light-years, in fact) – however, there are places a lot closer to us that space aliens could come from, if they existed. In fact, the center of the galaxy is a _lousy_ choice for an alien home world. The dead-center of the galaxy consists of a supermassive (100+ million Solar masses) black hole. The stars forming the central bulge formed very very early in the galaxy’s history, when there wasn’t enough carbon or other heavy elements in the interstellar medium to create Earth-like planets. There are several sun-like stars within 50 light-years of here that we’ve detected Jupiter-sized planets in orbit around. If any of them also happen to have Earth-like planets, they’d make excellent places to look for extrasolar life. * * * The truth, as always, is more complicated than that. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/38 "2000-01-24T14:04:00Z")
Tracer, You are correct. I meant “centre of our galaxy”. My bad. I don’t dispute that there is probably intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. I just don’t think they’re coming here. As far as the Jupiter-like planets nearby, it’s certainly possible that they have life; but I wonder if intelligent life can evolve on a gas giant? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/39 "2000-01-26T01:44:00Z")
\YOO-HOO! Krispy Original!!! Look what I have for sale today! A gen-u-ine Yeti skin coat! Only THREE HUNDRED DRACHMAS! Just the thing for keeping you warm on those cold winter nights! Sure, it LOOKS like rabbit skin; but thats what THEY want you to think! THEM! The CONSPIRICY! YEAH! So hurry up & send in those sheckels, Krispy boy!\ 😛😃 * * * With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince. With science, you can turn a frog into a Ph.D, and you still have the frog you started with. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326/40 "2000-01-26T13:01:00Z")
So the police officer said that the u.f.o. had red and white lights on it? When I ask ufologists why the aliens don’t show up at the White House and present themselves, one of the answers I get is,“They don’t think we are ready for their advanced technology, so they are in hiding!” An “advanced” civilization travels ghod knows how many light years to visit us, are in hiding, yet travel around the country lit up like a Christmas tree? Sounds plausable to me. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illinois-ufo-witnessed-by-police/17326.md?page=3)