# UFO explosion over vietnam **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 29, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030 "2008-05-29T16:34:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/1 "2008-05-29T16:34:51Z")
[Story](http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSBKK8882920080529) here from reuters. Any update on this ?? have they concluded which plane is it ?? ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/2 "2008-05-29T17:33:28Z")
I don’t know, but “Grant McCool – Bangkok bureau” has got to be _the_ niftiest byline/introduction ever. I could write half a TV pilot on the strength of the name alone. Then all I’d need is a time machine so I could sell it to Quinn Martin in 1971. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/3 "2008-05-29T17:44:58Z")
> [@](#): > > found shards of grey metal, including one 1.5 meters (1.5 yards) long. Grant needs a little help with his metric conversins. I used to know a Father McCool. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/4 "2008-05-29T17:51:49Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] Grant needs a little help with his metric conversions. [/QUOTE] Why? That’s a pretty close approximation. 1.5 m = 1.64 yards. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/5 "2008-05-29T17:55:29Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] Grant needs a little help with his metric conversins. [/QUOTE] Not from where I sit … Over-specified conversions are one of my pet peeves in news reporting. The 1.5 meter measurement doesn’t have a measurement error estimate attached, so we can only assume that it’s an estimate to roughly +/- .25 meters. That is, all the original number is claiming is that the length of that item of debris was closer to 1.5 meters than to 1 meter or 2 meters. 1.5 meters converts to ~1.64 yards … which is closer to 1.5 yards than 1 yard or 2 yards. So given our estimated error bars, 1.5 yards is a perfectly acceptable conversion of 1.5 meters–better, I’d say, than 1.64 yards, which would imply fifty times the measurement confidence as the actual measurement. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/6 "2008-05-29T17:58:42Z")
Why is this labelled as a UFO? Yes, it’s technically an unidentified flying object, but it’s all but been identified as a human, terrestrial aircraft. I kept waiting to read about eerie glowing lights or the chunks of metal to have mysterious markings on them. Talk about sensationalism. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/7 "2008-05-29T18:05:52Z")
That’s what struck me too; a UFO with… rivets. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/8 "2008-05-29T18:31:20Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s what struck me too; a UFO with… rivets. Vietnam gets the low-rent, low-tech civilizations. Their UFOs use rubber bands, too. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/9 "2008-05-29T18:38:45Z")
[QUOTE=The King of Soup] I don’t know, but “Grant McCool – Bangkok bureau” has got to be _the_ niftiest byline/introduction ever. I could write half a TV pilot on the strength of the name alone. Then all I’d need is a time machine so I could sell it to Quinn Martin in 1971. [/QUOTE] Go animated and sell it to Adult Swim. They put a show about a talking anus on the air called “Assy McGee,” so clearly they will buy anything. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/10 "2008-05-31T16:19:27Z")
I saw this story and considered starting a thread on it but decided to wait and see what developed. Otherwise, it’s just your garden-variety plane crash. Roger that on Grant McCool. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/11 "2008-06-02T04:15:45Z")
There’s an update [here](http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2008/06/very-cold-metal-pieces-retrieved-after.html). Can anyone say X-Files? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/12 "2008-06-02T04:38:54Z")
They’re… very cold. Very cold pieces of metal. Wow, we better get Geraldo on this right away! ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/13 "2008-06-02T04:47:56Z")
[QUOTE=Kythereia] Why is this labelled as a UFO? Yes, it’s technically an unidentified flying object, but it’s all but been identified as a human, terrestrial aircraft. [/QUOTE] Because until they know what it is beyond “it’s from our planet” (which is pretty much the assumption of most things that aren’t meteors) then it’s still unidentified? UFO doesn’t mean “alien spaceship.” ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/14 "2008-06-02T10:22:37Z")
I read about this too, but unfortunately Saigon is too far from Phu Quoc for me to have actually seen what happened. They’re saying that there are big chunks of metal strewn around the island, but that no one in the area is reporting a missing aircraft. Basically, it’s a downed plane, but still mysterious enough that we can turn our imaginations loose. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/15 "2008-06-02T11:11:24Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Roger that on Grant McCool. [/QUOTE] Roger That? Is he Grant’s plucky assistant? ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/16 "2008-06-02T21:41:38Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] Because until they know what it is beyond “it’s from our planet” (which is pretty much the assumption of most things that aren’t meteors) then it’s still unidentified? UFO doesn’t mean “alien spaceship.” [/QUOTE] In common parlance, it does. I bet you $10 and a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ninety percent of the people who clicked on the link to the article thought it was going to be about aliens. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/17 "2008-06-02T21:44:14Z")
Yeah at first, but once they read the article they realize that UFO is being used in its literal sense. Which I think is totally appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/18 "2008-06-02T23:58:49Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] Which I think is totally appropriate. [/QUOTE] I concur. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/19 "2008-06-03T00:17:34Z")
Appropriate but still every so vaguely disappointing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030/20 "2008-06-03T01:07:31Z")
Read and copied for future use some time in the past: "This is a public service announcement. The large object seen floating in the air above the city is not, I repeat not, a UFO. It has been identified as a flying saucer from outer space. Citizens are advised to panic, loot, and cause as much descruction as possible. " [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-explosion-over-vietnam/451030.md?page=2)