They’re unidentified, they’re flying, and they’re objects. So that makes them UFOs, right?
16 February 2023 - 05:00
by PAUL ASH
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
The suspected Chinese spy balloon falls after being shot down off the coast in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, the US, February 4 2023. Picture: RANDALL HILL/REUTERS
“No-one would’ve believed/ In the last years of the 19th century/ That human affairs were being watched from timeless worlds of space/ No-one could have dreamt that we were being scrutinised/ As someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.”
So Richard Burton — the greatest speaking voice of all time — begins the opening narration of the terrifying musical version of the HG Wells classic The War of the Worlds.
Maybe not in the late 1800s, but nowadays we certainly can dream it, because at the weekend the US military shot down not one, but three airborne ... things that strayed into the airspace over the US and Canada.
Last week it was the Chinese “spy balloon”, satisfyingly taken out by a missile fired from an F22 Raptor, leaving one TV anchor momentarily nonplussed as the balloon disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The word “balloon” does not feature in descriptions of the latest three targets, with a US Air Force general saying they were “very, very small” and the Canadian defence minister describing one as “cylindrical”. Another was described as “octagonal”. No-one called them anything more specific than “objects”.
This fuzziness has sparked UFO hysteria the likes of which has not been seen since the 1950s, except perhaps among dedicated crystal-meth smokers in trailer parks in the arid parts of the US
This fuzziness has sparked UFO hysteria the likes of which has not been seen since the 1950s, except perhaps among dedicated crystal-meth smokers in trailer parks in the arid parts of the US.
The US says it is now more aware of “sky trash” — which, by the way, is mostly balloons sent aloft to gather scientific data — because after the Chinese balloon incursion, it “fine-tuned” its radars to keep tabs on all the stuff flying overhead.
Or so Melissa Dalton, US assistant defence secretary for homeland defence and hemispheric affairs, told reporters in Washington DC.
A bit of caution is probably wise, then. For as Burton himself says: “The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one. But still, they come.”
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
TRENDING
Things that go bump in the sky
They’re unidentified, they’re flying, and they’re objects. So that makes them UFOs, right?
“No-one would’ve believed/ In the last years of the 19th century/ That human affairs were being watched from timeless worlds of space/ No-one could have dreamt that we were being scrutinised/ As someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.”
So Richard Burton — the greatest speaking voice of all time — begins the opening narration of the terrifying musical version of the HG Wells classic The War of the Worlds.
Maybe not in the late 1800s, but nowadays we certainly can dream it, because at the weekend the US military shot down not one, but three airborne ... things that strayed into the airspace over the US and Canada.
Last week it was the Chinese “spy balloon”, satisfyingly taken out by a missile fired from an F22 Raptor, leaving one TV anchor momentarily nonplussed as the balloon disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The word “balloon” does not feature in descriptions of the latest three targets, with a US Air Force general saying they were “very, very small” and the Canadian defence minister describing one as “cylindrical”. Another was described as “octagonal”. No-one called them anything more specific than “objects”.
This fuzziness has sparked UFO hysteria the likes of which has not been seen since the 1950s, except perhaps among dedicated crystal-meth smokers in trailer parks in the arid parts of the US.
The US says it is now more aware of “sky trash” — which, by the way, is mostly balloons sent aloft to gather scientific data — because after the Chinese balloon incursion, it “fine-tuned” its radars to keep tabs on all the stuff flying overhead.
Or so Melissa Dalton, US assistant defence secretary for homeland defence and hemispheric affairs, told reporters in Washington DC.
A bit of caution is probably wise, then. For as Burton himself says: “The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one. But still, they come.”
Canada hunts for unidentified object shot down by US fighter jet
China claims US flew more than 10 high-altitude balloons over its airspace
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most Read
Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.