A radar study recently released supports eight witness reports of an unidentified object in Stephenville, Texas, and the surrounding area on January 8, 2008.
Robert Powell, MUFON national research director, and Glen Schulze, retired radar analyst, have labored hundreds of hours analyzing 2.8 million bits of Freedom of Information Act requested raw radar data from five FAA towers between the hours of 4 - 8 p.m. surrounding the Dublin/Stephenville, Texas area.
Dozens of Erath County residents reported seeing an object or lights in the sky at separate locations and the story quickly made national and international news. The study may make even the most hardnosed skeptic scratch his head.
The report is entitled, Stephenville Lights: A comprehensive radar and witness report, and can be fully downloaded at http://www.mufon.com/symposia.htm. And, the slap and tickle to the whole story? The unknown object was on a trajectory towards and 10 miles from President Bush's Crawford Ranch without a required beacon signal and, seemingly, without any military interest. About two weeks after the first story was publicized in the Stephenville local paper on January 10, Maj. Karl Lewis, spokesman for the Carswell Naval Air Base, said his unit had 10 F-16s in the skies above Erath County after first having said no jets from the base were in the area. Could this be because Lewis knew the information would come out after seeing freedom of information acts filed at his base? Powell and Schulze tracked those 10 jets without any trouble. Now, they are scratching their heads wondering how an object without a beacon could apparently fly into Crawford air space without raising military eyebrows. That is not the only thing that left the two report authors with unanswered questions. Four jets may have encroached on civilian air space after deviating from the Brownwood military operating area return path on return runs to the Carswell Naval Air Base. Additionally, two jets traveling to Carswell from an Oklahoma air base made a wide sweep around Comanche, Dublin and Stephenville before landing at the Fort Worth base. And, what the authors claim could only be an AWACS craft studied the area for the entire four hours in what Powell calls a "race track pattern" sweeping back and forth making 180 degree turns. To see more on this report watch Larry King Live tonight at 8 p.m. central where the authors will make guest appearances. |
