Had a chat with an old pilot that changed how I see those lights in the sky

I was talking to this retired cargo pilot named Dave at a diner outside Phoenix last weekend. He told me about a night in 1989 over the Nevada desert where his instruments went haywire and he saw three orange orbs move in a perfect triangle pattern for about 20 seconds. He said the FAA told him it was weather balloons, but he's flown through real storms before and knew that was a lie. Has anyone else heard a similar story from someone with that kind of experience?

3 comments

3 Comments

cooper.drew1mo ago

Wait, the FAA told a pilot with decades of experience that orbs moving in a perfect geometric pattern were weather balloons? That is wild. I bet if he asked them to explain how balloons hold a triangle formation they would have changed the subject real quick. The part about his instruments going haywire is what gets me. You don't just randomly lose your navigation gear in clear skies without something funky happening.

jamesf291mo ago

There's been a lot of talk about pilots seeing strange things over the years. I read somewhere that commercial pilots are actually trained to not report UFOs because it can mess with their careers. Dave's story sounds a lot like the "Phoenix Lights" reports that popped up around the same time, just earlier in the desert.

valc911mo ago

Man, that bit about pilot training is crazy if true. @jamesf29, do you know if that's an actual official policy or just something pilots learn through word of mouth? Because it sounds like the kind of thing that would make a lot of people think twice about reporting anything out of the ordinary, even if it's legit. The Phoenix Lights comparison is interesting too, I remember hearing how many witnesses saw that but the official explanation was total nonsense.