automatic acceptanc e - or automatic debunking - o f U FO re
taxonomy of UFO reports. And shortly thereafter. he founded
ports, and some of the most thoroughly reported and mys
an organization, the Center for UFO Studies (CU FOS) , dedi
tifYing sightings and alleged alien encounters on record.
cated to putting his ideas into practice
That the combined weight of the Condon committee and the
six categories. Of lower magnitude were three kinds made at
was due in large measure to the enduring curiosity of j. Allen
ings confirmed by radar. An example of the last kind occurred
U FO investigations, he had become increasingly dissatisfied
pilot not only saw a strange, illuminated craft approach his
In Hynek's scheme, sightings were to be organized into
air force was not enough to quash scientific interest in UFOs
a distance: nocturnal lights, daylight disks, and visual sight
Hynek. During his twenty-one-year association with air force
near Fairbanks. Alaska , in late 1 986. when a japan Air Lines
with their shortcomings and, i n the late I 960s, increasingly
plane but picked it up on his in-night radar . Later reports
outspoken in his criticism .
showed that Federal Aviation Administration radar on the
Nonetheless, while employed by the air force he had
ground had also tracked the U FO in the vicinity of the japa
remained a team player, nudging the service toward better
nese airliner. Hynek also defined three kinds of close-up
performance, all the while collecting evidence and cases that
sightings, for which he coined a term that soon became part
eluded explanation. The good cases cried out for serious
of the language: close encounters. A close encounter of the
study, he maintained; they needed far more intensive inves
first kind was a sighting made from within 500 feet of the
tigation by trained scientists than they were getting. The in
object. A sighting was to be labeled the second kind, he
for m a t i o n thus gathered
said, when investigation re
needed to be standardized.
vealed some "measurable
shared, and made available
physical effect" on land or
to manipulation by comput-
o b j e c t s - fo r e x a m p l e ,
ers so that c o m m o n a t -
scorched grass. frightened
a n i m a l s . m a l fu n c t i o n i n g
t r i b u te s - s u c h t h i n g s as
e l e c t r i c a l sy s t e m s . o r
colors, shapes, velocities,
stalled engines . O n e such
and geographic concentra-
e v e n t took p l a c e i n the
tions - could be analyzed.
south of France in january
Freed of the air force
1 9 8 1 A retired man named
connection, secure in his
Renata N i c o l a i reported
position a s c h a i r m a n of
that at 5 : 00 one evening. a
Northwestern U n iversity's
metallic object about eight
astronomy department, Hy
feet in diameter landed in
nek began to speak out ever
his backyard. It soon took
more forcefully in the 1 970s
off again, he said, leaving a
for better work on UFO re
circle about six feet across
ports. I n his 1 9 72 book,
The UFO Experience. he outlined
on the ground. Investiga tors from the government
a m e t h o d for c o l l e c t i n g
sponsored French U FO
c o m p l e t e i n fo r m a t i o n
study organization later re-
about sightings - a kind of
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