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we'll put them all together" to find out if any two cases are alike. This is a very interesting admission: the FAA keeps records of UFO sightings by pilots; they're stored in a specific location in Washington, D.C.; FAA officials make case comparisons when new incidents occur. If it's true, it certainly flies in the face of the agency's public stance on UFOs. Despite the reaction of individual FAA officials directly involved with the Alaska case, the stated FAA conclusion was that the radar readings a4 10 aa were false targets, malfunctions in the system. Even though it had radar to support the witness accounts, the FAA dismissed this data as erroneous, and declared that it "Was unable to confirm the event." [22] It praised the three "normal, rational, professional pilots," yet the final report completely ignored the visual sightings reported in detail during the FAA's interviews with these witnesses. [23] John Callahan vigorously disputes these claims about the radar. He makes the important point that radar is not configured to detect objects that behave the way UFOs do, and that we need to revamp and upgrade its technology. This former head of the Accidents and Investigations Division was not at all surprised by the FAA's response to the O'Hare incident a few years ago. "It was predictable” - he told me. "When pilots report seeing such an object, the FAA will offer a host of other explanations. It's like wearing a blindfold. It's always something else so it can't be what it is." CHAPTER 22 HAPPENED" I was division chief of the Accidents, Evaluations, and Investigations Division of the FAA in Washington from 1981 to 1988. During this time, I was involved in an investigation of an extraordinary event but was asked not to talk about it. Since retiring, I decided that the public had a right to this information, and that they could handle it. Nothing dire has occurred as a result of my discussing this incident publicly, yet nothing useful has resulted from it either, although it's never too late. I have come to realize the serious need we have to improve our radar systems so they can capture unusual objects in the sky, such as the one I dealt with when I was at the FAA in 1987. It was early January 1987 when I received a call from the air traffic quality control branch in the FAA's Alaskan regional office, requesting guidance on what to tell the media personnel who were overflowing the office. The media wanted information about the UFO that chased a Japanese 747 across the Alaskan sky for some thirty minutes on November 7,1986. Somehow, the word had got out. "What UFO? When did this take place? Why wasn't Washington THE FAA INVESTIGATES A UFO EVENT ''THAT NEVER by John J. Callahan You are about to read about an event that never happened.