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a group of us right away and filed a report. The engineers tried to figure out how he lost control. Afterward, some engineers outside of the Air Force came to the hangar where his plane was parked with many other identical aircraft. They were able to locate his particular plane by using an instrument that measures radiation; his plane registered high, and this 44 aa 1 1 could not be explained. This pilot went on to have a career as a civilian pilot, as I did. After eighteen years in the Air Force, ending in 1990,1 began flying commercially and am now a captain with Portugalia Airlines (TAP), though I still fly solo. I still don't know what I saw that day back in 1982, but I love flying as much now as ever. My encounter, though incredible, did nothing to change that. eighteen in the Air in CHAPTER 5 Safety is of prime importance to everyone who flies or is associated with flying. Yet most Americans have never data necessary to investigate the origin of these UAP, and it also keeps airlines and pilot organizations from taking action or providing their pilots with specialized training and safety protocols. Despite all this, these unusual aerial phenomena have continued to plague commercial, military, and private flight operations over many years. The near-miss incident described by Lieutenant Guerra over Portugal in 1982 provides a powerful example of a case in which aviation safety was challenged by an unidentified object, according to virtually any standards: military, private, or commercial. Whenever another airborne vehicle of any kind cannot be communicated with, makes a very high-speed approach, and then stops unexpectedly within fifteen feet of one's airplane, any pilot in the world would be justifiably concerned and even afraid. Lieutenant Guerra and his two fellow pilots are to be commended for reporting this bizarre incident to officials, although the pressures against doing so are less intense in Europe and South America than they are here. In addition, General Ferreira, the Portuguese Air Force Chief of Staff at the time, willingly made all the records available to a scientific research group qualified to investigate—a scenario that we unfortunately do not see in the United States. Yet all countries are equally affected by the fact that UAP can appear without warning at any time and place. Three kinds of UAP dynamic behaviors and their consequences have been consistently reported. First and foremost are near-miss and other 1 1 rran 1 wr 1 high-speed maneuvers by UAP near airplanes. Many cases involve a relatively small distance—generally on the order of tens of yards—between the aircraft and the reported aerial phenomenon, which qualifies them as UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL PHENOMENA AND AVIATION SAFETY by Richard F. Haines, Ph.D.