\nDate of Sighting:<\/strong> January 14, 2016
\nTime of Sighting:<\/strong> Between 12:12 and 12:13 AM MST<\/p>\n
![\"DOPPLER](\"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/casefiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/slcdoppler1208AM01142016-edited.jpg\")
<\/a>Description:<\/strong><\/p>\n This case was reported to me by Erica Lukes who is the director of MUFON for the state of Utah. She knows a radio show host who was scanning communications between aircraft and the FAA shortly after midnight on January 14, 2016. He heard a conversation between an airline pilot and Air Route Traffic Control. The pilot reported seeing an extremely long bright object that he estimated a mile wide to his right. The air traffic controller told him that he was looking in the direction of Nephi, Utah. Apparently the air traffic controller told the pilot that the object was not detected on radar. The object appeared to keep pace with the aircraft.<\/p>\n A Freedom of Information (FOIA) request was written to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). About six weeks later we received a response to the FOIA. The response consisted of radar returns, voice tapes and tower logs. The FAA is to be commended for their full and\u00a0timely response to our request.<\/p>\n Research showed that the aircraft was American Airlines Flight Number 434 which was enroute from San Francisco, CA to Philadelphia, PA. The actual sighting time was between 12:12 and 12:13 AM MST on January 14, 2016. We were able to find segments of the conversation on the Air Traffic Control archives website, but much of conversation was deleted. One could hear the controller telling the pilot that Nephi, Utah was off to his right and the pilot acknowledging the transmission. However, the UFO report was not on the tape. The ham radio operator did not record the conversation so the \u201cUFO report\u201d could not be heard. He heard the conversation on the frequency of 127.95 mhz.<\/p>\n Update: March 4, 2016.<\/strong> The voice tape obtain from the FAA (see above) does fill in some of the transmission missing from the tape from the Air Traffic Control archives website. The only thing not confirmed from the original transmission was the estimated size of the object. The airline crew described the object as a\u00a0large orange square.<\/p>\n The aircraft was flying at 31,000 feet and 530 knots at the time of sighting. The aircraft was headed in a ENE direction. The radar shows a \u201cdense\u201d area of returns at approximately the 2 o\u2019clock position.\u00a0These returns are quite isolated and very numerous. They are likely not birds, angels, ground targets or anomalous propagation.<\/p>\n The time is from 12:08 to 12:15 AM which is the time that the crew saw the object(s).\u00a0 The map shows a large area of returns near and to the East of I-15.\u00a0 The returns are not traffic as the radar is too far away to detect ground targets.<\/p>\n The \u201czoom out\u201d map shows\u00a0 the concentration of radar returns just to the SW of Nephi.\u00a0 This is in the position and time observed by airline crew. Note that most of the radar map is devoid of returns except in the area immediately to the SW of Nephi.<\/p>\n The Doppler radar map for Salt Lake City was also obtained. \u00a0The map does show some returns to the Northeast of Nephi at the time of the sighting. The radar was operating in \u201cclear air mode\u201d which means that the gain is turned up making it more sensitive. (See radar map above.)<\/p>\n Figure\u00a05 above shows the location of the 2 radar sites used in the analysis.\u00a0 One radar (Cedar City, UT) is about 155 miles to the SSW of sighting location.\u00a0 The other radar (Francis Peak, UT) is about 90 miles to the north. These returns were likely true objects and probably quite\u00a0 large given the distance from the radar sites.<\/p>\n I also took a look at the radar returns for the entire time period of my radar request which was from midnight to 12:30 AM MST.\u00a0 Figure\u00a07 above shows all of the returns for this time period near Nephi.\u00a0 Returns were found for each minute from midnight to 12:30 AM in the sighting area. In all 106 radar returns were detected. This means that the object(s) were there before and after the sighting. The returns in Figure\u00a07 almost look a \u201cgridded\u201d radar map. Figure\u00a08 shows the plot of these returns on a Google Earth relief map. It is fairly obvious that the returns are not due to the radar reflecting from higher terrain. A few of elevations are displayed. There was very little elevation change in the area of the returns.<\/p>\n Radar Propagation Analysis:<\/strong><\/a><\/a>
\nAtmospheric conditions can cause radar waves to bend downward or upward causing \u201cfalse returns\u201d or showing returns in the wrong location. Also there is a possibility that radar returns may be reflected off of higher terrain. (However, this is generally not the case as aviation radar is designed to not detect stationary targets.) However, Doppler weather radar can detect higher terrain and result in false returns. Figure\u00a08 shows very little elevation change in the area of the returns.<\/p>\n