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Old 26-April-2008, 11:32 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Neverfly View Post
So as an example:
Joe Pilot sees a UFO and reports seeing something strange. He does not name it as aliens or anything- he just relays that he's baffled.
Investigator A follows the story and concludes that he saw an unusual- but normal display- caused by lightning interacting with a low level cloud.
He explains it to the pilot- who looks at the evidence and agrees it matches what he saw and is happy to have found an explanation so he won't be left wondering what that was.

There are still problems with such cases you give as an example. First off, the pilot may not like the answer. From what I have read about commercial and military pilots, some can be very set that they are normally correct and don't like to be shown they made an error. I guess it makes them a bit testy when "pilot error" is used to explain an incident/crash. If they have problems identifying venus rising/setting they tend to think it makes them look incompetent. This is why they will often deny with statements like, "it could not have been venus because I have seen Venus many times before". This is immediately picked up by the sensationalist TV show and UFO groups as it can not be explained and the official explanation is laughable.
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