[imagesource: YouTube / VICE]

Not all UFO sightings are created equal.

Video footage released by the Pentagon has become the stuff of legend, although that government organisation prefers to call them Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) sightings.

(UAP is a more precise way of referring to UFOs, specifically because many incidents may be explained by technical glitches or environmental phenomena rather than tangible objects.)

We’ll go with the wording used by VICE, which says it has obtained alleged police footage of a UFO:

Leaked by a government source with knowledge of the incident, the 55-second video was purportedly captured by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) cruiser’s dashcam early on April 24, 2011 in Selkirk, Manitoba.

The recording simply shows the hood of a vehicle, a town, and a lighted object traversing a dark sky.

The footage isn’t outrageous, but it’s worth noting that the police officer in question said he saw “an unidentified bright yellow and orange light… and stated this was not an aircraft.”

Here’s the 55-second clip:

The RCMP officer was so spooked that he called air traffic controllers in Winnipeg, around 40 kilometres away:

[They] then reviewed radar data before sending a “vital intelligence” report to Canadian air force personnel with NORAD, the joint Canada-U.S. defence group.

Various organisations were alerted from that point, culminating in a report being compiled by CADORS, a Canadian aviation incident database that already contains numerous UFO accounts from other pilots.

The footage caught the eye of Canadian ufologist Chris Rutkowski (yes, that’s a real thing). He investigated further and made contact with the officer:

Rutkowski describes the RCMP officer as “very matter-of-fact and professional.” According to Rutkowski’s notes, the witness thought the object looked “like a Cessna on fire.”

Rutkowski says that Transport Canada believes there’s a “good possibility” the officer saw a passing chartered plane.

That’s disputed by Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) board member Robert Powell:

“If an aircraft is flying towards you with its landing light, then you can see just a bright white light. But this object was not traveling directly towards the witness,” Powell said from Austin, Texas. “The object does not fit the appearance of an aircraft in my opinion.”

He believes it may have been a floating paper lantern.

Yet another reason not to release these into the air.

There has been no definite conclusion reached, and I’m sure the debate will go.

I’m certainly willing to rule out little green men at this point.

[source:vice]