Navy Pilot's 2004 UFO: A Comedy of Errors - Skeptical Inquirer

Joe Nickell wants us to know he was one of the unnamed “experts" consulted for two sensational articles appearing in the New York Times last December. While some may enjoy the modifiers Nickell seems compelled to use when introducing those whose positions he finds disagreeable, less funny are certain assertions and speculations about Commander David Fravor's psychological stability and reputation. Among other quibbles we have, Nickell himself appears to confuse the "Source" for the "2004 USS Nimitz Pilot Report" on the To The Stars... website with Fravor when he says "Viewing a video from that flight, 'Source [Fravor] identified the object affirmatively as the one they saw earlier' ('Pilot Report' 2017)." In reality, that same report seems clear that "Source" was not Commander David Fravor, but another pilot who describes Fravor's failed attempts to engage the unidentified. Mr. Nickell does observe that "UFO proponents" might "claim inconsistencies in [his and Major James McGaha's] scenario." We admire Nickell's prescience, noting the "scenario" requires four different conditions to be operative, while ignoring other factors. Nickell goes on to note "confusion and incompleteness in the reports." Well, gosh; degreed historians and professional researchers encounter that kind of stuff, and worse, all the time. That is why we welcome Nickell and McGaha's reconstruction as being the "suggestion" borne out of their beliefs, as Nickell admits in his article. (WM)

_{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}

from THE ANOMALIST https://ift.tt/2N6iU5U
via IFTTT