UFO researchers Stanton Friedman & Frank Feschino Jr. discussed fighter accidents & vanished planes in the 1950s, which they related to UFOs and the military's 'shoot down' era. In the 1950s, the US military had standing orders to shoot down unidentified craft if they didn't land when instructed-- and it appears that UFOs shot back, said Friedman. There is no question that our planes were the aggressors, he commented.
There were many pilot deaths and mysterious military plane incidents during the early to mid 1950s. In fact, the New York Times, described jets as "disintegrated and disappeared" in their coverage, Friedman reported. Feschino detailed how aF-86 jet fighter plane crashed in SouthGlastonbury, CT on August 5, 1952 under mysterious circumstances and connected it to a UFO flap that was occurring that summer. Project Bluebook contained 1500 reports from 1952, with over 300 of them classified as unidentified, he continued.
The Flatwoods Monster case also took place in the summer of '52-- there were sightings over 11 states the night the curious craft/robot set down in Braxton County, Feschino noted. On that same night, thirty objects were seen coming in over the Eastern Seaboard, and appeared to be following a craft that was damaged, he added. Friedman suggested that the US military eventually gave up on their shootdown policy, and instead began simply observing UFOs with their instruments. The Betty & Barney Hill case, which Friedman wrote about in his new book Captured! was also discussed.