Michigan MUFON director Bill Konkolesky joined host Ian Punnett (Twitter) to discuss the Pentagon's 2022 Annual Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). The DoD's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) reported receiving an additional 366 cases since the group's preliminary assessment, which brings the total accounts logged by AARO to 510. Konkolesky described the new report as "theater," noting "they put out this report and it looks fancy, and when you're done reading it you don't really get any details about any of the individual sightings."
He questioned the background knowledge of those in AARO as they were unable to identify 171 of the 366 cases, or roughly half of the reports. According to Konkolesky, MUFON can provide a plausible explanation for 95 percent or more of the reports it gathers each year. "It's kind of funny that they can't seem to identify more of what's coming in to them... it just really seems like sloppy work," he suggested.
Konkolesky provided an update on a famous UFO case from March 8, 1994, which involved over 300 witnesses reporting circular flashing lights in the sky over Lake Michigan. A man who works for a local television station in Kalamazoo, Michigan, recently contacted MUFON with his account. He watched the display for 15 minutes from Kalamazoo and believes his station may have footage of the unexplained event, Konkolesky reported. "I'm hoping to get ahold of that," he added.
Konkolesky also talked about image analysis and the importance of detecting faked photos and video. MUFON has sophisticated methods of investigation such images and experts who are a step or two ahead of the hoaxers, he revealed. "When somebody does a hoax they will rarely share it with MUFON as their first step," Konkolesky explained. Instead, they post on social media to reap financial benefits before UFO investigators point out that it is not real, he noted.
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Open Lines followed in the latter half of the program. Cathy from Washington State claimed to be a lifelong experiencer and to have "seen quite a few different types of UFOs." She shared one of her most unusual accounts which took place a year and a half ago near Bangor Base, Washington. According to Cathy, she was traveling on a remote highway with retired detectives when one pointed to something quite bizarre in the sky. "What it looked like was a huge jellyfish at least the size of a football field," she recalled, noting by the time she retrieved her phone to snap a photo it was out of range over some woods. Cathy wondered if anyone in the Coast audience had ever seen anything like it.
David in Salem, New Hampshire, suggested we are missing the big picture if we ignore our spiritual nature and how it connects us to one another, and perhaps to other intelligences out there. "To really get on their level, you have to be spiritual," he suggested. According to David, there are frequent UFO sightings reported in his region. He shared an account told to him by his daughter's mother. "She thought she saw a star up by the mountain... it came right down the road and disabled the car," David reported, noting she was very scared. When the object left the car started again, he added. David shared details from his own daytime sighting which involved something entering the atmosphere. "It was smoking... you could hear the hissing and popping, like something cooling off in the atmosphere," he recalled.