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Examining
the UFO Claims of FOX 31 News
On November 11,
2012 the Denver, Colorado FOX affiliate ran a
story about a reported “UFO” sighting. This
caused inquires to Rocky Mountain Paranormal
because of the location of the claim and the
apparent lack of evidence being put forward by
FOX News.
This is an
examination of the claims as broadcast by
Denver’s FOX 31 during their News broadcast.
Information provided by FOX News:
* Video taken by person who does not want to
be identified
* Video recorded between 12:00 and 1:00 pm
(Claims to have several recordings)
* Claims that the “UFO” cannot be seen at
normal speed (video has to be slowed)
* “Expert” Airline Pilot states that he does
not know what the video is of but states
that it is not a helicopter a bird or a plane
but might be some kind of dirt or debris
* Reporter states that the expert said that it
is not a bug “so don’t call it a bug”
* FOX News filmed a similar video with their
own camera at the same location
* Original videographer states that the UFO”s
are taking off from approx. 56th & Clay
* FOX News contacted NORAD who claims they saw
nothing out of the ordinary
Examining
the claims of the FOX News story
The
reporter states that this could be a
“Military test”, where did she come up
with this explanation, not even the expert
had that conclusion.
The expert did not say that the object was
not a bug, but the reporter states that he
did.
The Video was taken between 12:00 &
1:00 pm on a warm day. The average
temperature when the video was recorded
was 57 degrees at 12:30 pm. These are the
prime conditions for bugs to be out and
about.
The video was taken in a dirt field which
is more likely to have insects flying
around.
The videographer does not want to be
identified. This makes him as suspicious
as the video.
If this was an object launching from 56th
and Clay, the object would be the size of
several houses on the ground (using the
perspective of the object in the video)
but nobody in the area has reported
anything. Regardless of the speed of the
object when it was in a static position
before takeoff it should be noticed
FOX News failed to bring in a relevant
expert such as a Entomologist who might
have been able to identify an insect by
the movement and shape of the image on the
video
At no time was a person who was skeptical
of the claims of UFO’s interviewed about
the supposed UFO video
One of the videos that was shown
includes a second object that they did not
discuss.
One of the objects is moving up in the
frame while a second object is moving in
from the right side of the frame. These
objects are very birdlike and appear to be
landing/taking off in the same area.
One of the videos that was shown includes
a second object that they did not discuss.
The object that they were examining was
moving from the center to the right of the
image. The second object in the middle of
the image dropped from the top of the
image down. The second object appears to
be much closer to the camera.
The area that the video was recorded
has many native species of flying insects,
such as Grasshoppers, Wasps, Bees and
Flies.These insects come out at the warm
times of day which tend to be the middle
of the day when the videos were recorded.
The supposed speed of the “UFO” is caused
because of the proximity of the object to
the lens. Because the object is close to
the lens the apparent speed is
exaggerated.
The area of 56th & Clay St. that is
claimed to be the area that the objects
appear to be coming from is the home of
several large bodies of water and many
smaller lakes.
These lakes are home to several large
species of bird that can be seen
(especially as small dots) from long
distances.
The video does show the location with what
appears to be birds landing in the area of
the lakes. The video was also taken during
a huge migration of the Canadian Goose.
Canadian Geese can be seen by the
thousands near every large body of water
in the area on a daily basis.
There are also several varieties of Eagle
and Hawk in the area.
Several parts of the original video appear
to have a flapping motion caused by the
movement of a birds wings.
The field
located at 84th & Federal Blvd where
the video of the “UFO” was recorded
A reddit.com user contacted the
“Investigative reporter” who reported this
story and pointed out that he
thought it was flies. She responded
with “WE SAW NO BUGS, IT REALLY ISN’T A
VERY BUGGY AREA. IF WE HAD, WE WOULD HAVE
QUESTIONED IT OURSELVES. I’VE DONE THIS
FOR 20 YEARS, I DON’T SHOOT FLIES AND TURN
THEM INTO UFOS”
We visited the site multiple times and
each time we have encountered different
types of insects.
Because of the claims of no bugs in the
area by the “Investigative reporter” we
decided to collect some of the flying
insects in the area.
We spent less than one hour collecting
bugs and feel that there are many more
species in the area but thought an hour
sampling was sufficient.
Flying
insects captured on site
These are the bugs that we collected after
a one hour sampling.
The two listed at the end were not
captured (too fast ) but were seen
throughout the times we were at the
location.
While on site we conducted a test to see
if any flying insects could be seen at the
location. To do this we set up a camera
looking in the general direction of the
original video and then placed a green
card in front of the camera (about 10
feet) to create a small distance that the
camera could see.
We recorded an image moving across the
screen that appeared for less than one
second but showed up in 5 frames. Because
of the green card this image has to be a
small object flying between the camera and
the card.
Another claim of the original
videographer and the proponents of the
video being a UFO is that the object in
the image has some type of “Thrusters”
that appear as fire in when the object in
the video moves.
This type of image is created when an
object moves and causes a reflection of
the sun. This creates a bright spot that
the camera overexposes.
This can be seen in an image of a plane
from the same location. The initial images
of the plane are normal, but when it turns
the plane appears to turn into a white
object “Thrusters” as the clams state.
A plane
moving through the image is
highlighted from by sun causing the
image to wash out due to overexposure.
"Not A Bug"
![A bug expert examines a
blurry image](Idontknow.jpg)
We
glued a fly to a piece of glass to
show how the focus of the camera will
cause an insect to become
unrecognizable.
The first image is the fly on the glass
in focus, the following images are the
background in focus causing the close up
object to become out of focus.
But
What about the speed? FOX News
claims that the "UFO" is moving at
supersonic speeds
![It's just a Fly](blurrybug.jpg)
After
close examination of the
videos of the reported “UFO’s”
from the FOX News broadcast it
appears that the objects in
question are a combination of
native insects and birds.
We guided to this conclusion
by using the principle or
Occams Razor which states that
given multiple answers (all
things being equal) the
simpler explanation is usually
the correct one. The
explanation being a native
bird/insect or an
Extraterrestrial visitor in
their spaceship that was not
noticed by anyone but a person
who was trying to find a UFO
seems to have an obvious
answer.
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