January 27, 1994 - Kazakhstan Republic
This entry is a bit frustrating for several reasons. The source information are from Richard Haines’ and Richard Hall’s files. We also have no time, which makes it difficult to analyze. Examination of the Hall’s UFO Evidence Volume 2 gives us this entry:
January 27, 1994 Kazakhstan Republic Tajik Airlines B-747 pilot Brilliantly luminous UFO circled, made sharp turns, contrail-like effect.2
The footnote gives us a source as a CIA telex cited by Dr. Richard F. Haines. I found the telex at the CUFON website. The Date-time-group was 31 January 0258Z and the text reads:
1. TAJIK AIR CHIEF PILOT, AMCIT ED RHODES, AND HIS TWO AMERICAN PILOT COLLEAGUES REPORTED JANUARY 29 THAT, ON JANUARY 27, THEY HAD ENCOUNTERED A UFO WHILE FLYING AT 41,000 FEET IN THEIR BOEING 747SP AT LAT 45 NORTH AND LONG 55 EAST, OVER KAZAKHSTAN. THEY FIRST ENCOUNTERED THE OBJECT AS A BRIGHT LIGHT OF ENORMOUS INTENSITY, APPROACHING THEM FROM OVER THE HORIZON TO THE EAST AT A GREAT RATE OF SPEED AND AT A MUCH HIGHER ALTITUDE THAN THEIR OWN. THEY WATCHED THE OBJECT FOR SOME FORTY MINUTES AS IT MANEUVERED IN CIRCLES, CORKSCREWS AND MADE 90-DEGREE TURNS AT RAPID RATES OF SPEED AND UNDER VERY HIGH G’S. CAPTAIN RHODES TOOK SEVERAL PHOTOS WITH A POCKET OLYMPUS CAMERA AND WILL SEND COPIES TO THE EMBASSY AND THE TAJIKISTAN DESK (LOWRY TAYLOR) IN THE DEPARTMENT, IF THEY COME OUT. AFTER SOME TIME, THE OBJECT ADOPTED A HORIZONTAL HIGH-SPEED COURSE AND DISAPPEARED OVER THE HORIZON.
2. AS IT WAS DARK WHEN THE OBJECT WAS OBSERVED, THE CREW WERE UNABLE TO DISCERN ITS SHAPE. THEY DESCRIBED THE LIGHT IT EMITTED AS HAVING A “BOW WAVE” RESEMBLING A HIGH-SPEED PHOTO OF A BULLET IN FLIGHT, IN WHICH A VERY SMALL OBJECT GIVES OFF A MUCH LARGER TRAILING WAVE OF HEAT/LIGHT. SOME FORTY-FIVE MINUTES AFTER THE INITIAL SIGHTING, AS THE SUN WAS RISING, THE AIRCRAFT FLEW UNDER THE CONTRAILS WHICH THE OBJECT HAD LEFT BEHIND. THE PLANE WAS MAKING OVER 500 KNOTS. RHODES ESTIMATED THE ALTITUDE OF THE CONTRAILS AT APPROXIMATELY 100,000 FEET, NOTING THAT THERE IS TOO LITTLE AIR/MOISTURE AT THAT EXTREME ALTITUDE TO ENABLE THE CREATION OF CONTRAILS BY THE PROPULSION MECHANISMS OF ORDINARY AIRCRAFT WHICH MIGHT BE ABLE TO REACH THAT HEIGHT. THE PATHS OF THE CONTRAILS REFLECTED THE MANEUVERS OF THE OBJECT, I.E., CIRCLES, CORKSCREWS, ETC.
3. TO OUR SUGGESTION THAT THE OBJECT MIGHT HAVE BEEN A METEOR ENTERING AND SKIPPING OFF THE EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE, RHODES AND HIS CREW WERE ADAMANT THAT THEY HAD SEEN THOUSANDS OF “FALLING STARS” AND OTHER SPACE JUNK ENTERING THE ATMOSPHERE IN THEIR YEARS OF FLYING PASSENGER AIRCRAFT FOR PANAM. THIS, THEY INSISTED, WAS NOTHING LIKE A METEOR. ON THE BASIS OF ITS SPEED AND MANEUVERABILITY, RHODES EXPRESSED THE OPINION, WHICH HIS CREW SEEMED TO SUPPORT, THAT THE OBJECT WAS EXTRATERRESTRIAL AND UNDER INTELLIGENT CONTROL.
4. COMMENT: WE HAVE NO OPINION AND REPORT THE ABOVE FOR WHAT IT MAY BE WORTH.3
There is no additional information and there seems to be little follow-up by Haines. The photographs noted in the description have never surfaced, which makes one question the source. Did the photographs not turn out or did they show something that could be explained? After all, the event was visible for 45 minutes and some of that time was around sunrise. It should have not been difficult to obtain good photographs of the event unless he did not know how to use the camera.
Analysis
This TELEX is missing a time for the event but it does provide us some information about direction and approximate time of night. They were looking towards the east, which indicates the plane was probably flying in that general direction. The time of night was probably around the beginning of nautical twilight because, 45 minutes after the initial sighting, they state the sun was rising.
The telex does give us some important information about the flight. It states that the aircraft was a Boeing 747SP owned by Tajik airlines. There was only one such aircraft in Tajik’s inventory. It was called the “Snow Leopard” and flew from London to Delhi (via Dushanabe), Karachi or Yerevan.4 It left London on Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and arrived at their destination on the following day. The pilot stated it was 27 January but that was a Thursday. In order to be in the region on that date, the plane would have had to leave on Wednesday night. Since there was no flight leaving London on Wednesday, it means the plane took off on Thursday the 27th and the actual date of the sighting was 28 January.
This brings us to the most likely source of the sighting. From the Astronautix website we discover there was a Progress M-21 launch from Baikonur at 0212 GMT on 28 January.5 The launch time was 0712 local time (Baikonur) and sunrise at 0812. Nautical twilight began at 0704 Baikonur time. The location of the aircraft was west of Baikonur making the launch being visible to the east of the aircraft.
This is all consistent with what the TELEX describes. While it was 60 minutes before local sunrise, and not 45, the times given appear to have been estimates and not precise measurements. The aircraft was in the vicinity of Baikonur and the description given matches those of pre-dawn/post-sunset rocket launches. The fact that no launch was mentioned at the time of the UFO sighting indicates their UFO was the rocket launch itself.
Conclusion
Once again, we see a case being promoted by UFO proponents as something significant but closer examination reveals an explanation. It is disappointing that they only relied upon a single Telex and, apparently, performed no further follow-up. The pilot is even named in the Telex and one would think that somebody would have tried to contact him. Either they did contact him and he gave no additional information or they did not contact him at all. If they did contact him, why didn’t they produce the photographs? I suspect they would only show images of a rocket launch or nothing at all otherwise they would have found their way into UFO periodicals. Their failure to appear in the UFOlogical record says a lot about this case.
In my opinion, all of the information indicates that what was seen was probably the Progress M-21 launch. The description is typical for rocket launches during nautical twilight and the pilot did not report seeing the launch as well as the UFO. This case should be removed from the Weinstein catalog and classified as “Probably Progress M-21 rocket launch”.
Quelle: SUNlite 1/2022