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Chasing UFOs
by Will Stewart
He Believes...Nashua resident Mark Petty investigates UFOs
If you don’t believe intelligent life exists outside of planet Earth, you’re in the minority.
A 1997 CNN/Time poll found that 54 percent of Americans believe in the existence of extraterrestrials, while 80 percent assume the government is hiding evidence that proves it.
Nashua resident Mark Petty is among that 80 percent. And as a field investigator with the Massachusetts Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), he’s out to see if they’re coming to the third rock from the sun. He currently spends about 25 hours a week investigating and otherwise engaging in UFO-related work. These days, he’s heading up the investigation of a high-profile UFO sighting made in Billerica, Mass., on Dec. 12.
But before you dismiss him as kook with too much time on his hands, or as someone who’s just a little too into The X-Files, you should know that Petty is an intelligent, rational, well-spoken man. He is very curious, no doubt, but he approaches, from a scientific standpoint, what skeptics dismiss. All he asks is for others to do the same, and to keep an open mind.
The truth is out there
Petty said he has been interested in science since he was a kid.
He was a fan of the original Star Trek series and other science fiction, but was quick to note “it didn’t consume me.” His fascination with UFOs in particular was sparked one night when he was a teenager growing up in Lowell, Mass.
“I saw this light in the sky and I thought, ‘this is definitely not an airplane.’ It had lots of flashing lights that were going around in a circle,” he said. “I decided to follow it in my car. When I got close I couldn’t hear anything.”
Getting even closer, and seeing it from a different angle, Petty discovered the object was, in fact, an airplane pulling a message banner. Even though it turned out to be a normal, everyday object, Petty said he was glad he tracked it down and discovered the truth.
“If I didn’t I always would have wondered,” he said.
Petty said his sighting as a teenager was very similar to most, in that it could be explained logically.
“Ninety-five percent of the sightings we investigate have logical explanations or evidence pointing to logical explanations,” he said. “You just have to look for them.”
Some sightings can be explained easily, he said. It might even be as simple as looking in the local newspaper. For example, a new car dealership that uses giant searchlights to draw attention to the business can result in a number of reports of “strange lights in the sky.” Other sightings can often be attributed to satellites, stars and planets.
Other times, however, the truth is a bit more elusive. Petty said UFO investigators often have to use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request reports from local police, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the military to get explanations that are not easily available. Explanations from these sources can include weather balloons, military aircraft maneuvers and the like.
“Some police departments are pretty good about helping us out by sending us copies of their logs [for nights when sightings were reported in the area],” Petty said. “Some won’t even reply to us.”
“The military and FAA will tell you to do a FOIA request, but you have to be specific, Petty said. “They’re usually pretty cooperative. The FAA will supply some good, helpful information sometimes. They’ll give us the raw data, but it’s usually needle-in-a-haystack stuff.”
The frustrating part of it all, Petty said, is that it’s often difficult to find conclusive answers, even for the 95 percent of logically explained sightings.
“There’s usually no hard and solid information — plane numbers, etc. — just information pointing in the area of a logical explanation,” he said.
Close encounters
If 95 percent of all reported UFO sightings can be explained, that leaves 5 percent that are unexplainable.
Falling into this category is the December sighting in Billerica. Petty said he couldn’t divulge much information on the investigation there, citing its ongoing nature and the privacy of the witness. A press release described it only as “a strange aerial phenomenon.”
Petty did say, however, that the sighting is one of the “most exciting” he has had the opportunity to investigate. He is also investigating sightings in Stoneham, Mass. and another along the Massachusetts/ Rhode Island border.
“The witness in Stoneham actually saw a classic UFO darting back and forth across the sky,” Petty said. “He said it had windows with figures visible behind them. I know the guy who saw it. He’s a real down-to-earth person — no wild imagination. I believe him. I haven’t been able to explain it yet, but I’m trying,” he said
The day the earth stood still
Having long been interested in “UFOology,” Petty decided to get serious 15 years ago.
“I said ‘Why am I sitting here on the sidelines?’,” Petty recalled. “I should be finding out what’s going on.’”
Petty joined MUFON, an international volunteer organization made up of scientists and lay people. Their mission: “resolving the scientific enigma known collectively as UFOs.” Coincidentally, the organization was started in 1969, the year of the first moon landing. The Massachusetts chapter that Petty belongs to is one of the oldest in the nation and has about 120 members.
About five years ago, Petty took the next step and become a MUFON-certified field investigator. To do so, he had to study the organization’s 300-page investigation manual, which covers such topics as astronomy, meteorology and conducting interviews.
After passing a 100-question written test on the material, Petty underwent a period of “on-the-job” training with seasoned investigators before being sent out on his own.
In addition to completing FOIA requests and gathering information from government officials and via the Internet, investigators must interview witnesses of reported sightings, which can be a difficult skill to learn, Petty said.
“It’s an acquired behavior,” he said. “You don’t want to lead them on when questioning them. You don’t want them to say what they think you want to hear.”
But not all witnesses are interviewed, nor all reports investigated. Petty said MUFON has to be selective in the sightings it looks into. Some reports come from fringe-types, while others are simply too vague to investigate.
“Once we get a report, at the very least we’ll do a phone interview and get the details to assess whether an investigation is warranted,” he said. “But something like someone seeing a light across the sky — it’s hard to investigate such things.”
Some years, he said, the Massachusetts chapter will receive one or two reported sightings. This year it’s already received 10, he said.
The giggle factor
Petty, who works in marketing and communications for a high-tech firm in Massachusetts, said he doesn’t talk with his co-workers about his UFO activities.
“I’m not sure they even realize I do that, but they’re pretty open-minded,” he said.
His wife, on the other hand, thinks he’s a little crazy.
“She thinks I’m nuts,” he said with a laugh. “The rest of my family is pretty accepting of it, though I think they giggle a little behind my back.”
He said that’s one of the hardest parts of UFO investigation: the “giggle factor.”
Petty said the general public doesn’t scoff at UFOology as much as a number of scientists, astronomers and other skeptics.
“They say it can’t be because it can’t be,” he said. “I just ask them to justify [their skepticism]. Show me your facts. Before you giggle, come and check out an investigation.”
The public’s perception of UFOology is not helped, he said, by tabloids with headlines like “My Two-Headed Alien Baby.”
The giggle factor also plays a large part, Petty said, in the fact that only 10 percent of UFO sightings are ever reported. Most witnesses, he said, are too afraid of ridicule to report what they see. That’s why MUFON goes to great lengths to respect the privacy of those who report sightings, never releasing their names or any specific information on cases that are being investigated.
The public perception of UFOs and those who study them is getting better, however. Last month ABC ran a two-hour prime-time special on UFOs hosted by ABC News anchor Peter Jennings. Petty is critical of some aspects of the program, but said it was a good story overall that added legitimacy to UFOology.
What the UFOologist believes
So after five years of investigating reported UFO sightings, what conclusions has Petty come to?
“I’m sure [extraterrestrial lifeforms are] out there, but are they coming here? That’s the question,” he said. “I haven’t seen definite proof, but I’ve talked to people who think they have. I just try to keep an open mind about it.”
Petty, a practicing Catholic, said he sees no conflict between the study of UFOs and his religion. That said, he was quick to point out something he definitely does not believe: “I certainly don’t think religious figures from the past were aliens.”
—Will Stewart
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2005
HippoPress
LLC | Manchester, NH
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