Date:
July 4, 1981
Location: South central Lake Michigan, United States
On
a clear day in 1981, Captain Schultz was piloting TWA
flight 842 from San Francisco to John F. Kennedy Airport
over Lake Michigan. In his written report, he described
seeing a "large, round, silver metal object"
with six jet black "portholes" equally spaced
around the circumference, which "descended into the
atmosphere from above."
Sketch showing the motion of the object witnessed by Captain
Schultz through his cockpit
window. (R.F. Haines/Credit: CFI)
Captain Phil Schultz demonstrates the size of the object
he witnessed in its position relative
to the cockpit window of his L-1011 heavy jet. Schultz
said the object was the size of a
grapefruit held at arms length. (R.F. Haines/Credit: CFI)
Source:
Richard Haines, 2000 (Credit: CFI/NARCAP)
Summary
from CFI (Coalition for Freedom of Information - from
Richard Haines)
On
a clear day in 1981, Captain Schultz was piloting TWA
flight 842 from San Francisco to John F. Kennedy Airport
over Lake Michigan. In his written report presented to
Dr. Haines, he described seeing a "large, round,
silver metal object" with six jet black "portholes"
equally spaced around the circumference, which "descended
into the atmosphere from above." Expecting a
mid-air collision, Schultz and his first officer braced
themselves for an impact. The object suddenly made a high
speed turn near the aircraft and departed.
Schultz
did not inform TWA about the incident, but instead filled
out a detailed report for Haines. He also invited Haines
into the cockpit of his airplane while on the ground,
and reconstructed the event there to assure accuracy.
Haines made a sketch of the event to Schultz's specifications,
drawn to scale. With extensive jet combat experience in
the Korean War and afterward, Captain Schultz had never
believed in UFOs. But he stated at the time, "We
have nothing that can do what that object did."
-------------------------------------
From
Richard Haines:
July
4, 1981 1646L UC South central Lake Michigan
Captain
Phil Schultz, 54, was flying TWA flight 842 from San Francisco
to John F. Kennedy Airport, New York (on autopilot control)
and was at cruise altitude (FL370) at 280 kts airspeed
(540 kts. ground speed) in an L-1011 heavy jet. The sky
was generally clear over Lake Michigan with a high, thin
layer of cirrus over much of the southern part of the
lake and some scattered mid-level clouds at about 10,000
feet. The sun was still high in the sky (41 deg. above
the horizon) and behind the aircraft. Then the high altitude
encounter (FL370) happened. In the captain’s own
words, "A large, round, silver, metal object descended
into the atmosphere from above and to the left of my airplane
to about 40,000 feet overhead and passed off to my left."
After an extensive reconstruction of this event in the
cockpit of his aircraft, I was able to ascertain many
more important facts about this event [cf. Haines, 1982(a);
1982(b)]: (1) The object traveled very smoothly during
the five or six second-long encounter. (2) The UAP was
about 2.5 times wider than thick with six jet black perfect
circles ("portholes") aligned and equal-spaced
around its circumference. Centered on the bottom surface
of the circular disk was a single, jet-black circle. (3)
The UAP traveled along an approximately parabolic course
and performed a high speed turn (calculated to be approximately
20 g) relatively near the aircraft before departing in
a gradual climb to the north and leaving a darkish wavy
trail behind in the sky. (4) Its approach and departure
speed was calculated to be about 1,000 mph, (5) No shock
wave or turbulence was felt at any time. Capt. Schultz
remembered seeing a fan-shaped region extending outward
from behind the object which was "of a much darker
blue than the rest of the sky." (6) The aircraft’s
autopilot remained coupled throughout the encounter and
no E-M effects were noticed. (7) The FO saw approximately
the final two-thirds of the event but the FE did not see
anything due to his position in the rear of the cabin.
(8) When Captain Schultz called Chicago Center to ask
about other possible traffic in the area, he was told
there was none. He did not report what they had just seen.
(9) Before this sighting, Capt. Schultz did not believe
in UFO at all. His extensive jet combat experience during
the Korean War and afterward had left him with the strongly
held belief that such objects "simply do not exist."
This encounter instantly changed his view and, when I
asked him what he thought the object was, he quickly replied."
(10) Both pilots were very concerned about a mid-air collision
and began to brace themselves for an impact. Other technical
details must be omitted due to space limitations.
(Pilot report form)
Source:
http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case656.htm
