UFOs are no threat

OPINION:

To “An inconclusive assessment on UFOs means the truth is still out there” (Web, June 28), I can add this. When I lived in Colombia, one evening in 1969 a friend and I saw a UFO. It was unmistakable. At first we thought it was an artificial satellite — a Sputnik — headed west toward Cali, which was 20 kilometers away. As it passed over the city, it veered left, following the Andes south toward Ecuador. Sputniks, my friend and I agreed, do not make sharp turns in orbit.

A month later I met an Avianca pilot who flew cargo planes. He said flight crews like his saw such things at night regularly.

The USSR and Communist China back then had no technology anywhere nearly that advanced. No one did. Sputnik was little more than space junk. The U.S. soon outdid it by putting men on the moon and then bringing them safely home. To imagine any technology leaping so far ahead from then to now, with no one knowing it, defies common sense. That implausibility should rule out UFOs posing a threat from earthly adversaries.

Moreover, UFOs have been up there for more milleina than we know, and have never bothered Earth, as far as we are aware. How likely is it that they will turn hostile now that we notice them?

Colombians, for their part, take UFOs with serene good humor. One of Cali’s top restaurants is Platillos Voladores (“flying saucers”). Cuisine there is creative (other-worldly) and the name’s double meaning is intentional.

Climate change is a false issue, but I’d worry about that sooner than UFOs.

JOHN S. MASON JR.

Alexandria, Va.