UFOs in the headlines: A parting gift from Istanbul

I'm at the Istanbul airport - reading about UFO sightings as the front-page story of Hurriyet - Daily News (a mainstream newspaper). No - don't worry, there is nothing new. A retired Turkish General was recalling an event from 1983. Too bad, they again left without a trace.

By the way, I also missed an opportunity to visit The International UFO Museum in Istanbul. I've been to the museum in Roswell, so I wanted to get this international flavor. Next time.

In the mean time, here is the UFO story from Hurriyet:

Calling up a live television show Saturday during a heated debate about UFOs, Retired Gen. Erdoğan Karakuş said he and seven other pilots experienced a UFO encounter over the western province of Balıkesir in May 1983.

The UFOs were levitating using an unknown technique, Karakuş said, explaining that he was part of a group of eight pilots flying four Turkish jets to the southern city of Adana for a drill when one of the men spotted something in the air.

“[He] said, ‘I saw some objects, what I should do?’ and I said, ‘It may be a plane signaling for help; I am connecting to the Balıkesir frequency,’” the retired general said. “The flight-control tower in Balıkesir said it did not have any flights [listed]. I thought it might have been a civilian plane.”

The objects accompanied the pilots for 15 minutes as they passed from Balıkesir to the Aegean city of Denizli, Karakuş said, adding that he warned another pilot who wanted to fly toward them not to do so after deciding the objects did not look like planes.

“One of my friends meanwhile turned his [plane’s] lights off. This time [the UFOs] got close to the third plane. They moved on to the second one when the third one also turned its lights off,” Karakuş said, adding that when he looked to his left at that moment, he could not see anything other than a yellow beam of light.

“They moved to my left side when I also turned my [plane’s] lights off, the retired general said, adding that shortly afterwards, four to five lights resembling plane lights appeared. “Then they disappeared with a sudden [maneuver].”

Karakuş said the control towers at airports in Ankara, Istanbul and Konya also detected the UFOs that night. “We reported [the incident] and it was probably sent to NASA.”

By the way, I don't want to simply dismiss this whole experience. It is entirely possible that these pilots saw lights or something else. But again, the fallacy is jumping from unexplained experience to the claim of physical alien spacecrafts. For the latter claim to be credible, such an anecdotal evidence is simply not enough.

P.S. This is a note to those aliens who read this blog: Please quit playing with us. If you are visiting us, please, please, send us a credible signal to those searching for ET signals - may be close to the 1420MHz  hydrogen line. You are also welcome to make an exclusive announcement of your presence/existence on this blog. After all, your existence may lead to some theological reworkings in some of the world religions. Thanks.