Why Don’t UFOs Stall Airplane Engines?
There is plenty of literature about UFO sightings involving the stoppage of car engines. Donald Johnson, in a 1983 NICAP-published paper on the subject examined no less than 276 cases and determined a relationship between reported distance from a UFO and the incidence and severity of electrical system failure in automobiles.
But while there are hundreds (and perhaps thousands) of UFO sightings from aircraft, there are little or no reports of engine stoppage during close-range sightings. A few, like the famous 1973 Coyne helicopter case, report strange forces at work on the aircraft (the ‘copter climbed 1000 feet while the controls were set in a dive.)
The Future Weapons show on the Discovery channel featured a test of an electromagnetic pulse weapon at White Sands Missile Range which produces a 1-million volt field to disrupt the electronics of computer-controlled devices (like the simple logic circuits of newer cars.) But the power required to stop an engine with no computer controls (disrupting the alternator, distributor, etc.) would likely be far greater. Many reported cases occurred before sophisticated electronics were standard equipment in automobiles.
There is at least one report online detailing an apparent stall of a private plane engine during a UFO encounter in 1947. The witness remembered that his aircraft kept flying at the same altitude (and perhaps stopped moving entirely) after the engine coughed to a stop during a sighting of six metallic objects 6000 feet above Morristown, New Jersey.
If we are dealing with some sort of electromagentic field interference, how is it that internal combustion engines can be stopped by UFOs on the ground, but not in the air? We can guess that the UFOs are real, mechanical devices, and that the field is more contained when the craft are in flight and above a certain altitude, or we can go further and theorize that the intelligences responsible for their control realize that they are putting humans in danger if they shut off our airplane engines. I am not aware of any writing on this subject, but it would be a great topic for research.
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Apr 17 2008 
April 17th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Greg,
You make a very interesting point about airplanes. However, if we equate the “Foo Fighters” of WWII with UFO’s, (and technically they were and still are unidentified), then we need to look at the reports of engines sputtering and stalling from that time period, too.
Also, there are a few crashes of military aircraft associated with UFO’s, during the Cold War era. In several of these cases, the planes were actively pursuing the unknown objects.
I have a few questions about the stoppage of car engines. First, even though cars, trucks, (land vehicles) seem to be especially prone to the effects of UFO’s, many vehicles experience no electronic or mechanical difficulties when they are in close proximity. Which begs the question, why some cars and not others?
Could some of these problems merely be driver error, i.e. a foot slipping off the clutch, or flooding the engine in panic, etc.?
Also, could some UFO’s be more disruptive than others? Is this somehow related to the different types of sounds that are reported, from “bees humming,” and the sound of “knobby tires on a wet pavement,” to the “completely silent” varieties?
Finally, could the effects be purposeful? Many abductees and contactees recall seeing an object approach them, and then experience the stalling of their vehicles. It must be easier to talk to or kidnap someone from a stopped car…And perhaps “they,” whoever “they” are, realize that stopping an airplane’s engine can be more dangerous for its occupants than stopping a car’s.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I’ve always felt that these mysterious engine stoppages were intentional. This is because the first account I remember came from my grandfather Christopher Rae Bassett.
He described making a weekly trip home from Mobile,Alabama where he and his son were working at the time, to their homes in Alexander City.
While going down the highway the engine slowly lost power and the lights dimmed until everthing was dead.It would not restart. He stepped out of the truck to check under the hood while my uncle looked behind the dash. He distinctly remembers feeling disoriented at this point and gets in the truck to make one more attempt at starting it. It cranks up and they’re on their way, back to normal. When they arived home they were suprised to learn that they were two hours late, the whole family was worried and had called the State Troppers to see if any accidents had been reported.They had made this trip every Friday for months leaving at 8:00 PM and arriving at 10:40.Their arrival at 12:40 is the crux of the account.
This is significant first because of the description of the stoppage(I’ve found and recieved identicle ones). Ask any mechanic,engineer or physicist for an explanation and they’ll struggle but not find one. That combined with no UFO and the time loss makes it interesting to me.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
What about the death of Capt. Thomas Mantell?
April 17th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Maybe it has more to do with the speed of the planes versus that of a car.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Because there’s a fundamental difference between automobile and aircraft ignition systems. Both of them, before all this here fancy electronical stuff came along, used a low-voltage direct current, chopped by a set of contacts (”points”) to drive a transformer that produced a high voltage for the spark plugs. The automobile engine got its low voltage from the battery, or from the generator/alternator, when the engine was running; the aircraft engine used magnetos, which generate their own and which were generally driven off the engine’s crankshaft. Thus in any scenario in which the low-voltage supply from the battery/generator/alternator is interrupted, the auto engine stops and the airplane engine doesn’t.
Now figure out how to interrupt the low-voltage supply
April 17th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Many reciprocating engines in general aviation aircraft back in the day also had dual ignition systems for redundancy. Much harder to knock out than single plug systems. Top fuel dragsters also use a similar system. The amount of wind force exerted on a propeller moving at speed is enormous. Tip speed can exceed the speed of sound. The list of technical differences between car piston engines and aircraft piston engines is long and way too technical to list here but let’s just say that a piston engine aircraft is much harder to stall then a cars.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:52 am
From Johnson’s NICAP report:
“The strength of the reported effect appears to be greatly enhanced when the UFO is either directly in front or directly above the motor vehicle.”
This seems to mesh w/ the idea that the field propulsion is focused into a cone shape w/ the tip of the cone below and behind the direction of travel. I would want to see some analysis of the position of ufos in relation to aircraft before I concluded that they never stall aircraft engines.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I commented to soon when I wrote that any mechanic would struggle for an explanation. That transformer Jimmy refers to (known as a “coil” to grease monkeys like myself) works based on electromagnet flux and and obtains the voltage needed to produce a spark. An intense (but I mean intense) electromagntic feild WOULD disrupt this process. This still does’t explain gradually dimming headlights but that’s not too far off.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Most airplane encounters are not as “intimate” as automobile encounters, i.e. — the distances involved are much greater. Of the few reciprocating engines that were close enough, they have stalled, resulting in loss of control and death in some cases. UFOs don’t seem to affect jet engines but that shouldn’t be surprising seeing as both engines operate on different principles.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Greg,
First of all, I LOVE that book by Marc Davenport. He looks at the subject in a decidedly bold way.
Here’s some blather from me:
A) The stories about car engines mysteriously stopping (and even more mysteriously re-starting) do NOT seem to match with any kind of electromagnetic concept. This is potentially comparable to the EM “pulse” that’ll stop cars during an atomic bomb detonation. But, these cars do NOT re-start on their own - but the cars in the UFO phenomenon do. Something else is happening.
B) Marc Davenport (in VISITORS FROM TIME) makes a pretty tidy case that it’s a distortion of TIME that stops the car, and then re-starts it. He tries to explain just how this might work, and it’s just conjecture (but good conjecture). I don’t know how time distortion would work, and I won’t try and guess.
C) I figure whoever (whatever) is in the UFOs are stopping the cars on purpose. Maybe they have a little ray-gun that they can point at a desired car and press a button labeled STOP, and after they finish their business, they press the RE-START button. How they accomplishment, I don’t have the foggiest, but they seem to do it consistently.
D) What about reports of flying saucers flying near busy highways? Why don’t ALL the cars stop? Or police chasing UFOs. Once again, they must have some sort of technology (or telekinesis) that will preform this task.
E) They must know not to mess around with airplane engines in flight. THough I have read some accounts of weird loss of the ability for the pilot to control the craft. Plus, compass weirdness.
Also - I think there are a few missing time events (potential abductions) involving pilots flying alone in a small craft. I might be wrong, but I think I can recall reading about such experiences.
peace from idaho,
M!
April 19th, 2008 at 1:13 am
Curious,
I guess there were some crashes pre-1955 or so, but maybe aircraft engines were built differently then.
I did address the “aliens might realize that stopping an airplane engine is more dangerous” issue.
April 19th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Thomas,
Interesting personal account. It almost sounds like the Mark Davenport idea of time slippage or stoppage, or whatever. He also posits that this is what is stalling/ restarting engines, or making it appear so.
April 19th, 2008 at 1:16 am
RPJ,
I’ve settled on the idea that Mantell lost control of his plane when he went too high up and was a victim of hypoxia (passed out from lack of oxygen.)
April 19th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Jules,
I’m not so sure about that after reading the other comments.
April 19th, 2008 at 1:19 am
Jimmy and crg,
I think you’re on to something there. Good show! I’m not sure how prop tip speed enters into the subject, however.
April 19th, 2008 at 1:21 am
not_anon,
Another interesting point, but some of the encounters were very close indeed, including the Coyne case and some of the foo fighter encounters.
April 19th, 2008 at 1:23 am
Sage,
Agreed, but some jet cases have also involved effects on instruments (or were reported that way) even if the powerplants were unaffected.
April 19th, 2008 at 4:43 am
Coyne was flying a Bell UH-1H Huey. The Huey has a turboshaft engine, a gas turbine variation and would have an ignition system similar to a jet engine.
I’ve heard the story of a ufo passing over two old tractors running in the field, one gas and one diesel. The gas one stalled but the diesel didn’t, supposedly because of it’s lack of a spark based ignition system. I’ve heard this passed along as a ufo story but I don’t have reference handy. If anyone actually has a hard reference to the two tractors story I’d love to see it.
April 19th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I speed-read the above technospiritual “garage” talk and am now concerned that you all have conjured up some new fangled UFO now skirting the outside limits of some innocent witness somewhere “out there.”
April 19th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Hi Greg & List,
Paul Norman and I did all the field research on pilot Frederick Valentich disappearance, that occurred on October 21, 1978. In the official ATC transcripts of the event, Fred reports his engine was “rough-idling” and the communications was finally disrupted with 17 seconds of open microphone “Clicks” an unexplained noise, described as being “metallic, scraping sounds,” recorded by DOT ATC tapes and then we lost him!
Richard Haines also did some research on the communications problem, try and get that first paper. His book on the encounter is hideous; however the report is also in that.
Go have a read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentich_Disappearance
An interesting topic that we at PRA have explored (unsuccessfully) on numerous occasions.
Best Regards
John W. Auchettl
Phenomena Research Australia
April 20th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Great question. I do find necessary to point the obvious Pelicanist hypothesis for this, though, which is the fact that one may claim a car engine stopped and then started functioning again, without providing any evidence, but the same cannot be easily claimed for airplanes. If an airplane engine stopped, one would probably have to explain what happened because of that.
Which doesn’t mean people who describe stopping engine cars are lying — or that those describing detailed bizarre airplane engine stops and providing evidence for it are speaking “the truth”.
It only suggests that this characteristic may not be actually caused by real UFOs. There could be concidental events of car engine failures and UFO sightings. People could unconsciously feel or make things that could make their car engines stop during a sighting. People could create a false memory related to a car engine not making any noise or vibration. And so on.
One problem with a pure psychsocial interpretation is that car engine stops association with UFOs should not shrink too much as the years passed by. Unless car problems were a major concern back then and that influenced people. Or, more plausibly, the mere fact that this kind of “Oz Effect” is not as widely publicized as it once was. If a major movie, major case, or UFOlogists start to call attention to this and reports start to flow again, we would have better support for Pelicans.
But as things are, it would be interesting indeed to conduct a thorough research on this, considering not only dates but, as you cleverly noted, the correlation between UFOs and engine failures in different kinds of vehicles.
Whatever the answer, a nuts-and-bolts explanation, sort of a sci-fi gimmick or movie plot idea, does not seem very reasonable to me with the available data. You may imagine an unlimited amount of things, and it would only be speculation.
For instance, one could suggest UFOs near the ground could affect electric components more easily through an interaction between electromagnetic fields of the UFO and the earth.
Or maybe the sheer velocity with which airplanes move, specially jet planes, could dissipate some kind of chemical component that UFOs emit that could affect combustion. On cars the dissipation would not be enough and the engines would stop.
And so on and on, but it would be just speculation. There’s certainly not enough data to make a productive consideration of an actual cause even if you assume real UFOs actually cause engine stops. And it will probably remain this way until we have a UFO at our disposal to study.
So, Pelicans are all we have, I think.
Very best,
Kentaro Mori
http://forgetomori.com
April 21st, 2008 at 9:18 am
I rememeber reading about this guy who tested the theory of an EM feild casing the stoppages by measuring the magnetic imprint on cars sheetmetal. When a hood or a fender is stamped out at the factory by these huge presses, it leaves a magnetic pattern that is specific to that car and that assembly line. His experiments foud no changes in the hoods he tested, whose pattern would be distorted if an EM field came anywhere close to interfering with the electronics. I’d like to remeber who this guy is and find out how exactly he does these tests so this could be done in more cases.