A high level meeting held at Chile's Civil Aviation Department headquarters will likely intrigue alien-enthusiasts, as well as Americans wanting open government participation in UFO investigations instead of immediate dismissal, The Huffington Post reported.
The Committee for the Studies of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena (CEFAA) investigated UFOs/UAP and tackled the question the worrisome of us want to know: do unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) pose any danger to civilian or military air operations?
To attempt to reach a conclusion, CEFAA director Gen. Ricardo Bermudez, invited 19 highly qualified experts ranging in specialties to the meeting on July 31.
The subject matter was not unfamiliar to the panel members due to their various affiliations with the CEFAA and assistance with case investigations. Each participant already accepted UFOs as real phenomena that need to be investigated, the Huffington Post reports.
That's an uncommon position for American officials to make – not to mention debating the matter in the open, but "for Chileans, this is completely normal and we don't consider it news at all," said Jose Lay, international affairs director for the CEFAA.
In an official video of the meeting posted on Friday, the committee said, "We cannot call UAP a risk to our operations, not even a low risk. An interaction, either good or bad, between a human being and UAP so far is nonexistent in our skies [in Chile], as far as I know," said Roberto Bore, a navy captain.
Likewise, DGAC chief of operations chimed in: "...we must ask: has it shown hostility or carried out openly threatening maneuvers? Has it ... attacked our aircraft? To date, this doesn't seem to be the case."
"We cannot possibly call something a threat ... if they have not shown any open intention to do harm. And even less, we do not even know their exact nature," DGAC chief of operation added.
But DGAC chief of operations did acknowledge that perhaps something is out there.
"If, as many witnesses have declared, the UAP demonstrates 'intelligent behavior' and if we admit this fact, then we must look for the 'the intention behind' that intelligence, whatever it may be - a form of energy, perhaps - it doesn't matter. Intelligence is what matters."
In attendance at the meeting were two well-known astronomers, each with an asteroid named after him, a nuclear chemist from the Nuclear Energy Commission, a doctor of aerospace medicine who is also a UN representative, a physicist, an army psychologist and an air force psychologist, according to the Huffington Post.
Also in attendance were representatives from different branches of armed forces and the police corps. All of them are or have been pilots.
Although they reached agreements about the phenomenon, most in attendance remain unsure of "what" or "who" is behind it.
"Until now ... we have seen only the effects ... captured through photographs, videos, official reports, testimonies. ...we are able to say the phenomenon exists. But its origin, we have not defined. And without this definition, we cannot establish a strategy to counteract it," the DGAC expert on accident investigations.
Radar control chief Mauricio Blanco is one of the highest officials on the front lines when UFO sightings are reported to ground control or picked up by radar anywhere in the country, Huffington Post reported. In a 2012 interview, Blanco said reports are written by hand to avoid being tampered by computer transfer and to provide a record of who wrote the entry.
So what can be done - if anything?
The air force psychologist recommended more education for pilots tohelp raise awareness rather than signal danger, the Huffington Post reported. Others recommended that pilot reporting instructions be included in aviation training courses.
Scientists suggested further multi-disciplined studies "to bring us as close to the real nature [of UAP] as possible."
All that's well and good but the committee's conclusion is what matters:
"Based on the evaluation ... the committee concluded that UAP do not present a threat or a danger to air operations, either civilian or military," Bermudez said. "Although there have been a small number of accidents attributed to UAP around the world, none have withstood an objective examination that presented unmistakable proof that UAP were the cause."
The CEFAA staff is eager to learn the nature and origin of the phenomenon because it is a reality that science has not yet explained.
Presently, there is a push for more governments to address the UFO problem, with many looking at the United States, according to the Huffington Post.
"Around 85 percent of our public believes in the phenomenon, so we have an obligation investigate and find out what it is," says Lay. "This should be reason enough for governments to try and determine the origin. There is no need to fear panic from the public."
