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시야에서 사라졌다.
of sight.
of sight.
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파고들었다. 비행접시 미스터리가 설명될 수도 있었다. 첫 번째 단계는 그 물체가 구름에 부분적으로 가려졌거나 비바람에 의해 모습이 왜곡된 항공기인지 여부를 판단하는 것이었다. 225개의 민간 및 군사 비행 일정을 분석한 결과, 그 신비한 물체가 목격되었을 때 동부 항공 여객기 근처에 다른 비행기, 즉 공군 C-47이 있었다는 것이 밝혀졌다. 그러나 메이컨 지상 승무원들이 차일스와 휘티드와 함께 그들이 본 것이 시속 200마일보다 훨씬 빠르게 움직였다는 데 동의하자 C-47에 대한 추측은 무의미해지기 시작했다. 따라서 어딘가에서 꾸물거리지 않았다면 메이컨에서 몽고메리까지 가는 데 한 시간 정도 걸리지 않았을 것이다. 천문학자들이 이 문제에 착수했다. 하이넥 박사는 밝고 느리게 움직이는 유성이 설명일 수 있다는 가능성을 고려했다. 그 환영에 대한 묘사의 여러 조각들이 이 생각을 부추겼다. "주황색-붉은 불꽃", "시가 모양", "엄청난 불꽃 폭발". 불행히도 유성의 비행 일정은 구할 수 없었고, 하이넥 박사는 자신의 가설을 시험할 방법이 없었다. 그는 자신의 연구 결과에 대한 보고서에서 "밝은 유성의 즉각적인 꼬리가 불 켜진 창문이 있는 배의 주관적인 인상을 줄 수 있는지 여부는 심리학자들에게 맡겨야 할 것"이라고 썼다. 심리학자들은 유성이 실제로 우주선으로 오인될 수 있다는 의견을 표명했다. 오하이오 주립대 심리학자 피츠 박사는 차일스와 휘티드 모두 인간이며 따라서 다른 누구와 마찬가지로 집단 암시의 희생자가 될 가능성이 있다고 언급했다. 피츠 박사는 나와의 대화에서 심리학자들은 높은 정신적 능력을 가진 사람들도 자신이 보는 것에 대해 종종 실수를 한다는 사실에 익숙하다고 말했다. 그는 "또한 조종사들은 계기에 훈련을 받는다"고 말했다. "그들은 그 계기에 매우 의존하게 되며, 그 계기 없이도 그들이 반드시 우월한 관찰자인지는 모르겠다. 나는 전쟁 중에 공군에 있을 때 조종사들이 임무를 수행하면서 본 것에 대해 꽤 이상한 보고를 자주 했다는 것을 알고 있다." 차일스와 휘티드는 그들의 보고서가 69, 70페이지
its teeth into. The flying-saucer mystery might be explained. The first step was to determine whether the ob- ject was an aircraft that had been par- tially obscured by a cloud or whose appearance had been distorted by a rain- storm. Two hundred and twenty-five civilian and military flight schedules were analyzed, and it was found that one other plane, an Air Force C-47, had been near the Eastern airliner at the time the mysterious object was sighted. Conjecture about the C-47 began to appear irrelevant, however, when the Macon ground crews agreed with Chiles and Whitted that the thing they had seen was going much faster than two hundred miles an hour, and so, unless it dawdled around some- where, wouldn't have taken anything like an hour to get from Macon to Montgomery. Astronomers went to work on the problem. Dr. Hynek considered the possibility that a brilliant, slow-moving meteor might be the explanation. Vari- ous bits of the apparition's description encouraged this notion-"orange-red flame," "cigar-shaped," "a tremendous burst of flame." Unfortunately, the flight schedules of meteors are not avail- able, and Dr. Hynek had no means of testing his hypothesis. "It will have to be left to the psychologists to tell us whether the immediate trail of a bright meteor could produce the subjective im- pression of a ship with lighted win- dows," he wrote in a report on his findings. The psychologists expressed the opinion that a meteor could indeed be mistaken for a space ship. Dr. Pitts, the Ohio State psychologist, observed that both Chiles and Whitted were human and therefore as likely to be victims of mass suggestibility as any- one else. Dr. Pitts told me during a talk I had with him that psychologists are used to the fact that even people of high mental caliber often make mis- takes about what they see. "Also, I would like to make the point that pilots are trained to instruments," he said. "They grow very dependent on those instruments, and I don't know whether they are necessarily superior observers without them. I do know that during the war, when I was in the Air Force, pilots frequently gave some pretty odd reports of what they'd seen while fly- ing their missions." Chiles and Whitted readily agreed that their report might page 69, 70
its teeth into. The flying-saucer mystery might be explained. The first step was to determine whether the ob- ject was an aircraft that had been par- tially obscured by a cloud or whose appearance had been distorted by a rain- storm. Two hundred and twenty-five civilian and military flight schedules were analyzed, and it was found that one other plane, an Air Force C-47, had been near the Eastern airliner at the time the mysterious object was sighted. Conjecture about the C-47 began to appear irrelevant, however, when the Macon ground crews agreed with Chiles and Whitted that the thing they had seen was going much faster than two hundred miles an hour, and so, unless it dawdled around some- where, wouldn't have taken anything like an hour to get from Macon to Montgomery. Astronomers went to work on the problem. Dr. Hynek considered the possibility that a brilliant, slow-moving meteor might be the explanation. Vari- ous bits of the apparition's description encouraged this notion-"orange-red flame," "cigar-shaped," "a tremendous burst of flame." Unfortunately, the flight schedules of meteors are not avail- able, and Dr. Hynek had no means of testing his hypothesis. "It will have to be left to the psychologists to tell us whether the immediate trail of a bright meteor could produce the subjective im- pression of a ship with lighted win- dows," he wrote in a report on his findings. The psychologists expressed the opinion that a meteor could indeed be mistaken for a space ship. Dr. Pitts, the Ohio State psychologist, observed that both Chiles and Whitted were human and therefore as likely to be victims of mass suggestibility as any- one else. Dr. Pitts told me during a talk I had with him that psychologists are used to the fact that even people of high mental caliber often make mis- takes about what they see. "Also, I would like to make the point that pilots are trained to instruments," he said. "They grow very dependent on those instruments, and I don't know whether they are necessarily superior observers without them. I do know that during the war, when I was in the Air Force, pilots frequently gave some pretty odd reports of what they'd seen while fly- ing their missions." Chiles and Whitted readily agreed that their report might page 69, 70