That One Time I Saw a UFO

I Want To Believe

First: I am not a UFO truther—I have no idea if there are aliens visiting Earth and I frankly seriously doubt they are.

I mean, maybe? Who knows! I took one astronomy class in college and the only thing I remember is my professor telling the person who asked him if there were aliens that the distances in space were just too great for life forms to travel.

Plus, I think our government is too incompetent to keep the existence of actual visitors from space secret. I think if it was happening, we’d know. But: I am open to the possibility! Especially since I did once see something I can’t explain. A flying object that I can’t identify, which makes it a you-know-what.

I am writing this because I saw this story yesterday about a UFO spotted over LAX soon after Air Force One took off.

They’re officially called “UAPs” now, or Unidentified Aerial/Anomalous Phenomena, but I’m sticking with the classic.

The UFO at LAX was described as a “metallic sphere” or “small orb” hovering near the airport. Whatever it was, it was also spotted over Burbank airport.

Some observers said it was clearly a balloon or a quadcopter drone. Probably! I don’t know. I have seen all the recent UFO videos and read the eyewitness reports, but let’s face it—there’s no smoking ray gun. It sounds insane to even entertain the possibility that the U.S. government possesses dead alien corpses and not a single person has ever spilled the beans and leaked the pix.

However, I am also someone who has seen a UFO. Here is my story, not that mind-blowing, but it did happen:

I grew up in L.A. but I went to college on the east coast and later lived in NYC, so I flew cross country a lot. I was a frequent flyer for my entire twenties. There was one flight that stands out. It was the mid or late 1990s, and I was flying home to LA for the summer, or for spring break, or some other reason.

We were about 20 minutes from landing, approaching LAX from the east, no longer at cruising altitude. I was sitting on the left side of the plane, the window seat, over the wing. (No, I did not see a man on the wing). I was sober. I was not on drugs of any kind. I was wide awake. It was a beautiful day, no clouds, blue sky, the usual.