Kroger's Aerial Advertising

I'm a big fan of aerial advertising, in which a message banner is dragged behind a low-flying plane over a high-population area. I see it all the time in Florida, but it's something not usually done in Kentucky except during major events like Thunder Over Louisville.


So I was a bit surprised to see this plane circling over St.Matthews yesterday with a banner bearing the Kroger logo. It was way too high up in the sky to be clearly seen by anyone - there aren't even many pedestrians in St.Matthews at that time of day, and the vast majority of people in cars would never have noticed it. Hope Kroger didn't spend much cash on this.

MIssing Plane in Hazard Area

From the Associated Press:

HAZARD, Ky. -- Kentucky State Police are searching an area in eastern Kentucky for a plane that may be missing.

Trooper Jody Sims at the Hazard post says officials have spotted something that could be wreckage and are investigating whether it's related to a report of a plane possibly missing.

Trooper Tony Watts says the Federal Aviation Administration in Indianapolis notified police Tuesday afternoon that a plane may have been lost in the vicinity of Clay, Owsley and Leslie counties.

Rescuers are searching the area, but Watts says they can't get an aircraft in the air to help look because of the weather.

Cruise Missile Over Louisville?

What the heck is it with things in the sky lately? A cylindrical UFO in Florence, a small plane full of ammo crashes in Louisville Fairgrounds, a Vietnam-era Strikemaster plane has an accident at Bowman Field, a spectacular fireball in the sky over all the midwest, plus the usual yearly air show hoopla at Thunder Over Louisville.


It's a good thing I often tend to be looking upwards anyway.

A friend and I were sitting in my back yard chillin' with some iced tea today when we noticed a plane approaching in the distance. But as it got closer, we realized it was no ordinary plane. It looked like a fairly normal long-bodied plane, but it seemed to be wingless.

As it passed low overhead it became clear that it did have two weird tiny stubby winglets protruding from the center of its sides. It also clearly had more tailfins.

After checking online, I realized that the only type of plane or rocket that fit the description of what we both saw was... a cruise missile. But that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, I'll be the first to admit. Where would a cruise missile be going? They're not the sort of thing one flies exhibitionally. They can't even land.


Must remember to keep my camera with me at all times. You never know what you're going to see going overhead these days.

Dragon Accident at Bowman Field

A BAC 167 Strikemaster plane that had been scheduled to perform in tomorrow's Thunder Over Louisville air show had a close call with disaster today.

The vintage fighter plane reportedly slid off the runway at Bowman Field after somehow suffering damage its landing gear while attempting to land. It wasn't immediately evident what caused the incident, but according to the Courier-Journal, their current theory is that "a gust of wind caused it to lose lift on its wings".

The plane, nicknamed "The Dragon", is part of an air-show company called Red Star & The Dragon. The show must go on, so the Red Star will fly solo without its partner, I hear.

Although there's probably no connection with the Bowman Field incident, problems with aircraft seem to be on an uptrend lately. A small plane filled with firearms and ammo intended for a gun show went down in Louisville Fairgrounds a week and a half ago.

Elsewhere in the world, Qantas Airlines has had five engine malfunction incidents in the last 16 days. Just last week, an Australian jet ended up grounded when it was realized it had somehow sustained a cracked cockpit during its previous flight. That, in turn, makes the mind wander to the recent rise in near-Earth meteoric material, and/or space junk, which may or may not have caused the fireball in the sky seen over the Midwest. (And then there's the oft-invoked alleged duck collision excuse, which sounds a lot like a Glomar Response cover story to me.)

Small Plane Crashes in Louisville Fairgrounds

A small single-engine plane crashed tonight at the Kentucky Exposition Center, on Ring Road near Preston Highway and I-65. From the clearly visible FAA Aircraft Registration number on the plane, we can trace the plane to a Allen Harvey Friedlander. The man in the plane, who had be cut out of the cockpit, is expected to survive. No word yet on what went wrong.

Metallic Sphere Outside Plane

The MUFON case files have a recent entry by someone who experienced not only a UFO aboard a commercial airliner en route to Louisville, but apparently a case of mass hypnosis as well:

I noticed a sphere about the size of a compact car approximately 200 feet off the wing of the plane.

It was dull in color. An unpolished metal nearly exact in the image of a VERY large ball bearing, it was perfect in it's spherical shape. Always looking for a logical, scientific explanation to anything paranormal first,I assumed it was a tiny bubble in the glass of the window or ice on the glass of the window. I studied it for about a minute and was astonished when i witnessed it move behind a small cloud.

I immediately looked down the aisle and noticed many other passengers were looking outside the window at the object as well. I looked at the object again and noticed it never swayed, dove or maneuvered at all. It was very static in it's position. This made me skeptical. How can any craft fly alongside another craft and never move, in any manner from it's present position? Anything in flight is always fighting the physics of the atmosphere every second i.e. barometric pressure, wind, air pockets, friction, etc...

I looked for an explanation. Maybe some strange tether to a weather balloon or refraction of light on the window? There was no physical explanation. It was what it was. My mind raced as I tried to understand how something so non-aerodynamic could possibly create lift. I looked for some sort of glow or exhaust or any type of radiation to explain it's terrestrial origin. Nothing. It sat at one position with no presence of any mechanical movement. It appeared as if it was observing us, though there were no visual ports or windows.

I didn't take my eyes off of the object as I knew I was witnessing something extraordinary and oddly beautiful. I, for the first time in my life was truly in awe. We traveled into a thick cloud formation. I witnessed the sphere pass through a patch of thick cloud and never resurface. as soon as it appeared it was gone.

Here is where things got weird. I looked down the aisle to hopefully catch eye contact with someone who was witnessing this event and could discuss this. What I witnessed next shook me to my core. All other witnesses, approximately 20 plus, just leaned back into their seats and continued reading their books, newspapers and laptops as if nothing happened. Why was I the only person who felt as if I just witnessed a magnificent moment? Whether it was a higher intelligence or something we created, it was a beautiful moment.

I reflected on this for several minutes up to the final hour of our flight. Once we reached our terminal,I had totally forgotten the entire experience. How could this happen? How could I forget an experience that shook my entire core and being? Several years later I started to slowly recall my experience. Why did the other passengers not even have any sign of expression on their face after the incident? Why did I totally forget the entire experience until many years later?