The O’Hare International Airport Saucer refers to an alleged sighting of an unidentified flying object (UFO) at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois in November 2006. According to witness reports, the UFO appeared as a metallic, disc-shaped object hovering over Gate C17 of the airport’s United Airlines terminal.
Several United Airlines employees, including pilots and managers, reported seeing the object, and the sighting was investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). However, the FAA concluded that there was no evidence of the alleged UFO and did not pursue any further investigation.
The sighting received widespread media attention and sparked debates among UFO enthusiasts and skeptics alike. Some UFO believers saw the sighting as evidence of extraterrestrial life visiting Earth, while skeptics argued that the sighting could be explained by natural phenomena or human-made objects.
Flight 446 was getting ready to fly to North Carolina from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, when a United Airlines employee on the tarmac noticed a dark grey metallic craft hovering over gate C17. That day, November 7, 2006, a total of 12 United employees—and a few witnesses outside the airport—spotted the saucer-shaped craft around 4:15 p.m.
The witnesses say it hovered for about five minutes before shooting upward, where it broke a hole in the clouds—enough that pilots and mechanics could see the blue sky. The news report became the most-read story on The Chicago Tribune’s website to that date and made international news. However, because the UFO was not seen on radar, the FAA called it a “weather phenomenon” and declined to investigate.
Despite the controversy surrounding the O’Hare International Airport Saucer sighting, there is no conclusive evidence to confirm or debunk the existence of the alleged UFO.
