Pilots were not encouraged to discuss UFOs with media

In the 1950s, the biggest headache for the American Air Force was to cover up the presence of the UFO identified by the pilots, both military and civilian. When a civilian reports an UFO sighting his views can be questioned or even discarded based on the fact he does not have the necessary expertise to come to any conclusions about the UFO. But when civilian and military pilots some of whom had won laurels during the Second World War report UFO sightings which is also supported by radar evidence then we have a problem. But the American government was prepared for this.

The US Air force started implementing the policy of silencing its own pilots and Air traffic controllers. A set of instructions known as Communication Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sighting (CIRVIS) was given to them, on what procedures they must follow in case they encountered a UFO.

On Feb 17, 1954, the top officials of the US Air force had a meeting with the representatives of the country’s major Airlines, prior to this meeting the commercial pilots were reporting around five to ten UFO sightings per night.  The pilots were asked to report their UFO encounters directly to the nearest Air force base or the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) intelligence in Washington instead of sending the reports through their companies.

According to one source the pilots were asked not to discuss their sighting publicity or give them to the newspaper. Nearly 500 pilots came together and protested against this, and even sent a petition to the government, but it was of no use.  Even today the pilots are discouraged from discussing their UFO encounters with anyone from the press or media.