Ten years ago, Richard Haines, former chief of the Space Human Factors Office for NASA/Ames Research Center, produced a groundbreaking and largely ignored report called “Aviation Safety in America: A Previously Neglected Factor.” Built upon detailed case studies of 56 near misses involving UFOs going back half a century, Haines argued that pilots attempting to avoid collisions might well overcorrect, with catastrophic results.
Haines’ research evolved into the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, and in a semantic effort to veer away from the loaded UFO term, his team of volunteer analysts — which included pilots, air traffic controllers, aviation administrators — agreed on a new acronym: UAP, or unidentified aerial phenomena.
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