Travis Walton case: Crew boss confesses hoax

[John J.]

And the mystery pilot who responded on the radio reportedly said, " "We're Canadian Snowbirds flying Tutors. We're headed to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base." (in Fitzgerald article). It seems likely that the word "Canadian" was not actually said, but assumed upon hearing the word "Snowbirds".

But Fitzgerald in SUNlite concluded that they were Canadian. In fact it's a key part of his "solution"

The hypothesis that aircraft might have been responsible for the flying "V" is not dependent on Tim Printy's proposed solution (that the Snowbirds aerobatics team was responsible), it just requires the presence of aircraft that might have flown in a "V" formation.
Fighters taking position for in-flight refuelling might be another possibility, trailing a tanker behind each wing.
We know there were military aircraft exercising in the region, roughly 2 hours after the first "V" sighting they were dropping flares.

A-10s (straight wings), F-16s (delta wings) in "V"s:

@Robert Sheaffer's suggestion is interesting re. the exchange between American West 757 co-pilot John Middleton, ATC and an unidentified pilot:

the mystery pilot who responded on the radio reportedly said, " "We're Canadian Snowbirds flying Tutors. We're headed to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base." (in Fitzgerald article). It seems likely that the word "Canadian" was not actually said, but assumed upon hearing the word "Snowbirds"

Overhearing the exchange, someone claiming to be a pilot in the formation radioed Middleton. "We're Canadian Snowbirds flying Tutors," a man said... [Fitzgerald later added] "We're headed to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base."

Bad UFOs blog 23 January 2014 https://badufos.blogspot.com/2014/01/arizonas-amazing-telepathic-flying.html

Robert is proposing (correct me if I'm wrong!) that Middleton's account (or recall) is slightly inaccurate: That maybe an Operation Snowbird pilot responded and "Snowbird" was mentioned, but Middleton interpreted/ recalled that as a response from a RCAF Snowbirds pilot (and knew that the Snowbirds use Canadair Tutors).
I'd guess many people interested in aviation will have heard of the Snowbirds (just as they may have heard of the Blue Angels, Frecce Tricolori, Red Arrows etc.) but perhaps far fewer will have heard of Operation Snowbird.

Even if Middleton's account is partly inaccurate, it might be evidence of a group of military aircraft near Lake Pleasant, north of Phoenix, at 20:30; that an airliner crew (jokingly) referred to the sight as a UFO, and a pilot in that formation realised the 757 crew were referring to them.

 

[Charlie Wiser]

Everyone who saw the lights in binoculars or a telescope said they were planes.

In going through the NUFORC reports, I found 3 reports from witnesses who used binoculars and did not believe they were (jet) planes. These were all within a week of the event:

The object was seen on the northwestern horizon. It appeared as a horizontal line with a red glow. We arrived home and got some binoculars to see what it was. By this time it had changed color to a brilliant white and was in the shape of a triangle... There were five lights in all. The object moved from the northwest to the southeast, almost directly over head of our house... The formation of the five objects did not change as you would expect from aircraft. There was no change in spacing, no noise and it was as bright overhead as it was comming or going.

Source: NUFORC sighting 02070 (reported in 1997 from Ahwatukee Phx)

...four of us observed a v shaped object coming at us with bright lights. As it got closer we got out some binoculars and looked at it, what looked like white lights were actually two lights forming one. One light being green the other one was red. During this time the oddest thing about this, was there was no noise at all. There was no moon to backlight this so we could only see the lights. I thought perhaps because there was no noise that it might have been a pedal plane that I saw on the discovery channel once. It appeared to be about 1000 feet in the air.

Source: NUFORC sighting 02073 (reported in 1997 from Prescott)

...he was looking NW in the Hale-Bopp comet direction and saw a fuzzy light above the horizon. Too late for the comet so we got a pair of binoculars and WOW. 5 BRIGHT orange lights in a V formation. Not moving at first and then they were moving very slowly. ... We are interested in astronomy so we are usually looking at the sky. We know a plane from something wierd.

Source: NUFORC sighting 02058 (reported in 1997 from Kingman)

 

[Charlie Wiser]

We know there were military aircraft exercising in the region, roughly 2 hours after the first "V" sighting they were dropping flares.

Is the entire state of Arizona a "region"?

I need to add that there are other details from Mike's daughter about the hoax that I'm not speaking of here because she's still deciding how to release the info (which is both from his confession and writings, as well as inferences from his behavior), but it's leading me to seriously consider he made the hoax - and even if he didn't, that the hoax theory is worthwhile because the evidence can be fitted to it as easily as the plane theory can be fitted to it.

As I said up front, my main takeaway from reading ALL the NUFORC reports (there are 52 from 1997 to 2016 that relate to the first event) is that so many people reported it going slow and low over Phoenix, taking up to 15-20 minutes to fly overhead. As with any UFO case, it's easy to be taken in by summaries but going back to the original documents paints a different picture.

• 28 reports said it was going very slowly, slower than planes, or hovering at times (3 said very fast - all from Prescott not Phoenix - and the rest didn't mention speed
• 20 said solid object, some adamantly stating it blocked the stars or was blacker than the sky (6 said it was individual lights, not solid, the rest didn't mention)
• 7 sightings lasted 20 minutes or more, all from witnesses who had the impression it was moving slowly at low altitude

I'm not pointing this out as proof of a hoax, but as evidence that it wasn't planes - just as other reports can used as evidence it was planes.