A Brief History of UFOs Around Palos Verdes By Author and Contributor Eric Haseltine PhD
Re-creation of account of 1979 RPV witness
A backyard encounter
July 1979, Rancho Palos Verdes
The summer night was clear and hot, drawing the 11-year-old into the family pool to cool off. Floating on his back, gazing up at the stars, the youngster’s heart began to race.
“Suddenly, the stars in the east part of the sky began to disappear,” the witness wrote in a National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) report. “At first, I thought maybe clouds were rolling in, but I had never seen dark clouds before. It seemed odd that any clouds would appear on such a hot night anyways, and I didn’t understand what could be blocking out the starlight. Then I began to see an area that was blocking the stars take shape and I could see the edges of a pointed tip slowly moving directly above me.”
The pre-teen went on to say that the flying object blocking out the stars was “chevron” shaped (like a sergeant’s stripes) and roughly 300 feet across, with a faint glow surrounding it, flying 50-60 feet above the ground. The object glided silently from east to west, leaving no trace of its passing.
How common are UFO encounters in PV?
The report from the RPV 11-year-old was not the first in the area, nor the last.
The first UFO report in the PV region is the most famous: the so-called “Battle of Los Angeles” incident in February 1942 (which inspired the Steven Spielberg movie, 1942).
Just three months into WW II, shore defenses in San Pedro were understandably anxious about a Japanese attack when a mysterious flying object appeared over the water. Powerful searchlights pierced the night, seeking out the possible intruder as anti-aircraft batteries opened up, firing a total of 1600 rounds into the night sky.
Re-creation of “Battle of Los Angeles”
Authorities ultimately determined that the flying object was not a Japanese aircraft, but exactly what the object actually was remains a hot topic of debate. The Government’s official finding was that the object was a “meteorological balloon,” but, to this day, UFO enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists argue it was something far more exotic, perhaps extra-terrestrial in origin.
Between 1976, when NUFORC’s records began, and the last reported PV UFO in 2022, 33 UFO sightings have been documented in the Peninsula area. Most sightings were from observers in PVE, RPV, and RHE, with a smattering of reports over PV seen from Hermosa, Redondo, and San Pedro.
UFO sightings since 1976 by location
RPV’s relatively large population probably explains the high number of reports there. However, sightings per resident were highest in PVE (PVE= .79 per thousand residents vs. RPV= .45 per thousand residents).
Here’s a breakdown of all the PV-area sightings by UFO type, from 1976 through 2022.
Breakdown of UFO types over PV
These UFO shapes are comparable to those the Pentagon recently described in their annual report on UFO’s (Excerpted below), except that, percentage-wise, significantly more triangles have been seen over PV than in the Pentagon-compiled reports.
DOD All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) 2024 Report on UFO types
Speaking of the US military, here is a still shot from an F/A-18 fighter cockpit taken in 2021. Note the shadow the unidentified spherical object casts on the haze behind it.
UFO photographed by Naval aviator in 2021
A video showing the entire flyby is at https://www.aaro.mil/UAP-Cases/Official-UAP-Imagery/
The object in the Navy photo is similar to the spheres and orbs reported over PV in NUFORC’s database.
In addition to data on UFO shapes, PV UFO reporters describe a range of motion profiles.
The “chevron” UFO moved slowly, making no noise, whereas other PV UFOs either hovered or quickly zipped across the sky. These flight profiles resemble those of UFO sightings elsewhere.
According to Lou Elizondo, former head of the Pentagon’s UFO office, unusual motion and/or propulsion are the hallmarks of “true” UFOs (vs those explained by atmospheric effects, drones, aircraft, stars, or balloons}. Unusual UFO flight profiles include positive lift (levitating, hovering, or flying with no visible source of propulsion), instantaneous acceleration, hypervelocity, and transmedia travel (a single object (transiting through space, air, and water).
Although none of the 33 UFO reports in the Peninsula include transmedia travel, fishermen operating near Catalina have reported UFOs underwater and in the air.
What it all means
In The new science of UFOs, my wife and co-author, Chris Gilbert MD PhD, and I show that US Government authorities and other rigorous UFO researchers have determined that the overwhelming majority of UFO sightings are due to optical illusions, birds, atmospheric effects, mundane flying craft such as airplanes, helicopters, drones and rockets, or classified military craft, as well as celestial objects such as stars and planets.
However, a small fraction of reported UFOs –such as multiple objects that Naval aviators have recently reported--remain unexplained, despite the US Government’s recent efforts to get to the bottom of the UFO mystery.
Based on all the available evidence, Chris and I assert that a (very) small fraction of UFO reports is real, in the sense that something unknown to current science underlies the reports.
This “something unknown” does not necessarily mean ETs or aliens: simply … unknown, as in undiscovered optical illusions, atmospheric effects, or propulsion physics.
Although earthly explanations are the most likely (by far), “unknown science” might also include science not of this world.
Or, as Chris and I wrote in our new book, The shadow of time science that is of this world but not of this time.
Whatever ultimately turns out to be behind UFOs, you can help solve the mystery by reporting UFO sightings to the Government (https://www.aaro.mil/Submit-A-Report/), or non-profit UFO data collection organizations (https://mufon.com/cms-ifo-info/, https://nuforc.org/report-a-ufo/).
And don’t be shy if you see something. While interviewing Naval aviators and airline pilots for our UFO book, Chris and I learned that many reputable and reliable people who have seen UFOs are reluctant to report them out of fear of the consequences to their reputations or careers.
This means that UFOs are much more common than the reported numbers suggest (including around PV) and that more information is theoretically available that could help solve the mystery.
The truth is out there. Help us find it!
Dr. Eric Haseltine is an author, futurist, and neuroscientist. He has held several senior executive positions in private industry and the public sector. He was the associate director and CTO for national intelligence at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the director of research at the National Security Agency, an executive vice president at Walt Disney Imagineering, and a director of engineering at Hughes Aircraft Company. For the past few years, he has been developing completely new forms of digital media, entertainment, and advertising, in addition to cutting-edge cyber and industrial security solutions.
Eric has authored or co-authored 15 patents in optics, special effects, and electronic media. In addition, he has published more than 100 articles in Discover magazine, on Discover.com, and in journals such as Brain Research and Society for Neuroscience Proceedings. He maintains a blog on Psychology Today. Eric’s book, Long Fuse, Big Bang, shows how to prevent the tyranny of the urgent from trumping the pursuit of the important. He is co-author of The Listening Cure, with Dr. Chris Gilbert.
