In the Dark of the Night Part 2

The UFO

by Steven R. Oberst

Great Wall - photo by JoAnn Sturman

A few years before the last odorous adventure, I was a helicopter instructor at Kirkland AFB, New Mexico. During this time period, the Air Force was spending more and more time flying and training at night. Night flying can be challenging, but throw in a pair of night vision goggles while flying a nighttime low-level route and the intensity level maxes out. It presents an extreme challenge of the pilot’s training, skills and reactions. 

I remember one such low level night training flight I was on in 1981.  The mission was a training flight in a UH-1N twin engine helicopter. We departed Kirkland AFB shortly after sunset. A student pilot was flying from the right seat with night vision goggles on and I was the instructor in the left seat without goggles. With the cockpit bathed in a goggle-friendly red light, the student began flying on a low level route near the Puerco River in the northwestern part of the state. As the student struggled trying to stay on course, the last thing on my mind was an encounter with an unidentified flying object (UFO).

A few minutes into the flight I saw the blur of an object coming at us just before hearing a loud thump as something hit the windshield. Thinking bird strike, I immediately took the controls from the student and directed him to remove the goggles. Starting a slow climb to a safer altitude, I could feel no evidence of any damage to the rotor or flight controls. There was, however, a crack in the windshield and what appeared to be blood. I made a radio call to flight operations alerting them to a possible bird strike. We were directed to proceed with caution to a small airstrip about 25 miles from our location. 

Landing at the airstrip, we got out to inspect the helicopter. The Flight Engineer climbed up to look at the main rotor mast with his flashlight. “Captain,” he said to me, “There is a lot of blood on the mast just below the blades, but I don’t see any damage. Whoa! Here’s a surprise; it looks like hair in the blood, not feathers.” 

Later, a more scientific examination of the evidence verified that it was in fact not a bird strike, but a bat strike. The bat we hit was probably a brown bat with a wingspan of about 12 inches. This was the first of three bat strikes in this area before the Commander wisely closed this low level training area to night flying missions.

Okay, so flying into a bat may not qualify as an encounter with a UFO, but it definitely got my attention. Speaking of UFOs, helicopters flying at night are frequently mistaken for UFOs.

Grand Canyon - photo by JoAnn Sturman