Patrick D. McCaslin Interview, 25 February 2001
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| between the pilots, completely unstrapped to anything, no parachute, no nothing. It just didn't seem like a prudent and, to quote our former 41st President, "Didn't seem prudent." So I stayed where I was. But the pilots talked about seeing something down there, and my impression was that we over flew it. | ||
| INT: | Did they describe it over the intercom at the time? | |
| PM: | Not. Not in my memory. We turned around and landed, or we turned downwind or yeah, downwind— | |
| INT: | So when you came down and over flew the object do you know what direction you were in relation to the object? Were you directly over it? Did you turn over it? | |
| PM: | My impression was that we flew right over it. From the discussion I heard up front, it seemed like we flew—and if they were centered on the PDI they would have to have flown right over it. The PDI takes into account wind and everything, so you're gonna fly right over it. | |
| INT: | Right. | |
| PM: | And I would assume, having flown right over it, and if he did what he said he was gonna do, at the point it disappeared under the nose, which would've been, maybe—if we're at a thousand feet or 1500 feet altitude, it would disappear under the nose at about 1500 feet ground distance. He'd start his turn there, so basically turn right over it, and he'd turn base leg and then final. We would've been headed northwest, turn base leg, and then turn final and head back southeast and we landed, at which point we were met by folks who confiscated our film—our radar film, which was not unusual. I mean— | |
| INT: | Can we stop there and switch tapes? | |
| PM: | Sure. | |
| INT: | Okay [switching tapes]. Let's see. I can't remember where we were. | |
| PM: | We just landed. | |
| INT: | Okay. Let me ask this, so you felt that the thing dropped away? | |
| PM: | It could have been either way, but my impression was that it climbed into the radar energy, and that when it disappeared, it dropped out of the radar energy—descended from the radar energy. That's my impression. |
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