Did Stephenville UFOs Violate Crawford, Texas No-Fly-Zone?

Stephenville, it seems like this incident just refuses to fade quietly into the night. While I initially thought the what flew over the small Texas town might be some sort of secret military project, now I wonder if the government has other reasons for wanting Stephenville out of the headlines. Today, Billy Booth recounts the tale of a UFO writer who found some very interesting information and after publishing it was forced to remove it by an un-named government agency saying it could cause “public fear and unrest”. What information could cause such a ruckus?

The writer in question received a tip that fighter jets that were above Stephenville the night of January 8th flew very close to the no-fly-zone that surrounds President Bush’s ranch outside Crawford, Texas. This close proximity raises the question, did someone or something violate the President’s no fly zone? Were the F-16s seen by residents around Stephenville dispatched to intercept an unknown craft? Is the ease with which the craft violated some of the most heavily guarded airspace in the country and evaded some of our country’s most advanced warplanes why the military and government are going to such great lengths to sweep this incident under the rug? Lets take a look to see if there could be some validity to this theory.

First, it is no secret that the President’s ranch can have up to a 35 mile no-fly-zone around it during a Presidential visit as shown in the image to the left taken from this FAA newsletter (PDF link) from 2003. Even when the President is not in, the ranch is surrounded by a 6 nautical mile (7 mile) no-fly-zone (identified as prohibited area p-49). According to this article, taken from the Wall Street Journal, the airspace around the Presidential ranch is actively protected by F-16 fighter jets (pictured above), the same type of jet reportedly seen over Stephenville on January 8th. Add to this that Stephenville is only 65 miles Northwest of Crawford and less than 48 miles from the outer limit of the ranch’s full no-fly-zone (a distance that an F-16 flying just under the speed of sound could cover in less than 4 minutes). It becomes a real possibility that the jets seen chasing the Stephenville UFO are the same F-16s assigned to guard Pres. Bush’s Crawford ranch.

If the F-16s over Stephenville were in fact assigned to protect the airspace over the President’s ranch, it also explains why the Air Force would have originally said that there were no F-16s or other military aircraft flying the night of January 8th. A mission to intercept an unidentified aircraft that violated the airspace over a presidential residence would almost certainly be kept quiet, especially if the intruder were never identified. I believe that the decision to release the second statement that there was a training flight in the air that night came only after the deluge of credible witnesses came forward saying they saw fighter jets chasing something over their town gave the military no choice but admit there were in fact F-16s over Stephenville (even if it would not admit the real reason why).

Unfortunately, this evidence only shows that the theory that the UFO seen over Stephenville violated the no-fly-zone surrounding President Bush’s Crawford ranch and was subsequently chased by US fighter jets is plausible. Unless, we can find a picture of the F-16s from that night with legible tail numbers, get a hold of the air traffic control tapes from the military, or one of the F-16 pilots comes forward, we will never exactly know what those fighters were doing in the skies above Stephenville.

Government Agency Forces Writer to Remove Article
Don’t Go There: President Takes A No-Fly Zone Wherever He Goes
A Pilot’s Guide to Understanding Restrictions in Today’s National Airspace System (PDF)
Establishment of Prohibited Area P-49 Crawford; TX
F-16 Fighting Falcon