Unidentified flying objects -- the phrase makes you smile, doesn't it?
Well, to some people they are real travelers from the great beyond. To others, they're just a joke.
Now, a panel of former pilots and government officials is calling on the U.S. to investigate the possibilities.
Gary Tuchman has a look.
If you flew on Air France from Nice to London on January 28, 1994,
your captain says he saw a UFO 1,000 feet long just outside your window.
It seemed to be a huge flying disk.
The now retired pilot is one of 14 men,
mainly former government and military officials from seven different countries,
talking about their UFO experiences.
This conference took place in Washington, and the cast of characters was almost strangely, well, conventional.
One of the believers -- former Governor of Arizona Fife Symington.
The so-called Phoenix lights were seen by many people in 1997.
Skeptics say they were military aircraft or flares, but not the former governor.
It was probably some form of an alien spacecraft.
Lots of agreement on this panel.
This retired Iranian air force pilot said he saw a UFO while flying.
General Parviz Jafari says he tried to fire a missile, but much of his plane became inoperative.
All the instrument[s] were fluctuating. The radio had garbled. Even, I couldn't have communication with my pilot in my back seat, who was operating the radar.
So, your -- so, none of your equipment worked. Your missiles didn't work.
Do you think it's because this was an alien from another world?
Oh, yes. Yeah. (You're sure of that?) Yeah, I'm sure.
This retired U.S. Air Force sergeant stationed in England said he walked up to a UFO that landed in a forest.
It maneuvered through the trees and shot off at an unbelievable rate of speed.
A man running for president just said he saw a UFO.
I did. And the rest of the account -- it was [an] unidentified flying object.
And so did a man who was president.
I and about 25 others saw something in the air that changed colors and was round...
Although Jimmy Carter says he doesn't think it was from another planet,
most of these people differ on that point and want the FAA to investigate all these claims.
But the FAA says that's not its job.
"We manage the aircraft that we're talking to.
UFOs are called UFOs because they're unidentified and we're not talking to them."
And it's precisely because no one's talking that everybody here is trying harder to make them believe.