Vanishings

“Oh, another story about UFOs or alien abduction” I said to myself as the title “Vanishings” flashed at the beginning of the program. It turned out to be a story of a Cessna aircraft vanishing along with its 20-year old pilot somewhere over the Bass Strait near Australia in the 70s. Before disappearing the pilot had reported a strange metallic capsule like object tailing his aircraft – so another UFO story. But still I watched it. Such is the fascination to find out if there is another life form anywhere else in the galaxy.

Though I am an ardent fan of Captain Kirk and his crew that “boldly went where no man had gone before”, I have always laughed at the human-like appearance of Klingons and vulcans. But then even the creatures from Species series and other sci-fi movies like “The war of the worlds” also seem unrealistic. So I guess we won’t know for sure what these aliens look like (if at all they exist) unless they are absolutely hanging over our heads like “The sword of Damocles” – as in The Independence Day!

This program was a bit different as it did not attempt to offer any scientific explanation for the vanishing except for some theories about aircraft malfunction and possible crash into the seas. Few years later another pilot did see remains of an aircraft at the bottom of the sea but that claim was refuted. Interestingly, a few people who had been standing on top of a hill nearby Bass Strait reported that they had seen a metallic looking object chasing a small aircraft over the sea. But they did so after 12 years! So the jury is still out on the disappearance of the little Cessna aircraft and its 20-year old pilot.

You know what? When yesterday I saw the picture of a mother in Iraq holding the body of her 6-year old son who was hit by a sniper, I seriously wished that a huge alien craft descend from the clouds. Somehow that seems to be the only way to band all humans together – irrespective of our castes, creeds, religions and the kind of God we believe in (if at all we do).