DRONES Gone Wild! From NJ to Oregon

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Flashback to Phantom drone/helicopter: this story from the Goostrey Advertiser, Cheshire, 16-17 January 1974, is a good summary.



Mystery drones?: 'it's contagious...plant an idea and you get a visual epidemic': UK police assessment of the phantom helicopter panic in England 50 years ago...

Article by British Folklorist and journalist David Clarke:

Phantom Copters

ON THE TRAIL OF THE PHANTOM FLIER

During the winter of 1973-74 British detectives were drawn into a cat-and-mouse pursuit of a phantom helicopter which they feared was being operated by Irish terrorists. As DAVID CLARKE reveals the scare had all the elements of an urban legend in the making.

Late one September night in 1973 security guard Simon Crowe was alerted by an urgent phonecall. Crowe guarded high explosives stored in a quarry high on the Peak District moors near Buxton. Nearby residents had seen what they thought was a helicopter about to land inside the quarry and called police. Crowe raced towards the site in his Landrover. This was the second time in one week he had been called out in the middle of the night and this time he was determined to get to the bottom of the mystery.

....

Detectives soon realised the publicity their investigation had received was counter productive. Hundreds of reports had poured into official sources, many describing perfectly normal helicopters on legitimate flights. Throughout the world an oil crisis was causing widespread fuel shortage, yet the phantom seemed to be untroubled by this problem. Doubts were increased when a psychologist put forward the theory that the flap was a rumour-fuelled panic triggered by the police and the media. Professor John Cohen of Manchester University said the initial reports from the police might have triggered off the flap. “It is contagious,” he said. “Plant an idea and you get a kind of visual epidemic.”

With no resolution found and no evidence of IRA involvement established, the scare ended almost a quickly as it began. The Special Branch file was closed in October 1974 with the comment “the helicopter and pilot were never identified.” But the mystery chopper never went away. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic a wave of mysterious cattle mutilations spread across the US Midwest and these were quickly linked with the activities of unmarked “black helicopters” linked in folklore with UFOs and their occupants.

Phantom Copters

David Clarke also wrote a paper called "Phantom Helicopters: A rumor-generated visual epidemic" in Contemporary Legend New Series Vol 5 (2002) (pg 67-91) [Starting on pg 71 of this PDF]

Excerpts from his paper:


"To a considerable extent, people see what they expect to see; and what they expect to see is not simply a result of their personalities but also of their social and cultural milieu".




Conditions:
1: ambiguous and important stimuli
2. effective means of spreading reports
Statements by "experts" or persons of status in the community are vital.
When condition-the lack of any convincing official interpretations-is met, rumors find a fertile breeding ground.



In the Phantom helicopter scare, there were only 3 credible sightings of helicopters, everything else was mis-perceptions.  "The media stories had turned an everyday helicopter into a suspicious 'phantom'"



We see this with the current panic. Much of the drive behind it comes from the supposedly credibly sightings by law enforcement, coast guard, politicians, etc..That adds credibility which in turn drives the hysteria. As with now, much of it turned out to be misidentified airplanes. Most people rarely look up at the sky at night, until the past week.




Triggering factors:
1. Sheer quantity of sightings (the sky is falling)
2. Quality of report (ie. 'credible' witness)
3. Activities of a promoter (ie. msm journalist)



Camoflaging...UEOs - Unidentified Everyday Objects. Now it's UFOs as Drones as Planes. Double mimicry! // Rumor transmission thru a collective sense making process.



"...the "UFO" frame of reference remains relatively weak in popular consciousness and is easily replaced by other and more immediate threats." - That's why its drones this time. There is a legit drone concern, that feeds this.



"The absence of hard facts was replaced by speculation, and rumors spread..."



The Phillis Fox paper ("Social and Cultural Factors Influencing Beliefs About UFOs") referenced can be found in this book:
UFO Phenomena and the Behavioral Scientist



Here are links to the articles by Peter Rogerson referred to in the article:

UFOs, Phantom Helicopters and Contemporary Panics

A Panorama of Ufological Visions

John Harney's article on the 1974 'phantom helicopter' flap in northern England:
The Phantom Helicopters