While on their charter plane on their way to Chicago, the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team were surprised by a mid-air collision with an UFO that left a mild mark on the nose cone.
The incident happened just before the game against the Chicago Bulls this Saturday, and left everyone scratching their heads as they couldn't figure the nature of the object involved in the collision.
Mid player Steven Adams made an appeal to NASA and TV personalities Bill Nye and Neil deGrase Tyson to elucidate this enigmatic case.
Hey @NASA 
We had a rough flight to say the least.
30000 feet in the air.
Flying to chicago.
What caused this?
— Steven Adams (@RealStevenAdams) 28 octombrie 2017
In a statement put forward by Delta Airlines, the UFO hypothesis was quickly dismantled by claiming the object in cause was nothing more than a bird, but nothing about the size or type of the unlucky critter was disclosed.
Delta flight #DL8935, operating from Minneapolis to Chicago-Midway as a charter flight for the Oklahoma City Thunder, likely encountered a bird while on descent into Chicago," the statement argued .
The aircraft, a Boeing 757-200, landed safely without incident; customers have soon deplaned and maintenance teams are evaluating. Safety is Delta's top priority."
The above statement was offered to settle the masses demanding an explanation, but the argument is most likely obsolete, and here is why:
Doing a simple check on Google about how high birds can fly will reveal that the Ruppeli's Vulture is the only bird in the world capable of flying at heights above 30,000 feet, the presumed altitude of the plane when the collision occurred.
However, this species is found only on the good old African continent. In fact, birds in the Western Hemisphere don't venture above 25,000 feet.
Since the Delta flight was nearing Chicago, I did a simple search about vultures in the area and could only find the turkey vulture, a six-foot wing span scavenger that prefers low altitudes due to better chances of finding carrion or prey.
So, with the bird scenario unlikely to have happened, there are more details worth considering. Why is there no blood on the nose cone bent by the impact? You would expect blood marks all over the place after violently smashing into a critter, right?
And then there is the circular area of impact. While a bird could have left similar markings, a small circular object could have done the same.
Although a flying craft colliding with the plane seems a little far off because it should have had a devastating outcome for the crew and charter, there is still reason to believe this scenario.
Most people imagine a UFO collision destroying the front of the plane entirely, but such a UFO would need considerable proportions to cause that much destruction. However, many reports have surfaced lately of tiny flying objects zipping through the sky at astounding velocities.
These tiny UFOs are called "orbs" and have the size of a golf ball, sometimes greater, and are frequently seen hurtling past drones and other moving objects at extremely low distances.
Is it possible that such a device, be it a military prototype, an intelligently controlled drone, or alien apparatus, has collided with the charter plane instead of a bird?
Chances are real, although the official explanation could also be the answer to this mystery. Until further details about the flight, as well as more advised opinions of experts, we can only speculate on the case.
Whatever happened, it sure raises plenty of question marks.