UPDATED: Intercept: American Airlines Flight 2292 reports close encounter with unknown flying object.

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On Sunday, Feb 21, just after 1:00 PM CST the author of this blog recorded off a radio scanner an American Airlines passenger jet reporting an unidentified object that flew close and just over the aircraft.

At approximately 1:19 CST on the Albuquerque Center frequency of 127.850 MHz or 134.750 MHz (recording wasn't frequency stamped) the pilot reported: "Do you have any targets up here?  We just had something go right over the top of us   - I hate to say this but it looked like a long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing - moving really fast right over the top of us."

According to Flight 24 and Flight Aware AAL 2292 was over the northeast corner of New Mexico west of Clayton, New Mexico. No reply was monitored by Albuquerque Center because local (Amarillo) air traffic walked on top of it. AAL 2292 was near flight level 370 (37k) at the time of the report. 

No significant military aircraft presence was noted on ADS-B logs. 

The aircraft  flew on to land in Phoenix, AZ.

Here's a link to the flight path of AAL2292: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL2292

Links to audio for personal or news use only (not licensed for entertainment purposes):

https://wetransfer.com/downloads/80939a600fb1c94b28032f656ba293df20210221223956/bc53c0c39e53ecf44d0bba30de96d70f20210221224041/d041eb

Link to entire morning recordings: https://wetransfer.com/downloads/dd1f53a0fdfe024d2a4d8bfb71d8ea6320210221213022/68d2909f048a84fb04fe06dc330f8ec920210221213107/c3f0e2

This is a developing story and we will post more when we know more. 

 Audio (copyright) Steve Douglass 

UPDATE: (C) Copyright KVII TV:

American Airlines emailed ABC 7 News the following statement on Tuesday morning:

At this time, we do not have any indication the radio transmission was from the flight crew on board American Airlines Flight 2292 on Feb. 21.

NOTE; The entire intercepted aviation monitoring recording (including Flight 2292 giving their call sign before the transmission) can be downloaded HERE for analysis. Flight 2292's call begins at 1:13:09

                  UPDATE: 2-23-21

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         UPDATE 2-24-21 

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SCREEN SHOT of military aircraft flying in the southwest at the time of the encounter (ADS-B)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Author, investigative journalist, technologies expert, and self-avowed "Stealth Chaser," Steve Douglass is considered by many an icon in the esoteric-yet-fascinating field of military monitoring.

By day, Douglass is the chief photojournalist for ABC 7 in Amarillo, Texas. His communications monitoring expertise has helped break both national and international news stories for ABC News, CBS News, CNN, the Associated Press and others.

He was one of the first to photograph the tragic re-entry of the Space Shuttle Columbia as it streaked to its doom over Texas and alerted the world’s press when a Russian submarine sank in the Atlantic due to a fire in a missile compartment.

On 9-11, Douglass monitored the frantic aero communications of that tragic day and kept the press informed of the FAA’s and the military’s desperate attempts to distinguish hijacked aircraft from those packed with innocent commuters.

As an author, Douglass' first book, The Comprehensive Guide to Military Monitoring, is considered by many the bible on the art of intercepting military communications.

He has also written many feature articles on emerging stealth technologies, aviation, astronomy, and cutting-edge technologies for Aircraft Illustrated (UK) Popular Science Magazine, and has been a behind the scenes contributor to Aviation Week & Space Technology Magazine, the "must read" publication of the defense and aviation industries.

Douglass was also contributing writer for Monitoring Times and Popular Communications, magazines devoted to radio monitoring hobbyists.

In 1998 "Dreamland", author Philip Patton's exposé on Area 51 was released with an entire chapter devoted to Douglass. Douglass also helped Patton fact-check Dreamland.

In his spare time, Douglass is an avid tornado chaser and storm spotter volunteering for the National Weather Service. Recently Steve was engaged as a location scout and researcher for Florentine Films (Ken Burns) on “The Dust Bowl" that aired on PBS in 2012. In 2013 he became a full-time photojournalist for KVII TV.

Currently Steve is working on a sequel to, “The Interceptors Club and the Secret of the Black Manta"  a novel based on his "stealth chasing" experiences. 

                                             MONITORING POST PHOTOS:       

     

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CIA; David Cohen new CIA Deputy Director

CIA: 

David S. Cohen was sworn-in yesterday to serve as the Agency’s Deputy Director, a position he held previously from 2015 to 2017. While awaiting the Senate confirmation of Ambassador William J. Burns as CIA Director, Cohen will also serve as Acting Director:

“I am honored and delighted to once again join the leadership team at CIA. I will do my very best to ensure the CIA’s dedicated intelligence officers have what they need to continue to present honest analysis and unvarnished intelligence to the President and other policymakers,” said Acting Director Cohen. “We look forward to supporting Ambassador Burns—someone with a deep understanding of our mission and a great admiration for the workforce—as he engages with the Senate in the upcoming weeks.”

Did CIA Director Gina Haspel just resign a day before the Biden inauguration?

 According to a tweet from the official CIA account on Twitter:

"The #CIA workforce thanks Director Haspel for her 36 years of dedicated service to the American people. You have broken barriers and empowered the next generation of CIA officers."

• 

UPDATED:

FORBES: Haspel did not articulate the reason for her departure, which comes on the last full day of Trump’s presidency, though Axios reported last week that she had threatened to resign in early December when Trump sought to install loyalist and former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) aide Kash Patel as her deputy. 

According to Axios, Trump “spent his last year in office ruminating over Haspel,” while many of his allies echoed the president’s doubts about her loyalty. 

Haspel was confirmed as the first female director of the CIA in May 2018. 

Libyan bombmaker charged with 1988 Lockerbie 747 bombing

The US has announced charges against a Libyan suspected of making the bomb that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

Abu Agila Mohammad Masud has been charged with terrorism-related crimes, Attorney General William Barr said on Monday, 32 years on from the atrocity.

The deadly bomb attack on the Boeing 747 killed 270 people, including 190 American citizens.

Prosecutors will seek the extradition of Mr Masud to stand trial in the US.

The attack on the London to New York flight remains the deadliest terrorist incident ever to have taken place in the UK, and the second deadliest air attack in US history.

Eleven people on the ground in Scotland were also killed. The victims included 35 study abroad US students who were returning home for Christmas.

The new charges bring Mr Barr's role in this lengthy terrorism investigation full circle, as he was also US Attorney General when charges were first announced against two Libyan suspects in 1991.

Back then, serving under President George H W Bush, Mr Barr tasked his criminal division head Robert Mueller to look into the bombing. Mr Mueller is now best known for leading the inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Both Mr Barr and Mr Mueller have taken part in remembrance events with families over the years.

Police Scotland's chief constable, Iain Livingstone, said the charges were a "significant development" and that they will "continue to work closely" with the US and other international authorities. He said it was "inappropriate to comment further" at this time.

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Hack may have exposed deep US secrets; damage yet unknown

 BOSTON (AP) — Some of America’s most deeply held secrets may have been stolen in a disciplined, monthslong operation being blamed on elite Russian government hackers. The possibilities of what might have been purloined are mind-boggling.

Could hackers have obtained nuclear secrets? COVID-19 vaccine data? Blueprints for next-generation weapons systems?

It will take weeks, maybe years in some cases, for digital sleuths combing through U.S. government and private industry networks to get the answers. These hackers are consummate pros at covering their tracks, experts say. Some theft may never be detected.

What’s seems clear is that this campaign — which cybersecurity experts says exhibits the tactics and techniques of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence agency — will rank among the most prolific in the annals of cyberespionage.

U.S. government agencies, including the Treasury and Commerce departments, were among dozens of high-value public- and private-sector targets known to have been infiltrated as far back as March through a commercial software update distributed to thousands of companies and government agencies worldwide. A Pentagon statement Monday indicated it used the software. It said it had “issued guidance and directives to protect” its networks. It would not say — for “operational security reasons” — whether any of its systems may have been hacked.

On Tuesday, acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller told CBS News there was so far no evidence of compromise.

In the months since the update went out, the hackers carefully exfiltrated data, often encrypting it so it wasn’t clear what was being taken, and expertly covering their tracks.

Thomas Rid, a Johns Hopkins cyberconflict expert, said the campaign’s likely efficacy can be compared to Russia’s three-year 1990s “Moonlight Maze” hacking of U.S. government targets, including NASA and the Pentagon. A U.S. investigation determined the height of the documents stolen — if printed out and piled up — would triple the height of the Washington Monument.

In this case “several Washington Monument piles of documents that they took from different government agencies is probably a realistic estimate,” Rid said. “How would they use that? They themselves most likely don’t know yet.”

The Trump administration has not said which agencies were hacked. And so far no private-sector victims have come forward. Traditionally, defense contractors and telecommunications companies have been popular targets with state-backed cyber spies, Rid said.

Intelligence agents generally seek the latest on weapons technologies and missile defense s

ystems — anything vital to national security. They also develop dossiers on rival government employees, potentially for recruitment as spies.

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, cut short an overseas trip to hold meetings on the hack and was to convene a top-level interagency meeting later this week, the White House said in a statement.

O’Brien had been scheduled to return Saturday and had to scrap plans to visit officials in Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Britain, said an official familiar with his itinerary who was not authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, the White House said a coordinating team had been created to respond, including the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

At a briefing for congressional staffers Monday, DHS did not say how many agencies were hacked, a reflection of how little the Trump administration has been sharing with Congress on the case.
Critics have long complained that the Trump administration failed to address snowballing cybersecurity threats — including from ransomware attacks that have hobbled state and local governments, hospitals and even grammar schools.

“It’s been a frustrating time, the last four years. I mean, nothing has happened seriously at all in cybersecurity,” said Brandon Valeriano, a Marine Corps University scholar and adviser to the Cyber Solarium Commission, which was created by Congress to fortify the nation’s cyber defenses. “It’s tough to find anything that we moved forward on at all.”

Trump eliminated two key government positions: White House cybersecurity coordinator and State Department cybersecurity policy chief.


READ MORE HERE