Section A · Scientific researchers · 1966–
Mick West
Skeptical investigator + founder of Metabunk + former programmer (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series)
CSICon 2018 / Wikimedia Commons · CC-BY-SA
Biography
He is the phenomenon's leading contemporary skeptic. From his site Metabunk he produced the most influential technical explanations of the U.S. Navy videos: the 'Gimbal' rotation as a glare artifact of the gyro-stabilized sensor, and the 'GoFast' as a slow nearby object whose apparent speed is a parallax effect. He does not deny that unresolved cases exist: he insists that burden of proof and rigorous analysis must precede the extraordinary conclusion. He embodies the skeptical pole the corpus considers indispensable for honest calibration.
Why they're here · 2 pieces
- 2018
Escaping the Rabbit Hole
Method for evaluating extraordinary claims and misinformation
- 2021
Análisis de Gimbal y GoFast
Glare/rotation and parallax explanations for the Navy videos
Sources
- Mick West, 'Escaping the Rabbit Hole' (2018) + Metabunk.org — Skeptical technical analysis of the Navy videos.
Associated cases (2)
USS Theodore Roosevelt (Gimbal/GoFast)· 2014–15
F/A-18 pilots from the USS Theodore Roosevelt air wing log near-daily UAP contacts off the U.S. East Coast (summer 2014–March 2015), confirmed by radar, infrared and visual. The Gimbal and GoFast videos come from these sorties. Ryan Graves reports a near-miss and files formal flight-safety complaints.
USS Nimitz Tic-Tac· 2004
USS Princeton's Aegis radar tracked objects dropping from 80,000 to 20,000 feet in under a second; Cmdr. Fravor and seven other military witnesses observed the 'Tic-Tac', and the ATFLIR video was officially released by the Pentagon. The modern benchmark case.
Synthesized bio from the UAP disclosure ecosystem — categorized by epistemological section (A-E).