Mick West: Skeptical Analysis of UAP Evidence
- Type: analysis (ongoing)
- Author: Mick West (science writer, retired video game programmer, CSI Fellow)
- Date: 2017-present
- Credibility: secondary (independent analyst; no government credentials but technically competent analysis)
- URL: https://www.metabunk.org/
Background
Born 1967 in Bingley, West Yorkshire. Co-founded Neversoft Entertainment (Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Guitar Hero). After retiring from gaming in 2003, became a full-time debunker of conspiracy theories. Created Contrail Science and Metabunk websites. Elected Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) in 2020. Published “Escaping the Rabbit Hole” (2018).
Key Analysis of UAP Videos
GOFAST video: West argues the object appears fast due to parallax effect. When cockpit display data is analyzed, the object may be moving relatively slowly at low altitude (consistent with a balloon).
GIMBAL video: West argues the apparent rotation is an infrared glare artifact caused by the rotating gimbal mechanism of the ATFLIR pod, not actual rotation of the object itself.
USS Russell “pyramid” video: Demonstrated that the pyramidal shape is consistent with bokeh (out-of-focus camera artifact from a triangular aperture). Replicated the effect on camera.
USS Omaha “transmedium” video: “The simplest explanation is that it’s just a plane. It moves like a plane, it acts like a plane.”
Elizondo’s “mothership” photo: Identified as a light fixture reflected in a window.
Elizondo’s “lenticular object”: Agreed with Reddit analysis identifying it as an irrigation circle.
West’s Broader Argument
“Advocates of alien disclosure are encroaching on these real issues of UAPs. These believers take mundane videos of incidents that are simply unidentified, then reframe them as evidence of extraordinary technology, which, of course, is intended to mean ‘aliens,’ even if enthusiasts for that hypothesis will not explicitly say so. This cultivates credulous media attention, which in turn creates a feedback loop of public interest, more media and then pressure on politicians to ‘do something.‘”
“A lack of data does not mean aliens are the likely answer.”
“Any time something unidentified shows up in restricted airspace, then that’s a real problem.” (Acknowledging the legitimate national security concern while separating it from extraterrestrial claims.)
Limitations
West’s analysis is strongest on the video evidence and weakest on the eyewitness testimony. His explanations for the FLIR video (Nimitz) do not fully account for Fravor’s sworn eyewitness testimony about visual observation of the object. The videos and the witness accounts are separate categories of evidence, and debunking the videos does not debunk the testimony.
West is not a physicist, military pilot, or sensor expert, though his technical analysis has been respected by several in those fields.