A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object
(usually abbreviated to UFO or U.F.O.) is an unusual apparent
anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any
known object. While a small percentage remain unexplained, the
majority of UFO sightings are often later identified as any number of
various natural phenomenon or man-made objects.
Extraterrestrial hypothesis
While technically a UFO refers to any unidentified flying object, in
modern popular culture the term UFO has generally become
synonymous with alien spacecraft. Proponents argue that because these
objects appear to be technological and not natural phenomenon, and
are alleged to display flight characteristics or have shapes seemingly
unknown to conventional technology, the conclusion is then that they
must not be from Earth.[1] [2] [3] [4] Though UFO sightings have
occurred throughout recorded history, modern interest in them dates
from World War II (see foo fighter), further fueled in the late 1940s by
Kenneth Arnold's coining of the term flying saucer and the Roswell
UFO Incident. Since then governments have investigated UFO reports,
often from a military perspective- and UFO researchers have investigated, written about, and created organizations
devoted to the subject. One such investigation, The UK's Project Condign report, notes that Russian, Former Soviet
Republics, and Chinese authorities have made a co-ordinated effort to understand the UFO topic and that State
military organizations, particularly in Russia, have done "considerably more work (than is evident from open
sources)" on military applications which have stemmed from their UFO research. The report also noted that "several
aircraft have been destroyed and at least four pilots have been killed 'chasing UFOs'."
Official White House Position
In November 2011, the White House released an official response to two petitions asking the U.S. government to
acknowledge formally that aliens have visited Earth and to disclose any intentional withholding of government
interactions with extraterrestrial beings. According to the response, "The U.S. government has no evidence that any
life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human
race."[6] [7] Also, according to the response, there is "no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being
hidden from the public's eye." The response further noted that efforts, like SETI, the Kepler space telescope and
the NASA Mars rover, continue looking for signs of life. The response noted "odds are pretty high" that there may be
life on other planets but "the odds of us making contact with any of them—especially any intelligent ones—are
extremely small, given the distances involved."
Studies
Studies have established that the majority of UFO observations are misidentified conventional objects or natural
phenomenon— most commonly aircraft, balloons, noctilucent clouds, nacreous clouds, or astronomical objects such
as meteors or bright planets with a small percentage even being hoaxes.[8] After excluding incorrect reports,
however, it is acknowledged that between 5% and 20% of reported sightings remain unexplained, and as such can be
classified as unidentified in the strictest sense. Many reports have been made by trained observers such as pilots,
police, and the military; some involve radar traces, so not all reports are visual.[9] Proponents of the extraterrestrial
hypothesis believe that these unidentified reports are of alien spacecraft, though various other hypotheses have been
proposed.
While UFOs have been the subject of extensive investigation by various governments, and some scientists support
the extraterrestrial hypothesis, few scientific papers about UFOs have been published in peer-reviewed journals.[10]
There has been some debate in the scientific community about whether any scientific investigation into UFO
sightings is warranted.[11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]
The void left by the lack of institutional scientific study has given rise to independent researchers and groups, most
notably MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) [18] and CUFOS (Center for UFO Studies).[19] The term "Ufology" is used
to describe the collective efforts of those who study reports and associated evidence of unidentified flying objects.
According to MUFON, as of 2011 the number of UFO reports to their worldwide offices has increased by 67% from
the previous 3 years, which now average around 500 reported sightings per month.[20]
UFOs have become a relevant theme in modern culture,[21] and the social phenomena have been the subject of
academic research in sociology and psychology.
Terminology
The first publicized sightings were usually referred to using the term mystery airships, which were commonly seen
and described as such during the latter part of the 19th century and the early 20th.[22]
The term foo fighters was used by American fighter pilots during World War II to refer to UFOs.
The first widely publicized U.S. sighting, reported by private pilot Kenneth Arnold in June 1947, gave rise to the
popular terms "flying saucer" and "flying disc", of which the former is still sometimes used, even though Arnold said
the most of the objects he saw were not totally circular and one was crescent-shaped (see Kenneth Arnold UFO
sighting for details). In addition, the infamous Roswell UFO Incident occurred at about the same time, which only
served to further fuel public interest in the topic.
The term "UFO" was first suggested in 1952 by Cpt. Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed Project Blue Book, then the
USAF's official investigation of UFOs. Ruppelt felt that "flying saucer" did not reflect the diversity of the sightings.
He suggested that UFO should be pronounced as a word – you-foe. However it is now usually pronounced by
forming each letter: U.F.O. His term was quickly adopted by the United States Air Force, which also briefly used
"UFOB". The Air Force initially defined UFOs as those objects that remain unidentified after scrutiny by expert
investigators,[23] though today the term UFO is often used for any unexplained sighting regardless of whether it has
been investigated.
Because the term UFO is ambiguous – referring either to any unidentified sighting, or in popular usage to alien
spacecraft – and the public and media ridicule sometimes associated with the topic, some investigators now prefer to
use other terms such as unidentified aerial phenomenon (or UAP).[24]
The equivalent acronym for UFO in Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian is OVNI (Objeto Volador No
Identificado, Objeto Voador Não Identificado, Objet volant non identifié or Oggetto Volante Non Identificato), a
term that is pronounced as one word (ov-nee).
Early history
Unexplained aerial observations have been reported throughout history. Some were undoubtedly astronomical in
nature: comets, bright meteors, one or more of the five planets that can be seen with the naked eye, planetary
conjunctions, or atmospheric optical phenomena such as parhelia and lenticular clouds. An example is Halley's
Comet, which was recorded first by Chinese astronomers in 240 B.C. and possibly as early as 467 B.C. Such
sightings throughout history were often treated as supernatural portents, angels, or other religious omens. Some
current-day UFO researchers have noticed similarities between some religious symbols in medieval paintings and
UFO reports[25] though the canonical and symbolic character of such images is documented by art historians placing
more conventional religious interpretations on such images.[26]
• Shen Kuo (1031–1095), a Song Chinese government scholar-official and prolific polymath inventor and scholar,
wrote a vivid passage in his Dream Pool Essays (1088) about an unidentified flying object. He recorded the
testimony of eyewitnesses in 11th-century Anhui and Jiangsu (especially in the city of Yangzhou), who stated that
a flying object with opening doors would shine a blinding light from its interior (from an object shaped like a
pearl) that would cast shadows from trees for ten miles in radius, and was able to take off at tremendous
speeds.
• On January 25, 1878, The Denison Daily News wrote that local farmer John Martin had reported seeing a large,
dark, circular flying object resembling a balloon flying "at wonderful speed." Martin also said it appeared to be
about the size of a saucer, the first known use of the word "saucer" in association with a UFO.[28]
• On February 28, 1904, there was a sighting by three crew members on the USS Supply 300 miles west of San
Francisco, reported by Lt. Frank Schofield, later to become Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Battle Fleet.
Schofield wrote of three bright red egg-shaped and circular objects flying in echelon formation that approached
beneath the cloud layer, then changed course and "soared" above the clouds, departing directly away from the
earth after two to three minutes. The largest had an apparent size of about six suns.[29]
• 1916 and 1926: The three oldest known pilot UFO sightings, of 1305 cataloged by NARCAP [30]. On January 31,
1916, a UK pilot near Rochford reported a row of lights, like lighted windows on a railway carriage, that rose and
disappeared. In January 1926, a pilot reported six "flying manhole covers" between Wichita, Kansas and
Colorado Springs, Colorado. In late September 1926, an airmail pilot over Nevada was forced to land by a huge,
wingless cylindrical object.[31]
• On August 5, 1926, while traveling in the Humboldt Mountains of Tibet's Kokonor region, Nicholas Roerich
reported that members of his expedition saw "something big and shiny reflecting the sun, like a huge oval moving
at great speed. Crossing our camp the thing changed in its direction from south to southwest. And we saw how it
disappeared in the intense blue sky. We even had time to take our field glasses and saw quite distinctly an oval
form with shiny surface, one side of which was brilliant from the sun.”[32] Another description by Roerich was,
"...A shiny body flying from north to south. Field glasses are at hand. It is a huge body. One side glows in the sun.
It is oval in shape. Then it somehow turns in another direction and disappears in the southwest."[33]
• In the Pacific and European theatres during World War II, "Foo-fighters" (metallic spheres, balls of light and
other shapes that followed aircraft) were reported and on occasion photographed by Allied and Axis pilots. Some
proposed Allied explanations at the time included St. Elmo's Fire, the planet Venus, hallucinations from oxygen
deprivation, or German secret weapons.[34] [35]
• On February 25, 1942, U.S. Army observers reported unidentified aircraft both visually and on radar over the Los
Angeles, California region. Antiaircraft artillery was fired at what was presumed to be Japanese planes. No
readily apparent explanation was offered, though some officials dismissed the reports of aircraft as being
triggered by anxieties over expected Japanese air attacks on California. However, Army Chief of Staff Gen.
George C. Marshall and Secretary of War Henry Stimson insisted real aircraft were involved. The incident later
became known as the Battle of Los Angeles, or the West coast air raid.
• In 1946, there were over 2000 reports, collected primarily by the Swedish military, of unidentified aerial objects
in the Scandinavian nations, along with isolated reports from France, Portugal, Italy and Greece, then referred to
as "Russian hail", and later as "ghost rockets", because it was thought that these mysterious objects were possibly
Russian tests of captured German V1 or V2 rockets. Although most were thought to be natural phenomena like
meteors, over 200 were tracked on radar and deemed to be "real physical objects" by the Swedish military. In a
1948 top secret document, the Swedish military told the USAF Europe in 1948 that some of their investigators
believed them to be extraterrestrial in origin.
The Kenneth Arnold sightings
The post World War II UFO phase in the United States began with a
famous sighting by American businessman Kenneth Arnold on June
24, 1947 while flying his private plane near Mount Rainier,
Washington. He reported seeing nine brilliantly bright objects flying
across the face of Rainier.
Although there were other 1947 U.S. sightings of similar objects that
preceded this, it was Arnold's sighting that first received significant
media attention and captured the public's imagination. Arnold
described what he saw as being "flat like a pie pan", "shaped like
saucers and were so thin I could barely see them… ", "half-moon
shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear. … they looked like a big
flat disk" (see Arnold's drawing at right), and flew "like a saucer would
if you skipped it across the water". (One of the objects, however, he
would describe later as crescent-shaped, as shown in illustration at
left.) Arnold’s descriptions were widely reported and within a few days
gave rise to the terms flying saucer and flying disk.[36] Arnold’s
sighting was followed in the next few weeks by hundreds of other reported sightings, mostly in the U.S., but in other
countries as well. After reports of the Arnold sighting hit the media, other cases began to be reported in increasing
numbers. In one instance a United Airlines crew sighting of nine more disc-like objects over Idaho on the evening of
July 4. At the time, this sighting was even more widely reported than Arnold’s and lent considerable credence to
Arnold’s report.[37]
American UFO researcher Ted Bloecher, in his comprehensive review of newspaper reports (including cases that
preceded Arnold's), found a sudden surge upwards in sightings on July 4, peaking on July 6–8. Bloecher noted that
for the next few days most American newspapers were filled with front-page stories of the new "flying saucers" or
"flying discs". Speculation as to what the flying saucers were was rampant in the newspapers. Theories ranged from
hallucinations, mass hysteria, optical illusions, hoaxes, reflections off airplanes, unusual atmospheric conditions, and
weather balloons to byproducts of atomic testing or U.S./Russian secret weapons, to even more esoteric
interdimensional or interplanetary visitors. Reports began to rapidly tail off after July 8,[38] when officials began
issuing press statements on the Roswell UFO incident, in which they explained debris found on the ground by a
rancher as being that of a weather balloon.[39]
Over several years in the 1960s, Bloecher (aided by physicist James E. McDonald) discovered 853 flying disc
sightings that year from 140 newspapers from Canada, Washington D.C, and every U.S. state except Montana.
Investigations
UFOs have been subject to investigations over the years that vary widely in scope and scientific rigor. Governments
or independent academics in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Peru, France, Belgium, Sweden,
Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Spain, and the Soviet Union are known to have investigated UFO reports at various
times. These official reports refer to the UFO of military term, and not, to the supposed alien crafts. It dose not mean
that the above-mentioned governments recognized supposed human contact with alien civilization.
Among the best known government studies are the ghost rockets investigation by the Swedish military (1946–1947),
Project Blue Book, previously Project Sign and Project Grudge, conducted by the United States Air Force from 1947
until 1969, the secret U.S. Army/Air Force Project Twinkle investigation into green fireballs (1948–1951), the secret
USAF Project Blue Book Special Report #14[41] by the Battelle Memorial Institute, and Brazilian Air Force
Operation Saucer (1977). France has had an ongoing investigation (GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN) within its space
agency CNES since 1977, as has Uruguay since 1989.
Project Sign
Project Sign in 1948 wrote a highly classified opinion (see Estimate of the Situation) that the best UFO reports
probably had an extraterrestrial explanation, as did the private but high-level French COMETA study of 1999. A top
secret Swedish military opinion given to the USAF in 1948 stated that some of their analysts believed the 1946 ghost
rockets and later flying saucers had extraterrestrial origins. (see Ghost rockets for document). In 1954, German
rocket scientist Hermann Oberth revealed an internal West German government investigation, which he headed, that
arrived at an extraterrestrial conclusion, but this study was never made public.
Project Magnet
Classified, internal reports by the Canadian Project Magnet in 1952 and 1953 also assigned high probability to
extraterrestrial origins. Publicly, however, Project Magnet, nor later Canadian defense studies, ever stated such a
conclusion.
Project Grudge
Project Sign was dismantled and became Project Grudge at the end of 1948. Angered by the low quality of
investigations by Grudge, the Air Force Director of Intelligence reorganized it as Project Blue Book in late 1951,
placing Ruppelt in charge. Blue Book closed down in 1970, using the Condon Commission's negative conclusion as
a rationale, ending the official Air Force UFO investigations. However, a 1969 USAF document, known as the
Bolender memo, plus later government documents revealed that nonpublic U.S. government UFO investigations
continued after 1970. The Bollender memo first stated that "reports of unidentified flying objects that could affect
national security… are not part of the Blue Book system," indicating that more serious UFO incidents were already
handled outside of the public Blue Book investigation. The memo then added, "reports of UFOs which could affect
national security would continue to be handled through the standard Air Force procedures designed for this
purpose."[42] In addition, in the late 1960s, there was a chapter on UFOs at the U.S. Air Force Academy in their
Space Sciences course, giving serious consideration to possible extraterrestrial origins. When word of the curriculum
became public, the Air Force in 1970 put out a statement the book was outdated and that cadets were now being
informed of Condon's negative conclusion instead.
USAF Regulation 200-2
The initially classified USAF Regulation 200-2, first issued in 1953 after the Robertson Panel, which first defined
UFOs and how information was to be collected, stated explicitly that the two reasons for studying the unexplained
cases were for national security reasons and for possible technical aspects involved, implying physical reality and
concern about national defense, but without opinion as to origins. (For example, such information would also be
considered important if UFOs had a foreign or domestic origin.) The first two known classified USAF studies in
1947 also concluded real physical aircraft were involved, but gave no opinion as to origins. (See American
investigations immediately below) These early studies led to the creation of the USAF's Project Sign at the end of
1947, the first semi-public USAF study.
Air Force Regulation 200-2,[44] issued in 1953 and 1954, defined an Unidentified Flying Object ("UFOB") as "any
airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any
presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." The regulation
also said UFOBs were to be investigated as a "possible threat to the security of the United States" and "to determine
technical aspects involved." As to what the public was to be told, "it is permissible to inform news media
representatives on UFOB's when the object is positively identified as a familiar object," but "For those objects which
are not explainable, only the fact that ATIC [Air Technical Intelligence Center] will analyze the data is worthy of
release, due to many unknowns involved."
Project Bluebook
Allen Hynek was a trained astronomer who participated in Project Bluebook after doing research as a federal
government employee. He formed the opinion that some UFO reports could not be scientifically explained. Through
his founding of the Center for UFO Studies and participation at CUFOs he spent the rest of his life researching and
documenting UFOs. The movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind had a character loosely based on Hynek.
Another group studying UFOs is Mutual UFO Network. MUFON is a grass roots based organization known for
publishing one of the first UFO investigators handbooks. This handbook went into great detail on how to document
alleged UFO sightings.
Jacques Vallée, a scientist and prominent UFO researcher, has argued that most UFO research is scientifically
deficient, including many government studies such as Project Blue Book, and that mythology and cultism are
frequently associated with the phenomenon. Vallée states that self-styled scientists often fill the vacuum left by the
lack of attention paid to the UFO phenomenon by official science, but also notes that several hundred professional
scientists continue to study UFOs in private, what he terms the "invisible college". He also argues that much could
be learned from rigorous scientific study, but that little such work has been done.
No scientific consensus
There has been little mainstream scientific study of UFOs, and the topic has received little serious attention or
support in mainstream scientific literature. Official studies ended in the U.S. in December 1969, subsequent to the
statement by Edward Condon that the study of UFOs probably could not be justified in the expectation that science
would be advanced.[13] The Condon report and these conclusions were endorsed by the National Academy of
Scientists, of which Condon was a member. However, a scientific review by the UFO subcommittee of the AIAA
disagreed with Condon's conclusion, noting that at least 30% of the cases studied remained unexplained, and that
scientific benefit might be gained by continued study.
It has been claimed that all UFO cases are anecdotal[47] and that all can be explained as prosaic natural phenomena.
On the other hand, it has been argued that there is limited awareness among scientists of observational data, other
than what is reported in the popular press.
No official government investigation has ever publicly concluded that UFOs are indisputably real, physical objects,
extraterrestrial in origin, or of concern to national defense. These same negative conclusions also have been found in
studies that were highly classified for many years, such as the UK's Flying Saucer Working Party, Project Condign,
the US CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel, the US military investigation into the green fireballs from 1948 to 1951, and
the Battelle Memorial Institute study for the USAF from 1952 to 1955 (Project Blue Book Special Report #14).
Some public government conclusions have indicated physical reality but stopped short of concluding extraterrestrial
origins, though not dismissing the possibility. Examples are the Belgian military investigation into large triangles
over their airspace in 1989–1991 and the recent 2009 Uruguay Air Force study conclusion (see below).
Some private studies have been neutral in their conclusions, but argued the inexplicable core cases called for
continued scientific study. Examples are the Sturrock Panel study of 1998 and the 1970 AIAA review of the Condon
Report.
United States
US investigations into UFOs include:
• The Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit (IPU), established by the US Army sometime in the 1940s, and about which
little is known. In 1987, British UFO researcher Timothy Good received a letter confirming the existence of the
IPU from the Army Director of Counter-intelligence, in which it was stated, "… the aforementioned Army unit
was disestablished during the late 1950s and never reactivated. All records pertaining to this unit were
surrendered to the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations in conjunction with operation BLUEBOOK."
The IPU records have never been released.[49]
• Project Blue Book, previously Project Sign and Project Grudge, conducted by the United States Air Force from
1947 until 1969
• The secret U.S. Army/Air Force Project Twinkle investigation into green fireballs (1948–1951)
• Ghost rockets investigations by the Swedish, U.K., U.S., and Greek militaries (1946–1947)
• The secret CIA Office of Scientific Investigation (OS/I) study (1952–53)
• The secret CIA Robertson Panel (1953)
• The secret USAF Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 by the Battelle Memorial Institute (1951–1954)
• The Brookings Report (1960), commissioned by NASA
• The public Condon Committee (1966–1968)
• The private, internal RAND Corporation study (1968)[50]
• The private Sturrock Panel (1998)
Thousands of documents released under FOIA also indicate that many U.S. intelligence agencies collected (and still
collect) information on UFOs, including the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), FBI, CIA, National Security
Agency (NSA), as well as military intelligence agencies of the Army and Navy, in addition to the Air Force.[51]
The investigation of UFOs has also attracted many civilians, who in the U.S formed research groups such as
National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP, active 1956–1980), Aerial Phenomena Research
Organization (APRO, 1952–1988), Mutual UFO Network (MUFON, 1969–), and Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS,
1973–).
After 1947 sightings
Following the large U.S. surge in sightings in June and early July 1947, on July 9, 1947, Army Air Force (AAF)
intelligence, in cooperation with the FBI, began a formal investigation into selected best sightings with
characteristics that could not be immediately rationalized, which included Kenneth Arnold’s and that of the United
Airlines crew. The AAF used "all of its top scientists" to determine whether or not "such a phenomenon could, in
fact, occur". The research was "being conducted with the thought that the flying objects might be a celestial
phenomenon," or that "they might be a foreign body mechanically devised and controlled."[52] Three weeks later in a
preliminary defense estimate, the air force investigation decided that, "This ‘flying saucer’ situation is not all
imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomenon. Something is really flying around."[53]
A further review by the intelligence and technical divisions of the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field reached
the same conclusion, that "the phenomenon is something real and not visionary or fictitious," that there were objects
in the shape of a disc, metallic in appearance, and as big as man-made aircraft. They were characterized by "extreme
rates of climb [and] maneuverability," general lack of noise, absence of trail, occasional formation flying, and
"evasive" behavior "when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and radar," suggesting a controlled craft. It was
thus recommended in late September 1947 that an official Air Force investigation be set up to investigate the
phenomenon. It was also recommended that other government agencies should assist in the investigation.
Project Sign
This led to the creation of the Air Force’s Project Sign at the end of 1947, one of the earliest government studies to
come to a secret extraterrestrial conclusion. In August 1948, Sign investigators wrote a top-secret intelligence
estimate to that effect. The Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg ordered it destroyed. The existence of this
suppressed report was revealed by several insiders who had read it, such as astronomer and USAF consultant J.
Allen Hynek and Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, the first head of the USAF's Project Blue Book.[55]
Another highly classified U.S. study was conducted by the CIA's Office of Scientific Investigation (OS/I) in the
latter half of 1952 after being directed to do so by the National Security Council (NSC). They concluded UFOs were
real physical objects of potential threat to national security. One OS/I memo to the CIA Director (DCI) in December
read, "...the reports of incidents convince us that there is something going on that must have immediate attention...
Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense
installations are of such a nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or any known types of aerial
vehicles." The matter was considered so urgent, that OS/I drafted a memorandum from the DCI to the NSC
proposing that the NSC establish an investigation of UFOs as a priority project throughout the intelligence and the
defense research and development community. They also urged the DCI to establish an external research project of
top-level scientists to study the problem of UFOs, now known as the Robertson Panel, to further analyze the matter.
The OS/I investigation was called off after the Robertson Panel's negative conclusions in January 1953.
Condon Committee
A public research effort conducted by the Condon Committee for the USAF, which arrived at a negative conclusion
in 1968, marked the end of the US government's official investigation of UFOs, though documents indicate various
government intelligence agencies continue unofficially to investigate or monitor the situation.[57]
Controversy has surrounded the Condon report, both before and after it was released. It has been claimed that the
report was "harshly criticized by numerous scientists, particularly at the powerful AIAA … [who] recommended
moderate, but continuous scientific work on UFOs".[13] In an address made to the AAAS, James E. McDonald stated
that he believed science had failed to mount adequate studies of the problem, criticizing the Condon report and prior
studies by the US Air Force for being scientifically deficient. He also questioned the basis for Condon's
conclusions[58] and argued that the reports of UFOs have been "laughed out of scientific court."[12] J. Allen Hynek,
an astronomer whose position as USAF consultant from 1948 made him perhaps the most knowledgeable scientist
connected with the subject, sharply criticized the report of the Condon Committee and later wrote two nontechnical
books that set forth the case for investigating seemingly baffling UFO reports.
Ruppelt recounted his experiences with Project Blue Book in his memoir, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
(1956).
Notable cases
• The Battle of Los Angeles in 1942, where unidentified flying objects were sequently thought to be part of a
Japanese airstrike.
• The Roswell Incident (1947) involved New Mexico residents, local law enforcement officers, and the US
military, the latter of whom allegedly collected physical evidence from the UFO crash site.
• The Mantell UFO Incident January 7, 1948
• The Betty and Barney Hill abduction (1961) was the first reported abduction incident.
• In the Kecksburg Incident, Pennsylvania (1965), residents reported seeing a bell shaped object crash in the area.
Police officers, and possibly military personnel, were sent to investigate.
• The Travis Walton abduction case (1975): The movie Fire in the Sky was based on this event, but embellished
greatly the original account.
• The "Phoenix Lights" March 13, 1997
Canada
In Canada, the Department of National Defence has dealt with reports, sightings and investigations of UFOs across
Canada. In addition to conducting investigations into crop circles in Duhamel, Alberta, it still considers "unsolved"
the Falcon Lake incident in Manitoba and the Shag Harbour incident in Nova Scotia.[60]
Early Canadian studies included Project Magnet (1950–1954) and Project Second Story (1952–1954), supported by
the Defence Research Board. These studies were headed by Canadian Department of Transport radio engineer
Wilbert B. Smith, who later publicly supported extraterrestrial origins.
In the Shag Harbour incident, a large object sequentially flashing lights was seen and heard to dive into the water by
multiple witnesses. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and many local residents also witnessed a light floating on
the water immediately afterward, and a large patch of unusual yellow foam when a water search was initiated.
Multiple government agencies were eventually involved in trying to identify the crashed object and searching for it.
Canadian naval divers later purportedly found no wreckage. In official documents, the object was called a "UFO"
because no conventional explanation for the crashed object was discovered. Around the same time, both the
Canadian and US military were involved in another UFO-related search at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, approximately 30
miles from Shag Harbour.
France
On March 2007, the French Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) published an archive of UFO sightings and
other phenomena online.[61]
French studies include GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN (1977–), within the French space agency CNES, the longest
ongoing government-sponsored investigation. About 14% of some 6000 cases studied remained unexplained. The
official opinion of GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN has been neutral or negative, but the three heads of the studies have
gone on record in stating that UFOs were real physical flying machines beyond our knowledge or that the best
explanation for the most inexplicable cases was an extraterrestrial one.[62]
The French COMETA panel (1996–1999) was a private study undertaken mostly by aerospace scientists and
engineers affiliated with CNES and high-level French Air Force military intelligence analysts, with ultimate
distribution of their study intended for high government officials. The COMETA panel likewise concluded the best
explanation for the inexplicable cases was the extraterrestrial hypothesis and went further in accusing the United
States government of a massive cover-up.
United Kingdom
The UK's Flying Saucer Working Party published its final report in 1951, which remained secret for over 50 years.
The Working Party concluded that all UFO sightings could be explained as misidentifications of ordinary objects or
phenomena, optical illusions, psychological misperceptions/aberrations, or hoaxes. The report stated: "We
accordingly recommend very strongly that no further investigation of reported mysterious aerial phenomena be
undertaken, unless and until some material evidence becomes available."
Eight file collections on UFO sightings, dating from 1978 to 1987, were first released on May 14, 2008, to the UK
National Archives by the Ministry of Defence.[64] Although kept secret from the public for many years, most of the
files have low levels of classification and none are classified Top Secret. 200 files are set to be made public by 2012.
The files are correspondence from the public sent to government officials, such as the MoD and Margaret Thatcher.
The MoD released the files under the Freedom of Information Act due to requests from researchers.[65] These files
include, but are not limited to, UFOs over Liverpool and the Waterloo Bridge in London.[66]
On October 20, 2008 more UFO files were released. One case released detailed that in 1991 an Alitalia passenger
aircraft was approaching Heathrow Airport when the pilots saw what they described as a "cruise missile" fly
extremely close to the cockpit. The pilots believed that a collision was imminent. UFO expert David Clarke says that
this is one of the most convincing cases for a UFO he has come across.[67]
A secret study of UFOs was undertaken for the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) between 1996 and 2000 and was
code-named Project Condign. The resulting report, titled "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Defence
Region", was publicly released in 2006, but the identity and credentials of whomever constituted Project Condign
remains classified. The report confirmed earlier findings that the main causes of UFO sightings are misidentification
of man-made and natural objects. The report noted: "No artefacts of unknown or unexplained origin have been
reported or handed to the UK authorities, despite thousands of UAP reports. There are no SIGINT, ELINT or
radiation measurements and little useful video or still IMINT." It concluded: "There is no evidence that any UAP,
seen in the UKADR [UK Air Defence Region], are incursions by air-objects of any intelligent (extraterrestrial or
foreign) origin, or that they represent any hostile intent." A little-discussed conclusion of the report was that novel
meteorological plasma phenomenon akin to Ball Lightning are responsible for "the majority, if not all" of otherwise
inexplicable sightings, especially reports of Black Triangle UFOs.[68]
In August 2009 The Black Vault internet archive announced the release by the British government of more than
4,000 pages of declassified records.[69] The records include information on the Rendlesham Forest incident, crop
circles, a UFO attack on a cemetery and even reports of alien abduction claims.[70]
On December 1, 2009, the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) quietly closed down its UFO investigations unit. The
unit's hotline and email address were suspended by the Ministry of Defense on that date. The MoD said there was no
value in continuing to receive and investigate sightings in a release, stating
"... in over fifty years, no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a potential threat to the United
Kingdom. The MoD has no specific capability for identifying the nature of such sightings. There is no
Defence benefit in such investigation and it would be an inappropriate use of defence resources.
Furthermore, responding to reported UFO sightings diverts MoD resources from tasks that are relevant
to Defence."
The Guardian reported that the MoD claimed the closure would save the Ministry around £50,000 a year. The MoD
said that it would continue to release UFO files to the public through the National Archives.
Notable cases
• According to records released on August 5, 2010, British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill banned the
reporting for 50 years of an alleged UFO incident because of fears it could create mass panic. Reports given to
Churchill claimed the incident allegedly involved an RAF reconnaissance plane returning from a mission in
France or Germany toward the end of the Second World War. It was over or near the English coastline when it
was allegedly suddenly intercepted by a strange metallic object that matched the aircraft's course and speed for a
time before accelerating away and disappearing. The plane's crew were reported to have photographed the object,
which they said had "hovered noiselessly" near the aircraft, before moving off.[72] According to the documents,
details of the coverup emerged when the man wrote to the government in 1999 seeking to find out more about the
incident. He described how his grandfather, who had served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Second World
War, was present when Churchill and U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower discussed how to deal with the UFO
encounter.[73] [74] The files come from more than 5,000 pages of UFO reports and letters and drawings from
members of the public, as well as questions raised by MPs in Parliament. They are available to download for free
for a month from The National Archives website.[75]
• In April 1957 the West Freugh Incident (named after RAF West Freugh in Scotland, the principal military base
involved) occurred. Two unidentified objects flying very high over the UK were tracked by radar operators. The
objects were reported to operate at speeds and perform manuveres beyond the capability of any known craft. Also
significant is their alleged size which – based on the radar returns – was closer to that of a ship than an aircraft.
• In the Rendlesham Forest incident of December 1980, US military personnel witnessed UFOs in the forest near
the air base at Woodbridge, Suffolk, over a period of three nights. On one night the deputy base commander, Col.
Charles Halt, and other personnel followed one or more UFOs which were moving in and above the forest for
several hours. He made an audio recording while this was happening, and subsequently wrote an official
memorandum summarizing the incident. After his retirement he said that he deliberately downplayed the
importance of the event at the time (which was headed 'Unexplained Lights' in the memorandum) to avoid
damaging his career. Other base personnel claim to have observed one of the UFOs which had landed in the forest
from close quarters for a long time, and even gone up to and touched it.
Uruguay
The Uruguayan Air Force has been conducting an ongoing UFO investigation since 1989 and analyzed 2100 cases,
of which they regard only 40 (about 2%) as definitely lacking any conventional explanation. All files have recently
been declassified. The unexplained cases include military jet interceptions, abductions, cattle mutilations, and
physical landing trace evidence. Colonel Ariel Sanchez, who currently heads the investigation, summarized its
findings as follows: "The commission managed to determine modifications to the chemical composition of the soil
where landings are reported. The phenomenon exists. It could be a phenomenon that occurs in the lower sectors of
the atmosphere, the landing of aircraft from a foreign air force, up to the extraterrestrial hypothesis. It could be a
monitoring probe from outer space, much in the same way that we send probes to explore distant worlds. The UFO
phenomenon exists in the country. I must stress that the Air Force does not dismiss an extraterrestrial hypothesis
based on our scientific analysis."
Astronomer reports
The United States Air Force's Project Blue Book files indicate that approximately 1 %[77] of all unknown reports
came from amateur and professional astronomers or other users of telescopes (such as missile trackers or surveyors).
In 1952, astronomer J. Allen Hynek, then a consultant to Blue Book, conducted a small survey of 45 fellow
professional astronomers. Five reported UFO sightings (about 11%). In the 1970s, astrophysicist Peter A. Sturrock
conducted two large surveys of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and American Astronomical
Society. About 5 % of the members polled indicated that they had had UFO sightings.
Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who admitted to six UFO sightings, including three green fireballs, supported the
Extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) for UFOs and stated he thought scientists who dismissed it without study were
being "unscientific". Another astronomer was Lincoln LaPaz, who had headed the Air Force's investigation into the
green fireballs and other UFO phenomena in New Mexico. LaPaz reported two personal sightings, one of a green
fireball, the other of an anomalous disc-like object. (Both Tombaugh and LaPaz were part of Hynek's 1952 survey.)
Hynek himself took two photos through the window of a commercial airliner of a disc-like object that seemed to
pace his aircraft.[78] Even later UFO debunker Donald Menzel filed a UFO report in 1949.
In 1980, a survey of 1800 members of various amateur astronomer associations by Gert Helb and Hynek for the
Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) found that 24 % responded "yes" to the question "Have you ever observed an
object which resisted your most exhaustive efforts at identification?"
(usually abbreviated to UFO or U.F.O.) is an unusual apparent
anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any
known object. While a small percentage remain unexplained, the
majority of UFO sightings are often later identified as any number of
various natural phenomenon or man-made objects.
Extraterrestrial hypothesis
While technically a UFO refers to any unidentified flying object, in
modern popular culture the term UFO has generally become
synonymous with alien spacecraft. Proponents argue that because these
objects appear to be technological and not natural phenomenon, and
are alleged to display flight characteristics or have shapes seemingly
unknown to conventional technology, the conclusion is then that they
must not be from Earth.[1] [2] [3] [4] Though UFO sightings have
occurred throughout recorded history, modern interest in them dates
from World War II (see foo fighter), further fueled in the late 1940s by
Kenneth Arnold's coining of the term flying saucer and the Roswell
UFO Incident. Since then governments have investigated UFO reports,
often from a military perspective- and UFO researchers have investigated, written about, and created organizations
devoted to the subject. One such investigation, The UK's Project Condign report, notes that Russian, Former Soviet
Republics, and Chinese authorities have made a co-ordinated effort to understand the UFO topic and that State
military organizations, particularly in Russia, have done "considerably more work (than is evident from open
sources)" on military applications which have stemmed from their UFO research. The report also noted that "several
aircraft have been destroyed and at least four pilots have been killed 'chasing UFOs'."
Official White House Position
In November 2011, the White House released an official response to two petitions asking the U.S. government to
acknowledge formally that aliens have visited Earth and to disclose any intentional withholding of government
interactions with extraterrestrial beings. According to the response, "The U.S. government has no evidence that any
life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human
race."[6] [7] Also, according to the response, there is "no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being
hidden from the public's eye." The response further noted that efforts, like SETI, the Kepler space telescope and
the NASA Mars rover, continue looking for signs of life. The response noted "odds are pretty high" that there may be
life on other planets but "the odds of us making contact with any of them—especially any intelligent ones—are
extremely small, given the distances involved."
Studies
Studies have established that the majority of UFO observations are misidentified conventional objects or natural
phenomenon— most commonly aircraft, balloons, noctilucent clouds, nacreous clouds, or astronomical objects such
as meteors or bright planets with a small percentage even being hoaxes.[8] After excluding incorrect reports,
however, it is acknowledged that between 5% and 20% of reported sightings remain unexplained, and as such can be
classified as unidentified in the strictest sense. Many reports have been made by trained observers such as pilots,
police, and the military; some involve radar traces, so not all reports are visual.[9] Proponents of the extraterrestrial
hypothesis believe that these unidentified reports are of alien spacecraft, though various other hypotheses have been
proposed.
While UFOs have been the subject of extensive investigation by various governments, and some scientists support
the extraterrestrial hypothesis, few scientific papers about UFOs have been published in peer-reviewed journals.[10]
There has been some debate in the scientific community about whether any scientific investigation into UFO
sightings is warranted.[11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]
The void left by the lack of institutional scientific study has given rise to independent researchers and groups, most
notably MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) [18] and CUFOS (Center for UFO Studies).[19] The term "Ufology" is used
to describe the collective efforts of those who study reports and associated evidence of unidentified flying objects.
According to MUFON, as of 2011 the number of UFO reports to their worldwide offices has increased by 67% from
the previous 3 years, which now average around 500 reported sightings per month.[20]
UFOs have become a relevant theme in modern culture,[21] and the social phenomena have been the subject of
academic research in sociology and psychology.
Terminology
The first publicized sightings were usually referred to using the term mystery airships, which were commonly seen
and described as such during the latter part of the 19th century and the early 20th.[22]
The term foo fighters was used by American fighter pilots during World War II to refer to UFOs.
The first widely publicized U.S. sighting, reported by private pilot Kenneth Arnold in June 1947, gave rise to the
popular terms "flying saucer" and "flying disc", of which the former is still sometimes used, even though Arnold said
the most of the objects he saw were not totally circular and one was crescent-shaped (see Kenneth Arnold UFO
sighting for details). In addition, the infamous Roswell UFO Incident occurred at about the same time, which only
served to further fuel public interest in the topic.
The term "UFO" was first suggested in 1952 by Cpt. Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed Project Blue Book, then the
USAF's official investigation of UFOs. Ruppelt felt that "flying saucer" did not reflect the diversity of the sightings.
He suggested that UFO should be pronounced as a word – you-foe. However it is now usually pronounced by
forming each letter: U.F.O. His term was quickly adopted by the United States Air Force, which also briefly used
"UFOB". The Air Force initially defined UFOs as those objects that remain unidentified after scrutiny by expert
investigators,[23] though today the term UFO is often used for any unexplained sighting regardless of whether it has
been investigated.
Because the term UFO is ambiguous – referring either to any unidentified sighting, or in popular usage to alien
spacecraft – and the public and media ridicule sometimes associated with the topic, some investigators now prefer to
use other terms such as unidentified aerial phenomenon (or UAP).[24]
The equivalent acronym for UFO in Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian is OVNI (Objeto Volador No
Identificado, Objeto Voador Não Identificado, Objet volant non identifié or Oggetto Volante Non Identificato), a
term that is pronounced as one word (ov-nee).
Early history
Unexplained aerial observations have been reported throughout history. Some were undoubtedly astronomical in
nature: comets, bright meteors, one or more of the five planets that can be seen with the naked eye, planetary
conjunctions, or atmospheric optical phenomena such as parhelia and lenticular clouds. An example is Halley's
Comet, which was recorded first by Chinese astronomers in 240 B.C. and possibly as early as 467 B.C. Such
sightings throughout history were often treated as supernatural portents, angels, or other religious omens. Some
current-day UFO researchers have noticed similarities between some religious symbols in medieval paintings and
UFO reports[25] though the canonical and symbolic character of such images is documented by art historians placing
more conventional religious interpretations on such images.[26]
• Shen Kuo (1031–1095), a Song Chinese government scholar-official and prolific polymath inventor and scholar,
wrote a vivid passage in his Dream Pool Essays (1088) about an unidentified flying object. He recorded the
testimony of eyewitnesses in 11th-century Anhui and Jiangsu (especially in the city of Yangzhou), who stated that
a flying object with opening doors would shine a blinding light from its interior (from an object shaped like a
pearl) that would cast shadows from trees for ten miles in radius, and was able to take off at tremendous
speeds.
• On January 25, 1878, The Denison Daily News wrote that local farmer John Martin had reported seeing a large,
dark, circular flying object resembling a balloon flying "at wonderful speed." Martin also said it appeared to be
about the size of a saucer, the first known use of the word "saucer" in association with a UFO.[28]
• On February 28, 1904, there was a sighting by three crew members on the USS Supply 300 miles west of San
Francisco, reported by Lt. Frank Schofield, later to become Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Battle Fleet.
Schofield wrote of three bright red egg-shaped and circular objects flying in echelon formation that approached
beneath the cloud layer, then changed course and "soared" above the clouds, departing directly away from the
earth after two to three minutes. The largest had an apparent size of about six suns.[29]
• 1916 and 1926: The three oldest known pilot UFO sightings, of 1305 cataloged by NARCAP [30]. On January 31,
1916, a UK pilot near Rochford reported a row of lights, like lighted windows on a railway carriage, that rose and
disappeared. In January 1926, a pilot reported six "flying manhole covers" between Wichita, Kansas and
Colorado Springs, Colorado. In late September 1926, an airmail pilot over Nevada was forced to land by a huge,
wingless cylindrical object.[31]
• On August 5, 1926, while traveling in the Humboldt Mountains of Tibet's Kokonor region, Nicholas Roerich
reported that members of his expedition saw "something big and shiny reflecting the sun, like a huge oval moving
at great speed. Crossing our camp the thing changed in its direction from south to southwest. And we saw how it
disappeared in the intense blue sky. We even had time to take our field glasses and saw quite distinctly an oval
form with shiny surface, one side of which was brilliant from the sun.”[32] Another description by Roerich was,
"...A shiny body flying from north to south. Field glasses are at hand. It is a huge body. One side glows in the sun.
It is oval in shape. Then it somehow turns in another direction and disappears in the southwest."[33]
• In the Pacific and European theatres during World War II, "Foo-fighters" (metallic spheres, balls of light and
other shapes that followed aircraft) were reported and on occasion photographed by Allied and Axis pilots. Some
proposed Allied explanations at the time included St. Elmo's Fire, the planet Venus, hallucinations from oxygen
deprivation, or German secret weapons.[34] [35]
• On February 25, 1942, U.S. Army observers reported unidentified aircraft both visually and on radar over the Los
Angeles, California region. Antiaircraft artillery was fired at what was presumed to be Japanese planes. No
readily apparent explanation was offered, though some officials dismissed the reports of aircraft as being
triggered by anxieties over expected Japanese air attacks on California. However, Army Chief of Staff Gen.
George C. Marshall and Secretary of War Henry Stimson insisted real aircraft were involved. The incident later
became known as the Battle of Los Angeles, or the West coast air raid.
• In 1946, there were over 2000 reports, collected primarily by the Swedish military, of unidentified aerial objects
in the Scandinavian nations, along with isolated reports from France, Portugal, Italy and Greece, then referred to
as "Russian hail", and later as "ghost rockets", because it was thought that these mysterious objects were possibly
Russian tests of captured German V1 or V2 rockets. Although most were thought to be natural phenomena like
meteors, over 200 were tracked on radar and deemed to be "real physical objects" by the Swedish military. In a
1948 top secret document, the Swedish military told the USAF Europe in 1948 that some of their investigators
believed them to be extraterrestrial in origin.
The Kenneth Arnold sightings
The post World War II UFO phase in the United States began with a
famous sighting by American businessman Kenneth Arnold on June
24, 1947 while flying his private plane near Mount Rainier,
Washington. He reported seeing nine brilliantly bright objects flying
across the face of Rainier.
Although there were other 1947 U.S. sightings of similar objects that
preceded this, it was Arnold's sighting that first received significant
media attention and captured the public's imagination. Arnold
described what he saw as being "flat like a pie pan", "shaped like
saucers and were so thin I could barely see them… ", "half-moon
shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear. … they looked like a big
flat disk" (see Arnold's drawing at right), and flew "like a saucer would
if you skipped it across the water". (One of the objects, however, he
would describe later as crescent-shaped, as shown in illustration at
left.) Arnold’s descriptions were widely reported and within a few days
gave rise to the terms flying saucer and flying disk.[36] Arnold’s
sighting was followed in the next few weeks by hundreds of other reported sightings, mostly in the U.S., but in other
countries as well. After reports of the Arnold sighting hit the media, other cases began to be reported in increasing
numbers. In one instance a United Airlines crew sighting of nine more disc-like objects over Idaho on the evening of
July 4. At the time, this sighting was even more widely reported than Arnold’s and lent considerable credence to
Arnold’s report.[37]
American UFO researcher Ted Bloecher, in his comprehensive review of newspaper reports (including cases that
preceded Arnold's), found a sudden surge upwards in sightings on July 4, peaking on July 6–8. Bloecher noted that
for the next few days most American newspapers were filled with front-page stories of the new "flying saucers" or
"flying discs". Speculation as to what the flying saucers were was rampant in the newspapers. Theories ranged from
hallucinations, mass hysteria, optical illusions, hoaxes, reflections off airplanes, unusual atmospheric conditions, and
weather balloons to byproducts of atomic testing or U.S./Russian secret weapons, to even more esoteric
interdimensional or interplanetary visitors. Reports began to rapidly tail off after July 8,[38] when officials began
issuing press statements on the Roswell UFO incident, in which they explained debris found on the ground by a
rancher as being that of a weather balloon.[39]
Over several years in the 1960s, Bloecher (aided by physicist James E. McDonald) discovered 853 flying disc
sightings that year from 140 newspapers from Canada, Washington D.C, and every U.S. state except Montana.
Investigations
UFOs have been subject to investigations over the years that vary widely in scope and scientific rigor. Governments
or independent academics in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Peru, France, Belgium, Sweden,
Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Spain, and the Soviet Union are known to have investigated UFO reports at various
times. These official reports refer to the UFO of military term, and not, to the supposed alien crafts. It dose not mean
that the above-mentioned governments recognized supposed human contact with alien civilization.
Among the best known government studies are the ghost rockets investigation by the Swedish military (1946–1947),
Project Blue Book, previously Project Sign and Project Grudge, conducted by the United States Air Force from 1947
until 1969, the secret U.S. Army/Air Force Project Twinkle investigation into green fireballs (1948–1951), the secret
USAF Project Blue Book Special Report #14[41] by the Battelle Memorial Institute, and Brazilian Air Force
Operation Saucer (1977). France has had an ongoing investigation (GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN) within its space
agency CNES since 1977, as has Uruguay since 1989.
Project Sign
Project Sign in 1948 wrote a highly classified opinion (see Estimate of the Situation) that the best UFO reports
probably had an extraterrestrial explanation, as did the private but high-level French COMETA study of 1999. A top
secret Swedish military opinion given to the USAF in 1948 stated that some of their analysts believed the 1946 ghost
rockets and later flying saucers had extraterrestrial origins. (see Ghost rockets for document). In 1954, German
rocket scientist Hermann Oberth revealed an internal West German government investigation, which he headed, that
arrived at an extraterrestrial conclusion, but this study was never made public.
Project Magnet
Classified, internal reports by the Canadian Project Magnet in 1952 and 1953 also assigned high probability to
extraterrestrial origins. Publicly, however, Project Magnet, nor later Canadian defense studies, ever stated such a
conclusion.
Project Grudge
Project Sign was dismantled and became Project Grudge at the end of 1948. Angered by the low quality of
investigations by Grudge, the Air Force Director of Intelligence reorganized it as Project Blue Book in late 1951,
placing Ruppelt in charge. Blue Book closed down in 1970, using the Condon Commission's negative conclusion as
a rationale, ending the official Air Force UFO investigations. However, a 1969 USAF document, known as the
Bolender memo, plus later government documents revealed that nonpublic U.S. government UFO investigations
continued after 1970. The Bollender memo first stated that "reports of unidentified flying objects that could affect
national security… are not part of the Blue Book system," indicating that more serious UFO incidents were already
handled outside of the public Blue Book investigation. The memo then added, "reports of UFOs which could affect
national security would continue to be handled through the standard Air Force procedures designed for this
purpose."[42] In addition, in the late 1960s, there was a chapter on UFOs at the U.S. Air Force Academy in their
Space Sciences course, giving serious consideration to possible extraterrestrial origins. When word of the curriculum
became public, the Air Force in 1970 put out a statement the book was outdated and that cadets were now being
informed of Condon's negative conclusion instead.
USAF Regulation 200-2
The initially classified USAF Regulation 200-2, first issued in 1953 after the Robertson Panel, which first defined
UFOs and how information was to be collected, stated explicitly that the two reasons for studying the unexplained
cases were for national security reasons and for possible technical aspects involved, implying physical reality and
concern about national defense, but without opinion as to origins. (For example, such information would also be
considered important if UFOs had a foreign or domestic origin.) The first two known classified USAF studies in
1947 also concluded real physical aircraft were involved, but gave no opinion as to origins. (See American
investigations immediately below) These early studies led to the creation of the USAF's Project Sign at the end of
1947, the first semi-public USAF study.
Air Force Regulation 200-2,[44] issued in 1953 and 1954, defined an Unidentified Flying Object ("UFOB") as "any
airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any
presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." The regulation
also said UFOBs were to be investigated as a "possible threat to the security of the United States" and "to determine
technical aspects involved." As to what the public was to be told, "it is permissible to inform news media
representatives on UFOB's when the object is positively identified as a familiar object," but "For those objects which
are not explainable, only the fact that ATIC [Air Technical Intelligence Center] will analyze the data is worthy of
release, due to many unknowns involved."
Project Bluebook
Allen Hynek was a trained astronomer who participated in Project Bluebook after doing research as a federal
government employee. He formed the opinion that some UFO reports could not be scientifically explained. Through
his founding of the Center for UFO Studies and participation at CUFOs he spent the rest of his life researching and
documenting UFOs. The movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind had a character loosely based on Hynek.
Another group studying UFOs is Mutual UFO Network. MUFON is a grass roots based organization known for
publishing one of the first UFO investigators handbooks. This handbook went into great detail on how to document
alleged UFO sightings.
Jacques Vallée, a scientist and prominent UFO researcher, has argued that most UFO research is scientifically
deficient, including many government studies such as Project Blue Book, and that mythology and cultism are
frequently associated with the phenomenon. Vallée states that self-styled scientists often fill the vacuum left by the
lack of attention paid to the UFO phenomenon by official science, but also notes that several hundred professional
scientists continue to study UFOs in private, what he terms the "invisible college". He also argues that much could
be learned from rigorous scientific study, but that little such work has been done.
No scientific consensus
There has been little mainstream scientific study of UFOs, and the topic has received little serious attention or
support in mainstream scientific literature. Official studies ended in the U.S. in December 1969, subsequent to the
statement by Edward Condon that the study of UFOs probably could not be justified in the expectation that science
would be advanced.[13] The Condon report and these conclusions were endorsed by the National Academy of
Scientists, of which Condon was a member. However, a scientific review by the UFO subcommittee of the AIAA
disagreed with Condon's conclusion, noting that at least 30% of the cases studied remained unexplained, and that
scientific benefit might be gained by continued study.
It has been claimed that all UFO cases are anecdotal[47] and that all can be explained as prosaic natural phenomena.
On the other hand, it has been argued that there is limited awareness among scientists of observational data, other
than what is reported in the popular press.
No official government investigation has ever publicly concluded that UFOs are indisputably real, physical objects,
extraterrestrial in origin, or of concern to national defense. These same negative conclusions also have been found in
studies that were highly classified for many years, such as the UK's Flying Saucer Working Party, Project Condign,
the US CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel, the US military investigation into the green fireballs from 1948 to 1951, and
the Battelle Memorial Institute study for the USAF from 1952 to 1955 (Project Blue Book Special Report #14).
Some public government conclusions have indicated physical reality but stopped short of concluding extraterrestrial
origins, though not dismissing the possibility. Examples are the Belgian military investigation into large triangles
over their airspace in 1989–1991 and the recent 2009 Uruguay Air Force study conclusion (see below).
Some private studies have been neutral in their conclusions, but argued the inexplicable core cases called for
continued scientific study. Examples are the Sturrock Panel study of 1998 and the 1970 AIAA review of the Condon
Report.
United States
US investigations into UFOs include:
• The Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit (IPU), established by the US Army sometime in the 1940s, and about which
little is known. In 1987, British UFO researcher Timothy Good received a letter confirming the existence of the
IPU from the Army Director of Counter-intelligence, in which it was stated, "… the aforementioned Army unit
was disestablished during the late 1950s and never reactivated. All records pertaining to this unit were
surrendered to the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations in conjunction with operation BLUEBOOK."
The IPU records have never been released.[49]
• Project Blue Book, previously Project Sign and Project Grudge, conducted by the United States Air Force from
1947 until 1969
• The secret U.S. Army/Air Force Project Twinkle investigation into green fireballs (1948–1951)
• Ghost rockets investigations by the Swedish, U.K., U.S., and Greek militaries (1946–1947)
• The secret CIA Office of Scientific Investigation (OS/I) study (1952–53)
• The secret CIA Robertson Panel (1953)
• The secret USAF Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 by the Battelle Memorial Institute (1951–1954)
• The Brookings Report (1960), commissioned by NASA
• The public Condon Committee (1966–1968)
• The private, internal RAND Corporation study (1968)[50]
• The private Sturrock Panel (1998)
Thousands of documents released under FOIA also indicate that many U.S. intelligence agencies collected (and still
collect) information on UFOs, including the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), FBI, CIA, National Security
Agency (NSA), as well as military intelligence agencies of the Army and Navy, in addition to the Air Force.[51]
The investigation of UFOs has also attracted many civilians, who in the U.S formed research groups such as
National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP, active 1956–1980), Aerial Phenomena Research
Organization (APRO, 1952–1988), Mutual UFO Network (MUFON, 1969–), and Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS,
1973–).
After 1947 sightings
Following the large U.S. surge in sightings in June and early July 1947, on July 9, 1947, Army Air Force (AAF)
intelligence, in cooperation with the FBI, began a formal investigation into selected best sightings with
characteristics that could not be immediately rationalized, which included Kenneth Arnold’s and that of the United
Airlines crew. The AAF used "all of its top scientists" to determine whether or not "such a phenomenon could, in
fact, occur". The research was "being conducted with the thought that the flying objects might be a celestial
phenomenon," or that "they might be a foreign body mechanically devised and controlled."[52] Three weeks later in a
preliminary defense estimate, the air force investigation decided that, "This ‘flying saucer’ situation is not all
imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomenon. Something is really flying around."[53]
A further review by the intelligence and technical divisions of the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field reached
the same conclusion, that "the phenomenon is something real and not visionary or fictitious," that there were objects
in the shape of a disc, metallic in appearance, and as big as man-made aircraft. They were characterized by "extreme
rates of climb [and] maneuverability," general lack of noise, absence of trail, occasional formation flying, and
"evasive" behavior "when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and radar," suggesting a controlled craft. It was
thus recommended in late September 1947 that an official Air Force investigation be set up to investigate the
phenomenon. It was also recommended that other government agencies should assist in the investigation.
Project Sign
This led to the creation of the Air Force’s Project Sign at the end of 1947, one of the earliest government studies to
come to a secret extraterrestrial conclusion. In August 1948, Sign investigators wrote a top-secret intelligence
estimate to that effect. The Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg ordered it destroyed. The existence of this
suppressed report was revealed by several insiders who had read it, such as astronomer and USAF consultant J.
Allen Hynek and Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, the first head of the USAF's Project Blue Book.[55]
Another highly classified U.S. study was conducted by the CIA's Office of Scientific Investigation (OS/I) in the
latter half of 1952 after being directed to do so by the National Security Council (NSC). They concluded UFOs were
real physical objects of potential threat to national security. One OS/I memo to the CIA Director (DCI) in December
read, "...the reports of incidents convince us that there is something going on that must have immediate attention...
Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense
installations are of such a nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or any known types of aerial
vehicles." The matter was considered so urgent, that OS/I drafted a memorandum from the DCI to the NSC
proposing that the NSC establish an investigation of UFOs as a priority project throughout the intelligence and the
defense research and development community. They also urged the DCI to establish an external research project of
top-level scientists to study the problem of UFOs, now known as the Robertson Panel, to further analyze the matter.
The OS/I investigation was called off after the Robertson Panel's negative conclusions in January 1953.
Condon Committee
A public research effort conducted by the Condon Committee for the USAF, which arrived at a negative conclusion
in 1968, marked the end of the US government's official investigation of UFOs, though documents indicate various
government intelligence agencies continue unofficially to investigate or monitor the situation.[57]
Controversy has surrounded the Condon report, both before and after it was released. It has been claimed that the
report was "harshly criticized by numerous scientists, particularly at the powerful AIAA … [who] recommended
moderate, but continuous scientific work on UFOs".[13] In an address made to the AAAS, James E. McDonald stated
that he believed science had failed to mount adequate studies of the problem, criticizing the Condon report and prior
studies by the US Air Force for being scientifically deficient. He also questioned the basis for Condon's
conclusions[58] and argued that the reports of UFOs have been "laughed out of scientific court."[12] J. Allen Hynek,
an astronomer whose position as USAF consultant from 1948 made him perhaps the most knowledgeable scientist
connected with the subject, sharply criticized the report of the Condon Committee and later wrote two nontechnical
books that set forth the case for investigating seemingly baffling UFO reports.
Ruppelt recounted his experiences with Project Blue Book in his memoir, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
(1956).
Notable cases
• The Battle of Los Angeles in 1942, where unidentified flying objects were sequently thought to be part of a
Japanese airstrike.
• The Roswell Incident (1947) involved New Mexico residents, local law enforcement officers, and the US
military, the latter of whom allegedly collected physical evidence from the UFO crash site.
• The Mantell UFO Incident January 7, 1948
• The Betty and Barney Hill abduction (1961) was the first reported abduction incident.
• In the Kecksburg Incident, Pennsylvania (1965), residents reported seeing a bell shaped object crash in the area.
Police officers, and possibly military personnel, were sent to investigate.
• The Travis Walton abduction case (1975): The movie Fire in the Sky was based on this event, but embellished
greatly the original account.
• The "Phoenix Lights" March 13, 1997
Canada
In Canada, the Department of National Defence has dealt with reports, sightings and investigations of UFOs across
Canada. In addition to conducting investigations into crop circles in Duhamel, Alberta, it still considers "unsolved"
the Falcon Lake incident in Manitoba and the Shag Harbour incident in Nova Scotia.[60]
Early Canadian studies included Project Magnet (1950–1954) and Project Second Story (1952–1954), supported by
the Defence Research Board. These studies were headed by Canadian Department of Transport radio engineer
Wilbert B. Smith, who later publicly supported extraterrestrial origins.
In the Shag Harbour incident, a large object sequentially flashing lights was seen and heard to dive into the water by
multiple witnesses. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and many local residents also witnessed a light floating on
the water immediately afterward, and a large patch of unusual yellow foam when a water search was initiated.
Multiple government agencies were eventually involved in trying to identify the crashed object and searching for it.
Canadian naval divers later purportedly found no wreckage. In official documents, the object was called a "UFO"
because no conventional explanation for the crashed object was discovered. Around the same time, both the
Canadian and US military were involved in another UFO-related search at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, approximately 30
miles from Shag Harbour.
France
On March 2007, the French Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) published an archive of UFO sightings and
other phenomena online.[61]
French studies include GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN (1977–), within the French space agency CNES, the longest
ongoing government-sponsored investigation. About 14% of some 6000 cases studied remained unexplained. The
official opinion of GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN has been neutral or negative, but the three heads of the studies have
gone on record in stating that UFOs were real physical flying machines beyond our knowledge or that the best
explanation for the most inexplicable cases was an extraterrestrial one.[62]
The French COMETA panel (1996–1999) was a private study undertaken mostly by aerospace scientists and
engineers affiliated with CNES and high-level French Air Force military intelligence analysts, with ultimate
distribution of their study intended for high government officials. The COMETA panel likewise concluded the best
explanation for the inexplicable cases was the extraterrestrial hypothesis and went further in accusing the United
States government of a massive cover-up.
United Kingdom
The UK's Flying Saucer Working Party published its final report in 1951, which remained secret for over 50 years.
The Working Party concluded that all UFO sightings could be explained as misidentifications of ordinary objects or
phenomena, optical illusions, psychological misperceptions/aberrations, or hoaxes. The report stated: "We
accordingly recommend very strongly that no further investigation of reported mysterious aerial phenomena be
undertaken, unless and until some material evidence becomes available."
Eight file collections on UFO sightings, dating from 1978 to 1987, were first released on May 14, 2008, to the UK
National Archives by the Ministry of Defence.[64] Although kept secret from the public for many years, most of the
files have low levels of classification and none are classified Top Secret. 200 files are set to be made public by 2012.
The files are correspondence from the public sent to government officials, such as the MoD and Margaret Thatcher.
The MoD released the files under the Freedom of Information Act due to requests from researchers.[65] These files
include, but are not limited to, UFOs over Liverpool and the Waterloo Bridge in London.[66]
On October 20, 2008 more UFO files were released. One case released detailed that in 1991 an Alitalia passenger
aircraft was approaching Heathrow Airport when the pilots saw what they described as a "cruise missile" fly
extremely close to the cockpit. The pilots believed that a collision was imminent. UFO expert David Clarke says that
this is one of the most convincing cases for a UFO he has come across.[67]
A secret study of UFOs was undertaken for the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) between 1996 and 2000 and was
code-named Project Condign. The resulting report, titled "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Defence
Region", was publicly released in 2006, but the identity and credentials of whomever constituted Project Condign
remains classified. The report confirmed earlier findings that the main causes of UFO sightings are misidentification
of man-made and natural objects. The report noted: "No artefacts of unknown or unexplained origin have been
reported or handed to the UK authorities, despite thousands of UAP reports. There are no SIGINT, ELINT or
radiation measurements and little useful video or still IMINT." It concluded: "There is no evidence that any UAP,
seen in the UKADR [UK Air Defence Region], are incursions by air-objects of any intelligent (extraterrestrial or
foreign) origin, or that they represent any hostile intent." A little-discussed conclusion of the report was that novel
meteorological plasma phenomenon akin to Ball Lightning are responsible for "the majority, if not all" of otherwise
inexplicable sightings, especially reports of Black Triangle UFOs.[68]
In August 2009 The Black Vault internet archive announced the release by the British government of more than
4,000 pages of declassified records.[69] The records include information on the Rendlesham Forest incident, crop
circles, a UFO attack on a cemetery and even reports of alien abduction claims.[70]
On December 1, 2009, the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) quietly closed down its UFO investigations unit. The
unit's hotline and email address were suspended by the Ministry of Defense on that date. The MoD said there was no
value in continuing to receive and investigate sightings in a release, stating
"... in over fifty years, no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a potential threat to the United
Kingdom. The MoD has no specific capability for identifying the nature of such sightings. There is no
Defence benefit in such investigation and it would be an inappropriate use of defence resources.
Furthermore, responding to reported UFO sightings diverts MoD resources from tasks that are relevant
to Defence."
The Guardian reported that the MoD claimed the closure would save the Ministry around £50,000 a year. The MoD
said that it would continue to release UFO files to the public through the National Archives.
Notable cases
• According to records released on August 5, 2010, British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill banned the
reporting for 50 years of an alleged UFO incident because of fears it could create mass panic. Reports given to
Churchill claimed the incident allegedly involved an RAF reconnaissance plane returning from a mission in
France or Germany toward the end of the Second World War. It was over or near the English coastline when it
was allegedly suddenly intercepted by a strange metallic object that matched the aircraft's course and speed for a
time before accelerating away and disappearing. The plane's crew were reported to have photographed the object,
which they said had "hovered noiselessly" near the aircraft, before moving off.[72] According to the documents,
details of the coverup emerged when the man wrote to the government in 1999 seeking to find out more about the
incident. He described how his grandfather, who had served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Second World
War, was present when Churchill and U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower discussed how to deal with the UFO
encounter.[73] [74] The files come from more than 5,000 pages of UFO reports and letters and drawings from
members of the public, as well as questions raised by MPs in Parliament. They are available to download for free
for a month from The National Archives website.[75]
• In April 1957 the West Freugh Incident (named after RAF West Freugh in Scotland, the principal military base
involved) occurred. Two unidentified objects flying very high over the UK were tracked by radar operators. The
objects were reported to operate at speeds and perform manuveres beyond the capability of any known craft. Also
significant is their alleged size which – based on the radar returns – was closer to that of a ship than an aircraft.
• In the Rendlesham Forest incident of December 1980, US military personnel witnessed UFOs in the forest near
the air base at Woodbridge, Suffolk, over a period of three nights. On one night the deputy base commander, Col.
Charles Halt, and other personnel followed one or more UFOs which were moving in and above the forest for
several hours. He made an audio recording while this was happening, and subsequently wrote an official
memorandum summarizing the incident. After his retirement he said that he deliberately downplayed the
importance of the event at the time (which was headed 'Unexplained Lights' in the memorandum) to avoid
damaging his career. Other base personnel claim to have observed one of the UFOs which had landed in the forest
from close quarters for a long time, and even gone up to and touched it.
Uruguay
The Uruguayan Air Force has been conducting an ongoing UFO investigation since 1989 and analyzed 2100 cases,
of which they regard only 40 (about 2%) as definitely lacking any conventional explanation. All files have recently
been declassified. The unexplained cases include military jet interceptions, abductions, cattle mutilations, and
physical landing trace evidence. Colonel Ariel Sanchez, who currently heads the investigation, summarized its
findings as follows: "The commission managed to determine modifications to the chemical composition of the soil
where landings are reported. The phenomenon exists. It could be a phenomenon that occurs in the lower sectors of
the atmosphere, the landing of aircraft from a foreign air force, up to the extraterrestrial hypothesis. It could be a
monitoring probe from outer space, much in the same way that we send probes to explore distant worlds. The UFO
phenomenon exists in the country. I must stress that the Air Force does not dismiss an extraterrestrial hypothesis
based on our scientific analysis."
Astronomer reports
The United States Air Force's Project Blue Book files indicate that approximately 1 %[77] of all unknown reports
came from amateur and professional astronomers or other users of telescopes (such as missile trackers or surveyors).
In 1952, astronomer J. Allen Hynek, then a consultant to Blue Book, conducted a small survey of 45 fellow
professional astronomers. Five reported UFO sightings (about 11%). In the 1970s, astrophysicist Peter A. Sturrock
conducted two large surveys of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and American Astronomical
Society. About 5 % of the members polled indicated that they had had UFO sightings.
Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who admitted to six UFO sightings, including three green fireballs, supported the
Extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) for UFOs and stated he thought scientists who dismissed it without study were
being "unscientific". Another astronomer was Lincoln LaPaz, who had headed the Air Force's investigation into the
green fireballs and other UFO phenomena in New Mexico. LaPaz reported two personal sightings, one of a green
fireball, the other of an anomalous disc-like object. (Both Tombaugh and LaPaz were part of Hynek's 1952 survey.)
Hynek himself took two photos through the window of a commercial airliner of a disc-like object that seemed to
pace his aircraft.[78] Even later UFO debunker Donald Menzel filed a UFO report in 1949.
In 1980, a survey of 1800 members of various amateur astronomer associations by Gert Helb and Hynek for the
Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) found that 24 % responded "yes" to the question "Have you ever observed an
object which resisted your most exhaustive efforts at identification?"