UK releases files on UFO sightings

Flashing green, red and white lights over the Houses of Parliament, a body with fork-shaped legs in the sky above Thailand and a man living with an alien in Carlisle.

These are among the final reports of unidentified flying objects to be made public by the Ministry of Defence after Britain’s UFO desk fell victim to spending cuts.

Officials stopped documenting UFO alerts in 2009 after almost half a century of tracking potential sightings.

It was decided the £45,000 yearly cost could no longer be justified as the austerity era loomed.

Some 25 files containing 4,400 pages from the desk’s final two years of operation will be made public on Friday. They reveal reports of UFO sightings from across the UK and as far afield as Australia, the Canary Islands and Germany.

Among the documents to be made public is an email from Carl Mantell, from the RAF’s Air Command, to Bob Ainsworth, defence minister, in November 2009 recommending the UFO desk be shut.

“The level of resources devoted to this task is increasing in response to a recent upsurge in reported sightings, diverting staff from more valuable defence-related activities,” he wrote.

In the last year of its operation, the number of reports rose to 643 from an average of 150 a year in the preceding decade. Documents show the MoD thought the increase could be related to a craze for releasing Chinese lanterns into the sky at celebrations.

The sole official responsible for UFO reports struggled with the workload, leading to a decision that the job was an “inappropriate” use of defence resources.

However, the ministry was at pains to stress that the closure was not a sign it thought aliens did not exist. “The Ministry of Defence has no opinion on the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial life. However, in over 50 years, no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom,” it said when the desk closed.

The ministry was at the time concerned that “ufologists”, who devote their lives to tracing UFOs, might view the closure as a conspiracy and prepared itself for a “vociferous” campaign. However, it noted that this might be shortlived and the press would probably treat it in a “frivolous” rather than a critical way.

The names and personal details of people reporting sightings were logged until the number reached about 2,000, when the database was destroyed amid worries over data protection and potential “Big Brother” headlines.

All sightings were noted in a standard form and received polite replies, which sometimes referred to reports of similar sightings in the area or on the same day and frequently ended: “Sorry I could not be any help”.