The British government has declassified hundreds of UFO materials that, according to authorities, will no longer be useful to them. The Ministry of Defense, which was studying unidentified flying objects, decided to show the public the materials in order for it to be convinced personally: there are no aliens and they cannot pose any threat. The documents are available on the website of the country's Ministry of Defense.
More than 25 folders have been released containing over 700 documents on UFOs during the observation period from 2007 to 2009. They represent the messages of people who have become "eyewitnesses" of strange phenomena. One of the more original ones belongs to a child who writes that he saw suspicious lights in the sky and attaches a drawing of an alien waving from a spaceship.
Others include a message from an Englishman who allegedly has been living with the alien for several years, and a man who claims that aliens abducted his dog, car and tent during a hike. There are records that a UFO was seen above the Parliament building and in the area of the famous Stonehenge, reports the BBC.
"I hope the 'X-Files' will amuse readers as much as we once did," said former Special Department officer Nick Pope.
Spielberg and the Chinese lanterns are to blame
The British government began to investigate cases of the existence of UFOs in 1952. During this time, the most allegations of an alien invasion came in 1978 (750 reports), when Steven Spielberg's film "Close Encounters of the Third Degree" about strange phenomena was shown in theaters. The second "peak" fell in 2009 - then the department processed over 640 calls and letters. Most of them contained information about floating, shining objects. One of the messages, for example, said that something in the sky "shone like an angel."
Experts linked the rise in complaints in 2009 to the popularity of Chinese lanterns. “Many records of strangely shaped and orange-colored celestial objects describe Chinese lanterns, although the eyewitness does not recognize them,” said David Clarke, author of the book UFO Papers, based on previous DOD research.
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According to the Ministry of Defense, most of the UFO reports have a logical explanation, and only some of them have not yet been solved. Among them, for example, statements from police officers and pilots, Sky News notes.
But despite the increase in the number of reports of aliens, in 2010 the British Department of Defense disbanded a special unit that was studying these statements. The department decided that for more than half a century of UFO sightings, nothing was found that would indicate the existence of a UFO. "The department does not meet the tasks assigned to the Department of Defense, and only distracts employees from more important matters," - said Bob Ainsworth, then head of the department.