Secret UFO probes 'hidden from UK Government' as military 'didn't trust' them

Dr David Clarke said the Ministry of Defence team tasked with hunting ETs "didn't trust" civil servants

By Berny Torre

The Ministry of Defence's secret ET hunters "didn't trust" civil servants with their information, claims Dr David Clarke who uncovered the Defence Intelligence Staff's study in 2005

Britain's secret UFO investigators kept their findings hidden from the Government, an academic has claimed.

Dr David Clarke, of Sheffield Hallam University, said the Ministry of Defence team tasked with hunting ETs "didn't trust" civil servants briefing ministers with their data.

The lecturer and investigative journalist uncovered the Defence Intelligence Staff's 400-page study into 10,000 UFO sightings in 2005.

He has now said its military officials often kept their findings secret from civil servants over fears the information would be leaked.

Dr Clarke added former Government UFO investigators who have gone public over the findings such as Nick Pope "didn't investigate anything".

He told the UFO Podcast with Martin Willis: "There was a UFO desk where he was an incumbent for three years but he was just one of dozens of different people who did that task and he didn't actually investigate anything.

"He just received reports and filed them. He was a civil servant, there was a body that investigated cases and it was known as the Defence Intelligence Staff, DI55, and they were the people who were tasked to investigate UFO incidents that were deemed to have some kind of military significance."

The UFO investigator added: "The system was extremely complicated and there was at various times two or three different departments of the British Ministry of Defence who were involved in investigating UFOs or responding to the public.

"He might run a few checks with a local radar station but that's as far as time allowed.

"If there was anything deemed to be of potential military significance or something that needed further investigation it was passed to DI55 to do the investigation.

"I've interviewed most of the people who worked on this subject in DI55 at that time and they tell me, 'well Nick Pope didn't have any involvement in this, we did the investigations, we didn't share information with them because we didn't trust them'.

"He was a civilian who was briefing ministers, he was doing PR work and during that time in that job he thought, 'well I could make a living from this'."

Officials at the Defence Intelligence Staff investigated some 10,000 potential ET sightings in the UK from 1997 to 2000.

It concluded that UFOs had an “indisputable” observable presence but there was no evidence to suggest they were "hostile or under any type of control".

NEAR MISS UFO almost collides with passenger jet as pilots approach UK airport

The UFO encounter occurred as the jet prepared to land at Leeds Bradford airportCredit: Alamy

By Isaac Crowson

A UFO came within seconds of colliding with a passenger jet in a terrifying close call.

The rogue object came at the packed Boeing 737 plane “almost head on” as pilots prepared to land at Leeds Bradford airport.

The scare on September 1 was rated a 'Category A' event by the UK Airprox Board - which monitors and investigates near-miss events.

The unidentifiable object - which could have been a drone or lantern - was just 10 feet away from the flight arriving from Spain.

The Airprox report revealed: “Both pilots suddenly saw a bright light and an object which appeared to be moving toward the aircraft, almost head on, slightly up and to the left.

“The object appeared without warning and there was no time to act."

After landing, the pilots were told that a police helicopter had seen lanterns flying in the area.

But the report added: "Neither of the pilots believed what they saw was a lantern.”

Investigators ruled that “a definite risk of collision had existed”.

The near miss came three days before a drone came three feet away from striking an Easyjet flight which had taken off from Manchester Airport.

The Airbus A320, carrying 186 passengers, was 8,000ft over Greater Manchester. The drone was flying 20 times above the legal height.

Pilots have reported fears of drones getting close to passenger jets.

There have been more than 400 incidents in the past five years.

Former Sen. Harry Reid on Biden, climate and UFOs

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), seen here at a 2019 event in Las Vegas, is optimistic about what President-elect Joe Biden can do about climate change. Carlo Allegri/Reuters/Newscom

By Maxine Joselow

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has kept busy since leaving Washington.

The Nevada Democrat has had a flurry of phone calls and text messages with aides to President-elect Joe Biden in recent days, recommending picks for Cabinet positions and offering advice from his three decades in Congress.

The 80-year-old has also stayed active in Nevada politics, setting up a successful political operation that has shaded the Silver State blue.

A climate hawk, Reid has at times angered Republicans and delighted environmental groups with his fierce criticism of the fossil fuel industry and the Koch family.

"We've got to get rid of fossil fuels as fast as we can. We've done a pretty good job of lessening our demand for coal," he said in a recent interview.

While serving as Senate majority leader from 2007 to 2015, Reid notched a number of controversial achievements, including passage of the Affordable Care Act and elimination of the filibuster for executive branch nominations and federal judicial appointments.

Since retiring in 2017, Reid has battled pancreatic cancer. It is now in remission, but he uses a walker to get around.

The political mastermind spoke on the phone with E&E News last week about how Biden can tackle climate change without the Senate, whether the filibuster will survive and why he believes in UFOs.

What have you been up to since leaving Congress?

Well, I've had a few health issues. But my health has been pretty good over the last year and a half, which has given me the opportunity to become more involved.

I try to maintain contact with my former colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans. I've got a call in an hour or so with one of my Republican senator friends. But I try not to interfere too much. I don't want them to think I'm trying to run the government from here.

Of course, I'm also heavily involved in Nevada politics with my program that I developed over the years. I have five children, four of whom live here in Nevada very close to me. So I keep pretty busy and am pretty content with my existence.

Have you spoken with members of President-elect Joe Biden's transition?

Yes. I've talked to [incoming counselor to the president] Steve Ricchetti several times. I've texted with [incoming chief of staff to Biden] Ron Klain. And I'm going to talk to [longtime Biden aide and former senator from Delaware] Ted Kaufman soon.

What have those conversations been like?

They've been good. They're all my friends, so it's easy.

Have you offered any advice for the transition?

Yeah, of course I have. But as far as what I've talked about, that would probably be the end of all my calls if I shared that. [Laughs]

What could Biden accomplish on climate policy if the Senate remains in Republican hands after the runoff elections in Georgia in January?

Of course we're going to wait until Jan. 5 to make that summation. But I think the climate crisis is such an issue that it cannot be ignored anymore. It is an issue that is already affecting migration around the world.

We have talked about it for years and frankly done almost nothing. That cannot continue. So regardless of whether President-elect Biden when he becomes president has a Republican majority or a Democratic majority or it's a tie, it cannot be ignored.

And one of Joe Biden's great attributes is he is a deal-maker. A lot of people who've been legislators even for a long time tend to forget what legislation is about. It's simply about the art of compromise. That's all it is. And Joe has been very good at understanding that. He spent those decades in the Senate as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

What are some of the first actions that Biden should take on climate change?

On day one he should rejoin the Paris climate accord. He should rejoin the World Health Organization. And he needs to look at all the executive orders that Trump executed that were detrimental to the environment.

As to what should happen with energy, Trump was very, very bad about renewable energy, which is something we have to focus on. So there are many, many things that Joe Biden can do as president in the first few days just with executive orders.

You've been a vocal critic of fossil fuels in the past. Why is that?

We've got to get rid of fossil fuels as fast as we can. We've done a pretty good job of lessening our demand for coal, but as we speak, China is building a number of brand new coal-fired generating [stations].

So we've got to get rid of coal and do anything we can to get rid of even natural gas, which is so much better than the normal fuel that we've used in the past. Other countries may not do it, but it's to their detriment.

You served in the Senate with Biden, and then you were Senate majority leader when he was vice president under President Obama. What was it like working with him?

Obama depended on Joe Biden to come to the Hill and try to work things out. And during the time that I was the leader and responsible for trying to execute Obama's policies, there were often times when I needed Joe Biden to help me. And he helped me on a number of occasions, one of which was during the long time I spent on the Affordable Care Act.

Do you have thoughts on who Biden should pick to lead federal agencies focused on energy and the environment, such as EPA, the Interior Department and the Department of Energy?

Yes. Even before the election was over, I'd spoken to Ricchetti on a number of occasions about some ideas I had.

Are you willing to share any of those ideas?

Well, there have been many articles written about names that are out there, and they're good names. For [the Interior Department], they're talking about [Democratic Sens.] Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall of New Mexico. So he's got a wide variety of people who would be excellent that have obviously been considered 'cause there have been articles about them the last few days.

Do you think Biden should avoid progressive nominees who might not get confirmed by a GOP-controlled Senate run by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.]?

I think Joe Biden should select the best people that he can, the best qualified. If Republicans reject them on a partisan basis, it's a pox on their house, not on Joe Biden.

Do you think the filibuster will survive in the next Congress? And should it survive?

Well, I've been very public about that in saying that it's not a question if the filibuster's going to be done away with. It's just a question of when.

Now with the Senate going to be so evenly divided, it may not happen this Congress. But it's going to happen because you cannot have a democratic body that requires 60 votes.

It used to be that there was a lot of collegiality in the Senate and so it wasn't used very much. But McConnell has used it for everything. And as you know, I previously moved to change the rules for judges and Cabinet appointments but left a supermajority for Supreme Court justices, and the Republicans got rid of that, too.

Based on your experience of Yucca Mountain in Nevada, what do you see as the future of nuclear waste disposal in this country?

I think what we've learned over the years is that the best thing to do with nuclear waste is to place it where it is. Don't transport it. Put it in dry cask storage containers. You can bury it in the ground or leave it above the ground because the dry cask storage containers that we've developed are extremely safe.

You were featured in the recent documentary "The Phenomenon," in which you said the U.S. government has been hiding evidence of possible UFO encounters for years. Why do you believe that?

Well, I've been on the forefront of this for a long time. I obtained $22 million in taxpayer dollars to study these aerial phenomena through the [Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]. And that was extremely helpful in trying to understand what's going on.

Do we have all the answers? Absolutely not. But at least we know that thousands of people have reported these unusual occurrences over the decades. And as I have said, we cannot ignore what's going on. Russia, China and France are all working on this. And I hope that we will pick up the ball and continue to work on this.

I'm happy that the Pentagon now allows its pilots to report these unusual occurrences. In the past, pilots have been afraid to acknowledge them because it could hurt their promotions. So I think the federal government is doing better at recognizing it's something we have to stay on top of. And we have better cameras now with the aircraft, and we've got pictures we didn't have before.

Aztec is home to another purported alien crash-landing site within NM

An alien head rock formation marks the alleged spot of the Aztec UFO crash. (Courtesy of Susanne Pence)

By Toby Smith

Aztec, New Mexico, with a population of about 6,500, is a tidy community a few miles east of Farmington.

The nearby Aztec Ruins National Monument stands monumentally still. The Aztec Museum and Pioneer Village features such century-ago items as a historic barbershop, antique telephone equipment, various fossils and minerals.

Something else, something much darker, draws tourists to here.

On the night of March 25, 1948, a flying saucer allegedly crash-landed on a lonely mesa in Hart Canyon, four miles distant. There’s a plaque where it put down.

Folks as far away as those who lived in Cedar Hill, 10 miles northeast of Aztec, were said to have heard the crash. But that fact was never verified.

A plaque marks the spot where a flying saucer allegedly crash-landed near Aztec in 1948. (Courtesy of Susanne Pence)

In Farmington, hundreds reported the incident to the Farmington Daily Times. A state policeman debunked by saying the flying saucer was fluff from cottonwood trees. The Aztec tale was suddenly full of holes and hoaxes.

Here’s what came later. Two con men convinced Aztec residents that a saucer had definitely dropped in. That was a fraud, of course.

Nonetheless, Aztec swiftly became a favored spot for sky-watchers and believers from every which way.

A year earlier, in Roswell, in July 1947, a balloon fell smacked into the ground on a nearby ranch. Immediately conspiracy theories took hold as were extra-terrestrials.

As the years went by, Roswell became the king of all those who peered at the heavens thinking they had seen something important.

A 1996 UFO festival, brought Roswell mobs of visitors. A museum and research center dominated Roswell’s Main Street. Ufology turned into a serious subject. Books on the topic suddenly popped up everywhere.

Meanwhile, little Aztec became just a footnote.

A trail sign gives a nod to the alleged UFO crash near Aztec.(Courtesy of Susanne Pence)

And yet supposedly 12 giant humanoids were aboard that UFO. Perhaps 18, maybe 30. The saucer itself was said to be an incredible 100 feet in diameter. Members of the armed forces were ordered to store various pieces of debris and send them to such locales as Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, never to be seen again.

Frank Thayer, an emeritus professor at New Mexico State University, traveled to Aztec to see what the hubbub was all about.

“The military must have used the biggest Bekins truck available to cart away all that stuff,” he told me.

Beginning in 1997, a UFO symposium was held in Aztec. That conference lasted until 2011.

Papers were submitted on such subjects as alien abductions, cattle mutilations and government cover-ups.

Meanwhile, Roswell was experiencing an economic boom. Thus, Aztec became thought of as Roswell’s little brother.

How does one find the Aztec site?

The Visitor’s Center in Aztec is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the phone, I talked to Wilann Thomas, who ran the center.

I asked her what she believed. Her answer: “All those researchers who were here? They’re all graveyard-dead now.”

Seth Finch, a Presbyterian minister in Albuquerque, grew up in Aztec. He and some college friends took a road trip to where Seth was certain the site was located. “It was getting late, so I don’t know if we were near the actual site. It’s a wild place. There’s no signage at all. We went mountain-biking instead.”

In mid-October, my wife and I met up with another couple from Albuquerque and drove along a gritty, gravel road in Aztec for 6.5 miles. Not a single building could be seen, save for oil and gas operations.

I waved to the driver of a pickup truck to stop. “Do you know where that UFO trail is?” I asked.

He shook his head and said, “I been livin’ here 70 years and don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”

I thanked him, and onward we went. We hiked up past fallen cedar branches, and down rocky paths. After four hours of looking, we came to a clearing. There stood the celebrated plaque that had been installed in 2007.

It is certainly not a wall plaque. Rather, it appeared to be a lectern, the sort you might see in a college classroom. A few feet away lay a curious circle of rocks. Were those rocks put there by aliens? I wondered.

Nah, probably not.

Mysterious lights 'changing formation' spark UFO fears for Texas locals

Onlookers were left stunned by the changing lights spotted across an 80-mile radius over Texas, with some convinced of an alien visit.

 By Laura Sharman & Michael Havis

Mesmerising footage shows a series of glowing lights hovering above Texas sparking fears of a possible UFO.

The mysterious lights were spotted changing formation in the night sky over three separate counties across an 80-mile radius.

Stargazers in and around Dallas chimed in with sightings after footage of the bizarre presence over Duncanville, in the south of the city, was shared online.

Javier Estrada III said he knew it was something out of the ordinary when filming the bizarre formation (Image: Credit: Pen News/Javier Estrada III)

A flurry of witnesses came forward to claim sightings from multiple sites, with some convinced the lights were caused by visiting aliens.

Retail manager Javier Estrada III, who filmed the footage, said: "What I saw mesmerised me. I was visiting family for my grandma's birthday and happened to look up.

"I saw glowing lights hovering real slow and that's when I knew it was something out of the ordinary - not scary, just crazy to look at.

"I do believe in extraterrestrials so the first thing that came to mind was a UFO. As soon as I saw it, I was starstruck - it seemed so real.

"I wouldn't mind having aliens come to visit but knowing us in the USA we will probably attack them first."

In Javier's video, four lights are visible in the starry sky, shifting from a kite-like formation to a square one, before drifting apart and out of view.

Two more lights then come into view before the clip ends. They could have been drones.

Sightings were reported from a total eight different areas in and around the city, mainly towards the south, with many describing the lights as forming a "straight line."

Onlookers also reported the phenomenon in Allen, to the north of the city, and Granbury, to the southwest - which are separated by a distance that would take nearly two hours to drive.

And with more than 16,000 people seeing the footage, there were plenty of suggestions as to what the lights could be.

Some suggested the display was caused by drones or Chinese lanterns, but nobody ventured an explanation as to how they were spotted in places so far apart.

Others speculated satellites or weather balloons, though nobody offered any tracking data.

While others turned to aliens or conspiracy theories.

One viewer added: "It's 2020. Anything is possible."

Close Encounters of the Artistic Kind

By Piper Whitehead

The year is 1964. You and two friends decide to go for a walk in Cape Cod, when, suddenly, you see a strange object in the sky. You report it to the National Guard, and they do nothing. Obviously. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most people believe there is some form of intelligent life out there in our infinite universe; scepticism usually kicks in about whether aliens consider Earth a one-stop scientific resource/tourism destination. Anyway, your interest is piqued, you begin to research, to publish your ideas and before long, more and more people are contacting you about their experiences with aliens. You’re also the acclaimed abstract artist Budd Hopkins, but everyone needs a hobby.

Hopkins claims to have been an alien sceptic ever since being one of the many listeners who were traumatised by Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds, history’s most unethical radio play, which is best known for making lots of people think aliens were actually invading the earth. So Hopkins clearly knew the danger of hoaxes, but even he was eventually convinced that the danger of actual aliens was much more worrisome. He went on to dedicate significant portions of his time to researching aliens and supporting victims of supposed abductions.

What I find most compelling about Hopkin’s experience is that it was never something he claimed to represent in his art. Though some people have found his later sculptures quite alien-like, it would be remiss to write an article about extraterrestrial experiences that doesn’t acknowledge the fact that people usually see what they want to see. Still, claims of alien encounters seem to have been detrimental to the career of a respected abstract expressionist, with works held by the likes of Met and MoMA. It certainly dominated his Wikipedia page.

Blatant liars are always around to attach themselves parasitically to any good mystery, invariably for profit. In 2015, British painter Lloyd Canning claimed he was visited by aliens numerous times and that his works were the result of their projections into his mind. A few months later he then announced it was a lie for exposure, and he’d never been abducted, though he had had ‘great sightings’. I don’t think many people were shocked. Perhaps the most questionable part of his story was why aliens thought the psychedelic dreamscapes Canning painted needed to be urgently communicated to earthlings. Personally, I find his paintings the least interesting of those I examined for this article. Then again, that might be my expectations at play. They do say that money is the enemy of good art.

There are also stories of artists encountering aliens that might challenge even the most tin-foil hat-friendly of us. David Huggins, the subject of documentary Love and Saucers, claims to have been visited by aliens for most of his life. What’s more, he claims to have lost his virginity to an alien named Crescent, who continued to visit him throughout his life, and with whom he fathered alien-human hybrids. Unlike Hopkins, Huggins actually did use these encounters as the basis for his art (as you might guess, they get erotic – don’t say I didn’t warn you). His works are eerie and unsettling, often showing himself, Crescent, and others in blank interior environments. Does the fact that the aliens in his paintings resemble ‘greys’, the most stereotypical image of an alien, make it more or less likely that he actually saw them? Does the sheer outrageousness of it all make the story more believable than a defensible lie, like seeing something in the sky? Though his narrative beggars belief, those who have met or seen interviews with Huggins find him compelling. He does not give the impression of a liar.

Perhaps Huggins and Hopkins are just crazy. We tend to treat people who search for UFOs as quacks, eccentrics and outcasts (after all, if you weren’t an outcast before, telling people you’ve seen aliens certainly puts you on the fast track to becoming one). We don’t romanticise claims of alien encounters in the irresponsible way we often do with artists’ mental illnesses. However, there are a number of crossovers between truth seekers and those we call great artists: they’re unusually perceptive, they question the intent of institutions like governments, and they’re willing to say things that the rest of us are afraid to. Perhaps most importantly, both groups have the tendency to wander about in isolated areas. The edge of reason has always been well populated by artists, philosophers and avant-garde types. Maybe they’re the only ones willing to see what we don’t want to.

Filmmaker James Fox on his new UFO documentary The Phenomenon

By UFO Congress

James Fox will be sharing information about his latest film, The Phenomeon.

James Fox is the Executive Producer and Director of three critically acclaimed UFO documentaries, 50 years of Denial, Out of the Blue and I Know What I Saw. Out of the Blue aired on the Sci-Fi channel and I Know What I Saw aired on the History channel. He is now working on an eagerly awaited new documentary that he says will blow the socks off audiences. All of these documentaries are geared towards sharing eye-witness accounts from individuals with impeccable credentials, breaking the stereotype of the typical UFO witness.

Fox assembled the most credible UFO witnesses from around the world to testify at The National Press Club in Washington D.C.: Air Force Generals, astronauts, military and commercial pilots, government and FAA officials from seven countries tell stories that, as Governor Fife Symington from Arizona stated, ”will challenge your reality”. Fox has won the support of several key media, government and military personnel, and has made numerous television and radio appearances including: Larry King Live (CNN) appearances, Anderson Cooper 360° (CNN) appearance, ABC Nightline appearance, Dateline NBC appearance, George Noory’s Coast to Coast Radio.

In 1998, he completed and sold his first major documentary ‘UFOs: 50 Years of Denial’ to the Discovery Channel. It included such notables as Apollo 14 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell and Col. Philip J. Corso, who was in charge of the foreign technology desk at the Pentagon during the Eisenhower administration.  For his film, Out of the Blue, James interviewed witnesses including President Gerald Ford, Mercury Astronaut Gordon Cooper, Cosmonaut Pavel Papovich in Star City, Russia, and five-star Admiral Lord Hill Norton in England.

The Road To UFO Disclosure -- Special Guest: Stephen Bassett

By The Black Vault Originals

The year is 2020. 

It has brought us a global pandemic; riots in the streets of America; and a Presidential impeachment trial that turned the United States upside down. But in between those world changing events – the UFO phenomenon has increasingly been given more credibility and more serious exposure on the nightly news programs. 

UFO Sightings Up During October Says MUFON

By Tim Weisberg

UFO sightings were up around the world and in the United States last month, according to the most recent statistics released by the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON, in its monthly newsletter.

October saw MUFON collect reports of 414 worldwide sightings, with the United States accounting for the most of any nation at 340, followed by Canada (34) and the United Kingdom (19). Fifteen countries reported sightings in the single digits.

In September 2020, there were 404 worldwide UFO sightings reported to the organization, with the United States leading the way with 313 of those sightings. Canada (28) and the United Kingdom (21) were again the next closest, with 27 other nations having reports in the single digits.

Twenty-one states saw an increase in UFO activity from September to October. California led the way with 56 reports last month, up from 34 in September. North Carolina had the second-biggest jump, going from two reports in September to 11 in October.

When it comes to the shape of the objects, 80 of the worldwide sightings were reported as being a “circle” while 50 were a “sphere.” There were 34 instances each of the craft reported as “star-like” or triangular.

While sightings overall were up in October, landings, hoverings or takeoffs were down from 13 in September to 11 in October. Similarly, fewer entities were observed in the craft in October (six) as compared with September (11).

The ‘Alien Invasion’ Radio Broadcast: Would it Terrify Listeners today as it did 82 years ago?

On October 30, 1938, actor Orson Welles terrified radio listeners when he announced that Martians were invading New Jersey. His announcement horrified listeners who believed the world was under attack by hostile aliens. But the “news” was fake. Recently the Pentagon released UFO videos depicting objects in the sky. However, the videos did not elicit the same reaction as the “fake” alien invasion story 82 years ago.

The current population is more informed with extensive research conducted on extraterrestrial life that such news would not have them petrified. The general understanding is that Mars does not harbor an advanced alien civilization with lethal weapons and spacecraft. Even though the public is still fascinated with extraterrestrials, if Welles was to make his announcement today that strange creatures were invading the Earth, the reaction would be different. The millennials’ typical response would be to capture “the invasion” on their smartphones and share with friends on social media.

In 1938, an actor posed as a news anchor and interrupted a scheduled music performance. With a threatening tone, he described to the audience telescope observations of three explosions on Mars. He then brought in a reporter from the scene in Gover’s Mill, a town next to Princeton, New Jersey. The performance also included eyewitnesses who stated that they had seen Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) and strange creatures shooting an ultramodern heat ray that has killed several people.

Although the program was interrupted by reminders that it was not real, many people tuned in believed the alien invasion was real. Later, newspapers reported how the fake alien invasion had caused a lot of panic among the people. The next day the Daily News was full of accounts of how many listeners ran from their homes in New York and New Jersey with their faces covered with towels to shield themselves from the gas that the invader was said to be emitting.

At the time, space scientists were already aware of the fact that Mars was not capable of harboring a thriving civilization. According to experts, an alien attack of military proportion would require intelligent and technically advanced extraterrestrials. Also, an unbelievable number of variables would have to happen for the invasion to occur.

It is believed that the first encounter would be through discovering microbes from other worlds that are likely to be common in all the cosmos as opposed to intelligent organisms. In the current day and age, an announcement on finding extraterrestrial microbes is likely to attract the interest of many rather than cause panic. However, another school of thought believes that an encounter with intelligent extraterrestrial communications cannot be ruled out.

Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) based in California scans the skies to detect any signals emanating from any form of intelligent life. The institute scans for radio signals that could be directed towards the Earth, and they are confident that as their equipment becomes more sophisticated, they are likely to find something. When they do, you can bet that the announcement will not be horrifying as it was 82 years ago!

World governments taking UAPs seriously

The truth is out there and more and more top officials are taking notice of what’s happening in the skies above our earth.

The phenomenon is nothing new and perhaps even predates manned flight on earth.

Ezekiel saw the wheel, just what did he see?

“As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness ...”

UFOs, or UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) as they’re now known, are being taken very seriously by governments, military and civilian agencies around the world.

The matter was given high profile and mainstream legitimacy when the Pentagon, this past April, declassified three previously top secret U.S. Navy videos. They show UAPs photographed by pilots, giving credence to the phenomena.

“The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified,’” according to a Pentagon spokesperson.

The videos captured what Navy fighter pilots saw on their video sensors during training flights in 2004 and 2015.

“I can tell you, I think it was not from this world,” retired Cmdr. David Fravor told ABC News in 2017 of what he saw during a routine training mission on Nov. 14, 2004 off the coast of California.

In 2004, F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter pilots, and sensor instrumentation associated with the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, reported unknown aerial objects. According to Fravor, a radar operator aboard the USS Princeton told him to investigate a target at 80,000 feet (24,000 m) that had apparently moved rapidly down to the sea before stopping at 20,000 feet (6,100 m).

During 2014-2015, fighter pilots associated with the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group reported unknown aerial objects. These UAPs were  reported in the mainstream media and some of the involved pilots subsequently gave interviews about their experiences.

The now well known videos show encounters by jets from Nimitz and Theodore Roosevelt with unusually shaped, fast-moving aircraft. The videos feature cockpit display data and infrared imagery.

A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed that the videos were made by naval aviators and that they are “part of a larger issue of an increased number of training range incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena in recent years.”

Schomberg’s Andre Milne, of Unicorn Aerospace, argues the Nimitz UAP incident is in fact not only an extremely serious threat to U.S. national security, but to Canada’s as well.

“Speaking strictly from a military defence position, there is zero doubt the Nimitz battle group’s threat detection and response capabilities were probed by an unknown threat ... with technology far superior than anything ever documented on multiple primary radar and sonar targeting systems,” Milne said.

He’s pushing for Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) through the International Civil Aviation Organization, an agency of the United Nations. This would notify all pilots in the air when UAPs are encountered.

The sightings continue.

This past Aug. 19, Russian astronaut Ivan Vagner filmed several dots that appear to have lined up in space over the Earth. He filmed his 52-second video from the ISS and it does appear as a string of lights in an angled line.

There have been many official responses to the growing phenomenon.

This past Aug. 4, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist approved the establishment of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF). The Department of the Navy, under the cognizance of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, will lead the UAPTF.  

The UAPTF is charged with improving its understanding of, and gaining insight into, the nature and origins of UAPs.  The mission of the task force is to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.

DOD takes incursions by unauthorized aircraft in U.S. air space very seriously.

The Department of Transport, Department of National Defence, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the National Research Council have all dealt with UFO investigations.

From Project Magnet (1950), Project Second Story (1952), through 1978, the federal government has been keeping tabs on such “visitors.”

Currently, NAV Canada, a company that owns and operates Canada’s civil air navigation service, does have a procedure for reporting sightings. Their Aviation Occurrence Reporting Procedure is used to address instances of unauthorized or unknown aircraft in NAV Canada managed airspace. A spokesperson said depending on these details, NAV Canada may send a report to the Department of National Defence (DND), the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), Transport Canada (TC) and/or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Some 9,000 government documents, ranging from defence department memos about “flying saucers” to RCMP reports by officers who investigated UFO sightings across the country, are available on the Library and Archives Canada website.

The documents show a “fairly consistent track record of Canadian official involvement and interest in the subject, almost to the present time,” said UFO researcher Chris Rutkowski said. “People in Canada have been way ahead of the United States in the sense that we’ve had a body of evidence and a body of documentation showing official interest in UFOs.”

Rutkowski says Canadian authorities have historically been more transparent than their U.S. counterparts and that Canadians saw UFOs more as a scientific curiosity rather than a military threat.

The issue is treated with high regard at the world’s governing body.

The United Nations has an Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) that’s  responsible for promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space. UNOOSA serves as the secretariat for the General Assembly’s only committee dealing exclusively with international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space: the  United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). Some say it’s a precursor for making first contact.

More and more governments are creating protocols and reporting mechanisms to better prepare pilots.

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF) have protocols when encountering an unidentified flying object (UFO) that could potentially pose a threat to national security. Their military is also tasked with looking into reports of UFO sightings from the public.

Looking back, most of us are familiar with the mysteries surrounding Roswell, Area 51 and Project Blue Book, which included UFO reports investigated between 1951 and 1970. The actual number of UFO reports in Blue Book files is between 12,000 and 15,000 cases.

The truth it out there, and with global, cooperative efforts, the answers may be within our grasp. As governments and agencies work together, we will be better prepared to handle potential threats.

Texas history full of UFO sightings

BY BARTEE HAILE

A torpedo-shaped sphere cruised the night sky over the West Texas town of Levelland on Nov. 2, 1957, while on the ground mysterious “eggs of light” blocked the roads.

The reexamination of the so-called “Roswell Incident” in the 1990’s revived interest in Unidentified Flying Objects. Although nothing in the Lone Star past can compete with the controversial claim that a flying saucer crashed in the New Mexico desert 73 years ago, Texas history is full of out-of-this-world sightings.

Farmworkers at Bonham filed one of the earliest reports on record in 1873. Stupefied laborers swore they saw an enormous “serpentine object” float overheard in broad daylight.

This obscure episode preceded by a generation the Great Airship Mystery, the first nationwide commotion concerning UFO’s. Starting on the Pacific coast in November 1896 and slowly moving eastward for six sensational months, thousands of Americans insisted they gazed upon giant flying machines two decades before the Wright brothers mastered heavier-than-air flight.

An oblong, propeller-powered craft supposedly churned against the wind over Sacramento on Nov. 19, 1896. The next day a similar airship mystified Oakland, where onlookers said they heard voices, laughter and Christmas carols.

During the wacky weeks that followed, flying cigars and cylinders were spotted over Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis and countless other communities. In April 1897, an entire fleet of UFO’s caused a high-altitude traffic jam over metropolitan Chicago.

A former congressman had a Kansas encounter of the much-too-close kind. As an airship hovered 30 feet off the ground, six odd-looking creatures were plainly visible inside a transparent undercarriage. The shaken ex-lawmaker said, “I don’t know whether they were angels, devils or what.”

Popular speculation picked up by the press hinted the astonishing contraptions were the secret creations of Thomas Edison, proof of the public’s boundless confidence in the inventive genius. But Edison indignantly denied any involvement and dismissed the strange phenomena as an elaborate fraud.

Meanwhile, a Dallas daily reported the crash of a spaceship at the Wise County hamlet of Aurora. According to a local correspondent named S.E. Hayden, the craft collided with a windmill and exploded killing the lone alien occupant. The blast “scattered debris over several acres of ground” but enough remained of the intergalactic guest “to show he was not an inhabitant of this world.”

“T.J. Weems, the U.S. Signal Service officer at this place and an authority on astronomy, gave it as his opinion that the pilot was a native of the planet Mars.” The tall tale concluded with the announcement that the deceased would be given a Christian burial by the compassionate earthlings of Aurora.

During the flying saucer frenzy after the Second World War, the “Lubbock Lights” focused media attention on the Panhandle. Streaking across the heavens on a crystal clear night in November 1951, the blue lights were observed and photographed by numerous eyewitnesses, including my own mother who fearing ridicule kept quiet about the experience for 50 years. Unable to chalk off four Texas Tech professors and an Atomic Energy Commission representative as crackpots, the Air Force blamed the light show on migratory birds.

Never at a loss for down-to-earth explanations, government investigators deduced the glowing “eggs” that materialized on highways outside Levelland in 1957 were simply ball lightning. To motorists, whose engines died when they drove too close to the eerie orbs, the official verdict was more far-fetched than the bizarre incident itself.

The forgotten story of the Martian mishap in North Texas was discovered in 1973 by a bored newspaperman. UFO enthusiasts descended upon tiny Aurora in search of evidence of the ancient accident but failed to find a single fragment of the shattered spacecraft.

The last straw for residents, who had politely put up with the eccentric invasion, was a request from a team of Oklahoma UFO hunters to exhume a body in the cemetery. The grave robbers were sent packing, and a guard was posted at the burial ground.

In the aftermath of this carnival-like furor, a Wise County writer proved that Hayden, the Gay Nineties chronicler, was just pulling posterity’s leg. The windmill never existed, the astronomy expert was actually a blacksmith and cemetery records showed no alien internment. Elderly Aurorans would have remembered the crash landing, yet everyone agreed nothing unusual happened in April 1897.

But hoaxes, birds and ball lightning do not explain the thousands of sightings in Texas and elsewhere during the past century or more. To borrow the tag line from a popular television show of the 1990’s, the truth may still be out there.

DNA And Our Extra-terrestrial Origins... (The Evidence Is Everywhere)

Researcher of ancient mysteries, Wayne Herschel shared his theory that modern day humans are descendants of ETs who came to Earth 10,000 years ago. Richard C. Hoagland of Enterprise Mission, appearing during the third hour, agreed with some of Herschel's concepts, but thought his timeline was off. He suggested that rather than the Egyptian pyramids being 10,000 years old that their foundations were actually created 200, 000 years ago, and the timing was associated with changes in human DNA development.

Roswell Council to vote on UFO Festival management

By Juno Ogle

During its November meeting, the Roswell City Council will consider awarding management of the 2021 UFO Festival to a professional event production company from Texas.

MainStreet Roswell had organized the festival since 2014, but MainStreet advised the city it wanted to step out of that role to focus on its mission of promoting downtown, according to an August press release from the city and MainStreet.

The city has proposed using the $40,000 it had been providing to MainStreet previously for organizing the event, to hire a professional event company to manage the festival for a one-year contract.

The city received two responses for its request for proposals to manage the festival, with staff recommending awarding the RFP to In Depth Events, McKinney, Texas.

The other proposal was from The Liberty, a Roswell private social club.

Stephanie Mervine, tourism manager for the city, said both interviewed well, showing passion and enthusiasm for the UFO Festival, but In Depth showed superior event management skills and well-defined leadership.

“In Depth spoke specifically to what we were asking for in the scope of work and the deliverables. Their focus was on what the city needs and not what the company needs. They really listened well to that,” she said at the Oct. 22 Finance Committee meeting.

Committee members voted unanimously to send the recommendation for In Depth’s management of the festival to the full City Council’s Nov. 12 consent agenda. Consent agenda items, which can include RFPs, leases, resolutions and meeting minutes, are all approved in one action unless an individual item is requested and approved to be moved to the regular agenda during the meeting.

The scope of work outline in the RFP includes creating “an elevated design that brings a refreshed experience to attract a broader national audience.”

The management company would oversee much of the work of putting on the festival including logistics; managing all aspects of entertainment, event production and contract negotiations; training and supervising volunteers; managing all communications; and preparing a budget outline and cost proposal.

The goals for the festival outlined in the RFP include increasing overnight hotel stays and length of stays; developing ticketed events; and expanding the festival’s audience to a broader national level.

As for MainStreet Roswell, Executive Director Kathy Lay said the organization still plans to be involved.

“MainStreet Roswell plans to coordinate our efforts with those chosen by the City Council to organize the official UFO Festival. As the city works toward growing and expanding this into a city-wide event, we will focus our time and energy on downtown festival activities that will encourage attendees to visit the businesses located in the MainStreet Roswell’s district, not to compete with the city-wide event, but to enhance and complement it by having more things for people to do over the festival weekend,” Lay said.

That could include MainStreet’s passport program, in which participants acquire stamps at participating businesses in a booklet that can then be entered into a prize drawing.

Downtown events would also likely include craft and merchandise tents, local musicians, a prize drawing and the pet costume contest, she said.

Strange lights, 'green balls' and buzzing noises reported across Merseyside

Was this a UFO, spotted over Bidston Hill?

By Olivia Tobin

Readers suggestions included the northern lights, reflections and genuine UFOs

Noise from the docks, aliens and reflections are just some of the theories ECHO readers have offered about mystery 'UFO' sightings.

Over four decades ago, the borough of Knowsley and parts of Liverpool were said to be visited by a wave of UFOs.

The unidentified objects, sometimes known as 'green flying saucers', have long been a source of mystery.

Alleged sightings stretch back years - and the ECHO reported some of the 'other worldly' sightings shared by our readers in the run up to Halloween.

A string of different theories have been offered by readers into the strange phenomena.

Di Ane wrote: "They always appear close to electrical pylons, which as we know are usually on the outskirts of the area, hence people saying they see them in open spaces ,where I think they recharge their crafts.

"[This] results in power cuts. Just my opinion, but its what I believe."

Kieran Grange added: "This is strange because I heard a weird buzzing noise outside my house on Sunday morning about 4am. I do live really close to the docks though and you hear all kinds of noises coming from there."

Craig Jones said: "I saw one of these years ago.

"[It] flew over the top of my work van, an emerald green ball about the size of a beach ball.

"[It was] fast. No sound [and] about thirty feet high. There were two of us [and] we both saw it."

Paul Bigley suggested it could be the northern lights, which are sometimes visible from the UK, although it's rare in the north west.

He said: "Possibly aurora borealis, AKA the Northern Lights. It has been known to be visible this far south."

Danny Lloyd Price put forward it might be something more everyday.

He said: "It’s the reflection of the indoor light against the window."

And Danny Shaw said: "It's 2020, I really wouldn't be surprised if this was actually a UFO."

In September one man was 'left puzzled' after seeing a strange object in the early hours of the morning in Prescot.

The man told the ECHO how he was at his friend's house when they spotted a strange green object floating in the sky, in the early hours of the morning.

Convinced it was a UFO he said: "It was only there for a few seconds and then it flew up into the clouds and went in the South East direction, towards Huyton and Halewood."

However according to one author "Knowsley is certainly no stranger to the baffling phenomenon."

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Popstar UFO Sightings & Melon Heads

By Paul Dale Roberts

ACCORDING TO COAST TO COAST AM:

Pop star Miley Cyrus claims she was once chased by a UFO and made eye contact with an alien being that was aboard the craft. She revealed the wild tale during a conversation with designer Rick Owens in a recently published article for Interview Magazine. Asked if she believes in extraterrestrials, Cyrus replied “I had an experience, actually. I was driving through San Bernardino with my friend, and I got chased down by some sort of UFO.” In recounting the sighting, she likened the craft to “a flying snowplow” wherein “it had this big plow in the front of it and was glowing yellow.”

Cyrus went on to indicate that her unnamed friend also saw the UFO and that “there were a couple of other cars on the road and they also stopped to look, so I think what I saw was real.” Reflecting on the experience, the pop star said that she was deeply shaken by the event for days afterward and “I couldn’t really look at the sky the same. I thought they might come back.” As if her story was not strange enough, Cyrus indicated that the initial sighting itself did not feel particularly threatening until she looked over and saw a being seemingly piloting the craft.

UFOs have been seen all over the Los Angeles Greater Area, so to hear a report from San Bernardino, California is no surprise.  Supposedly, there is an underground UFO base off Catalina Island.  UFOs have been seen by many witnesses coming out of the water near Catalina Island and  going into the water.  Reptilian aliens have been seen by many witnesses in the sewer systems of Los Angeles.  Tommy Stokes of San Bernardino says that he has lived in San Bernardino all his life and has witnessed up to 23 UFOs on several different occasions.  He has seen cigar shaped UFOs, classic disc shaped UFOs and 2 globe shaped UFOs.  On one particular night he encountered a small disc shaped UFO the size of a small house pass overhead.  The UFO then came back and shined a bluish spotlight on him.  The light remained on Tommy for about 2 minutes.  Then the light did something odd.  The light bent around as if it was looking at something from the back end.  The light also stopped midair.  The light did not shine all the way through, it stopped mid-air, like a Star Wars light saber, the light does not project out endlessly, it stops mid-air.  After the light bent around, it went back into the disc and the disc flew away at a high speed. Tommy would not be surprised to know that Miley Cyrus saw a UFO.  Besides all of the UFOs that are seen around Los Angeles and especially Joshua Tree, let’s not forget the Battle of Los Angeles, in which the military engaged with a possible UFO. 

“It looked at me and we made eye contact,” she recalled, “and I think that’s what really shook me, looking into the eyes of something that I couldn’t quite wrap my head around.” Cyrus is the second pop star to make UFO-related news this week after Demi Lovato shared a video of an unidentified craft on her Instagram page and claimed that she is able to contact ETs via meditation. Special Note:  Demi spotted her UFO at Joshua Tree with her friends and Dr. Steven Greer.  The two musicians’ willingness to talk about their experiences is rather indicative of how the phenomenon has become a significant part of the zeitgeist in recent years.

UFOs have been seen all over the Los Angeles Greater Area, so to hear a report from San Bernardino, California is no surprise.  Supposedly, there is an underground UFO base off Catalina Island.  UFOs have been seen by many witnesses coming out of the water near Catalina Island and  going into the water.  Reptilian aliens have been seen by many witnesses in the sewer systems of Los Angeles.  Tommy Stokes of San Bernardino says that he has lived in San Bernardino all his life and has witnessed up to 23 UFOs on several different occasions.  He has seen cigar shaped UFOs, classic disc shaped UFOs and 2 globe shaped UFOs.  On one particular night he encountered a small disc shaped UFO the size of a small house pass overhead.  The UFO then came back and shined a bluish spotlight on him.  The light remained on Tommy for about 2 minutes.  Then the light did something odd.  The light bent around as if it was looking at something from the back end.  The light also stopped midair.  The light did not shine all the way through, it stopped mid-air, like a Star Wars light saber, the light does not project out endlessly, it stops mid-air.  After the light bent around, it went back into the disc and the disc flew away at a high speed. Tommy would not be surprised to know that Miley Cyrus saw a UFO.  Besides all of the UFOs that are seen around Los Angeles and especially Joshua Tree, let’s not forget the Battle of Los Angeles, in which the military engaged with a possible UFO.  Many UFO sightseers flock out with Dr. Greer to Joshua Tree to see the many UFOs that gravitate to this intriguing desert area.

Now, let’s step away from popstars seeing UFOs and let’s get some chills with Melon Heads in Michigan and in Ohio.

MELON HEADS

The melon heads of Michigan are said to reside around Felt Mansion, although they have also been reportedly seen in southern forested areas of Ottawa County. According to one story, they were originally children with hydrocephalus who lived at the Junction Insane Asylum near Felt Mansion. The story explains that, after enduring physical and emotional abuse, they became feral and were released into the forests surrounding the asylum. The Allegan County Historical Society asserts that the asylum never existed, although it was at one point a prison; however, the story has been part of the local folklore for several decades. Laketown Township Manager Al Meshkin told the Holland Sentinel that he had heard the tales as a teenager, noting that his friends referred to the beings as “wobbleheads”. Some versions of the legend say that the children once lived in the mansion itself but later retreated to a system of caverns (or caves in a nearby hill left over from an abandoned zoo). Some versions of this legend say that the children devised a plan to escape and kill the doctor that abused them. It is said that the children had no place to hide the body, so they cut it up in small pieces which they hid around the mansion. Rumors exist that teenagers who had broken into the mansion saw ghosts of the children and claimed to see shadows of the doctor’s murder through the light coming from an open door. The legend has spread throughout the region, even becoming the subject of a 2011 film simply titled The Melonheads, which is based around the West Michigan legend.

Legend in Ohio

The melon head stories of Ohio are primarily associated with the Cleveland suburb of Kirtland. According to local lore, the melon heads were originally orphans under the watch of a mysterious figure known as Dr. Crow (sometimes spelled Crowe, Krohe or Kroh or known as Dr. Melonhead. Crow is said to have performed unusual experiments on the children, who developed large, hairless heads and malformed bodies. Some accounts claim that the children were already suffering from hydrocephalus and that Crow injected even more fluid into their brains.

Eventually, the legend continues, the children killed Crow, burned the orphanage, and retreated to the surrounding forests and supposedly feed on babies. Legend holds that the melon heads may be sighted along Wisner Road in Kirtland, and Chardon Township. The melon head legend has been popularized on the Internet, particularly on the websites Creepy Cleveland and DeadOhio, where users offer their own versions of the story. A movie, “Legend of the Melonheads”, released in 2010, is based on the Ohio legend and various other legends in the Kirtland area.

An interesting twist to the Melon Head story is that Stephen Hathrow from Michigan says that he was chased, along with his two camping friends by a so-called Melon Head.  The Melon Head had a large melon shaped head, that reminded Stephen of a big white honey dew melon.  The Melon Head was 3 1/2 feet tall, thin arms and hands, thin legs.  The Melon Head seemed at times to glide and float.  Stephen was not able to make out any facial features.  As the Melon Head chased Stephen and his friends, it came upon a deer.  The deer was frozen in its tracks and the Melon Head touched its snout.  The deer then collapsed.  The Melon Head then seemed preoccupied with the deer and no longer was  chasing Stephen and his friends.  About 30 minutes later Stephen and his friends saw a small triangular shaped UFO hovering in the sky and then zip away.  Could Melon Heads actually be extraterrestrial humanoids that now have a bad reputation as being fugitives from a mental ward?  Special Note:  Stephen Hathrow mentioned that his Melon Head incident occurred at Isle Royale National Park.

‘UFO’ noticed over Hawaii was a spent rocket

By Lorena Steele

Professor Richard Wainscoat, a professor on the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Institute for Astronomy, believes that that lights, which sparked nice curiosity on social media, have been possible the reentry of a spent rocket booster. The rocket had been used to launch the Venezuelan satellite tv for pc, Venesat-1, again in 2008, based on the College of Hawaiʻi

“The used rocket has been circling Earth because the launch, slowly dropping altitude as a result of friction with the tenuous environment in low-Earth orbit,” defined the college in an announcement. “On Saturday, the booster made its last orbits.”

Wainscoat works with the Pan-STARRS telescope on Haleakalā. “Seeing a reentry is comparatively uncommon for a particular location like Hawaiʻi, since we are able to solely see the reentry if it happens comparatively near us,” he stated within the assertion.

Footage obtained by SWNS confirmed the lights transferring within the sky exterior Splasher’s Grill in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, at eight:50 p.m. native time.

In 2017, a mysterious object within the night time sky above Los Angeles was identified as United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Air Drive base.

Earlier this 12 months a mysterious balloon-like “UFO” object was noticed over Japan. The thing, which turned a social media sensation, sparked hypothesis that it was a science experiment or a climate balloon.

Experts Probe Long Island UFO Sightings

While this V-formation or triangle that was photographed over Long Island last year looks like it was designed, the MUFON expert who studied it closely said the formation took shape purely by chance, that each light has a heat source, indicating the lights were lanterns. (Photo courtesy of MUFON)

By TIMOTHY BOLGER

From questionable orbs to planets mistaken for alien spacecraft visiting Earth, there continues to be no shortage of purported UFO sightings in the skies over Long Island, experts say.

Nassau and Suffolk counties have seen more than two dozen reports UFO sightings in each of the past two years, according to Cheryl Costa, author of UFO Desk Reference: United States of America 2001-2015.

“A single golden colored, circular UFO was perfectly still, relatively low in the sky,” an Elmont resident told the National UFO Reporting Center in June. “I have never seen something stay so still and so low in the sky before. The sky was fairly overcast and the object was visible underneath the clouds, so it was not a star or planet … Never seen anything like it!“

The U.S. and New York State is on track to record the most UFO sightings this year since 2014, Costa said. New York recorded nearly 200 sightings last year, according to multiple UFO observation groups.

Joseph Flammer, an LI-based field investigator with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), said some reports are easily ruled out, while others are not.

“We receive a steady flow of reports, but after investigations we found many are reports of airplanes and planets—especially Venus,” he said. “One report from South Huntington arrived with a photo of a triangle of lights in the sky. MUFON’s photo expert was able to identify heat source in each of the lights, thus ruling this triangle a collection of lanterns that by chance fell into the formation of a triangle.

”On the other hand, the same expert studied a recent video from Valley Stream which showed light orbs crossing the sky and found they were genuine UFOs, no heat source, exhaust, contrails or even noise, and probably not manmade,” he continued. “The expert could tell us what they weren’t but not what they were. That’s always the biggest question. On Long Island, our major sightings typically involve orbs, often a group of seven or so at one time traveling in the sky.”

Sometimes, the unusual sightings are on the ground.

“I went out to look at something, and noticed unusual prints on our lawn,” an Old Westbury resident told NUFORC of tracks in the snow in January. “Clear footprints, but single, not two together, measuring 17 inches long. The prints are approximately 4 feet apart. Definitely not an animal, as they are huge single prints … Made my husband come out and see them. He was definitely freaked out by them, and we couldn’t figure them out.

“Even went by my local PD, and said, we’re not crazy, but these are on our lawn,” the complainant added. “We knew they wouldn’t do anything, we kind of all were kidding about a Yeti, but they definitely were trying to figure it out too … I was walking around the snow, and my foot just left prints, didn’t go down to the grass at all. These were all prints where the grass was showing, and therefore are very clear.”