This is a list of notable alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in the United Kingdom. Many more sightings have become known since the gradual release, between 2008 and 2013, of the Ministry of Defence's UFO sighting reports by the National Archives. In recent years, there have been many sightings of groups of slowly moving lights in the night sky, which can be easily explained as Chinese lanterns. Undertaken between 1997 and 2000, Project Condign concluded that all the investigated sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena in the UK could be attributed to misidentified but explicable objects, or poorly understood natural phenomena. [1]
An unidentified flying object (UFO), or unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP), is any perceived airborne, submerged or transmedium phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. Upon investigation, most UFOs are identified as known objects or atmospheric phenomena, while a small number remain unexplained.
In ufology, the psychosocial hypothesis, abbreviated PSH, argues that at least some UFO reports are best explained by psychological or social means. It is often contrasted with the better-known extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), and is particularly popular among UFO researchers in the United Kingdom, such as David Clarke, Hilary Evans, the editors of Magonia magazine, and many of the contributors to Fortean Times magazine. It has also been popular in France since the publication in 1977 of a book written by Michel Monnerie, Et si les ovnis n'existaient pas?.
Black triangles are UFOs reported as having a triangular shape and dark color, typically observed at night, described as large, silent, hovering, moving slowly, and displaying pulsating, colored lights which they can turn off.
The Phoenix Lights were a series of widely sighted unidentified flying objects observed in the skies over the southwestern U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada on March 13, 1997.
The Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter occurred at approximately 2:45 AM on July 24, 1948, in the skies near Montgomery, Alabama, United States. Two commercial pilots, Clarence S. Chiles and John B. Whitted, claimed to have observed a "glowing object" pass by their plane before it appeared to pull up into a cloud and travel out of sight.
The Chicago O'Hare UFO sighting occurred on November 7, 2006, around 4:15 p.m. when 12 United Airlines employees and a few witnesses outside O'Hare International Airport reported a sudden UFO sighting. The Federal Aviation Administration refused to investigate the matter because this unidentified flying object (UFO) was not seen on radar, instead calling it a "weather phenomenon".
This is a list of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects or UFOs in Brazil.
This is a list of sightings of alleged UFOs in Australia.
Below is a partial list of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects or UFOs in Canada.
From July 12 to 29, 1952, a series of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings were reported in Washington, D.C., and later became known as the Washington flap, the Washington National Airport Sightings, or the Invasion of Washington. The most publicized sightings took place on consecutive weekends, July 19–20 and July 26–27. UFO historian Curtis Peebles called the incident "the climax of the 1952 (UFO) flap"—"Never before or after did Project Blue Book and the Air Force undergo such a tidal wave of (UFO) reports."
A flying saucer is a purported disc-shaped UFO. In science fiction, reported UFO sightings, and UFO conspiracy theories, they are typically piloted by nonhuman beings. The term "flying saucer" or "flying disc" can be used generically for a mysterious flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has gradually been supplanted since 1952 by the United States Air Force term unidentified flying object, (UFO). Early reported sightings of unknown "flying saucers" usually described them as silver or metallic, sometimes reported as covered with navigation lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly, either alone or in tight formations with other similar craft, and exhibiting high maneuverability.
This is a list of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects or UFOs in South Africa.
The Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting occurred on June 24, 1947, when private pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed that he saw a string of nine, shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds that Arnold estimated at a minimum of 1,200 miles an hour (1,932 km/h). This was the first post-World War II sighting in the United States that garnered nationwide news coverage and is credited with being the first of the modern era of UFO sightings, including numerous reported sightings over the next two to three weeks. Arnold's description of the objects also led to the press quickly coining the terms flying saucer and flying disc as popular descriptive terms for UFOs.
The most widely reported UFO incident in New Zealand, and the only one investigated, involved the Kaikoura lights encountered by aircraft, filmed and tracked by radar in December 1978. The New Zealand Defence Force does not take an official interest in UFO reports, but in December 2010 it released files on hundreds of purported UFO reports. New Zealand's then-Minister of Defence, Wayne Mapp said at the time people could "make what they will" of the reports, and said "a quick scan of the files indicates that virtually everything has a natural explanation".
In the afternoon of 23 April 2007, Ray Bowyer, a pilot flying south towards the island of Alderney in the English Channel sighted unidentified flying objects. He reported the sighting to an air traffic controller who told him that a second pilot had seen something similar. In Bowyer's report to the British Civil Aviation Authority he said he saw two bright, stationary objects. Two passengers on Bowyer's aircraft said that they saw unusual coloured lights at the same time. Proposed explanations for the sighting have included earthquake lights and sun dogs.
The Little Rissington UFO incident was an encounter in October 1952 between a Gloster Meteor and three unidentified saucer-shaped objects over Gloucestershire.
The Flight 105 UFO sighting occurred on July 4, 1947, when three crew members aboard a United Airlines flight reported seeing multiple unidentified flying objects in the skies over the Pacific Northwest. The incident was among at least 800 similar sightings in the United States within a few weeks in the summer of 1947, but the first report by professional pilots. The U.S. military ultimately attributed what the crew members saw to "ordinary aircraft, balloons, birds, or pure illusion".
This is a list of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects or UFOs in Greece.
"Have We Visitors From Space?" was an article on Flying Saucers by H. B. Darrach Jr. and Robert Ginna that appeared in the April 7, 1952 edition of Life magazine. The piece was strongly sympathetic to the hypothesis that UFOs might be the product of extraterrestrials. Publicity surrounding the piece is believed to have contributed to the 1952 UFO flap, a subsequent wave of reports that summer.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) BBC, 20 May 2008