Last ‘UFO’ Sightings Reported to RAF Will Be Published Online
by Press Association 2019 January 26, 2020 (largsandmillportnews.com)
• When Nick Pope worked at the ‘UFO Desk’ at Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) in the 1990s, “we didn’t find definitive proof of extraterrestrial visitation, but there were so many bizarre and unexplained sightings that we didn’t entirely rule it out.”
• In 2009, the Royal Air Force (RAF) determined that after more than 50 years, no UFO report received by the MoD had ever disclosed any evidence of a potential threat. So the MoD closed its UFO Desk and told the public that all of its UFO files were turned over to Britain’s National Archives, ultimately for full public disclosure.
• But a recent investigation stemming from a Freedom of Information Act filing revealed that some UFO reports had not been released. Rather than continuing to send these reports to the National Archives, the RAF/MoD has determined that it would publish all remaining UFO reports and documents on a dedicated gov.uk web page. A clearance process for these documents is currently under way, and online publication is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2020.
• From now on, any new UFO sightings by the British public will be directed to their local police force.
• So now the MoD’s official position is: “The MoD has no opinion on the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial life and does not investigate UFO reports.”
The RAF took the decision to wind up its UFO unit in 2009, after concluding that in more than 50 years, no received report had ever disclosed any evidence of a potential threat.
Previously, records from the unit were given to the National Archives, often initially classified before being released after a specific number of years.
But the most recent reports received by the RAF will be placed online, the PA news agency can disclose, following a Freedom of Information Act request.
Members of the public reporting alleged UFO sightings are now directed to their local police force.
A spokesman for the RAF said that “it had been assessed that it would be better to publish these records, rather than continue sending documents to the National Archives, and so they are looking to put them on to a dedicated gov.uk web page”.
A clearance process for the documents is currently under way before publication, which is expected to take place “some time within the first quarter of 2020”.
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Britain’s Ministry of Defence, Britain’s National Archives, Nick Pope, Royal Air Force