UK Has No Official Way to Report UFO Sightings
Unlike the United States, Britain stopped investigating unusual flying objects in 2009 due to budget cuts.
Crowther has been flying planes for 42 years and logged 22,000 hours in the air. He has seen almost everything the sky has to offer. But this one incident has puzzled him for nearly half a century. The memory is still clear in his mind today.
The United States has taken UFO sightings very seriously lately. The government has released secret documents about UFO encounters. Military pilots and intelligence officials have testified under oath about what they saw. They described objects that could move in ways beyond any known human technology.
Unlike the US, the UK has no official system for recording UFO reports. The Ministry of Defence once had a UFO desk that looked into sightings. However, it was shut down in 2009 because of budget cuts. Since then, there's no official way for people to report unusual things in the sky.
Jon uses police-style methods to study these cases. He says most sightings can be explained by normal things. However, about 20% cannot be explained at all. Jon believes the UK is falling behind other countries in understanding these phenomena.
One of Britain's most famous UFO events happened in 1980 at Rendlesham Forest. US Air Force workers at bases in Suffolk saw strange lights in the forest. Some said they saw a landed craft of unknown origin. This incident is often called Britain's best-documented UFO event.
People are now more empowered... people have a 4K camera in their pockets these days, so we are capturing a lot more evidence but there's nowhere to report them to.
Comprehension quiz preview
1. When did Chris Crowther see the mysterious objects near Norwich Airport?
2. How many flying hours did Chris Crowther log during his career?
3. When was the UK's UFO desk shut down?