London - Britain's UFO Capital
By Nick Pope
UFO sightings in the UK are on the increase. In figures released by the Ministry
of Defence recently it was revealed that the Department received 285 UFO reports
in 2008 - more than twice the 2007 figure. 2009 sightings are set to exceed the
2008 figure. One possible reason for this massive increase was the public
interest generated last year when the MoD began the process of releasing its
archive of UFO files. There was massive media coverage and the files were
downloaded from the National Archives website over a million times in the first
4 days following their release.
A popular misconception about UFO sightings is that they occur predominantly in
remote areas - people envisage a lonely country road, late at night, with a
driver suddenly noticing a strange light above the car. Every now and then a
town declares itself a UFO hotspot. The MoD files tell a rather different story.
Britain's UFO hotspot is, in fact, London.
At first, this may seem counter-intuitive. In our cities, people shuffle along
grimly, tending not to look up. If they do, views are generally obscured by
buildings and the light pollution in London means one can see only the brightest
stars and planets from the capital. However, thinking it through, the
explanation is obvious. In the countryside, if there's something unusual in the
sky, it may only be seen by a handful of people, if it's seen at all. Moreover,
most people who see UFOs don't report them, either because they fear being
disbelieved and ridiculed, or because they don't know who to contact. However,
if something flies over London, with its teeming millions, there are more
potential witnesses.
Most UFO sightings, of course, turn out to have ordinary explanations, with
people misidentifying satellites, meteors, lasers and searchlights reflecting
off clouds (often used at pop concerts and nightclubs), not to mention the
ubiquitous Chinese lanterns - essentially a miniature hot air balloon. These are
increasingly poplar in the UK and are let off at birthday parties, Christmas and
New Year celebrations and all sorts of other occasions. Several are usually
launched at once and any UFO report involving an orange light or lights drifting
in a straight line is almost certainly attributable to lanterns.
There can be some funny and surreal moments in the weird world of UFO
investigations. I once spoke to an earnest woman telling me about a sensational
sighting of a bright white light, with red and green flashing lights on either
side. When I asked where this was, she told me, without a hint of irony, that it
was near Heathrow airport. On another occasion an excitable man gave a running
commentary concerning a small, diamond-shaped UFO he was watching above Regent's
Park. The object turned out to be a kite and he ended the call, crestfallen,
with a polite explanation that it was now being put back into its box.
Some London sightings from the MoD's files are more difficult to explain. On
26th April 1984 several members of the public reported a UFO in Stanmore. Two
police officers attend the scene and actually saw the object themselves. They
observed it for a considerable length of time, with the naked eye and with
binoculars, and even produced an official police sketch. On 13th October 1984 a
saucer-shaped UFO was seen from Waterloo Bridge by numerous witnesses. One
report was telephoned to the MoD's UFO desk by a civil servant in MoD's
Whitehall headquaters, who had seen a UFO from his window. And last week, when
MoD released details of the 2008 sightings, there was reference to an incident
that took place on 12th February last year. The description read "There was a
craft that had green, red and white lights. It was still and static in the sky.
It was seen for about an hour and a half". The stated location was "opposite
House [sic] of Parliament".
So if you want to see a UFO, there's no need to trek out to some windswept spot
in the middle of nowhere. Come to London! And keep watching the skies ...