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MOD UFO Files

ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk

3 March 2011

Over 8,500 pages of UFO discussions, sightings and reports have been released today by The National Archives. Covering the years 2000-2005, this is the largest batch of UFO files to be released so far.

The files document how UFOs became a global issue, discussed by the highest levels of government around the world, including the United Nations, the US Central Intelligence Agency and Britain's House of Lords. This latest release of files also reveals documents on the government's UFO policy for the first time.

The files are available to download for free for one month at nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos.
Policy and debate

Dr David Clarke, author of the book 'The UFO Files' and Senior Lecturer in Journalism from Sheffield Hallam University, said, 'Before the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, we had to wait 30 years or more before we could see files on UFOs. Following its introduction, questions on UFOs ranked in the top three most popular FOI requests received by the Ministry of Defence.'

Dr Clarke continued: 'I was one of the MoD's most "persistent correspondents" and eventually persuaded MoD and other government departments to release their information on this perplexing and controversial subject. You can see from the files that I wasn't the only one interested in the subject, with the phenomenon discussed at the highest level of government right across the globe.'

The files reveal hundreds of reports of UFO sightings by radar, 'UFO crashes' and other close encounters, including one incident which saw a flying saucer hoax by students which was treated as a potentially real alien invasion of the UK (Catalogue reference: DEFE 24/1986).