Hopes - or fears - that the Earth has been visited by alien life
forms have been dismissed in an official report by British defence
specialists.
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed a secret study completed in
December 2000 had found no evidence that "flying saucers" or
unidentified flying objects were anything other than natural
phenomena.
The 400-page report, released under freedom of information laws to
an academic from the northern city of Sheffield, concluded that
meteors and unusual atmospheric conditions could explain UFO
sightings such as bright lights in the sky.
"No evidence exists to suggest that the phenomena seen are hostile
or under any type of control, other than that of natural physical
forces," the report said, according to extracts quoted by the
BBC.
"Evidence suggests that meteors and their well-known effects, and
possibly some other less-known effects, are responsible for some
unidentified aerial phenomena.
"Considerable evidence exists to support the thesis that the
events are almost certainly attributable to physical, electrical
and magnetic phenomena in the atmosphere, mesosphere and
ionosphere," it said.
A Ministry of Defence (MOD) spokesman said the full report,
"Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region", would
be published on its Web site on May 15.
The ministry publishes annual lists of UFO sightings on its Web
site, which rank among its most viewed - and bizarre - pages.
In 2005 the ministry was asked under freedom of information laws
for details of its plans for "dealing with the arrival of
extra-terrestrials".
An unnamed defence official replied: "While we remain open-minded,
to date the MOD knows of no evidence which substantiates the
existence of these alleged phenomena and therefore has no plans for
dealing with such a situation."
