UFO sightings caused by freak weather, says MoD report

The Guardian, UK/May 8, 2006
By James Randerson

Conspiracy theorists will doubtless denounce it as part of a global UFO cover-up, but a secret government study into sightings of alien spacecraft has concluded that they are not extra-terrestrial visitors.

The four-year Ministry of Defence study, codenamed Project Condign, found that UFO sightings are the result of rare atmospheric conditions. It used information from more than 10,000 eyewitness reports, many from military personnel.

The report, which is nearly 500 pages long, was released under a Freedom of Information Act request by David Clarke, a social scientist at Sheffield Hallam University, and his colleague Gary Anthony. Dr Clarke estimates that the report, with a mysterious unnamed author, cost around £100,000 to produce.He questioned why the MoD kept the project under wraps.

"Why the secrecy? This report clears up many of the rumours surrounding UFOs and there is no reason it couldn't have been made public earlier," he said.

An MoD spokesperson denied a cover-up, saying the report came to the same conclusion as the "Flying Saucer Working Party", a group of scientists and military personnel who briefed government on the phenomena in 1952. "I don't think it occurred to the officials that anyone would be particularly interested in it," he said.

According to Dr Clarke the study is the culmination of work by a secret cell within Defence Intelligence called DI55 that monitored UFO reports. DI55 was closed down in 2000 when the report - "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) in the UK Air Defence Region" - was completed.

"That UAP exist is indisputable," it reads. "[They] clearly can exhibit aerodynamic characteristics well beyond those of any known aircraft or missile - either manned or unmanned."

It blames the most vexing sightings on airborne "plasmas" which form during "more than one set of weather and electrically charged conditions", or during meteor showers. The report will be posted on the MoD website on May 15.