One of the UK regions particularly noted for frequent “UFO sightings” over the years has been revealed.
Lincolnshire, in the East Midlands, was apparently a busy “hub” for Unidentified Flying Objects, according to a range of previously classified documents from a department of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Lincolnshire ranked in 15th place across all locations in the country, registering a suspected 13 eerie sightings in just one year.
Apparently, Northern Lincolnshire has witnessed more than 30 reports filed by the MoD over the years.
From the early 1950s until 2009, a department in the MoD documented and investigated reports of UFOs.
These documents, many of which were gathered by The Royal Air Force (RAF), had been sealed for 61 years and were released following a Freedom of Information request.
The files offer a head-spinning account of strange objects all shapes and sizes, detailed in over 620 sightings across the UK between 1959 and 2009.
The very last UFO report published online by the MoD dates to 2009, and covered alleged sightings that took place from January through the end of November of that year.
The descriptions of what “witnesses” saw are mind-boggling.
A report dated January 2009 painted a vivid picture of a "a silver disc-shaped light". Another one, in June that year, made mention of "up to 20 orange and red glowing lights".
In September, a witness gave an enthralled account of seeing "three blazing gold orbs in a diagonal line in the sky".
Accounts connected with Lincolnshire sightings describe seeing “a big red dome” and “suspicious” white lights. The object moved in a straight line.
After being “stationary for some time, it … started moving making small erratic movements”.
Another declassified account speaks of observing an object a quarter-of-a-mile long with “three large green windows”.
Yet another depicts a “silver, cigar shaped object”. With sharp “pointed wings”, it was supposedly fitted with a red light on one side, and a green light on the other.
After hovering, it swiftly disappeared, says the account.
According to the declassified files, London was at the top of the list with 54 sightings, followed by Kent (30) and Lancashire (24).
The official documents are now available to read on the UK Government’s website.
‘The X-Files’ Influence?
According to analysts, a majority of the sightings mentioned in the accounts took place in the late 1990s, suggesting they might have been attributed to the popularity of TV show The X-Files and wildly-popular at the time alien movies such as Independence Day and Men In Black.
“It's evident there is some connection between newspaper stories, TV programs and films about alien visitors, and the numbers of UFO sightings,” David Clarke, a UFO historian and consultant to the National Archives, was cited as saying by AP.
Clarke added that aside from 1996, one of the busiest years for UFO sightings, according to the MoD files, was 1978, when the sci-fi movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released.