My article for the March 2015 issue of the Astrosociological Insights Newsletter which focused on Astrobiology.
Online (page 21) at:
http://www.astrosociology.org/Library/PDF/Newsletters/ARI-Newsletter_Vol-4_Iss-1_04-2015.pdf
Picture below: Alleged UFO landing trace, Delphos ring soil, Kansas, 1971
Courtesy: MUFON
Similarly to other countries around the world, Italy represents an historical rich country with respect of the number of UFO observations and the different UFO researches undertaken. As a result of a wave of UFO sightings in 1978 and some questions raised by members of the Italian Parliament, the then Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti designated the Air Force as the institutional Body to collect, verify and monitor the UFOs. As a result, the Minister of Defense ordered a specific office within Air Staff Headquarters to centralize all UFO data, and all armed forces were asked to forward their data to this office. Nowadays, this activity is carried out by the General Security Department of the Air Force. Anyone wishing to submit an event pertaining to a UFO sighting can do this by using the specific questionnaires available on the Air Force’ website. After the form has been submitted on line, it will be delivered to the nearest “Carabinieri” station (the national military police of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations). This will result in launching an investigation for trying to identify the nature of the phenomena observed, i.e. attempting to find an explanation in terms of human-made events and/or natural phenomena. If necessary, this research will also involve the participation of some other Italian competent bodies. Overall, such investigation will aim at ensuring that there is no potential defense of national security issue associated with the UFO sighting. If it is eventually not possible to identify the nature of the phenomena, the event will be classified as an observation of an Unidentified Flying Object. Obviously this will not mean that an alien vehicle was flying above Italy, but simply will indicate that it was not possible to identify the origin of the phenomena observed.
The yearly UFO summaries of the Air Force covering the period 2001- 2013 are available at the following link:
http://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/Organizzazione/SMA/EntiDipendenti/Pagine/RGS_OVNI.aspx.
As I had the opportunity in some previous posts to provide some statistics pertaining to the numbers of UFO observations in others countries (e.g. Canada, USA, France), I thought that it would also be useful in the context of this interview to retrieve some data regarding Italy. In that respect, I have found a recent chart which that was presented by Italian researcher Gian Paolo Grassino at the 26th National UFO convention “150 years of UFO in Italy”, an event organized by CISU in November 2011 in Torino. The below chart shows that CISU had collected an impressive number of sightings (+/- 25.000) on the period 1947-2010, and that there has also been a considerable increase of UFO reports since 2002.
(Source: CISU, http://www.ufo.it/torino2011/grassino.pdf).
Fig. 1: CISU number of UFO sightings (Source: Gian Paolo Grassino, cisu, 2011).
Regarding the declassification of official governmental UFO information, it should be emphasized that as early as 1978 the Air Force started to release some UFO reports to Italians Ufological associations. A quick summary of the release of Italian official files, compiled by Spanish researcher Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, is as follows:
1978
6 (1977-1978) Air Force UFO reports released to CUN, CNIFAA and CIRSUFO.
1986
Summaries for 70 Air Force UFO reports (1979-1985) released to CUN and CISU.
1988-2001
Yearly Air Force UFO sighting summaries (1987-2000) released to CUN and CISU.
1993
Air Force statistical study of 111 UFO reports (1979-1990) published.
1996-2001
Full Air Force UFO files (1979-1990) released to CISU: 372 reports, ~3,000 pages.
2001 to date
UFO sighting summaries online (2001-2013)
For interested readers, further historical information and supporting details can be found in the following article of Edoardo Russo (CISU, http://www.cisu.org/): “A Summary of Official UFO Research in Italy” . This article can be found on line on line at the following link (pages 110-112 of the excellent document “Proceedings of the 1999 Sign Historical Group UFO History Workshop”): http://www.project1947.com/shg/proceedings/shgproceed1.pdf
In March 2014, for the first time a book focusing on the Italian military files appeared on the Italians bookstores’ shelves. Two journalists (Lao Petrilli and Vincenzo Sinapi) managed to get access to the registered military UFO files and were allowed to consult, photograph, copy and store many UFO testimonies to be used for writing a book. In order to clarify the information contained in this book, UAP Observations Reporting Scheme contacted one of the authors. Vincenzo Sinapi kindly accepted to answer specific questions and provide at the same time some supporting statistical data.
Fig. 2: Book UFO. I dossier italiani, Petrilli Lao; Sinapi Vincenzo, Editore Ugo Mursia Editore, 2014.
Some information about the authors:
– Lao Petrilli, journalist, founder and director of WikiLao.it, works for RDS, to “La Stampa” and the Australian broadcaster SBS. He is the author of “Embedded, hunt for terrorists with the Marines “(2005) and, with Vincenzo Sinapi, “Nasiriyah, the true story” (2007).
– Vincenzo Sinapi is the managing editor added to the Chronicles Italian news agency ANSA. After working for a decade on judicial investigations and major processes, he began writing in 1998 about defense and security, following closely the activities of the Italian soldiers in theaters of war.
Why did you write this book and do you plan to issue an English edition ?
Vincenzo Sinapi: We are not ufologists, but investigative journalists. In the Italian media there has always been a lot of discussion about the Italian Air Force UFO “secret archives” and we decided to enquire about them. We determined the location of these archives and managed to access the UFO documentation. We realized that we had in our hands the real documents, and in fact that most of them had never been published before. One scoop, in fact. This is how the idea of a book was born. A book about UFOs written according to journalistic criteria, aseptically and neutral. UFO Sightings reports from these military files are reported in our book in their entirety, without adding any personal assessment. We wanted to make available these official documents to all citizens, in order to allow them to “get an idea” of the UFO phenomenon in Italy, without withholding any part of the official documentation or adding any of our personal views. For the interest of UFO researchers, we offer some cases that have largely been unpublished until today. Even at the international level, in our opinion, our book stands out due to both the working method and the content. Hence, we indeed have the idea of translating this book into English in the future.
Have you encountered any difficulty for accessing/consulting these official UFO files ? Did you need any special authorization and where are the files kept ?
The material is kept at the premises of the General Security Department of the Air Force, the department which deals with collecting and archiving national reports of “Oggetti Volanti Non Identificati (O.V.N.I.)” (UFOs in Italian). We did not encounter particular difficulties in accessing these files, despite the fact that the Air Force has always been very careful to open their UFO archive’ doors. They hold an archive containing a large quantity of documents that were once protected by various classifications of secrecy and that have been declassified since some years. What we have done is to ask for permission to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, to inspect and make copies of the material. This authorization was granted only after a few days. From our side, there was the promise that we would publish the material without any distortion and that the book would not favor any specific thesis, but only strictly reported the facts as quoted in the official reports. From the side of the Air Force, there was no restriction or control whatsoever regarding the content of the book. In fact, we have been free to publish whatever we wanted.
Are the files properly archived at the General Security Department’s premises and is there any plan to make them available on line (like the CNES/GEIPAN reports) ?
Reports of UFO sightings are contained in yearly folders starting from 1972, when the Air Force began to store this material in a systematic way. However and as previously mentioned, it was only in 1978 that the Air Force was formally instructed by the Government to deal with the UFO matter. In each binder, you can find all material relating to individual reporting cases. If a sighting was made by a citizen, the binder typically contains the following:
Firstly the original declaration made by the witness to the Police. Secondly a specific UFO questionnaire filled in by the witness: “Report of sighting of unidentified flying object” which contains 21 questions and some drawing of the UFO made by the witness. This questionnaire follows the format of the standard form that had been adopted in the United States at the time of the official American Project Blue Book. Thirdly, any photographs or video recordings made by the witness. Finally, the investigations’ results conducted by departments or the Air Force civilian agencies that were tasked at the time to perform the relevant verifications. On the web site of the Air Force (see link given above), there is a section dedicated to UFOs which includes a yearly summary sheet of every Unidentified Flying Object’ sighting, starting from the year 2001. However, these tables show only a very few details and therefore not the files’ contents.
Fig. 3: Soncino (Cremona), 09/09/2013
How many cases originate from military sources and what are their origins (e.g. Navy, Air Force) ?
The messages contained in the Archive of the Air come from various sources. Most are those of from all categories of individuals (e.g. adults, teens, men, women, workers, professionals, priests). There are also, in fewer numbers but still of significant interest, reports of witnesses belonging to the Armed Forces (Army, Navy and Air Force, both pilots ground staff), to the Police Forces and also some reports originating from civilian planes pilots.
What are the most documented military UFO events and from which years?
Several UFO reports made by the military are quite detailed, especially the ones coming from the pilots. You can find them in several years, like for example one of 1977 (27 October), when a “disco light” was observed by several Army helicopters’pilots at the airport of Cagliari (capital of the island of Sardinia). In fact, it is one of the cases that will push the government to engage into the UFO topic and to instruct the Air Force to take care of the matter henceforth. A case quite unique, in light of the number of trained and experienced witnesses, and due to the fact that an UFO had even violated the restricted and protected airspace of an Italian military base. In the book, there are many episodes of UFO flying over military bases or UFOs that have been observed and chased by military pilots. For example, the case which occurred in Foggia (Southern Italy) on the June 6, 1978, when a pilot chased a “red-orange light” for a certain amount of time but which was then forced to return to base due to lack of fuel. Another occurrence took place in Cisterna di Latina (central Italy) when a top Air gun’s pilot managed to come close as to 50 meters from an object that he had “never seen before” in his career. Or also an event in La Spezia (northern Italy) on March 18, 2003, when an Navy helicopter observed for about 20 minutes a “hard white circular light of about a meter’s diameter”. These are only a few illustrating examples of such military UFO observations, as in fact there are dozens of such cases in the Air Force documentation.
Are there any military cases which include specific supporting scientific data (e.g. radar, traces, pictures) ?
Even in the files relating to military reports and this is also applicable to all UFO observations recorded in the Air Force files, the documentation only provides, at the exception of very few exceptions, the results of the investigations without the support of any additional documentation. Such information is kept with the department that carried out the investigation, as requested at the time of the investigation.
Do you know if any of this UFO information has been shared with other countries or with the Italian scientific community ? Is there any cooperation agreement existing in Italy with some research institutes, laboratories or scientists ?
We do not know whether or not there is an exchange of information through official channels between Italy and other countries. In the documents that are kept in the Air Force UFO archives, there is no sign of such cooperation. We personally believe that as part of the existing collaboration between the Italian Air Force and the allied countries’ Air Forces, there is no obstacle against the exchange of information regarding individual UFO cases. However, during our research we have not found any record of such correspondence in the UFO files. Surely because the Air Force’s archived messages cover exclusively domestic UFO cases. With regard to the cooperation with civilian agencies and the Italian scientific community, the government’s proposal at the time, dating from 1978 and continued by the successive governments, was involving the CNR (National Research Council). In that respect, we found in the documents that we consulted, the project of a cooperation agreement involving six different ministries. However it appears that at the end such collaboration never materialized, however for reasons that we don’t understand.
Fig. 4: Casoria (Napoli), 12/05/2011
Have the military taken any proactive action in order to detect such phenomena ? For example in the context of specific UFO field experiments ? Has there ever been any deployment of scientific/military equipment for the detection and tacking of UFO in locations where there had been a sudden increase of UFO sightings ?
The Italian Air Force and in particular the general security department (which replaced the SIOS II Department, Information Services and Operational Situations, the “secret service” of the Armed Forces which was abolished January 1,1998) has been tasked to exclusively deal with the UFO topic in relation with potential issues of flight safety, defense or national security. The UFO investigations only aimed at ensuring that the country was not facing any potential threat; therefore not at determining the origin of the UFO phenomena. The Air Force performs verifications associated to airspace control and air defense, but this is not in relation to technical aspects and the scientific nature of the phenomenon. According to us, there has been are no specific UFO field surveys, at the exception of course of the “Carabinieri” who will have received the UFO report alert and decided to go on the field for further investigating it.
From studying these files, what do you think is the opinion of the Italian Army regarding the UFO phenomena ?
For each message sufficiently serious received by the Air Force, the necessary verifications are systematically performed. In the different records, the police officers often provide an assessment of the seriousness and reliability of the witness. But not concerning the origin of the event. No general consideration regarding the “UFO phenomenon” is given by the military. Our opinion is that the Defense’s world – and the Air Force in particular – look carefully into this UFO matter, without underestimating it.
However this is always performed within the limits of their respective mandates, and also in light of their budgetary constraints. These are certainly the limitations that prevent someone you from performing those additional investigations that may be necessary and useful. But such actions belong to the scientific community and not to the military forces.
Fig. 5: Rivalta (Torino), 28/08/2010
What have you learnt from these files and what cases have impressed you the most (if any) ?
What we have learnt is that the number of UFO observations in Italy was much larger than we had originally expected. Indeed, UFOs have been seen in all the Italian regions, every year and by all sort of witnesses. Since 1972,a total of 445 UFO reports has been officially registered and filed by the Italian Air Force (see chart below). The year that recorded the highest number of sightings, perhaps due to the after effects of the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (released in Italians theaters at the end of 1977) has been 1978, with 69 reports. Others years depicting many UFO observed flying over the country has been the year 1980 with 32 cases, followed up by 1997 and 2010 with 22 sightings each of them. After that there have been 18 cases in 1995 and 17 for both 1998 and 2011. With respect to low numbers, in addition to 1976 which represented the only year without any sightings at all, the years 1975, 1972, 1982, 1987 and 2004 have just registered two UFO files . Last year, seven observations were officially catalogued as reports of Unidentified Flying Objects. An amount quite similar to the one of 2012 (10).
Fig. 6: Number of registered UFO sightings (Source: Sinapi Vincenzo)
Concerning the geographical areas of these 445 reports, in the south there were 160 sightings, the north following closer with a total of 154, while the Centre of Italy showed a slightly lower number of reports (120). Only one case has been registered in San Marino, but it is true that this can be easily explained by the fact that this republic is an enclaved microstate of only 62 km² and 32 000 inhabitants.
Looking at the details per region (see below illustration), the numbers clearly placed Lazio at the top with 53 cases. This region was then followed by Tuscany with 43 reports, Lombardy and Campania (36), Puglia (34), Emilia Romagna (32), Sicily (31), Veneto (23) Brands (21), Sardinia (19), Calabria, Piemonte and Abruzzo (18), Liguria (17), Friuli Venezia Giulia (15), Trentino Alto Adige (11), Basilicata (3), Umbria (3), Valle d’Aosta (2) and Molise (1).
Fig. 7: Number of registered UFO sightings per region (Source: Sinapi Vincenzo)
Browsing through the various reports that have been collected by the Air Force since 1972, we have noticed throughout the decades a change of attitude from the witnesses towards the unknown and the extraterrestrial hypothesis. In the early years the persons observing a UFO were mostly afraid, and even in some cases terrified. More recently however, the witnesses were almost chasing the “flying saucers” or ready to confront UFOs and photograph them. As previously mentioned, the interesting cases reported in the book are many. If we were asked to select only one of them, with respect to the quality of the witness and the level of details available, we would choose the sighting by an Air Force top gun which took place on February 9, 1994 in Cisterna di Latina, central Italy. The pilot, engaged in a training mission with a student, saw a UFO and chased it until it was only 50 meters away. The observation was very precise and clearly described an object with stubby wings, a bright green back and a gray belly. According to the military pilot, this object for sure “was not any type of known aircraft” and the UFO was able to escape pursuit.
Many thanks Mr Sinapi for your time and we will be looking forward to the English edition of your book.
**********
As mentioned during the UAP worskop in Paris last July, CNES/GEIPAN have now made available on line the totality of the material presented. This represents a considerable resource for those seriously interested in the scientific potential of UAPs. CNES/GEIPAN shall be felicitated by this transparency and efforts for organising such event and making rapidly available the totality of the filmed presentations and associated papers written by the researchers, the posters and the various discussions. This is certainly the right approach and look forward to all follows up of this initiative, which somehow represented an historical milestone as it was the first time that GEIPAN was organising such scientific conference.
http://www.cnes-geipan.fr/index.php?id=212
UAP reporting Scheme participated to the workshop, contributing to the theme related to “Systematic observations of the sky”;specifically focusing on the instrumental detection projects through the following poster (feedback always welcome):
UNIDENTIFIED AEROSPACE PHENOMENA (UAP) AND EXPERIMENTAL STRATEGY: METHODS, EQUIPMENT AND LESSONS FROM INSTRUMENTED FIELD STUDIES
CAIPAN2014 poster-Ailleris 2014a
http://ufology-news.com/intervyu/intervyu-s-filippom-aillerisom.html
Background:
Project “News Ufology” as an alternative media was launched in July 2011. The aim of the project is to provide adequate information and networking opportunities for people interested in unidentified flying objects (UFO) [1] and the anomalous aerospace phenomena (AAP) [2]. The site provides the most current news ufology [3], the UFO-identification, AAP-study, interviews with well-known researchers of the history of events, documentary materials. “News Ufology” is different from other media about UFOs – impartiality and popularization of scientific approach. Here you can also find out about upcoming events and conferences ufologists, scientists and analysts involved in the identification of UFO researchers and AAP.
Luc Dini, president of the French 3AF’ s Technical Commission “SIGMA 2” has published last July a clear communication about the composition, role and objectives of the commission. Compared to his predecessor (SIGMA), the planned activities for a duration of 3 years are aimed at being more technical and scientific (see illustration below and details under the link). SIGMA 2 has already built up some working relationships with various serious organisations and researchers, including GEIPAN.
Regarding the latest, Dini attended the CAIPAN workshop that the CNES/GEIPAN organised in Paris last summer, during which I had the opportunity to perceive his seriousness and motivation. We believe that overall the SIGMA2 approach is is the right one, although highly difficult, and encourage him in his undertakings. We will be looking forward to his next status report.
An excellent report (pdf) summarizing 25 years of Canadian UFO reports. Ufology Research, formerly UFOROM (Ufology Research of Manitoba), has been collecting and reviewing Canadian reports since 1989, publishing the results as the annual Canadian UFO Survey.
As explained by the authors “…When the 2013 edition was published in 2014, it marked 25 years of the annual analyses of UFO report data. It seemed reasonable, then, to group all 25 years of data together and examine the data for trends and changes with time over a quarter of a century. When the final tally was produced, there were almost 15,000 UFO reports received as data since 1989. Coincidentally, this almost exactly matches the total number of UFO reports collected and analysed by the United States Air Force Project Blue Book during its official run of less than 20 years from 1952 to 1970. The Ufology Research study is titled “UFOs Over Canada: 25 Years of UFO Reports.” It is available from the Canadian UFO Survey web page here. In addition to the text document, the entire 25-year report database is also viewable.”
Poster presented by the Norwegian researchers during the April’s 2014 EGU conference in Vienna.
Poster EGU Hessdalen 2014 red1
UAP Observations Reporting Scheme spoke recently with Chris Rutkowski about Canadian Ufology. Last March, he published the 2013 Canadian UFO Survey on the following website: http://www.canadianuforeport.com/survey/essay/2013essayv2.html.
Data for that yearare available there, as well as various charts and graphs. Chris Rutkowski also mentioned to us that 2014 is also the 25th yer of the Canadian UFO survey and that a separate 25-year compilation that will be published later…
“…Any exploration into unusual phenomena must be handled with objectivity and common sense. This is easy in theory, but in practice it tends to be difficult. I tried to be objective when I first began my study of strange phenomena. It wasn’t easy. My studies in the sciences did not include allowances for debatable phenomena such as Sasquatch, lake monsters and ghosts. But after pursuing reports of such things, I found myself confronted with a basic question: How can a scientist deal with reports of things unaccepted by science? This problem resulted in the classic Catch‑22 of Fortean research. Scientists tend to ignore reports of spurious phenomena, so research is inevitably done by laypeople. However, their research is not sanctioned by scientists and is sometimes below acceptable standards, so scientists have no choice but to reject the results.
My educational background was in science, with astronomy as my area of specialization. I now give public and private presentations on various aspects of science education, and I enjoy spreading the news that science is interesting. I especially treasure the faces of children who beam with pride as they understand a new science concept such as magnetism or gravity. But I know that science still holds many mysteries, and I encourage children to ask questions continually throughout their schooling. I don’t remember how I became interested in strange phenomena. But at some point I started reading and collecting stories of scientific curiosities. I wanted to learn as much as I could about Fort’s “damned”. Perhaps because of my astronomical studies, I took a special interest in UFOs and the speculation that there might be other creatures besides us in the universe. I found that the more I read and the more I corresponded with others with the same interest, the more questions I had. I have attended seances, spoken with people who have seen ghostly apparitions walk up stairs, listened as a farmer described the glowing flying saucer that landed in his field, and marveled as I was told of an eight‑foot‑tall humanoid covered with hair and emitting a foul smell. Even with an enormous grain of salt at my side, one thing has impressed me above all: the sincerity of the witnesses. Without any reason to lie, and usually under risk of being ridiculed by their peers, thousands of people have told me of their strange experiences and encounters with things that shouldn’t be at all. But I believe that everyone who claims to have seen a UFO has in fact had a real experience of some kind. I make no assumptions regarding its origin on a distant planet or the astral plane; I am simply an investigator, and am willing to listen to those who have had a mysterious experience.
What are the conclusions to be drawn from the last years Canadian UFO surveys ?
The main conclusions are that: 1) UFO sightings continue to be reported by the general population; and 2) the number of reported UFOs has been trending upward since 1989. In 2013, there was the second-highest number of reports ever recorded.
In Canada, what is the attitude vs. the UFO topic (i.e. the general public, scientists, the authorities and military forces) ?
As with all industrial and developed countries, UFOs and the idea of alien life continue to be pervasive in the public mind. Popular culture is very much taken with the issue of alien intervention, whether it is something as blatant as the Roswell mythology or Hollywood’s current fascination with invading aliens in the Marvel Universe of The Avengers. Canadians are no different than people in other countries. Polls have shown that about 10% of the North American population, including Canada, believe they have seen UFOs. By demographics alone, this means more than 3.5 million Canadians think they have seen UFOs. But as with other countries, the official view adopted by science is that the subject is foolish and not worth studying.
Is there any differences between American and Canadian UFO cases, or their characteristics ?
Not that I can detect. Although there has not been any American study comparable with the Canadian survey, UFO reports seem to ne very analogous in both countries.
What have been the most (unexplained) intriguing Canadian UFO cases ?
That is a difficult question! We are just in the last stages of completing a 25-year study of UFOs in Canada, and will produce such a list some time later this year.
But I can easily note some of the most remarkable of all time: the Falcon Lake case and the Shag Harbour case, both from 1967; the Yukon case of 1996; and the Langenburg case of 1974.
Has there been any evolution in the statistics during the last 10 years location, shape, duration, characteristics, etc…
Not in the last 10 years, but during the last 25 years, we have seen the number of physical trace cases dwindle to almost nothing. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was common to have “landing traces” and other physical effects reported in conjunction with UFO sightings. Such things are very rare now. Also, discoveries of “crop circles” rose and declined during the past 25 years; thankfully, there are few reported anymore. Another trend has been the disappearance of the “saucer” or “disc” as a shape in reports. While “triangles” became common for some time, the most common “shape” of the past several years is simply a “point source” of light. In other words, the numbers of sightings of structured objects has declined greatly.
Why Science should take another look at the UFO Phenomena?
Because of the persistence of the phenomenon, for one thing. My opinion is that if UFOs are not physical phenomena, they definitely are sociological or psychological phenomena. In either case, they are worth scientific study, because they have, at the very least, permeated the minds and imagination of the populace – if they are not physical phenomena.
Most scientific objections to the study of UFO reports center around the concept of alien visitation. This is a “red herring,” in my opinion. The topics of UFOs and aliens are separate, but MAY be related. Through my training in astronomy, I share the majority view that intelligent life exists elsewhere in our galaxy (but not necessarily here on Earth!). I believe it possible that an advanced, technological civilization may have found ways of traversing interstellar distances without violating physical laws. However, after more than 35 years of research and investigation, I do not see any incontrovertible evidence of this.
I will also note that our lack of conclusive evidence of alien visitation is exactly what we would expect from an advanced extraterrestrial technological civilization. This has been phrased by some researchers as: “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” Unfortunately, our current scientific methodology precludes such an approach to studying our universe. We generally require testable evidence or proof to support a premise or theory. Under this scientific paradigm, there are no aliens.
How do you think could this could be undertaken ? Do you believe that any a-priori detection effort should be implemented ?
This is difficult because of the scientific approach I just noted. I believe that the objective study of heteroclitic phenomena and the analysis of such data is not sufficient by itself. But engaging in reasoned discussion with scientists, without any usual UFO/alien/mystical rhetoric, may be the key to moving forward in serious discourse on anomalistic phenomena. I also think that the most serious hindrance to UFO-related research is the lack of investigation of UFO reports. I calculate that less than 5% of all UFO sightings are adequately investigated. It is difficult to imagine how the UFO phenomenon could ever be made convincing to science without good data collection and in-depth investigation.
Finally,May I ask what is your personal opinion about the UFO phenomena ?
I am interested in bridging the chasm between “believers” and “debunkers” in an attempt to catalyse rational discourse on these topics. I know that, deliberately or otherwise, incorrect information has been propagated by individuals who have made “names” for themselves in these fields of study. Because of some training in deconstructionist educational theory, I am critical of published research and popular interpretations of the phenomena.
My philosophy: “Don’t always believe the believers, but also be skeptical of skeptics!”
Many thanks Mr Rutkowski for your time and all the best luck for your future UFO researches.
For illustration purposes, a recent presentation given by Chris Rutkowski: UFO Phenomena in Canada_CR presentation 2014
His blog can be found at: http://uforum.blogspot.nl/
The Canadian UFO survey and statistics provided by Chris Rutkowski, a civilian science writer, shows that contrary to what what is thought UFO sightings are still at a high level,
Hitting a total only seen once before in the past 25 years, 1,180 UFO sightings were reported in 2013, or about three each day, according to the Canadian UFO Survey, an annual survey released Tuesday by Winnipeg-based UFOlogy Research of Manitoba. It is the second-highest number recorded in Canada in the past 25 years. The peak year was 2012, when almost 2,000 reports were recorded.
Link: http://www.canadianuforeport.com/survey/index.html
Press coverage: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ufo-sightings-soar-to-new-heights-in-canada-1.2568193
Some charts:
This is a presentation kindly provided by Ben McGee (National Geographic Channel’ show ” Chasing UFOs”). Obviously, in some instances the talk slides are very pictorial/general, (essentially apparently abstract images), was they were intended as guides for more detailed speech he delivered at the time.
The analysis of the Campeche (Mexican) military infrared film is quite revealing and methodologically very instructive.
Overall very interesting, but it is just a pity that no slide has really been provided regarding truly unexplained UAP sightings, and any potential constructive way forward…but this can surely be the object of another presentation by Mc Gee.
