UFO sightings in the United Kingdom

This is a list of notable alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in the United Kingdom. Many more sightings have become known since the gradual release, between 2008 and 2013, of the Ministry of Defence's UFO sighting reports by the National Archives. In recent years, there have been reports of many slowly moving lights in the night sky, which can be easily explained as Chinese lanterns. Undertaken between 1997 and 2000, Project Condign concluded that all the investigated sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena in the UK could be attributed to misidentified but explicable objects, or poorly understood natural phenomena. London is the city with the most UFO sightings in the UK, followed by Manchester and Birmingham.

12th century

13th century

20th century

1900s

1910s

1940s

1950s

National Archives sketch of a UFO seen near Birmingham on 18 January 1975, later identified as satellites Zond 4 and Kosmos 460
F-86 Sabre of the 406th Fighter Bomber Group

1960s

Worldwide sightings of unidentified craft, including some from the UK (from the UK National Archives)

1970s

National Archives sketch in 1998 of a UFO over a field, sent to Kerry Philpott at Secretariat (Air Staff) 2A
Rendlesham Forest site of UFO landing

1980s

National Archives sketch of an alien planet landscape in January 2004

1990s–2000

National Archives sketch of a UFO seen over Woolwich in September 2003
Castlecary Viaduct on the A80 in Scotland
Cley Hill in Wiltshire

21st century

Still from video footage on 27 December 2000 sent to the UK National Archives

See also

References

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