Pat Regan: How safe is our air space?

This blog is just a refresher on the MoD and why it decided to close the UFO monitoring facility

2009 report

Shock in the UFO community as the MoD’s UFO investigation service shuts down

Reports filtered into the press on December 4th 2009 explaining that the Ministry of Defence has stopped investigating reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in the UK.

A telephone number and email address which allowed the public to report sightings for examination was closed on 1 December after the MoD decided the service was an "inappropriate use of defence resources."

The closure of this facility was revealed in a Freedom of Information request released via the MoD website.

The report explained that the MoD had dealt with more than 12,000 reports since it launched the reporting service in 1950; including 135 last year. The service had cost approximately £50,000 a year to operate and was based at RAF Command in High Wycombe.

In an announcement the MoD said: "The MoD has no opinion on the existence or otherwise of extra-terrestrial life."

"However, in over fifty years, no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom.

"The MoD has no specific capability for identifying the nature of such sightings.

"There is no defence benefit in such investigation and it would be an inappropriate use of defence resources. Furthermore, responding to reported UFO sightings diverts MoD resources from tasks that are relevant to defence.

"Accordingly, and in order to make best use of defence resources, we have decided that from the 1 December 2009 the dedicated UFO hotline answerphone service and e-mail address will be withdrawn. MoD will no longer respond to reported UFO sightings or investigate them.”

They however added that the ongoing programme to release departmental files on UFO matters to the National Archive will carry on. Of course that will also eventually dry up because the MoD are not, we presume, logging any more data of this issue.

I was not very surprised when I heard this astonishing news as my own experience with the MoD has been one of them showing indifference. They were quite content to largely ignore my requests to investigate UFOs pictured flying close to RAF warplanes so what more can I say?

This agency is in existence to protect our sovereign air space and this latest disclosure appears to leave the back door wide open for any form of unknown attack on the UK. The MoD’s position therefore seems to be that if an object is unidentified then we are not interested. The MoD says:

"There is no defence benefit in such investigation and it would be an inappropriate use of defence resources.”

This is absolute baloney!

Can anyone believe such authoritarian apathy is these times of terrorist incursion? Today, we are hearing of more unexplained sighting of mystery objects in our skies than ever before yet the MoD are washing their hands of the issue. This action, or perhaps I should say inaction is simply too bizarre for words!