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British Government Releases 200 Reports of UFO 'Sightings'

by Will Safer on May 14, 2008 at 01:44 PM

Drawing of a supposed flying saucer sighting in the United Kingdon.

Flying saucers? Alien encounters? It may sound cliché to seriously consider visits from little green men descending from saucer-shaped spacecraft, but the British government is releasing first-person accounts from people who have claimed to see unidentified flying objects.

Among these encounters are indeed alleged visits from space dudes in green.

A spokesman for the National Archives says the government is releasing the documents in response to several Freedom of Information Act requests. About 200 files will be made available to the public during the next four years as part of an effort by the Ministry of Defence to show it is "open and transparent."

Among the first files released there are accounts of alleged sightings over the River Thames, reports by patrons at a pub who saw lights in the sky near Gatwick Airport (what were they drinking, we want to know), and even a sighting by two U.S. Air Force policemen who claimed to see unusual lights near a Royal Air Force location.

Perhaps the best of the batch is an account by a 78-year-old man who says he met an alien in 1983. After spending some time on board a UFO he was asked questions by the alleged aliens. In the end, they told him to disembark with a somewhat condescending statement: "You are too old and too infirm for our purpose."

The lesson here? If you're hoping for a more successful alien encounter, perhaps it's time to start your fitness regimen now.

Want to learn more? Go to the U.K. National Archives site. [Source: BBC News]

Tags: alien, breaking news, BreakingNews, England, government, secrets, UFO

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