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This press release from The National Archives, dated 21 June 2013, announces the final tranche of Ministry of Defence UFO files: 25 files and 4,400 pages covering the UFO desk's last two years, from late 2007 until it closed in November 2009. The files show that sighting reports trebled to over 600 in 2009. Officials said no report in more than 50 years had revealed an extra-terrestrial presence or a military threat. Chinese lanterns are cited as a likely cause of the surge.
Report of UFO sighting in Israel with a link to a YouTube video showing an orange ball of light in the sky (DEFE 24/2452/1) Report of UFO sighting during the Second World War 1943-44 (DEFE 24/2628/1) MoD Police officer sighting of pear drop-shaped „translucent green light‟ from Royal Navy Base at Portsmouth (DEFE 24/2460/1) The files are available to download for free for a month from the website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos UFO app To mark the end of the UFO file release programme, an iPhone/iPad app „UFO Files UK‟* has been created by Black Plaques in association with The National Archives. The app lets users explore the official data by searching UFO reports dating back 25 years, with almost 5,000 sightings analysed, categorised and mapped. „UFO Files UK‟ makes all this data and selected pages from the original files available to the public in a convenient and accessible form. The „UFO Files UK‟ app is available from the iTunes store on Friday 21 June. Contact details For further information, interviews or images about the UFO files please contact The National Archives Press Office on: 020 8392 5277 or e-mail: press@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk. For further information about the ‘UFO Files UK’ app, please contact: Frances at Black Plaques, frances@blackplaques.com, 07961 983 240 or see Black Plaques preview site - http://is.gd/DI3COi Notes to editors: The UFO Desk was staffed by civil servants from the Air Staff Secretariat who received scientific and technical advice from DI55 – a branch of the Defence Intelligence Staff who were responsible for assessing UFO reports for information of intelligence interest. In 2000 the Air Staff Secretariat was replaced by DAS (Directorate Air Space) as the secretariat responsible for UFO reports. From 2000 UFO reports were no longer copied to DI55 and the UFO desk was closed in November 2009
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 4 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.