UFO sighting reports doubled in June

openminds.tv

Each month, the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) sends out its UFO sighting report figures, and the June report, which came out yesterday, showed a drastic increase in UFO reports.

MUFON is the largest civilian UFO investigation organization in the country, and perhaps the world. They have certified investigators throughout the country who investigate reports in their local area. They even have a few investigators in other countries.

The majority of their investigators and reports are in the US, and most would be shocked to see just how many reports come in. Each month they receive on average anywhere from 400 to 700 reports – usually on the higher side of this scale.

Last year alone they received over 7000 UFO reports. Many of these turn out to be cases of mistaken identity. However, a small percentage, anywhere between 10 to 20 percent, turn out to be unidentified when matched up to natural phenomenon, man-made objects, celestial objects, or other mundane objects.

10 to 20 may not sound like a lot, but when you are talking 7000 reports, that could be as many as 700 to 1400 cases that go unidentified after investigation.

It isn’t surprising to see modest spikes in the number of sightings. For instance, last July there were over 750 sighting reported to MUFON. Roger Marsh, MUFON’s Director of Communications, says July and the New Year often produce a lot of reports.

He says, “Many more people are celebrating outside during the evening hours and are looking up.”

To see this for yourselves, just watch the number of UFO sightings that will roll in this weekend, during the 4th of July holiday weekend.

What is not normal is to see a month have double the amount of sightings that are normally reported. In 2014, MUFON received 601 UFO sighting reports in June. This June, they received 1179, nearly double last year.

The question is always why there was an increase. Are there more UFOs flying around, or could there be another reason?

In order to analyze the spike I ran a report to look at whether there was a spike in one particular area. However, running the number by state up against the numbers from last year, did not really produce a state that had vastly more sightings than the others. The reports seemed well spread out.

Marsh thinks he know why the sightings increased. “We feel [it] was directly related to the final two episodes of Season 2 of “Hangar 1: The UFO Files,” explains Marsh.

Hangar 1 is a History channel UFO program produced by Go Go Luckey Productions. The final two episodes played in June. It features MUFON reports, and the name comes from a hangar that once served as a storage area for MUFON’s files.

“The cases for both of these episodes were pulled from our more current Content Management System (CMS) which includes great cases that were well investigated and closed as Unknowns. Most of these incredible cases have never been featured in any media format before, especially not on television,” says Marsh.

Marsh’s theory is that people watching the program were reminded of their own sightings, prompting them to log onto MUFON’s website and fill out reports. Marsh says a look at the reports supports this theory.

“A very high percentage of the June UFO report surge was historical cases. People were watching our show and decided they finally discovered a place where they could report their encounter. Some of these are very, very interesting and compelling cases currently under investigation,” Marsh explained.

One such case was featured in a story by Marsh recently here on OpenMinds.tv. A witness recalled a sighting from 1967. At the time, the witness was 8 years old and living in Jefferson, Louisiana.

The witness was walking hone with a friend when, “we looked from the sidewalk directly back to the backyard where the dogs were and saw them looking upward, which caused us to look up to see what they were looking at and it was then we saw the object.”

The witness described the object: “Hovering silently above a garage in her backyard was a dull, silvery, roughly triangular-shaped object. The triangle was longer on two sides with the corners of the triangle squared off. The ‘point’ where the two longer sides met was oriented toward the ground and there were gold/yellow lights at each of the corners. Close to the downward facing ‘point’ was what appeared to be a protruding area with a red light.”

The two went to grab their brothers, but by the time they got back the object was gone.

Sighting reports for MUFON were up a bit in May, but otherwise on par with 2014 numbers. If Marsh is right, there must have been a lot of people watching the last two shows of the season. Following this logic now that the season is over, the numbers should go back to normal.

Marsh says, “Both Season 1 and Season 2 can be seen at the History website. MUFON is in discussion currently with Go Go Luckey Productions for a possible Season 3.”