The UFO Events and highlights of 2008

As we are very nearly at the start of 2009, i thought it would be appropriate to run through the events of 2008, ‘ all things UFO ‘, as it proved to be an eventful year, in this respect.

The events and happenings that stuck out for me where:

1. The Stephenville UFO sightings, which still have not been satisfactorily solved.

2. The MOD giving us the start of the UFO files…. in may and October.

3. The UK UFO flap (whether actual UFOs? or media hype/led) was created.

4. The drones resurface again? and hit the media’s attention.

5. The false alarm: lights at Pheonix (in April).

The Stephenville UFO sightings, where first seen and reported as:

Where: Stephenville, Texas

When : January 8th, 2008

Spotted by : Quite a few witnesses ( i think initially by 30-40, but might be more now, as more have come forward? ) prominent among them – pilot/business owners/county constable.

What: UFO (thats Unidentified Flying Object) – bright lights ( some suggest like strobe lights) – low flying + fast (however, various other descriptions are given too); also some say it was chased by jets.

Officials respond by saying it was possibly a plane ( due to light conditions, made it seem more extra ordinary ); some witnesses suggest a military aircraft ( unknown to the public,possibly ). Also, it seems it has caught the attentions of the  Mutual UFO Network, which plans to go there and find out more..

It soon took on a much more complicated life of its own,  with among other things, the presidential ranch being nearby, the use/purpose of a secret (or not so)  airfield base at Walnut Springs. MUFON soon became extensively involved……..

There is so much to this event, i would not do it justice to summarize the whole thing in a couple of paragraphs. 

  Please see my Archive for the Stephenville sightings at https://dandare.wordpress.com/category/ufo-research/ufo-documentsarchives/stephenville-ufo-sightings/ 

This starts with the most recent blog article, and goes back from there (more sightings were seen in October 2008). There are links to other sites, videos, and  i made a flow chart of the event (which i will need to add too). For some background reading of the Texas area please see: https://dandare.wordpress.com/2008/02/08/the-nuclear-connection-project-presents-the-camp-hood-ufo-sightings/ 

MOD UFO Files become available for all to see on the 14th May 2008…. this was the first batch (the second batch was made available in October 2008), with more too come.

Please see https://dandare.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/mod-releases-8-ufo-files-ready-to-download-info-released-may14th/ for the full details.

This soon created a stur worldwide, and the extent of the media coverage can be seen at https://dandare.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/uk-ufo-sightings-may-2008-updated-regularly/ .

For Dr David Clarke, UFOlogist and senior lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, talks about the The Ministry of Defence files recently transferred files to The National Archives (interesting stuff) and Nicl Pope video on the UFO files please see https://dandare.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/some-recent-ufo-videos-more-audio-than-visual-of-possible-interest/ .

The Next batch of UFO files were made available in October; please see https://dandare.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/second-batch-of-mod-ufo-files-can-now-be-downloaded-for-free/ for full details. Videos are included, but some are not available now.

For all information on MOD file articles/information please see https://dandare.wordpress.com/category/mod-ufo-files/ .

Due in many respects to the hightening of the MOD UFO Files, and media attention being drawn to this area, it was little wonder that the UK became a hot spot for UFO activities. I wrote an article https://dandare.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/recent-uk-ufo-sightings-in-2008-a-reality-check-please/ in july as to why i believed this was happening to this extent.

“In case you might not be aware, the Uk has been inundated with UFO sightings for a while now; the start of the year seemed to be normal, with a standard amount of reported UFO sightings in the media, and online.

So it seems the catalyse came on May 14th, when the MOD released 8 ufo files ” (extract from article). Please also see https://dandare.wordpress.com/2008/09/27/ufology-and-the-way-of-the-world/ written in september.

For all UK UFO sightings from may please see:

https://dandare.wordpress.com/category/uk-ufo-sightings/ which starts with the lastest sightings in December, and goes back through the year.

Some incidents could be UFO balloons (please see:  https://dandare.wordpress.com/2007/05/19/ufo-balloons-what-are-they/ for more details, from a previous article). However, as i have said before, i am not sure what value they are to any UFO research.

 

Many of the sightings were sensationalised, with usually alot of information missing. Usually such newspapers as ” The Sun” were behind some pretty sad reporting on UFOs, with no factual details and research at all.

For example,

The Sun, on the 29th august had ” Every little green man helps “ 

“The white and green lights were snapped hovering over the supermarket — which has the slogan “Every Little Helps”. Sid O’Driscoll took our exclusive pictures at the 24-hour store in Croydon, South London, at 2am…[.]….UFO expert Nick Pope, who worked for the Ministry of Defence, examined the pictures.He said: “Green lights are unusual — it rules out the so-called Chinese lanterns that accounted for some recent UFO sightings in the UK.”The images and description of the movement don’t fit a list of things frequently reported as UFOs — aircraft lights, meteors, satellites. “This is a genuine mystery.” ” (extracts from article).

I’m sorry… yes it is different from the usual sightings we have been seeing lately; however, it could be lens flare that is causing this image, among other things. There are far too many so called UFO experts jumping the gun, and saying that “this is a genuine mystery”, and so on, without analysing the evidence properly (is there any serious discussion in this article on the photo?)…. it suggests a hidden agenda; unfortunately, due to the size of the photo being presented in the article, it really is almost impossible for anyone else to analyse it.

The Drone story resurfaced again in 2008…… on March 18th, The drone photos and documents, had been creating alot more debate recently, mainly due to the hiring of 2 detectives .. 

see   http://www.tkdavisinvestigations.com/_california_drone_investigation  .

For all my discussions on the whole subject, including quite a few articles as to why they are a hoax, (and also an extensive article on references/ links and videos) please see https://dandare.wordpress.com/category/ufo-research/ufo-documentsarchives/california-drones-ufo-documentsarchives-ufo-research/ . This also includes the events of 2007.

This was a highlight, but not one i will look on with pleasure….. it did/ and has done alot of damage to UFOlogy.

On 21st April the Pheonix Lights returned…

 (written on 23rd April ) Here are the raw facts so far, that i know of…

• Date : 21st April
• Time : Around 8 pm
• Location : North Phoenix
• lasted approx 15-3o minutes
• four lights…. White :also appeared red, depending on how you looked at them
• Formation…. at first a line, then a square and also a triangle
• Deer valley airport: did not know what they were

However, it later seems that, they were indeed road flares, attached to helium balloons… as has been pointed out in several forums such as abovetopsecret; this if true, is extremely dangerous for obvious reasons.

Please see https://dandare.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/ufo-seen-at-phoenix-21st-april-2008/ for details and videos.

I remember at the time it was pretty big news world wide, but unfortunately it soon materialized that it was a hoax, and the fuss died down.

These are just some of the highlights and events from the last year, and it has been a varied and interesting one at that.

Please feel free to look at the archive sections, in this blog, for many more sightings from the year.

I hope 2009 will bring more interesting sightings for us to analyse and discuss….. fore instance, will Stephenville have any more sightings?  

I wish you all a great 2009, and keep looking to the skies, you never know!