Do UFOs Exist? – Part 1: Reported Sightings

UFOs remain a topic of ongoing debate. Are they simply natural occurrences, or is there a deeper explanation?

The Roswell incident

In 1947, in Roswell, New Mexico, witnesses reported finding metal and rubber debris from an unidentified craft near the town and informed a nearby military unit. On 8 July, the local newspaper Roswell Daily Record published a report stating that the Air Force had recovered the wreckage of a ‘flying saucer’.¹ However, the military swiftly denied this, insisting that the debris was from a weather balloon.²

More than thirty years later, conspiracy theories surfaced, claiming that the United States government had kept the bodies of extraterrestrials from the Roswell crash and conducted scientific research on them. In response, in 1994, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the military revealed that the wreckage had actually belonged to a top-secret spy balloon from Project Mogul, which operated between 1947 and 1949 to detect Soviet nuclear tests.³

UFO mythology and scientific studies

The Roswell incident holds a key place in UFO mythology, which has developed over the decades since 1947. Many remain sceptical of the United States military’s claim that the wreckage was simply a spy balloon. Some believe the U.S. Air Force has an anti-gravity engine supposedly used to power extraterrestrial craft.⁴ Others argue that research into such technology dates back to Nazi Germany during the Second World War,⁵ particularly with Projekt Glocke (The Bell). In this context, the recruitment of Nazi scientists, including Wernher von Braun, by the U.S. government under Operation Paperclip is seen by some as highly suspicious.

To what extent these claims about extraterrestrial craft are true or false remains unknown. Yet, they continue to attract interest, as the UFO phenomenon (Unidentified Flying Objects, or Niezidentyfikowane Obiekty Latające in Polish) is a documented reality. Uncertainty largely arises from the very definition of a UFO—an airborne object that proves exceptionally difficult to identify using conventional methods. Project Blue Book, which ran from 1952 to 1969, recorded 12,618 UFO sightings reported between 1947 and 1969. While most were accounted for, 701 cases—representing around 5–6% of the total—remained entirely unexplained despite thorough investigations.⁶

Other notable UFO sightings

One of the most well-known cases was the events over Washington in July 1952, when hundreds of people saw a fleet of luminous objects over the city, including the United States Capitol. This occurred twice, on the night of 19 to 20 July and exactly a week later.⁷ Another significant case was the Lubbock Lights in Texas, a glowing, wing-shaped formation that appeared over the town in 1951.⁸ More recently, the Phoenix Lights of 1997 have been noted, though in that instance, the phenomenon may have been caused by flares dropped from military training aircraft.⁹

Many UFO sightings, now also referred to as UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), have been reported and recorded by pilots and other military personnel. In 2004, 2014, and 2015, pilots stationed on the aircraft carriers Nimitz and Theodore Roosevelt encountered unidentified flying objects, which were said to resemble Tic Tacs in shape. Footage of these incidents was leaked to the public in 2017 and officially released by the Pentagon three years later. These cases were also included in the Pentagon’s 2021 report, Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.¹⁰

Close encounters of the third and fourth kind¹¹

Encounters with supposed extraterrestrials are not confined to sightings of unidentified flying objects. There are also reports of figures seen on the ground and claims of abductions. Among the most widely known cases are the alleged abductions of Betty and Barney Hill in 1961¹² and Travis Walton in 1975.¹³ Similar reports have emerged from two locations in Poland. In 1978, a UFO was reportedly sighted in Emilcin, Lublin Voivodeship, an event later marked by a monument funded by the Nautilus Foundation in 2005.¹⁴ Another incident was said to have taken place in 2009 in the village of Jarnołtówek, Opole Voivodeship.¹⁵

When it comes to Poland, the village of Wylatowo in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship is worth noting for its crop circles. Often associated with extraterrestrial activity, they are well-known in ufology. However, many of these formations are widely recognised as man-made, created to draw public attention. Despite this, Wylatowo remains an important site for Polish ufologists.¹⁶

UFOs: A genuine concern?

These are just a few examples of reported sightings, encounters, abductions, and claims of contact with alleged extraterrestrial beings. Some of these accounts can be explained by natural phenomena, mistaken perceptions of dreams as reality, coincidences, or even deliberate hoaxes. However, some cases remain unexplained. Project Blue Book, which investigated UFO sightings between 1947 and 1969, failed to find a conventional explanation for 701 cases, an average of 32 per year. Concern over such incidents is not limited to the general public but extends to governments, including that of the world’s leading superpower.

Whether these phenomena have a rational explanation remains unclear. Are we actually being visited by beings from other planets? This will be explored in Part 2.

By the way, we recommend reading the articles:

• Is World War III Imminent? Part 1: History, the Present, and Future Predictions
• Is World War III Imminent? Part 2: Great Hope in the Face of Destruction
• Earth – the Only Planet with Fire
• Does the Bible Explain the Ice Age?
• Where Did Snake Venom Come From?

Footnotes

1. Arnold, K. 1947. Associated Press report, June 1947, [online]. Available at: https://www.apnews.com.
2. Roswell incident, Encyclopaedia Britannica, [online]. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/Roswell-incident.
3. Ibid.
4. Field Resonance Propulsion Project, NASA, Washington DC, 08 July 1979, [online]. Available at: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19800010907/downloads/19800010907.pdf.
5. Witkowski, I. 2013. Początek nowej ery, Warsaw: Wydawnictwo WIS-2, pp. 55-157.
6. Unidentified Flying Objects and Air Force Project Blue Book, United States Air Force, [online]. Available at: https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104590/unidentified-flying-objects-and-air-force-project-blue-book/.
7. Carlson, P. 2002. ’50 Years Ago, Unidentified Flying Objects From Way Beyond the Beltway Seized the Capital’s Imagination’, Washington Post, 21 July. [online]. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/07/21/50-years-ago-unidentified-flying-objects-from-way-beyond-the-beltway-seized-the-capitals-imagination/59f74156-51f4-4204-96df-e12be061d3f8/.
8. See, [online]. Available at: https://www.ufocasebook.com/lubbocklights.html.
9. Hendley, M. 2014. ‘The “Phoenix Lights” Are No Mystery’, Phoenix New Times, 14 March. [online]. Available at: https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/the-phoenix-lights-are-no-mystery-6661825.
10. Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, 25 June 2021, [online]. Available at: https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Prelimary-Assessment-UAP-20210625.pdf.
11. Various degrees of close encounters with UFOs have been proposed: first-degree (sightings with no other effects); second-degree (sightings causing damage to electronic equipment); third-degree (sightings of beings in vehicles or on the ground); fourth-degree (abductions); fifth-degree (communication with aliens); sixth-degree (direct injury or death).
12. Alien Abduction in the White Mountains, Be Outdoors, 30 June 2020, [online]. Available at: https://www.outdoors.org/resources/amc-outdoors/history/the-story-of-betty-and-barney-hill/.
13. The Travis Walton Alien Abduction, Medium.com, 30 June 2023, [online]. Available at: https://medium.com/@EverythingUnexplained/the-travis-walton-alien-abduction-40f9b1ba7a44.
14. Łysiak, M. 2022. ‘UFO w Polsce. Te miejsca mieli odwiedzać kosmici’, National Geographic Polska, 11 January. [online]. Available at: https://www.national-geographic.pl/artykul/ufo-w-polsce-te-miejsca-mieli-odwiedziec-kosmici.
15. UFO nad Jarnołtówkiem. Co wydarzyło się w mroźną styczniową noc?, Nowa Trybuna Opolska, 28 August 2009, [online]. Available at: https://nto.pl/ufo-nad-jarnoltowkiem-co-wydarzylo-sie-w-mrozna-styczniowa-noc/ar/4126101.
16. Łysiak, M. Op. cit.

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