Data reveals number of UFO sightings in Lancs since 2018

Data obtained from a Freedom of Information request has revealed that 2019 was the busiest year for UFO sightings, with four reports being made to police.

Of those four sightings in 2019, two were reportedly seen in Blackpool, one in Blackburn, and one from an unknown area.

Two reports of UFOs were made in 2018 – one in Preston and one in Blackpool.

Two reports were made in 2020 – one in Blackpool and one in Burnley.

A further three reports of UFOs were made in 2021, with one being spotted in Morecambe, one in Preston, and another in Blackpool.

And last year, 2022, just one report of a UFO was made to police, this time in Blackburn.

A UFO is an unidentified flying object, sometimes also referred to as a UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomena) and is described as any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained.

Upon investigation, most UFOs are identified as known objects or atmospheric phenomena, while a small number remain unexplained.

Some of the descriptions of the sightings reported to the police, include a person in Preston reporting seeing, “a bright light moving up and down quickly” in 2018, and a second person who saw a “green light glowing” from a report in Blackpool in the same year.

In 2019, a person in Blackburn reported they could, “see a circular UFO in the sky with lights around the side”.

While another report from 2019 described, “a humming noise followed by a silhouette and then a loud boom”.

One person in the same year reported they had, “caught a UFO on camera and it is a black circle in the sky”, in Blackpool.

And another person in Blackpool in 2019 reported seeing, “a ball of light flashing in the sky changing shape and zig zagging around”.

In 2020, both reports from Blackpool and Burnley referred to seeing, “bright lights in the sky”, whereas in 2021, a person, who according to the police report was, “suffering hallucinations”, said they could see a UFO in Preston.

Another reported they could see a UFO in the sky in Morecambe in 2021, while another caller said they had seen one in Blackpool but then hung up.

The only report from 2022 of a UFO came from a person in Blackburn who said to police, “a UFO has crashed”. They then hung up the phone.

Data was extracted from command and control incident recording systems using the keyword search, “UFO”, although police were only able to search the first 250 characters of a log report.