In Moston a shiny silver object was seen ‘randomly disappearing and reappearing in a cloudless sky’. Several bright white lights were spotted in Stalybridge ascending towards a bright star.
And in Stretford a ‘white light streak’ was caught on a doorbell camera zig-zagging across the atmosphere. They’re just some of the dozens of UFO sightings reported across Greater Manchester over the last four years, a new report has revealed.
It’s been an interesting time for UFO enthusiasts. Last year American fighter jets shot down an unexplained flying object – which was later identified as a Chinese balloon, suspected to be on a spying mission – as well as three other objects in or near American airspace.
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Then whistle-blower Major David Grusch, a former Air Force intelligence officer, set the internet on fire when he claimed the US was concealing a long-standing programme that retrieves and reverse-engineers unidentified flying objects.
The intrigue has continued into 2024, with Ukrainian troops recording a huge disc-shaped object over the battlefield of Donetsk, while closer to home a hiker came upon a mysterious monolith on a hilltop in Powys, which he initially assumed was ‘some sort of UFO’, but has since left some speculating it may have been planted by aliens.
(Image: PA)
But despite increasing speculation about alien visitors online and in the media, the skies above the UK have been relatively quiet in the last year. In its annual report, the research group UFO Identified documented 395 sightings in the UK in 2023 – a 20% drop from 497 sightings in 2022 and lower than in 2021 (413) and 2020 (484).
Information was taken from social media, newspaper reports, and over 50 Freedom of Information requests, as well as from reports made directly to UFO spotter groups around the UK. According to the report, people in the North West had the best chance of seeing a UFO last year, with 41 sightings across the region, followed by the South East (40) and then the South West (39).
Use our interactive map to see the UFO sightings where you live…
The vast majority of sightings were of far-off objects in the sky, but there were 27 ‘Close Encounters of the First Kind’, more than double the previous year. These are reports of UFOs seen up close, at a distance of no more than 500ft away.
Ash Ellis of UFO Identified said: «Overall, it’s disappointing to see such a big decrease in reports this year, especially after the bumper year of 2022. This time last year we were hoping that a reduction in the stigma surrounding the topic would lead to more reports being filed, but this clearly hasn’t been the case.
(Image: Paul Ellison)
«Hopefully, as we and other groups around the country continue giving people space and a platform to talk about their experiences that will help more people come forward and be confident to stand up and tell their story. Despite the reduced number of reports, we continue to see the same trends across different datasets.
«Whether that’s the area in which sightings are being made, to the time of day, and the described shape of UFOs, and so on, these have all been consistent over the past four years. This, to me, tells us that there are areas which are more prone to seeing UFOs and we will be using this data to forecast areas of interest over the coming years.»
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