France opens secret UFO files covering 50 years

[almaty 19]

PARIS (AFP) - France became the first country to open its files on UFOs Thursday when the national space agency unveiled a website documenting more than 1,600 sightings spanning five decades.

The online archives, which will be updated as new cases are reported, catalogues in minute detail cases ranging from the easily dismissed to a handful that continue to perplex even hard-nosed scientists.

"It is a world first," said Jacques Patenet, the aeronautical engineer who heads the office for the study of "non-identified aerospatial phenomena."

Known as OVNIs in French, UFOs have always generated intense interest along with countless conspiracy theories about secretive government cover-ups of findings deemed too sensitive or alarming for public consumption.

"Cases such as the lady who reported seeing an object that looked like a flying roll of toilet paper" are clearly not worth investigating, said Patenet.

But many others involving multiple sightings -- in at least one case involving thousands of people across France -- and evidence such as burn marks and radar trackings showing flight patterns or accelerations that defy the laws of physics are taken very seriously.

A phalanx of beefy security guards formed a barrier in front of the space agency (CNES) headquarters where the announcement was made, "to screen out uninvited UFOlogists," an official explained.

Of the 1,600 cases registered since 1954, nearly 25 percent are classified as "type D", meaning that "despite good or very good data and credible witnesses, we are confronted with something we can't explain," Patenet said.

On January 8, 1981 outside the town of Trans-en-Provence in southern France, for example, a man working in a field reported hearing a strange whistling sound and seeing a saucer-like object about 2.5 meters (eight feet) in diameter land in his field about 50 meters (yards) away.

A dull-zinc grey, the saucer took off, he told police, almost immediately, leaving burn marks. Investigators took photos, and then collected and analyzed samples, and to this day no satisfactory explanation has been made.

The nearly 1,000 witness who said they saw flashing lights in the sky on November 5, 1990, by contrast, had simply seen a rocket fragment falling back into earth's atmosphere.

Patenet's answer to questions about evidence of life beyond Earth was sure to inflame the suspicions of those convinced the government is holding back: "We do not have the least proof that extra-terrestrials are behind the unexplained phenomena."

But then he added: "Nor do we have the least proof that they aren't."

The CNES fields between 50 and 100 UFO reports ever year, usually written up by police. Of these, 10 percent are the object of on-site investigations, Patenet said.

Other countries collect data more or less systematically about unidentified flying objects, notably in Britain and in the United States, where information can be requested on a case-by-case basis under the Freedom of Information Act.

"But we decided to do it the other way around and made everything available to the public," Patenet said.

The aim was to make it easier for scientists and other UFO buffs to access the data for research.

The website itself -- which crashed host servers hours after it was unveiled due to heavy traffic -- is extremely well organized and complete, even including scanned copies of police reports.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Do I believe UFO's have been here? Dude, how do you think I came here?

[almaty 19]

i think ufo have been around..,,do not believe they built the pyramids etc..but had a fly by..a ferw times

Do I believe UFO's have been here? Dude, how do you think I came here?

wow...you and Pax..

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

As much as I would like to bash France they are pretty progressive with technology. Maybe they use alien technology.

for one, 80% of their power is supplied by nuclear.

Edited March 22, 2007 by LuckyStrike

[Nessa 23]

i think ufo have been around..,,do not believe they built the pyramids etc..but had a fly by..a ferw times

Do I believe UFO's have been here? Dude, how do you think I came here?

wow...you and Pax..

That movie is great!

I believe they live between us, as cats!

[notrepetiteashley 0]

Please don't let them get me.

[MissStacey 1]

Aliens love France. They are big on wine and cheese. Yum!

[AnaAndDaniel 0]

these aliens will have to file for an appropriate visa just like any other alien. B)

Daniel

:energetic:

[ceriserose 1]

I believe in UFOs...they're in movies all the time!

these aliens will have to file for an appropriate visa just like any other alien. B)

Daniel

:energetic:

*ponders what form that would be...and the fee*

[Niels Bohr 72]

I pray for an abduction!

[AnaAndDaniel 0]

I believe in UFOs...they're in movies all the time!

these aliens will have to file for an appropriate visa just like any other alien. B)

Daniel

:energetic:

*ponders what form that would be...and the fee*

prolly the ET1 and the ET3 depending on marital status. B)

Daniel

:energetic:

[Fuzzness 2]

UFO = Unidentified Flying Object

so yes, they have always and will always be around

[Caladan 19]

I believe alien intelligences came here, saw the Internet, and figured Earth wasn't worth the effort.

[rclouse 0]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Sorry, no UFOs, no psychics, no Bermuda Triangle, no Yeti, no Cookie Monster.

No, you can't have a conspiracy theory. Not Yours.

[almaty 19]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Sorry, no UFOs, no psychics, no Bermuda Triangle, no Yeti, no Cookie Monster.

No, you can't have a conspiracy theory. Not Yours.

what!!!!!!!!!! no cookie monster..i saw him yesterday on tv..hanging out in the hood with grover.,..