Dept. of Non-Surprises

Image by theogeo via Flickr

UFO sightings jump when UFO-related movies come out:

Lemon-headed aliens, scrambled fighter jets and mysterious lights over a cemetery were among details of some 800 UFO sightings released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Monday.

But another intriguing finding to emerge from the 1981-1996 archives was a surge in reports at the time of UFO-related blockbusters such as 1996’s “Independence Day,” not to mention the British television run of “The X-Files.”

…

In 1995 there were 117 UFO sightings reported to authorities, but this spiked to 609 in 1996, according to the MoD reports, released after a three-year project with the National Archives.

“It’s evident there is some connection between newspaper stories, TV programmes and films about alien visitors and the numbers of UFO sightings reported,” said UFO expert and journalism lecturer David Clarke.

“Aside from 1996, one of the busiest years for UFO sightings reported to the MoD over the past half century was 1978 — the year ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ was released,” added Clarke.

The data’s from Britain. Yep, even the reserved Brits aren’t immune to crazy.