Most UFO and UAP sightings have been explained away.
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With the amount of reported UFO sightings on the seeming rise, it seems curious that more government-run organizations aren’t investigating this constant mystery on a regular basis. The BBC reported on Nov. 3 that inFrance, UFO hunters work inside the realms of a state-run organization, full time. These days, a state-funded organization of this kind is something that seems to be almost unheard of.
The state-run office of UFO hunters in France (GEIPAN) is the only one in existence that has not been subject to budget cuts in Europe as their neighbors have been in Denmark and the UK. And though the office exists, the amount of researchers in its ranks are very small, with only four full-time workers reporting and with little more than two handfuls of volunteers accompanying them.
GEIPAN (a French acronym for ‘Study Group and Information on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena’) was founded out of an arm of the French Space Agency CNES in 2005. The organization had gone through some significant organizational and name changes since the late 1970s. Still, it is holding on and working hard to explain the often unexplainable.
The researchers pursue and investigate UAP (unidentified aerospace phenomena, not just UFOs) and provide scientifically analyzed information to the public. Xavier Passot, the current lead at GEIPAN, aims to be as transparent as possible and to investigate and make available the results from every UAP occurrence that comes in to his office. Results of findings are posted at their website. On average, the office receives two sightings reports per day.
The process by which GEIPAN researches and analyzes sightings information is pretty extensive and meant to weed out pranksters and time-wasters (which can include people who were under the influence of booze or drugs). GEIPAN staff use an 11-page document to try to thoroughly document sightings and they include images of UAP where and if they can.
Some of GEIPAN’s files date back to the 1950s. There are reports coming from people ranging from those simply going out for a smoke to “fighter pilots on routine reconnaissance missions.”
The BBC report notes that often UFO sightings are not the alien craft that we have been hoping for or are fearing. In fact, most sightings have been explained away. One featured photo was simply a reflection from an interior car light, for example. Others are attributed to things like Chinese lanterns from local celebrations, balloons, kites and also things falling in to the atmosphere from space, like meteorites.
GEIPAN has recorded more than 6,000 eyewitness reports of UAPs since 1977. Though most phenomena has been explained away, there are still approximately 22 percent of reports that have not been explained.
*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com
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