Dear Sirs,

1. I am writing to thank you for your letter asking for information about unidentified flying objects.

2. We received no reports of unidentified flying objects on 25 May and 28 August 1970 and are therefore unable to assist you on these particular occurrences.

3.The Ministry of Defence investigates reports of unidentified flying objects because of their possible air defence implications and we have made no special study of the people who see UFO’s. All kinds of people send us reports and our impression is that they genuinely see something they are unable to identify.

4. In the event, the vast majority of UFO reports turn out to have mundane explanations and we have found no evidence that they represent an air defence threat to the United Kingdom. I think you may be interested to read the enclosed analysis of the UFO reports we have received since 1959. You will see that the incidents which give rise to UFO reports are varied. The most common single source is aircraft. Satellites and ‘space junk’ reports come second. Balloons and various meteorological and natural phenomena account for a substantial number of reports and some reports originate from unusual sightings of celestial objects. Finally there is a range of miscellaneous sightings, covering a wide variety of events, including hoaxes.

5. The relatively small number of reports which remain unexplained contained insufficient information to enable the occurrence concerned to be positively identified. Although we unable to make positive identification in these cases, there was nothing in the reports to even suggest that the incidents to which they refer were any different from the incidents mentioned in reports which were identified.

NOTE: Miscellaneous reports include, for example, hoaxes, the reflection of lights on cloud, flares, fireworks, kites, lights on tall structures and photographic aberrations. (Akhurst).