From a silent flying object making its way towards the Belfast docks to suspicious sightings across the outskirts of the capital, there were three official reports of UFO sightings in Northern Ireland in 2024.
While media in the US focused on reports of puzzling unidentified aircraft in New Jersey, it appears some believe we may have our own mysterious visitors.
Responding to an Freedom of Information request by the PA news agency, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said they had received three reports concerning UFOs across 2024.
The first of the year came in early February with a caller in Crumlin telling the PSNI that on January 29 they had seen an object with eight to 10 lights along its perimeter.
The next two came in the autumn, again both from the greater Belfast area.
On October 18, a caller from the capital told the PSNI that around 11pm on the previous night, they had noted a flying object rising into the sky from the direction behind their house.
They described: “It has a vapour trail but made no sound at all. It had green and red flashing lights”, and said it went over their house and out towards the dock area.
The final report of the year came on October 27 from a caller in the Newtownabbey area.
They told police that their wife observed a UFO through their camera in May, and said it has visited them every night since. They described it as a “bright light with holes in the bottom”.
The PSNI said of each of the three reports from the year that they were “noted for information by police”, not indicating that any investigation had been carried out into any of the reported sightings.
The number of UFO sightings has varied over the last five years, going from four in 2019, to six in 2020, eight in 2021, one in 2022 and no reported UFO sightings from January 1 to November 1 2023.
However in 2023, there were two reported sightings of aliens and one reported sighting of “strange lights”.
The Ministry of Defence previously recorded UFO sightings, but closed its UFO desk in 2009 after concluding that in more than 50 years, no received report had ever disclosed any evidence of a potential threat.
Nick Pope, who previously investigated UFO reports for the MoD, said the figures sound “staggeringly low”, and said the MoD used to receive “several hundred sightings each year” before 2009.
He said he believes many won’t come forward with sightings because they fear they will not be believed.
“None of the sightings sound particularly spectacular, and the one mentioning red and green flashing lights and a vapour trail is clearly an aircraft,” he said.
“The annotation on the FOI response stating ‘noted for information by police’ is a polite way of saying the cops didn’t take any further action, and that’s quite understandable, because it really isn’t their job.
“That doubtless explains the low numbers, because anyone seeing a UFO will realize this isn’t really a matter for the police.
“Despite the MoD having axed their UFO project, many witnesses will think of UFOs as a defence and national security issue, and may still report sightings to the MoD.
“Alternatively, as there’s a perception that the authorities are covering up the truth about UFOs, many witnesses may not bother to report what they see at all.
“Finally, the fear of not being believed or of being ridiculed may be another factor that explains the low figures.
“For all these reasons the number of actual sightings is doubtless much higher than the number of reported sightings.
“The recent drone incursions in the UK and the US have brought the issue of unexplained objects in the sky into fresh focus, so it will be interesting to see if this leads to an upsurge in reports.”
