So, it seems that we’re on the verge of a major disclosure of UFO facts. Well, maybe. Former US president Donald Trump made a condition of a coronavirus relief bill that intelligence agencies would have to tell Congress everything they knew about UFOs. The unclassified report is due soon. What might it say?

I’ve been reading a couple of articles on this subject. In terms of how UFOs are reported (and in terms of how UFOlogists are described) the subject is often ridiculed. People who seek to have it taken seriously are mocked, though in some cases they don’t do themselves any favours. To have the topic treated with a genuine curiosity is surprising.

Historically, there have been those within governments and military organisations who have treated UFOs seriously. There are pilots of both civilian and military aircraft (generally considered more credible than other witnesses, because their jobs require strong observation skills) who have reported objects performing impossible feats. The debunking of the UFO phenomenon as being of extra-terrestrial origin was due to the desire to maintain an element of control – during the 1960s the Cold War was a source of worry; it wouldn’t do to be seen to have no control over US airspace.

Publicly, the US authorities (and those of many other countries) have insisted UFOs have mundane explanations. UFO research has been discouraged. Privately, it seems there has been a broad interest in the topic for a long time – which to be fair, is not news. Strange objects performing antics well beyond the capabilities of the most advanced military technology on earth? Of course governments would be interested.

It ought to be noted that the disclosure of reports doesn’t suddenly mean we’re about to get an announcement that aliens are real and in contact with us. I’d be astonished if we had that kind of revelation. At best, we might have the first concrete admission from a major government that there are objects in our skies we cannot fathom.

There are many such cases, and numerous reports that have been quietly ignored or shoved to one side. This article contains a host of credible tales from experienced witnesses, and these are in many ways more believable than tales of crashed UFOs and alien bodies in Area 51. The fantastical stories of Roswell are tantalising but just how plausible are they?

Here’s hoping to some answers, answers that will inevitably raise new questions, but for the first time in a long time, we’ll have new questions to ask.