Formerly classified files documenting UFO sightings recorded from the 1950s through 2009 by the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense (MoD) are about to be made public.
A now-defunct department within the MoD had been investigating and documenting all UFO reports for over 50 years but the program was closed after it was concluded that there was no evidence of a potential threat, The Telegraph noted.
The reports, which were listed as classified, were later released to the National Archives. Now, the most recent records will be published online.
The move comes in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act filed by the British news agency PA Media.
Commenting on the decision, a British Royal Air Force (RAF) spokesperson told The Telegraph that "it would be better to publish these records, rather than continue sending documents to the National Archives."
The documents will be uploaded to "a dedicated gov.uk web page" for the public to view.
The reports will first have to undergo a clearance process before they can be published. This will be done "sometime within the first quarter of 2020," the spokesperson said.
The MoD established the Flying Saucer Working Party in the 1950s amid the public's increased interest in UFOs, Fox News reported.
The group was later discontinued after ruling that "no further investigation of reported mysterious aerial phenomena be undertaken," as UFOs were merely misidentified objects or hoaxes.
Despite this, the MoD continued to conduct investigations into UFO sightings until 2009, when the final report detailing a sighting was published online.
When pressed to discuss the contents of the most recent documents to be published, the RAF said the files are comprised "entirely of correspondence with members of the public."
The MoD further said it had "no opinion on the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial life and does not investigate UFO reports."
All UFO sightings in the U.K. are now directed to the local police.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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