Balloons under 768 Canadian UFO reports in 2022: researcher
Balloons and drones were among the 768 reported UFO sightings in Canada last year, according to Winnipeg-based researcher Chris Rutkowski, who also found that eight percent of all cases remained unexplained.
“The possibility that some UAPs are actually drones or balloons is quite strong,” Rutkowski told CTVNews.ca, using the abbreviation for unidentified aerial phenomena (or anomalous phenomena): a term that has “UFO” in official circles to replace. “And if drones and balloons are in Canadian airspace without permission, that’s a problem and can pose a threat to air traffic and safety.”
Rutkowski is a science writer and ufologist who has documented more than 23,000 Canadian sightings since 1989 through the annual Canadian UFO Survey.
“The aim was to provide data for use by researchers trying to understand this controversial phenomenon,” states the 2022 Canadian UFO Survey. is from extraterrestrial contact.”
The 2022 Canadian UFO Survey, released Monday, claims at least 1,000 Canadians reported seeing an unidentified flying object in 2022.
“The results of this study show that many people continue to report unusual objects in the sky, and for some of these objects there is no clear explanation,” the study explains. “Many witnesses are pilots, police and other individuals with reasonably good observation skills and good judgment.”
Highlights from 2022 include:
— a September 10 report from BC of “a large, disc-shaped object, with a mirror-like finish on the underside, [that] floated over it [the witnesses’] sailboat on the Fraser River;”
—a “group of bright lights stationary over trees” that was photographed in Sainte-Martine, Que. on Sept. 24;
— and an Oct. 24 report from Edmonton of a “gray, vibrating, boomerang-shaped object” that appeared after a “loud noise like an explosion was heard.”
“One thing that’s changed in recent years is the proliferation of photos and videos because everyone has a cell phone,” Rutkowski said. “But that doesn’t mean we get better pictures from UAP. In fact, most of the images are useless. Cell phones aren’t designed to take pictures or video of distant lights moving in the night sky.”
Of the 768 reports, only 8.2 percent were considered “unexplained,” while the others were confirmed or probable sightings of balloons, drones, meteors, military exercises, levitating lanterns and SpaceX Starlink satellites, which travel in glowing lines. About 52 percent were described as sky lights, with witnesses also reporting shapes such as spheres and triangles.
“The majority of observations are just lights in the sky, and that hasn’t changed,” said Rutkowski, who recently published his tenth book on the subject. “Many people report stars and planets, especially when those objects are stationary or observed for hours on end breaking up in the atmosphere.”
While most of the reports were submitted to Rutkowski and civilian UFO research groups like MUFON, nearly 50 were discovered in an online aviation incident database maintained by Transport Canada, the federal government’s transportation division.
As CTVNews.ca previously reported, more than 10 of those reports were made by pilots flying for airlines such as Air Canada, WestJet, Virgin Atlantic, United, KLM and more in 2022, including a December 15 case involving Air Canada and KLM. were flights over the Arctic Ocean that both reported “unknown lights at very high altitude” that were “described as pinpoints, and were sighted at least 20 times over a 1-hour period … and moving in different directions.”
Transport Canada warns that such “reports contain preliminary, unconfirmed data that are subject to change.”
Documents obtained through Canadian access to information requests show how Rutkowski quietly received UFO reports directly from Transport Canada and Royal Canadian Air Force officials from late 1999 to mid-2021. A May 2022 investigation by CTVNews.ca also found that Rutkowski contributed material to a May 27, 2021 UAP briefing for Canada’s former Defense Secretary Harjit Sajjan.
In the US, both the Pentagon and NASA are currently studying what they call UAP, short for unidentified anomalous (or aerial) phenomena. In contrast, there is generally little to no official follow-up on UAP reports in Canada.
A Transport Canada spokesperson previously told CTVNews.ca that reports “of unidentified objects can rarely be followed up because, as the title implies, they are unidentified.” The Canadian military also routinely states that it “does not normally investigate sightings of unknown or unexplained phenomena outside the context of investigating credible threats, potential threats or potential distress in the case of search and rescue.” As of 2016, at least four incidents appear to meet those criteria.
Rutkowski would like to see a real UAP research program established in Canada that would work with federal agencies such as the RCMP and the Department of National Defense.
“I would like to see a civilian research group and a post-secondary institution funded to collect reports,” he explained. “Working with a group of scientists focused on collecting instrumented UAP observations … would be desirable as a way to study the UAP problem objectively and with sound methodology.”
According to the 2022 Canadian UFO Survey, there was an approximately six percent increase in Canadian sightings in 2022 over 2021, even though 2022 had the fourth-lowest number of reported sightings in 20 years. Quebec led the country with 29 percent of reports in 2022, followed by Ontario with 28 percent and BC with 14 percent. Typical sightings lasted about 13 minutes and involved an average of 1.37 witnesses per case. Rutkowski says the number of sightings peaked in 2012 and he has found Canadian reports dating back to the 18th century.
“The six percent increase in UFO reports in 2022 over 2021 is largely due to 37 separate reports submitted by one individual regarding objects with definitive statements,” the study explains.
Rutkowski admits the research probably only records a fraction of Canada’s UFO sightings.
“Pops have shown that one in ten Canadians believe they have seen UFOs or UAPs,” Rutkowski said. Other studies have suggested that only one in 10 witnesses to a UFO or UAP actually report them, so we can calculate that about 7,500 Canadians were likely to have seen UFOs or UAP last year, and as many as 4 million Canadians have UFOs or UAP in their seen life.” lifetime.”
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