Does the UK have a blind spot on UFO sightings?

Nearly half a century after witnessing an inexplicable aerial event, retired pilot Chris Crowther's memory remains vivid. During a 42-year career logging 22,000 flying hours, one incident in 1978 stands out: while piloting a light aircraft near Norfolk, he encountered something extraordinary.

"We were coming across The Wash at 7,500ft (2,300m) when Eastern Radar... called up and said, 'We've got unidentified traffic, opposite direction, fast moving... height unknown,'" Crowther recounted. "We looked up and in that split second, something went past our starboard wing tip, so fast it was very hard to define, but I still have the image in my mind of what looked like a dozen dark objects, perhaps the size of a football... something like that, that went winging right past our wing tip... and then they were gone."

Crowther's sighting, though unreported at the time, echoes a broader trend of unexplained aerial phenomena. In recent years, sightings of what are now commonly termed Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) have moved from the fringes into mainstream discourse. This shift is particularly pronounced in the United States, where government bodies have released declassified documents and military personnel have shared sworn testimonies about encounters with objects exhibiting capabilities beyond known technology.

While skepticism persists, the increasing official acknowledgment has fueled global debate. Film director Steven Spielberg's latest movie, "Disclosure Day," further explores the subject, imagining a world on the cusp of revealing proof of non-human intelligence. In contrast to the US, the UK currently lacks a formal, centralized system for investigating such phenomena.

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We were coming across The Wash at 7,500ft (2,300m) when Eastern Radar [a joint civilian/military air traffic control centre that existed until 1988] called up and said, 'We've got unidentified traffic, opposite direction, fast moving... height unknown,' Crowther recalls. 'We looked up and in that split second, something went past our starboard wing tip, so fast it was very hard to define, but I still have the image in my mind of what looked like a dozen dark objects, perhaps the size of a football... something like that, that went winging right past our wing tip... and then they were gone.'