Balloons, drones among 768 Canadian UFO reports from 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 acronym of unidentified aerial (or anomalous) phenomena: a term that has been replacing “UFO” in official circles. “And if drones and balloons are in Canadian airspace without authorization, that’s a problem and can pose a threat to air travel and security.”

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 goal has been to provide data for use by researchers trying to understand this controversial phenomenon,” said the Canadian UFO Survey 2022 states “Popular opinion to the contrary, there is no incontrovertible evidence that some UFO cases involve extraterrestrial contact.”

Released Monday, the 2022 Canadian UFO Survey claims that 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 some of these objects have no obvious explanations,” the survey explains. “Many witnesses are pilots, police officers and others with reasonably good observation skills and good judgment.”


Highlights of 2022 include:

–a report dated September 10, BC of “a large disc-shaped object, with a mirror-like finish on its underside, [that] hovered over [the witnesses’] sailboat on the Fraser River;”

—a “group of stationary bright lights above the trees” that was photographed in Sainte-Martine, Que. on September 24;

–and an Oct. 24 report from Edmonton of a “grey, vibrating, boomerang-shaped object” that appeared after a “loud bang-like noise” was heard.

“One thing that’s different in recent years is the increase in photos and videos, because everyone has a cell phone,” Rutkowski said. “But that doesn’t mean we’re getting better photos from UAP. In fact, most images are useless. Cell phones aren’t designed to take photos or video of distant lights moving in the night sky.”

Of the 768 reports, only 8.2 percent were deemed “unexplained,” with the rest being confirmed or probable sightings of balloons, drones, meteorites, military exercises, floating lanterns, and SpaceX Starlink satellites, which travel in bright lines. About 52 percent were described as aerial lights, with witnesses also reporting shapes like spheres and triangles.

“Most of the sightings are just lights in the sky, and that hasn’t changed,” Rutkowski, who recently published his tenth book on the subject, saying. “Many people report on stars and planets, especially when those objects are stationary or observed for hours, refracting in the atmosphere.”

While most of the reports were sent to Rutkowski and civilian UFO investigation groups such as MUFFONalmost 50 of them were discovered in a online aviation incident database operated by Transport Canada, which is the federal government’s department of transportation.

As CTVNews.ca previously reported, more than 10 of those reports were made by pilots flying for airlines like air canada, WestJet, Virgin Atlantic, United, km and further in 2022, including a case of December 15 case involving Air Canada and KLM flights over the Arctic Ocean that “reported unknown lights ahead at very high altitude” that “were described as dots, and were observed at least 20 times over a 1-hour period… and were They moved in different directions.”

Transport Canada advises that such “reports contain unconfirmed preliminary data that may be subject to change.”

Documents obtained through Canadian display requests for access to information 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 CTVNews.ca investigation also revealed that Rutkowski contributed material to a news briefing on May 27, 2021 UAP performed for Canada’s former Minister of National Defense Harjit Sajjan.

In the United States, both the Pentagon and POT they are currently studying what they call UAP, short for unidentified anomalous (or aerial) phenomena. By contrast, there is generally little to no official follow-up to UAP reports in Canada.

A Transport Canada spokesperson previously told CTVNews.ca that reports “of unidentified objects can rarely be followed up as they are, as the title implies, unidentified.” The Canadian military also routinely states that it “does not normally investigate sightings of unknown or unexplained phenomena outside of the context of investigating credible threats, potential threats, or potential distress in the case of search and rescue.” Since 2016, at least four incidents appear to have met that criteria.

Rutkowski would like to see a proper UAP research program established in Canada that would work in conjunction with federal agencies such as the RCMP and the Department of National Defense.

“I would like to see funding for a civilian research group and a post-secondary institution 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 a robust methodology.”

According to the 2022 Canadian UFO Survey, there was an approximately six percent increase in Canadian sightings in 2022 over 2021, although 2022 had the fourth lowest number of reported sightings in 20 years. Quebec led the country with 29% of reports in 2022, followed by Ontario with 28% and BC with 14%. Typical sightings lasted approximately 13 minutes and involved an average of 1.37 witnesses per case. Rutkowski says that the number of sightings peaked in 2012 and that 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 filed by one individual about objects with definitive explanations,” the survey explains.

Rutkowski admits that the survey probably only captures a fraction of Canadian UFO sightings.

“Surveys have found that one in ten Canadians believe they have seen UFOs or UAPs,” Rutkowski said. “Other studies have suggested that only one in ten witnesses to a UFO or UAP actually report them, so we can estimate that around 7,500 Canadians likely saw UFOs or UAPs last year, and as many as 4 million Canadians have seen UFOs. or UAP in his whole life.”

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