LONDON — The truth — and the UFOs — might be out there, but nobody in the British military is listening anymore.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense has quietly shut down its UFO hotline as a cost-cutting measure and will no longer investigate any sightings. Veterans of such investigations more worthy of “The X-Files” say it will end work on one of the biggest mysteries of all time.
No longer will Britons who think they have seen flying saucers be able to enlist the services of Her Majesty’s armed forces.
The closing this week of the ministry’s hotline and its e-mail account, as well as its statement that it “will no longer respond to reported UFO sightings or investigate them,” has angered many Britons who think such research is vital.
“I think it’s a stupid thing to do because this could create a threat to national security,” said Roy Lake, founder of the London UFO Studies group. “We take this quite seriously. We know that sometimes things can be explained as natural phenomena, but there could be that one thing that’s not.”
The hotline has been operating, on and off, since 1959. That’s longer than “Doctor Who” — British TV’s time-traveling, monster-fighting alien — has been on the airwaves.
The military is taking no position on the existence or nonexistence of UFOs but has concluded that in 50 years, none of the more than 12,000 reported UFO sightings turned out to be a national security threat.
A Ministry of Defense spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy, said closing the UFO inquiry unit would save about 44,000 pounds, or $73,000, a year and would not add to the security threats that Britain faces.
