Statement by NICAP Board of Governors

"Although a large percentage of reported UFOs can be explained in terms of conventional objects and events, the residual unexplained cases constitute a separate and important problem. (The word "UFO" hereafter refers to the residual cases). These UFOs have proved to be a consistent phenomenon, with significant new reports made each year. A large number of the reports come from reputable and competent observers, honest and intelligent citizens.

"Given the evidence in this report, it is a reasonable hypothesis that the unexplained UFOs are:

* real physical objects, rather than the result of imagination, hallucination, illusion or delusion;

* artificial, rather than purely natural, such as meteorological and astronomical phenomena;

* Under the control (piloted or remote) of living beings.

"To date serious scientific attention to UFOs has been limited by several factors including:

* the Air Force practice of artificially reducing the significance of the data through the use of counter-to-fact explanations of sightings and issuance of misleading statistics;

* the Air Force practice of implying, through its public relations program, that all available information has been disseminated and there is no need for further investigation;

* The lack of governmental recognition, through the Congress or the Executive Branch that a scientific problem exists which ought to be thoroughly probed.

"We believe the following steps should be taken to rectify an unsatisfactory situation:

(1) The evidence in Air Force files (after deletion of legitimate security information such as data concerning the capabilities of radar) should be made freely available to any interested citizens.

(2) There should be a Congressional inquiry into the Air Force's Project Blue Book to establish, a. the amount and kind of UFO information in the files, and whether all significant non-security data has been made public; b. the scientific adequacy of the investigation (whether there has been a consistently objective, scientific study of the evidence, or whether it has been erratic and influenced negatively by high-level policy decisions, lack of funds, or other factors).

"The foremost question which remains is: What are the UFOs? The importance of these objects, if the above hypothesis is correct, is readily apparent. In order to settle this question, we strongly recommend that a much larger scale and more thorough scientific investigation be undertaken."

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