Maps reveals all the UFO sightings reported in Surrey

The US Congress has been attempting to “pull back the curtain” on secret research into UFOs - as our map reveals the 13 unexplained objects witnessed above Surrey. The hearing, titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth,” heard from several experts and a variety of witness accounts.

Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) is the new name for Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). Experts included government workers and a member of NASA’s UAP Independent Study Team.

Michael Gold - former NASA associate administrator of space policy and partnerships and a member of the UAP study team - told the hearing that “the vast majority of UAP are drones”. However, he added that there are anomalies that must be studied and admitted that some of the UAPs observed “can move faster” than US submarines and “are being intelligently controlled”.

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In Surrey those looking to the skies have reported objects they just can't explain. These include a “black cigar-shaped object which descended from high altitude and swept across the sky” in April, 2021 above Puttenham.

While over Guildford, in 2022 a person reportedly saw a 'purple light moving erratically, emitting a saucer-shaped vapour trail when changing directions'.

Author and former Department of Defence official Luis Elizondo claimed that “advanced technologies not made by our government - or any other government - are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe.” He insisted: “Let me be clear. UAP are real.”

The hearing, jointly led by Chairs Nancy Mace and Glenn Grothman, was the second to investigate the phenomenon of UAP. “Americans deserve to understand what the government has learned about UAP sightings, and the nature of any potential threats these phenomena pose,” the co-chairs said in a statement.

The hearing followed a long-awaited report released by NASA last year which studied previous sightings of UFOs (or UAPs) in the skies. While the report did not find any clear evidence that the sightings were alien, it did admit it was possible they could be.

Last year the British spotter group UFO Identified documented a total of 395 sightings in the UK in 2023. That was a 20% drop from 497 UFO sightings in 2022 and also lower than in 2021 (413) and 2020 (484). Those figures include 13 sightings above Surrey, one last year, 10 in 2022, and two in 2021.

You can see what UFO encounters have been reported where you live using our interactive map.

UFO sightings documented in Surrey included:

• An aircraft “froze in the sky” above Staines for two hours in September last year, with “strange lights and contrails” around it and a bright sphere close by.

• A large circular object that appeared to be moving very slowly away from the moon, “too clear and close to be a star” was spotted above Farnham in October 2022.

• In Epsom in 2021, one person reported a 'submarine shaped object appeared at speed before rotating as it slowed down'

Just under half of all documented sightings (48%) include photographic or video evidence. A quarter of all sightings (25%) were of a “star-like” object or objects, moving across the sky. The next most common sighting was of an unidentified object shaped like an “orb” (17%), “sphere”, (10%) and “cylinder” (9%).

UFO Identified found that people in the North West had the best chance of seeing a UFO last year, with 41 sightings across the region, followed by the South East (40) and then the South West (39). Separate research by the UFO spotter website Enigma has documented more than 200,000 unexplained encounters above the skies of the USA.

More UFOs have been spotted in California than any other US state, just over 28,000. California is followed by Florida (14,500), Texas (12,500) and New York (10,000). But those states have the highest populations in the US - meaning there are more people to watch the skies, and more likely that someone will see something they can’t explain.

Taking population size into account, residents of New Mexico are most likely to have seen a UFO. For every 100,000 people, there are 162 sightings. That’s the equivalent of one in 618 people encountering a UFO.