Manitoba sees increase in number of UFO reports in 2015, survey says

The annual Canadian UFO Survey was released Monday, showing an increase in reports in 2015 compared to 2014 in Canada and Manitoba.

"Overall in Canada, there was a slight increase in the number of UFO reports, and it's at the second highest level of sightings that we've recorded since we started doing the survey back in the 1980s," said Chris Rutkowski, a science writer who compiled this year's survey.

In 2015, there were 1,267 reported sightings of UFOs, second only to 1,981 in 2012.

"That ranges from reports from B.C. right across to Newfoundland," said Rutkowski. "We're very puzzled because we don't hear a lot about UFOs anymore although the UFO sightings continue to come in … in 2015, there was an unusual number of cases from Quebec, in fact three or four times."

Rutkowski said the survey defines a UFO as objects in the sky that people can't explain.

"There are many ways for reports to be filed," he said, including reports from official sources like Transport Canada. "They come from every demographic … and all parts of Canada."

Most of the sightings can be explained by stars, planets, fireballs, aircraft and police helicopters, but about 12 per cent of their total reports remain unexplained despite information from other sources, Rutkowski said.

"We do break those down into high quality cases, where we do have enough information from a number of sources – investigators have gone to a site or we've talked to the witnesses … It brings the unexplained numbers to a more manageable number of one or two or three per cent," he said.

One "high quality" unexplained case included one from Manitoba in October of 2015.

A couple were driving on Dugald Road and saw a very bright light which they thought was a cellphone tower.

"As they drove a bit closer, they saw it wasn't on a cellphone tower at all," he said. "They saw what they described as a dark triangle that was moving along with the red light in front and a green and another colour on the side."

Rutkowski said it was silent and didn't look like an aircraft to the couple.

His group investigated to see if there were any aircraft in the area at the time, but so far, they haven't come up with an explanation for the sighting.

"The [report] does show that people continue to see things in the sky and whether that's an example of more education that's needed or simply an encouragement to get people to look up more instead of staring at their cellphones, I think it's important that we do continue to talk about this," he said. "As an astronomer, I know it's possible there's life out there somewhere, but we don't have the proof that it's coming here. Whether the aliens would come fly triangles around Dugald Road in the middle of the night – I don't know."