Cheryl Costa, the UFO hunter who was recently named the 'Researcher of the Year' by the International UFO Congress has revealed that unidentified flying object sightings are in a slump. As per the research conducted by Costa, UFO sightings in US has been facing a permanent downtrend since 2015 and it has left experts puzzled.
During the research, Costa found that yearly UFO sightings in the country are now 7837 on average, a drop of a staggering 41 percent when compared to three peak average years. Scientists have compiled this figure after analyzing data from NUFORC (National UFO Reporting Center) and MUFON (Mutual UFO Network).
In the three peak years, from 2012 to 2014, the US had an average of 13,500 yearly UFO sightings. However, this number has dropped to 11975 in 2015. Next Year, in 2016, there was an even more dramatic drop, falling 21 percent to 10,602.
After the drop in 2016, Costa believed that the numbers will climb up in 2017. But unfortunately, last year marked a whopping 41 percent drop in UFO sightings. He also hinted some possibilities behind the drastic drop in UFO sightings for the past three years.
"I wish to offer some speculation. In both the national graph and the New York state graph we see relatively flat sighting report numbers from 2001 to 2006. This flatness is considered an artefact of reporting, as broadband internet access was still growing in most areas. Access to broadband is a major driver in people having routine use of web reporting services such as NUFORC and MUFON," Costa wrote in Syracuse New Times.
It was in 2012 that the UFO sightings have witnessed an all-time high in the US. He claims, it might be the apocalypse fear which gripped the world in 2012 which increased the number of reported UFO sightings that year.
"Many researchers think that the unusual 2012 reporting spike was simply because of the Mayan calendar media ballyhoo that simply had more people outside looking up," added Costa.
In the meantime, conspiracy theorists all around the world strongly argue that governments are well aware of these UFO sightings. As per these theorists, alien life is a reality and it is being intentionally covered up by NASA and the government.
