Ministry of Defence UFO files: release of 18 February 2010 (24 files)

The fifth release of Ministry of Defence UFO files, opened at The National Archives on 18 February 2010: 24 files of 1994–2000, more than 6,000 pages of the UFO desk's sighting reports, Parliamentary questions, correspondence and files on persistent correspondents. Each is a digital copy of an MoD registered file with the names of members of the public and witnesses redacted; ours are the Archives' own digital copies, downloaded from its catalogue, and are OCR'd for search. Page numbers are those of the PDFs.

We hold three of the 24, chosen for the cases they might document:

• DEFE 24/1988: UFO reports — 1997 January 01 - 1997 July 31
• DEFE 24/2007: UFO reports — 1998 July 01 - 1999 February 28
• DEFE 24/2008: UFO reports — 1999 February 01 - 2000 January 31 (the Prestwick radar contact)

Also downloaded but not yet filed: DEFE 24/1977 (reports, August–December 1996), 24/2009 (January–June 2000) and 24/2010 (July 2000–January 2001). Not on file: the other 19.

Source: The National Archives (UK), DEFE 24/1988 and DEFE 24/2007, released February 2010