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Last Updated: Wednesday, 2 July, 2003, 08:41 GMT 09:41 UK
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Can you answer the UFO questions?
To mark World UFO Day - which coincides with the anniversary of the supposed landing of an alien spacecraft near the American desert town of Roswell in 1947 - test your knowledge of unidentified flying objects. The answers are out there.


On 27 December 1980, a number of US Air Force police in Rendlesham Forest, near RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk saw what they thought was a UFO. After the incident, Rendlesham became known as the "British Roswell". But what did the UFO turn out to be?
A: A British Army weather balloon
B: A top secret US Air Force Stealth Bomber
C: President Ronald Reagan in his Air Force One jet
D: A 1979 Plymouth Volare Air Force Police patrol car
Made famous by the Steven Spielberg film, what is a close encounter of the third kind?
A: Being burned or injured by a UFO craft
B: Seeing a UFO craft containing a being
C: Communicating with a being from a UFO craft
Charles I Halt wrote Unexplained Lights. What is it about?
A: The Rendlesham Forest incident – Halt was in charge of the men who say they saw a UFO and his official report was released as part of the UK’s Freedom of Information Act
B: The theory that the Star of Bethlehem mentioned in Biblical accounts of Christ’s birth was really a UFO
C: His account of alien abduction which served as the basis of Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind
A 1966 poll suggested that 5% of Americans thought they had seen a UFO. What was the comparable figure for claimed sightings in a 1997 poll?
A: 5%
B: 13%
C: 51%
In his book Otto Imperialia, Gervase of Tilbury described how an aerial craft hovered over Bristol in 1270. Which of the following did NOT subsequently happen, according to the author?
A: The UFO’s anchor became caught on a church steeple and the occupant was stoned by locals when it emerged to free the snag
B: The UFO’s occupant asphyxiated and its body was burned by locals
C: The abbot of a nearby abbey interpreted the UFO as a sign from God that “[Brother] Wilfred is an adulterer and must be punished"
In 1968, Americans who said they had seen UFOs but had not reported them to the authorities were asked to explain why they had not come forward. Rank the following main reasons for not reporting a sighting, the most common first.
A: “People would think I was a nut”, “I was too busy”, “I thought it was a something normal which just looked momentarily funny”
B: “I was too busy”, “I thought it was a something normal which just looked momentarily funny”, “People would think I was a nut”
C: “I thought it was a something normal which just looked momentarily funny”, “People would think I was a nut”, “I was too busy”
On 12 February 1949, 20 people were burned to death in the Radio Quito building in Ecuador. What happened?
A: A UFO reportedly crashed into the radio studio
B: Ecuadorian fighter planes accidentally fired on it – mistaking the flashing lights on the radio mast for UFOs
C: Angry locals set light to the building after the station broadcast a version of War of the Worlds which had sent the city into a panic
In a survey in 2000 by the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, how many of the airline captains questioned said they had encountered an object in the skies they could not identify?
A: 70%
B: 22.5%
C: 7.5%
On 14 March 2003, residents were panicked by a bright light in the sky above the Norwegian town of Lardal. Was it...
A: ...officially recognised as Norway’s first ever UFO spotting
B: ...a US Air Force B-52 crossing Norway on its marathon journey to bomb Iraq
C: ...a cat which had climbed a power pylon and been electrocuted
Four million Americans believe they have been abducted by aliens – with some suffering psychological trauma usually seen in combat veterans. Briton Barry Bean insured himself for £1m against alien abduction in 2002. How much did his policy cost?
A: £2,600
B: £260
C: £2.60

 Press the button and see how you have done



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