Bruce McPherson

Geneva, 1 April 2021 – The Swiss air navigation services company Skyguide is opening Switzerland’s first centre of competence for UFO (unidentified flying object) activity as of today, 1st of April 2021. The perceived increase in sightings of unidentified flying objects in the airspace controlled by Skyguide has prompted the air navigation service provider to get to the bottom of these phenomena in greater detail.

The UFO Competence Centre is housed in the building of the Area Control Centre in Wangen near Dübendorf (Zurich) and has three staff members who specialise exclusively in UFOs. Furthermore, an additional workplace is being created in the control tower for a specialised air traffic controller who focuses on the observation of unusual flying objects.

Intensive training in preparation for new tasks

The staff of the UFO Competence Centre underwent intensive training a few weeks ago in order to be able to master their future activities. This included simulated UFO activities on the radar and in the tower simulator. They also reviewed documentary material (such as the Roswell crash or UFO video recordings from the US Navy), as well as the study of spaceships and their flight behaviour in well-known science fiction feature films. This all-round training enables Skyguide’s UFO experts to quickly detect and document unidentified flying objects.

Cooperation with governmental and private space organisations

Thanks to existing and future space missions by governmental (e.g. ESA, NASA, etc.) and private (e.g. SpaceX) organisations, Skyguide is expecting an increase in intergalactic traffic.

This opens up completely new fields of activity and cooperation for Switzerland’s air navigation services in the future.