UFO hearings fuel demand for Australian agency, hotline for unexplained sightings

Claims of alien contact in the US during a historic Congress hearing overnight is fuelling the push for an Australian agency dedicated to UFO sightings.

Australians are calling for a dedicated agency for reporting and investigating UFO sightings, following bombshell claims of alien contact in the US during a historic congressional hearing overnight.

Former intelligence official turned whistleblower, David Grusch, alleged the US possessed a “very, very large” spacecraft of unknown origin and that he had personally witnessed “very disturbing” activity.

He said bodies of crashed UFO pilots had been obtained by the Pentagon, which he described as “non-human”.

“That was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the program that I talked to, and who are currently still on the program,” he said.

David Grusch at the House Oversight Committee hearing. Picture: Drew Angerer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA

Australian five-time Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist Ross Coulthart – who has also been embedded deep in the world’s UFO, intelligence and defence communities – is convinced the Pentagon is covering up extraterrestrial contact and said it was “quite depressing” that our government was not taking the issue as seriously as the US.

“The Pentagon has formally admitted that UFOs and AUPs are a real mystery,” the author of In Plain Sight and host of the Need to Know podcast said.

“It’s no longer something we can laugh at and ridicule and dismiss as a weather event or misidentification of a star.”

Australia’s Department of Defence confirmed it does not have a protocol for reporting or recording Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) or Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO).

The closest option is the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA)’s safety hotline, for reporting concerns about the unsafe operation of aircraft, however most Australians turn to social media forums.

The Australian UFO Sightings Facebook group has 35,000 members and receives about 100 posts a week, including photos and videos of unexplained sightings.

Group founder Anthony Goodall, who also hosts the Encounters Down Under podcast, said there was “absolutely nothing” available in Australia for people who wanted to report or investigate UAPs.

“I’ve been fighting to try to get something happening, I’ve been contacting local members of parliament,” the 36-year-old Gladstone resident said.

“But there is still stigma attached to the whole topic so if you are a government figure, as soon as you mention a UFO, you start coming across as a crazy person and people aren’t going to risk their career.”

Anthony Goodall runs a group that allows Aussies to report UAP sightings. Picture: Supplied

Mr Goodall, who started the group six years ago after his own UAP sighting while working on a mining site, said there was a feasible explanation for most sightings reported in the group but about 3 per cent remained a mystery.

The US’ Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs hearing – titled Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety and Government Transparency – began at midnight last night AEST.

It had been backed by politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Republicans Mike Rounds and Marco Rubio.

Ross Coulthart believes the whistleblower’s accounts of the US possessing intact non-human craft. Picture: Ashley Mackevicius

Mr Coulthart said it and its accompanying legislation was “unprecedented”.

“Even if you don’t believe in little green men, it’s bloody amazing that Congress is taking this as seriously as it is,” he said.

“They have legislation to mandate (that the intelligence community) reveals what it has and knows about non-human intelligence.

“(Senator Chuck Schumer who proposed the amendment) is the second or third most senior person in Congress. Why would he put his name to such extraordinary legislation unless he knew something?”

The hearing included first-hand witness accounts of UAPs by former US navy pilots Ryan Graves and David Fravor, as well as the extraordinary claims from Mr Grusch, who had been the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s co-lead for UAP analysis and as the National Reconnaissance Office’s representative to the UAP Task Force.

Mr Coulthart, who has spoken to Mr Grusch on this topic, said he had expected the US intelligence community to attempt to spread doubts of Mr Grusch’s credibility but they had “not been able to lay a glove”.

“He is well respected … extremely highly thought of by his peers,” Mr Coulthart said.

“He is not doing this for money or fame but is making a stand because he genuinely thinks the public has the right to know.

“The Pentagon has finally been caught out by Congress and Congress is going to hold their feet to the fire until they get an answer.

“It is waking up to the fact it has been lied to.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is among the high-profile politicians backing the investigation into UFO sightings. Picture: Drew Angerer/GETTY

Mr Coulthart said he understood why details of recovered extraterrestrial technology could not be shared for national security reasons, but that the public had a right to know if there had been contact with non-human intelligence.

And that the world was ready and could handle the news.

“Fifty years ago … people were a lot more religious and there was a lot more need – because of the Cold War – to ensure society was cohesive and there was a real fear of ontological shock of confronting revelations of an extraterrestrial intelligence,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone should have the power to lock it up as a secret for the next 25-30 years.”