A UFO was seen by millions of people hovering over the opening ceremonies at the London Olympics earlier this week. The glowing craft could be seen during the huge fireworks display at the end. Most people missed (or ignored) it, but one eagle-eyed TV viewer was convinced he'd seen something mysterious.
He posted a video of it to YouTube and it went viral, stirring controversy around the Web (watch the video at the bottom of this post). Enhancing the video, some saw a dome atop a disc-shaped spacecraft; others thought it might be a blimp at first, but realized it wasn't because, as one poster asked, "Why would a company spend millions getting a blimp in the air and then not put advertising on it?"
This is not the first time that UFOs have been sighted flying over or near public events. Though extraterrestrials have been shy about landing on the proverbial White house lawn, they have (allegedly) appeared above huge crowds many times.
For example, in December 2011 an unidentified craft was spotted hovering high above an anti-government protest in Moscow's Bolotnaya Square in Russia. It was strangely silent, and clearly not a helicopter. The UFO was caught on video, and had some protesters wondering if they were being watched by aliens. Later analysis showed that the UFO was in fact a camera drone used by the news media.
Then there was the case of UFOs sighted over a Scottsdale, Ariz., high school football game in October 2011. The four bright lights seemed to move slowly in the sky, sometimes blinking randomly and lasted for about a minute and a half. Predictably, a video of it was posted it to YouTube, where within days it became one of the top stories on Yahoo News and sparked "a national mystery."
I investigated the case and found that the UFOs were actually flares attached to skydivers putting on a show several miles away.
So there's plenty of precedent for Unidentified Flying Objects being seen by thousands and equal precedent to believe that they're probably not extraterrestrial in origin, but instead have an earthly explanation.