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In the autumn of 1973, the United States experienced one of the most remarkable UFO waves in modern history. From bizarre reports of alleged landings and humanoid occupants to the famous Pascagoula encounter and the Coyne helicopter incident, hundreds of sightings emerged across the country during a period when UFOs seemed to be almost everywhere. Similar high-profile encounters continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s—but in the decades since, something appears to have changed.
This week on The Micah Hanks Program, we revisit the extraordinary UFO wave of 1973 and ask a deceptively simple question: where have all the UFOs gone? While UFO reports certainly haven’t disappeared, the classic high-strangeness Close Encounter seems conspicuously rarer today. We examine what factors could explain the apparent shift, along with speculations about what it all could potentially mean.
SHOW NOTES
Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode.
- NEWS: No plague cases detected in Siberia, Russia says, and locals play down scare | Reuters
- NASA chief Jared Isaacman wants to stay ‘open-minded’ about UFOs: ‘If it’s aliens, I think NASA should have a seat at the table’
- David Grusch Makes Cryptic New Claims About Missing Air Force General Neil McCasland
- UFOs IN 1973: The Great UFO Wave of 1973 brought an ‘Autumn of Aliens’ to Middle Tennessee
- Close Encounters of the Muncie Kind: The Muncie UFO Mania of 1973
- Jimmy Carter files report on UFO sighting | September 18, 1973 | HISTORY
- “UFO Reports Swamp Mississippi”: Media Coverage of the 1973 Pascagoula Alien Abduction
- Coyne Incident over Charles Mill Lake was most credible UFO sighting of 1973
- 2013: Why have we stopped seeing UFOs in the skies? | Aeon Essays
- 2018: What is behind the decline in UFO sightings? | UFOs | The Guardian
- 2022: Why are there fewer close encounters with UFO’s now than in the past? – Reddit
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