Over 4,000 pages of documents recently released by the UK’s Ministry of Defense explain why the MoD opted to close its UFO hotline in December 2009.

The Ministry claimed that the UFO desk offered “no [military] benefit” and that, in more than 50 years of operation, nothing that had come across the desk to indicate the existence of extraterrestrial life or a “military threat to the UK” from beyond our world.

The demise of the dedicated UFO desk was hastened by an uptick in UFO reports that strained the program’s existing resources. The period between 2000 and 2007 saw an average of 150 reports per year; by November of 2009, just prior to the shut-down, the desk had already received over 500 reports.

The reasons for the surge in reports remains unclear, though the BBC suggests that it might have been caused by the popularity of “releasing Chinese lanterns during celebrations.” Some might find that explanation a bit squishy.

The new documents contain more than the MoD’s reasons for shuttering the UFO desk. Among the 4,400 pages of material are reports from citizens who claimed to have had close encounters, including a Cardiff man who reported having his dog, tent, and car stolen by aliens while camping in 2007 (apparently these were crunchy, granola, dog-loving, Subaru-driving aliens).

Also among the papers was a letter from a young girl who was apparently unsatisfied with the government’s official narrative. “Please tell me,” she wrote,

if living things […] live out side our Planet. I would like to now because me and my father have seen little air craft in the sky. And my father have seen 2 little light Dancing around each other. Pleas send me a letter telling me the anser. […] I have the right to now. Thank you.

Was she on to something? Did she finally ask the right questions and make powerful people sweat? Could it really be a coincidence that she started pushing buttons and then the MoD killed the UFO desk? Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

On any account, I guess now we know what actually happened to Fox Mulder’s sister.