UFO sightings up in New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The Mutual UFO Network has been busier than usual this year. So far in New Mexico, the group has received reports of 40 different UFO sightings, seven of them in the past month.

"By and large, most cases are explainable," said Dr. Donald Burleson, MUFON's New Mexico director. "Sometimes we conclude that it was a conventional aircraft or balloon or meteor.

"It's that small percentage of cases that really keep us all interested."

The nationwide organization is made up of volunteer scientists who investigate each questionable claim made.

And there have been many so-called UFO sightings:

• One driver snapped a picture of a UFO-shaped cloud on Albuquerque's horizon and found it strange because "it stayed in place with no movement."
• A photographer near Las Cruces noticed a "hinge in the clouds" after uploading the picture.
• One onlooker saw bouncing lights multiple times in the night sky over Kirtland Air Force Base and was fearful, saying, "What if they know I'm watching and do something to me?"

Scientist O'Brien Quarrie submitted a video of a strange object in the sky near Socorro three years ago.

"You see the different manifestations, the disappearing and reappearing and moving about," said Quarrie. "A UFO is an unidentified flying object, and I couldn't identify it.

"Is there other life out there? Are there other intelligent beings?"

Burleson said he believes there could be. Quarrie's video was one case MUFON investigators could not explain.

"There are a few cases that are really just unexplainable," said Burleson. "That just means we're living with a mystery, and a mystery appeals to anybody."