That is a tricky one.
But if the sightings are related to nuclear power, it raises another question. Why does France not have more sightings ?
France has 59 nuclear power stations. I don't know it's nuclear weapons status.
So one might expect more sightings.
What makes you think France has a shortage of sightings? I just posted a couple of these on another thread. But they are cogent here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alejandro-rojas/ufo-buzzed-french-nuclear_b_6558798.html
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2015/01/french-nuclear-director-says-ufo-was-over-his-plant/
http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/Gepan-Sepra.htm
If I recall correctly, one of the conclusions of a statistical study associated with "GEPAN" was that UFO sightings appeared more numerous and persistent near nuclear installations....
Perhaps America, with it's many local radio stations and huge public information networks, encourages more people to report what they see. More reports does not necessarily mean more object.
perhaps it is a cultural thing. No one can deny that, as a nation, it is slightly paranoid. McCarthyism and the great communist scare of the past can have people seeing things that are quite natural and believing there is something sinister in them. The chem trail belief is almost entirely an American phenomena.
Could simply be too many episodes of X files etc.
Perhaps paranoia does induce people to see things. America has no shortage there!
Culturally, America has a fixation on technology. I believe that could be a factor for "spaceship" type sightings - and "nuts and bolts" UFO aficionados. But culture influences what people see (or report) in other ways too. For instance, I have been reading many reports from Central and South America where many people live simple rural lives. A lot of these people seem to take these things for granted and do not put as much energy into them as we do in America. Such people are not likely to report sightings - if they even interpret them that way.
Even so, we still don't seem to get any closer to confirming what the reported objects actually are.
Those who have seen the documentaries on the Stevensville sighting will have noticed that, despite some analysis that would appear to show that there was something there even when the authorities denied it, nothing came from it.
It just dropped off the news.
Anyone have a view on that case ?
Did it get covered on this site ?
Eburacum would insist that it is just more miss-identifications. And he may be right. But until those same miss-identifications are identified there is no way to get to the actual true figure.
INT21
Stephenville is a very interesting case. First off, the sightings were in restricted airspace near then president George W. Bush's private ranch. The sightings were corroborated by radar, both civilian and military. And, as you would expect, the Air Force sent F-16s after them when they were seen making a bee-line for the Bush ranch on military radar. Witnesses saw the jets. At first the Air Force denied this, but they later admitted sending F-16s into the area. (Why the official obfuscation?)
That is a lot of confirmation for one report.
But like all UFOs, it went bump in the night without leaving a trace, never to be seen again. What can we deduce from that?
Nada, Nuttin', Zed, Zero, Zilch. Nice story. What it was is anybody's guess. I guess that huge thing that blackened the sky was the planet Venus!