The coalition approaches the UFO phenomenon as a scientific mystery which is unresolved. As such, it has no specific model of reality, or theoretical agenda that it is pushing. Each reported incident is taken, initially, as an independent case to be investigated on its own merits, and which is amenable to many possible solutions. If evidence points to a mundane solution (such as misidentifications of natural or artificial objects which are well understood), then that answer is good and sufficient for the goals of the Coalition. If evidence points to an occurrence which cannot reliable or even reasonably be explained by a mundane solution, then the philosophy of the Coalition is to say exactly that. We intend to go no further than evidence and reasonable deduction allows. But we note that such an attitude properly cuts both ways: that is, one should not stretch nor ignore evidence in order to explain an incident as a mundane event, either. We recognize that both sorts of extremism's plague the research and commentary on this subject, and it is our goal not to contribute to that problem.

Individual members of the Consortium will have their own favored hypothesis, naturally. This is commonplace in science, and even proper, as models of reality often have creative research. One such model commonly entertained in Ufology is the “Extraterrestrial Hypothesis” (that UFOs are Extraterrestrial machines). The Coalition neither asserts nor denies the ETH as “true”. Individual researchers may feel that a particular case points to such ideas a the ETH, but that model of reality must face just so rigorous a standard of evidence and “proof” as any other concept.