British 'X Files' papers revealed

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1160625.ece

British 'X Files' papers revealed
By ANTONELLA LAZZERI
Published: 13 May 2008

UFOs hovering over Waterloo Bridge? Green men known as Elgar? This can only mean the British 'X-Files' have been opened up to the public for the first time.

The fascinating reports, taken so seriously they were documented by the Ministry of Defence, have been revealed after a Freedom of Information request by UFO researchers.

And, according to the files, the number of reports of UFOs doubled after the release of Steven Speilberg's sci-fi drama Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977.

Among the most sensational is the famous Rendlesham Forest case.

A report from Lt.Col Charles Halt on 13th January 1981 tells how on the night of December 27th security patrolmen spotted odd lights above the forest.

They saw the lights plunge down and went to investigate.

In the forest they found a triangular shaped object 9ft long by 6ft high hovering above the ground.

Flashing lights

The object had a pulsing red light on top with blue lights underneath.

According to the patrolmen a white light coming from the UFO illuminated the whole forest.

The object suddenly took off and flew away. Other airmen on the base also saw the lights.

Investigators studying the site where the craft landed found three depressions in a triangular shape. A radar reading spiked at each depression.

Two nights later more lights were noticed.

Fiction ... but movie Close Encounters Of The Third Kind sparked UFO reportings
Lt.Col Halt's report states that a large red glow split into five separate white objects which hovered in the sky for two to three hours.

His investigations showed that there were no aircraft in the vicinity on the two nights which could account for the phenomenon.

MoD investigators also admit in the files that they could find no explanation for what was seen.

But their task was to ensure that the object was not some sort of spy craft.

Once that was done, investigation stopped and the sighting remains a mystery.

One of the strangest reports in the files is the case in Northumbria where 12 police officers say they saw a UFO in December 1981.

They all reported seeing an intense green light.

In the same month of the same year another policeman in Shropshire claimed to see a UFO hovering above Wolverhampton hospital.

He saw a two foot long, 18 inch wide object like an 'inverted meat dish' flying in the air.

The cop said the dish had an arm which descended from underneath it for about 18 inches.

Other mystery space craft seen flying over Wallasey Town Hall were also recorded by government officials.

One file reveals how easy it is for people to be fooled into thinking normal aircraft are flying saucers.

A group of drinkers at The Walnut Tree near Tunbridge Wells in 1982 reported seeing red and green flashing lights above the pub.

When the local bobby investigated what direction the lights appeared to be travelling he realised it was always towards Gatwick airport.

But other sightings were not so easy to dismiss.

In 1986 a pilot reported seeing a UFO object passing his aircraft just 1.5 nautical miles away.

In his report he states that if it was a missile, he and his crew were, "not impressed".

Two police officers also recorded a sighting of a UFO in April 1984.

The cops responded to a call from members of the public in Stanmore, Middlesex, claiming to have seen a flying saucer.

When they arrived at the scene the two cops saw a circular object, with a dome on the top and bottom, and multi-coloured lights.

Misidentification

Nick Pope, who worked for the MoD for 21 years investigating sightings said: "While there's no evidence of little green men in these files, they should be of immense interest to sceptics and believers.

"Most of the UFO sightings here are probably misidentifications of aircraft lights and meteors, but some are more difficult to explain, and include UFOs seen by police officers and pilots, and cases where UFOs have been tracked on radar."

In the first files released an MoD 1983 memo admits that their experts were sometimes baffled by the sightings saying: "The sole interest of the Ministry of Defence in UFO reports is to establish whether they reveal anything of defence interest (e.g intruding aircraft).

"The Ministry of Defence does not deny that there are strange things to see in the sky."

The memo goes on to say that much of what is seen may be space junk burning up in the atmosphere, unusual cloud formations and weather balloons.

It concludes that the MoD "certainly has no evidence that alien spacecraft have landed on this planet."

But many of the people who made the reports which feature in the files obviously feel that they have evidence.

The Waterloo Bridge UFO was seen by numerous people many of whom called police.

One man, acccording to the files, certainly belives he has seen little green men in the UK.

He claims he was visited frequently by an alien called Elgar who he says was killed by another race of beings in the 1980s.

He also claimed to have seen a space craft crash land near Wallasey Town Hall.

Dr David Clarke, journalism lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, was one of the people who campaigned for the release of the files.

He said: "It has taken 10 years of campaigning to get these papers out and now that they are it lays to rest some of the claims of a cover up by the MoD.

"Personally I think that some of the sightings have got to be of scientific interest. There are some that just cannot be explained."

Another 150 files are due to be released over the next four years.

OTHER interesting reports in the files include:

A sighting in Regents Park in 1985 by a woman described as 'highly intelligent and a zoologist'. She saw a large metal circular craft which appeared to have 'faces' on its side which flashed in the sun.

In October 1986 a police officer reported seeing three white/mauve lights in a line hovering over Selsdon. He said they hovered over a bird sanctuary for several minutes.

A man who reported seeing a group of three triangular lights in November 1986 in Glasgow was said to have 'only drunk cocoa' on the night he saw them.

A housewife in Northampton reported seeing a large object with red flashing lights on top. She said it appeared to be attracted to her neighbour's tall TV aeriel.

A meals on wheels lady claimed to have seen a 'vulcan shaped obect' flying above her house. She said she observed it through binoculars in Bruton, Lincoln.

A man claimed seeing people jump from a UFO. But the police officer who recorded the report in 1985 in Cardiff said the man had claimed the same thing three years before.

A group of six cyclists reported seeing a group of 6/7 lights in the sky as they headed towards Saltash in October 1985. They said the lights turned in their direction as if something was studying them.

One Swindon born man reported seeing a 'great green ball of fire' as he was driving his car. The file claims an American 747 captain reported a similar sighting near Shannon, Ireland, on the same day.

A Milton Keynes mum was horrified when her kitchen was illuminated by a strange red light. She ran upstairs to check on her baby and found a red glow enveloping his nursery with her child's face 'bathed in the glow'.

A woman reported how a light from a globe shaped object was so bright she 'could have read a book by it in Horncastle, Lincs.