THE last batch of UFO files from the Ministry of Defence is published today. It ends a five-year operation to declassify all the Government’s UFO documents and transfer them to the National Archives.
The MoD’s UFO project was axed in December 2009 – as revealed exclusively by The Sun.
The latest files reveal the plug was pulled because, alongside soaring numbers of UFO sightings, the MoD was being bombarded by Freedom of Information Act requests about alien activity. After the FoI act came fully into force in 2005, the MoD was soon receiving more requests on UFOs than on any other subject.
The files also reveal defence chiefs kept copies of The Sun when we reported apparent UFO incidents, like the one below.
Here NICK POPE, who worked on the MoD’s top secret UFO project, gives his verdict on these fascinating documents now available for public scrutiny.
IF you see strange lights in the sky or weird objects hovering overhead, don’t bother alerting the authorities — all recent reports of alien activity ended up being SHREDDED.
Sun story ... UFO sightings
Files out today show the Ministry of Defence destroyed any stories of extra-terrestrial sightings sent in after their top secret UFO project was axed in December 2009.
The MoD decided to make their UFO files Ex-Files because they were being snowed under with sightings of ET and his mates, while also weighed down with requests about alien sightings under the Freedom of Information Act.
So if anybody sent the Government PROOF of alien visitation after 2009, it would have gone straight in the bin.
Today, the tenth and final batch of real-life X-Files declassified by the MoD has been published.
It contains 25 files, comprising around 4,400 pages of documents, of incidents occurring mainly between 2007 and 2009.
Of course, the files contain many sightings reported by well-meaning members of the public that turned out to be simply weather balloons or light aircraft.
But among these are the inexplicable experiences of those who sincerely believe they have had, as in the 1977 hit film, a Close Encounter Of The Third Kind.
Revelations in the files include the fact that defence chiefs kept cuttings from The Sun when the paper reported on soldiers filming strange lights in the sky while on duty. It made the front page, above.
One email in the log says: “The Sun has reported a UFO sighting over Tern Hill Barracks in Shropshire at 11pm on June 7, 2008.
“It appears that a number of soldiers saw lights in the sky and made a video which they passed to the newspaper.”
Members of the public also urged the MoD to investigate a suspected UFO crash into a wind turbine, which was on The Sun’s front page in January 2009, an incident detailed on the right.
One of the most bizarre reports in the files is of a 2007 sighting near Cardiff. It states: “The witness saw spaceships then said one of them abducted his dog, car and tent, when he and his friends were out camping.” It does not reveal whether rover returned.
Fear of the unknown ... scene from 1977 movie Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
In another, a message left on the MoD’s UFO answerphone on June 24, 2008, states that a UFO was seen above the caller’s house in Carlisle and that he was “living with an alien”. On July 3, 2008, a woman reported seeing two orange spheres in her garden, a foot away from her. She was concerned that her dog may have been “contaminated”.
In response to a question about UFO technology, another document reveals that MoD scientists were aware of “anti-gravity and gravity modification research” and would “assess whether such technologies could be of any benefit to defence in the future”.
In tandem with the newly-released files, a new iPhone/iPad app — called simply UFO Files UK — is being launched to showcase some of the material, allowing people access to the once secret documents.
You can also find out about UFO sightings in your area.
The release of these files and their transferral to the National Archives has been a massive undertaking. The first batch was made public in May 2008 and further batches followed every six months.
In all, more than 50,000 pages of documents have been released, some of which are classified “Secret UK Eyes Only” — pretty impressive for a subject the MoD constantly told Parliament, the media and the public was of “no defence significance”.
In the early days of the UFO file-release programme, the documents seemed to support the MoD’s public line that the UFO phenomenon could be explained away as misidentifications of aircraft lights, weather balloons and Chinese lanterns, with a few hoaxes thrown in for good measure.
The files contain pages of material detailing mundane sightings of flashing lights over airports and UFOs seen by people leaving pubs at closing time.
But much more interesting material is hidden away among the pages.
There are incidents where military jets were scrambled to intercept UFOs and where UFOs were tracked on radar doing extraordinary speeds and manoeuvres.
There are sighting reports from police officers and military personnel, along with terrifying incidents involving near-misses between UFOs and commercial aircraft.
Some think the file release is part of a campaign to prepare for the day when the Government announces aliens are REAL. Others believe it is all disinformation, designed to allow the “New World Order” to fake an alien invasion, declare martial law and take over the world.
As the public face of the file-release programme, some believe I still secretly work for the Government. I left in 2006.
To the fury of many, it seems much of the best material has not been released.
Defence Intelligence Staff files on the Rendlesham Forest UFO incident, detailed on the right, have been “inadvertently destroyed”. Old gun camera footage taken from jets sent up to chase UFOs back in the Fifties and Sixties has been “lost”.
UFO photos sent to the MoD in 1990, showing an alien craft in Scotland, have been “misplaced”. And a ship’s log that might have contained details of a UFO seen during a NATO exercise was blown overboard by a “freak gust of wind”.
Ultimately, the release of these files is unlikely to change what people think about UFOs.
The conspiracy theorists will continue to believe that my colleagues and I hid proof of an alien presence for decades. As one angry letter in the new files states: “Some UFOs are of ET origin. You know this.
“I hope you make the correct decision and disclose this information before they make themselves known in a big way.”
Keep watching the skies — the truth is still out there.
Rendlesham was Britain’s Roswell
A FREEDOM of Information request reveals that documents on the 1980 Rendlesham Forest Incident were held in an amazing 109 separate files.
Personnel from RAF Bentwaters claimed to have seen a spacecraft landing and other UFO activity over three days.
The MoD received so many requests for information on the incident that case officers dubbed it “Britain’s Roswell” in reference to America’s famous “captured flying saucer” believed to contain an extra-terrestrial, which crashed near a ranch in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947.
Extra-terrestrial attack on turbine
Exclusive ... Sun story on turbine
The files quote the MoD as saying: “We are not aware of any substantive evidence to suggest the turbine was hit by a UFO. Unless we receive clear physical evidence... we do not intend to investigate.”
UFOs caught on RAF radar
AN account by a retired RAF flight lieutenant who witnessed the tracking of a UFO on radar at RAF Lyneham, Wilts, in 1993, notes the phenomenon was also seen by two members of a security patrol.
In another file, a former national serviceman recalls an unidentified blip on radar near Beachy Head, East Sussex, in 1953.
It moved at four times the speed of jet aircraft from the time.
Another blip appears to cross the path of an airliner near Portsmouth in December 2007. This sighting was referred to the MoD by a NATO official for investigation.
Near collisions with choppers
A SIGHTING of a small object that flew close to a South Wales Police helicopter was reported to Cardiff Airport in June 2008.
Nothing was seen on radar and the MoD said they had received no formal report from the police.
Another near-collision with an “unidentified aircraft displaying non-standard lights” was reported by the crew of a police helicopter on patrol over Birmingham city centre.
It was the subject of a formal investigation by the flight-safety watchdog, the UK Airprox Board. The inquiry was unable to explain the incident.
Sightseers came from outer space
Stone me! ... snap of historical site Stonehenge shows UFO
THIS grainy photo of Stonehenge was one of a series emailed to the MoD in January 2009.
The sender said: “I didn’t see anything in the sky at the time because I was focusing on the stones.
“But upon uploading them to my computer, I spotted the discoid shapes in the background.”
Additional reporting: TIM SPANTON