UFO files published by Ministry of Defence

By Davey Winder
Monday, 20 October 2008 17:23

Science - Space

Previously classified files have been released by the UK government which reveal the USAF Sabre jet fighter pilot ordered to fire at an Unidentified Flying Object in British airspace, and a passenger jet headed for Heathrow which had a near miss with another UFO.

The National Archives is the UK government's official archive and such contains some 900 years of history. These records range from parchment and paper scrolls right through to the digital archives of today.

As well as providing access to such historical data as a database of some 123,000 convicts sent to Australia between 1787 and 1867, and 19th century Census records, the National Archives also holds declassified Ministry of defence files.

Amongst the batch of files that have just been declassified and made available this month, are no less than 19 previously top secret documents which relate to encounters with Unidentified Flying Objects between the years 1986 and 1992.

Many can be filed under the general strange encounters by individuals with no other evidence tab. Files such as the one involving a mother and daughter from Manchester who claimed to have been abducted by aliens in 1982 for a total of 55 minutes.

Or how about in 1988 when we discover a woman from the West Midlands region of the UK who reported a dome-shaped UFO to RAF Cosford? She said that it came towards her, and she saw people through a window inside a well lit cabin "three people, two sitting and one standing; all appeared to be wearing white suits."

Some of the files only serve to de-bunk UFO mythology, such as the re-fuelling exercise in December 1987 which involved USAF F-111 aircraft being tailed by giant KC-135 tankers and which led to hundreds of people in the Midlands reporting a UFO that was as "big as a football field."

Or details of how space junk, both meteorites and pieces of satellites and rocket bodies, re-entering the Earth's atmosphere and burning up were a common cause of UFO sightings. Of course, you could argue that they were indeed just that, but not alien visitors.

However, other files are less easy to dismiss or rationalise. The true X-Files stuff can be found on page 2...

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