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UFO Videocast transcription
Hello, I'm Doctor David Clarke, UFO expert and lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University.
In October 2008, The National Archives are opening a collection of UFO material transferred from the MoD [Ministry of Defence] under the Freedom of Information Act. It's the second release of UFO files this year and is part of a three to four year transfer of some 160 files in all.
This particular collection contains somewhere in the region of 4500 separate pages of material and some 19 files in all. I'm going to be showing you some of the highlights from this material. To see the files, go to The National Archives website: nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos.
What makes these UFO files special?
One of the key highlights from these files is a report from April 1991. This involved a near miss between an Italian airliner and a UFO in the skies over Kent. The report was made to the Civil Aviation Authority, and the pilot described in his official report a 'missile-shaped object, beige in colour, that moved from east to west across his field of vision' from the cockpit. He was so surprised when he saw this thing that he called out to his co-pilot: 'Look out, look out'. The co-pilot also saw this strange object and immediately they contacted Air Traffic Control and asked if they could see anything. They said: 'Yes we can see an object behind the aircraft quite clearly, primary return.'
This incident was investigated by the Ministry of Defence and also by the Civil Aviation Authority. They checked to see if any real missile had been fired, perhaps by one of the army ranges or by a ship at sea, but ruled out all the usual explanations. The end result was this was a genuine UFO and the file was simply closed: there was nothing more they could do.
Have there been any other near misses involving planes and UFOs?
The report by the Italian aircrew was just the first in a series of similar incidents reported to the MoD in 1991. There were two other near miss incidents in the same year with a month separating them. The first one was in June 1991 where there was a report from four passengers in a 737, en route from Gatwick to Hamburg. They reported seeing something which they described as a 'wingless projectile', flying beneath the aircraft as they were taking off.
They reported this to the pilot, and the incident was reported back to the Ministry of Defence and Civil Aviation Authority for an investigation. Whilst that investigation was going on, in July 1991 there was another report made by the crew of a 737 that was descending into Gatwick over the English countryside. They reported seeing something, which they described as a dark, lozenge shaped object, zooming by the side of the aircraft. This again was reported to Air Traffic Control, who confirmed that they had what they described as 'a primary contact' on radar. They were so concerned about this thing that they warned another aircraft that was descending behind the 737 to take evasive action. This aircraft turned to the left to avoid this unidentified object, which initially appeared to be heading towards the aircraft but then turned away. The captain of the second aircraft didn’t actually report seeing anything visually.
There was a full investigation of both of these incidents. One of them was officially reported as a near miss, and they were unable to explain what had been seen. The best guess that they could make was that possibly what had been seen in these two cases was some kind of balloon, perhaps a meteorological balloon or perhaps a toy balloon, but again there's a huge question mark over what this particular UFO might have been.
Have there been any incidents of military pilots reporting UFO sightings?
We've looked at cases in these files where the crews of civil airliners have reported near misses with UFOs. There are also a few instances in these files where military pilots, fighter pilots have reported mysterious objects - things that have been seen on radar and sometimes visually.
The most impressive case in this particular collection actually happened at the height of the Cold War, one dark night either in 1956 or 1957. The reason this case didn't emerge until the 1980s was that the pilot involved was a member of the USAF [United States Air Force] 406th Fighter-Bomber wing. He didn't actually talk about what had happened until 32 years later when he returned to the base - RAF Manston in Kent - where the incident occurred. He was there for a reunion and met up with some of his colleagues from that time where they started talking about their experiences.
On this particular night, at the height of the Cold War, shortly after the Suez Crisis and the invasion of Hungary, the pilot was on 24 hour alert, ready to be scrambled in case there were any hostile movements of Soviet aircraft. He was ordered to scramble at short notice around midnight. It was a dark night, typical English weather. He was scrambled to a position that he recalls as being 32,000 feet over the East Anglian countryside. He was told by an RAF ground controller that they had been watching a mysterious object and mysterious movements on radar, for some time. The pilot was then sent to intercept this thing and find out what it was.
An unusual mission in some respects, but it was to get even stranger. He was guided to where this thing was seen on radar from the ground and when he got within 15 miles of this mysterious object, his own airborne radar was then able to lock onto it. He turned towards it and was asked if he could see anything visually. He peered out of the cockpit but he could see nothing, just dark clouds. The pilot had got within 15 miles of this thing, had a lock on his radar and he said that this object was very clear on his radar scope, that it was huge, the size of a B-52 bomber, with absolutely no doubt that there was something there.
The next thing that happened was that he was ordered, from the ground, to arm his aircraft and fire a full salvo of his rockets - he had 24 of these things, quite deadly weapons. He was really surprised and shocked to be told he had to do this because he had never before been ordered to shoot anything down, particularly an aircraft that was unidentified. Remember that this was over East Anglia at the time, very unusual. So he queried the order and within a few seconds this was confirmed from the ground. As he was selecting his weapons, this thing that had been captured on radar suddenly started moving, and disappeared from the scope. He reported this back to ground control and they said it had disappeared from their scopes as well, at a fantastic speed.
That was the end of the mission as far as he was concerned so he returned to RAF Manston. He spoke to ground control and they said he would be debriefed. The next day someone arrived from London, clearly another American, someone from one of the National Security Agencies. He was told in no uncertain terms that what he had seen on his radar was top secret and he wasn't to speak about it to anyone about it. He was warned that if he did break his security oath then he would be grounded, which for a pilot was the worst thing that could happen. He therefore kept quiet for 32 years. It wasn't until 1988 that he finally decided to talk about it.
When this reached the media and ufologists, one ufologist in Manchester wrote to the MoD and wanted to find out what official records were kept on this particular incident. The MoD, according to these papers, looked in their archives and found that, unfortunately, all the records before 1962 about UFO incidents had been destroyed so they could not give an explanation about what had been seen. They advised the enquirer to contact the USAF archives. This he did, but they again said there was no record of the incident.
There is no doubt that something very unusual happened that day. Was it really a UFO? Was it t some kind of Soviet aircraft that had been seen, and if so, who gave the orders to fire on it and why?
The only other possible explanation was that the pilot may have been involved in some kind of experiment involving electronic warfare. We now know, because the CIA have admitted this, that they did have a programme in the 1960s called Palladium that involved the creation of phantom aircraft on radar. This was done to fool the Russians so the Americans could test the capabilities of Russian radar systems. So there may be a remote possibility that what this pilot had seen was an experiment in electronic warfare. Or maybe it was a UFO.
I hope you have enjoyed my video documentary. If you would like to examine some of these UFO reports in more detail, please go to The National Archives website, which is nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos.
Video: http://ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/video.asp
Hello, I'm Doctor David Clarke, UFO expert and lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University.
In October 2008, The National Archives are opening a collection of UFO material transferred from the MoD [Ministry of Defence] under the Freedom of Information Act. It's the second release of UFO files this year and is part of a three to four year transfer of some 160 files in all.
This particular collection contains somewhere in the region of 4500 separate pages of material and some 19 files in all. I'm going to be showing you some of the highlights from this material. To see the files, go to The National Archives website: nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos.
What makes these UFO files special?
One of the key highlights from these files is a report from April 1991. This involved a near miss between an Italian airliner and a UFO in the skies over Kent. The report was made to the Civil Aviation Authority, and the pilot described in his official report a 'missile-shaped object, beige in colour, that moved from east to west across his field of vision' from the cockpit. He was so surprised when he saw this thing that he called out to his co-pilot: 'Look out, look out'. The co-pilot also saw this strange object and immediately they contacted Air Traffic Control and asked if they could see anything. They said: 'Yes we can see an object behind the aircraft quite clearly, primary return.'
This incident was investigated by the Ministry of Defence and also by the Civil Aviation Authority. They checked to see if any real missile had been fired, perhaps by one of the army ranges or by a ship at sea, but ruled out all the usual explanations. The end result was this was a genuine UFO and the file was simply closed: there was nothing more they could do.
Have there been any other near misses involving planes and UFOs?
The report by the Italian aircrew was just the first in a series of similar incidents reported to the MoD in 1991. There were two other near miss incidents in the same year with a month separating them. The first one was in June 1991 where there was a report from four passengers in a 737, en route from Gatwick to Hamburg. They reported seeing something which they described as a 'wingless projectile', flying beneath the aircraft as they were taking off.
They reported this to the pilot, and the incident was reported back to the Ministry of Defence and Civil Aviation Authority for an investigation. Whilst that investigation was going on, in July 1991 there was another report made by the crew of a 737 that was descending into Gatwick over the English countryside. They reported seeing something, which they described as a dark, lozenge shaped object, zooming by the side of the aircraft. This again was reported to Air Traffic Control, who confirmed that they had what they described as 'a primary contact' on radar. They were so concerned about this thing that they warned another aircraft that was descending behind the 737 to take evasive action. This aircraft turned to the left to avoid this unidentified object, which initially appeared to be heading towards the aircraft but then turned away. The captain of the second aircraft didn’t actually report seeing anything visually.
There was a full investigation of both of these incidents. One of them was officially reported as a near miss, and they were unable to explain what had been seen. The best guess that they could make was that possibly what had been seen in these two cases was some kind of balloon, perhaps a meteorological balloon or perhaps a toy balloon, but again there's a huge question mark over what this particular UFO might have been.
Have there been any incidents of military pilots reporting UFO sightings?
We've looked at cases in these files where the crews of civil airliners have reported near misses with UFOs. There are also a few instances in these files where military pilots, fighter pilots have reported mysterious objects - things that have been seen on radar and sometimes visually.
The most impressive case in this particular collection actually happened at the height of the Cold War, one dark night either in 1956 or 1957. The reason this case didn't emerge until the 1980s was that the pilot involved was a member of the USAF [United States Air Force] 406th Fighter-Bomber wing. He didn't actually talk about what had happened until 32 years later when he returned to the base - RAF Manston in Kent - where the incident occurred. He was there for a reunion and met up with some of his colleagues from that time where they started talking about their experiences.
On this particular night, at the height of the Cold War, shortly after the Suez Crisis and the invasion of Hungary, the pilot was on 24 hour alert, ready to be scrambled in case there were any hostile movements of Soviet aircraft. He was ordered to scramble at short notice around midnight. It was a dark night, typical English weather. He was scrambled to a position that he recalls as being 32,000 feet over the East Anglian countryside. He was told by an RAF ground controller that they had been watching a mysterious object and mysterious movements on radar, for some time. The pilot was then sent to intercept this thing and find out what it was.
An unusual mission in some respects, but it was to get even stranger. He was guided to where this thing was seen on radar from the ground and when he got within 15 miles of this mysterious object, his own airborne radar was then able to lock onto it. He turned towards it and was asked if he could see anything visually. He peered out of the cockpit but he could see nothing, just dark clouds. The pilot had got within 15 miles of this thing, had a lock on his radar and he said that this object was very clear on his radar scope, that it was huge, the size of a B-52 bomber, with absolutely no doubt that there was something there.
The next thing that happened was that he was ordered, from the ground, to arm his aircraft and fire a full salvo of his rockets - he had 24 of these things, quite deadly weapons. He was really surprised and shocked to be told he had to do this because he had never before been ordered to shoot anything down, particularly an aircraft that was unidentified. Remember that this was over East Anglia at the time, very unusual. So he queried the order and within a few seconds this was confirmed from the ground. As he was selecting his weapons, this thing that had been captured on radar suddenly started moving, and disappeared from the scope. He reported this back to ground control and they said it had disappeared from their scopes as well, at a fantastic speed.
That was the end of the mission as far as he was concerned so he returned to RAF Manston. He spoke to ground control and they said he would be debriefed. The next day someone arrived from London, clearly another American, someone from one of the National Security Agencies. He was told in no uncertain terms that what he had seen on his radar was top secret and he wasn't to speak about it to anyone about it. He was warned that if he did break his security oath then he would be grounded, which for a pilot was the worst thing that could happen. He therefore kept quiet for 32 years. It wasn't until 1988 that he finally decided to talk about it.
When this reached the media and ufologists, one ufologist in Manchester wrote to the MoD and wanted to find out what official records were kept on this particular incident. The MoD, according to these papers, looked in their archives and found that, unfortunately, all the records before 1962 about UFO incidents had been destroyed so they could not give an explanation about what had been seen. They advised the enquirer to contact the USAF archives. This he did, but they again said there was no record of the incident.
There is no doubt that something very unusual happened that day. Was it really a UFO? Was it t some kind of Soviet aircraft that had been seen, and if so, who gave the orders to fire on it and why?
The only other possible explanation was that the pilot may have been involved in some kind of experiment involving electronic warfare. We now know, because the CIA have admitted this, that they did have a programme in the 1960s called Palladium that involved the creation of phantom aircraft on radar. This was done to fool the Russians so the Americans could test the capabilities of Russian radar systems. So there may be a remote possibility that what this pilot had seen was an experiment in electronic warfare. Or maybe it was a UFO.
I hope you have enjoyed my video documentary. If you would like to examine some of these UFO reports in more detail, please go to The National Archives website, which is nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos.
Video: http://ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/video.asp
