The UFO Files

[Taishi Ci]

The UFO files: sketches and reports of sightings in Britain
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Eyewitness sketches of unidentified flying objects are included in newly-released files. Among the drawings sent to the Ministry of Defence to illustrate unusual sightings are the following: Three triangular UFOs resembling stealth aircraft, two of them with round or lozenge-shaped lights along the wings. A resident of Torrisholme, near Morecambe, Lancashire, wrote to the MoD in May 1997 seeking to know more about "what is going on around the country and in particular our area". The correspondent said the UFOs hovered over people's homes and followed cars, but were not helicopters, normal planes or balloons.

A small rocket with a rear engine shaped like a "ten-petalled flower head" reportedly seen orbiting the moon in 1984. A Briton living in Toronto in Canada told the MoD in October 1995 that the craft was part of a group of spaceships resembling a "naval task force" captured in the background of a magnified photograph of the planet Jupiter. The writer warned: "I see this as (a) potential serious threat to our security from a totally unexpected quarter by people who are technologically more advanced than we are, apparently".

A circular "space station" with red, green and white lights pulsing like a heartbeat in an anti-clockwise direction around the outside.
The UFO was seen six miles above Crumlin in Gwent, South Wales, on the night of May 9 1998


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[Taishi Ci]

An oblong craft with a curved front and a series of small nozzles at the rear that a witness saw over Manchester Airport on the day of a near-miss between a British Airways Boeing 737 and a UFO on January 6 1995. The UFO expert who sent the sketches to the MoD said he was "a little dubious" about aspects of the report, including a claim that the object was "20 times the size of a football field".

Circular formations of lights seen by a number of people over Bristol in July 1996.

A black triangular craft with a pulsing red light at the front and two continuous white lights at the rear seen in Stanley, County Durham on the evening of September 29 1995. The witness said it travelled at about 40mph and was accompanied by a high-pitched tone like an aircraft in a dive.


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[Taishi Ci]

A UFO shaped like a kite that hovered for up to four minutes before zooming off at "incredible speeds" reported to the MoD in December 1996 by an enthusiast from Blackpool, Lancashire, who believed it was an experimental stealth aircraft.

A black U-shaped object seen from Edinburgh travelling above the Firth of Forth without disturbing the water on October 9 1995.

A shiny tubular object with a single tail wing at each end seen travelling slowly from the east in the sky above Billingham, Teesside, on October 17 1995.


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[Taishi Ci]

Sir Winston Churchill was accused of covering up a close encounter between an RAF aircraft and a UFO during the Second World War, newly-released files revealed today. The former prime minister allegedly ordered that the unexplained incident over the east coast of England should be kept secret for at least 50 years because it would provoke "mass panic". The claim, made by a scientist who said his grandfather was one of Churchill's bodyguards, is recounted in declassified Ministry of Defence UFO files made available online by the National Archives. Allegations of the cover-up emerged when the man, from Leicester, wrote to the government in 1999 seeking to find out more about the incident.

He described how his grandfather, who served with the RAF in the war, was present when Churchill and US General Dwight Eisenhower discussed how to deal with the UFO encounter. The man, who is not named in the files, said Churchill was reported to have exclaimed: "This event should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic amongst the general population and destroy one's belief in the church." The incident allegedly involved an RAF reconnaissance plane returning from a mission in France or Germany towards the end of the war. It was over or near the English coastline when it was suddenly intercepted by a strange metallic object which matched the aircraft's course and speed for a time before accelerating away and disappearing.


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