As close encounters go, the claim by a woman that an alien attempted to seduce her on a country road sounds far-fetched, but files released yesterday reveal that it was considered serious enough for the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) to investigate.
The Norfolk woman who claimed she was approached by a man who said he came from another planet similar to Earth was questioned by the MoD intelligence branch DI55, whose brief was to investigate credible UFO reports.
She told them that, during their 10-minute chat, the man said his race was responsible for creating crop circles and explained the importance of contact between humans and his own people.
The woman, whose identity is not revealed in the government’s “X-Files,” was described by officials as “agitated” following the incident in which she “heard a loud buzzing noise behind her, then turned to witness a large, glowing spherical object rise steadily until it disappeared.”
The claims were examined by DI55 (whose very existence was denied by the government until recently) and described by an intelligence official as “one of our most unusual UFO reports.”
Other cases include the description of a black inverted boomerang-shaped UFO by two experienced air traffic controllers at Heathrow. The sighting, from the airport’s control tower on the morning of Dec. 17, 1992, came a week after numerous witnesses in Louth, Lincolnshire, reported seeing three lights attached to a large, triangular craft.
Yesterday’s release of the MoD documents also sheds light on one of Britain’s most infamous UFO episodes, namely the death of a US air force pilot, Captain William Schaffner, whom conspiracy theorists believe was killed during a duel with aliens above the North Sea.
On the evening of Sept. 8, 1970, Schaffner’s RAF Lightning crashed into the sea during a low-level exercise following take-off from RAF Binbrook, Lincolnshire. Schaffner’s body was never found, which became significant after claims emerged that Schaffner’s plane was scrambled to intercept UFOs.
Although the 28-year-old’s death continues to be attributed by some Internet sites to a secret war between aliens and earthlings, the MoD files contain a previously unreleased summary of the original RAF Board of Inquiry report into the crash, which makes no mention of UFOs. It concluded that the pilot’s death was a tragic accident.
One of the themes to emerge from these papers is the Aurora spy plane saga, with the files containing a little-known set of color photographs, apparently taken in the Scottish Highlands, which appear to show a large diamond-shaped UFO shadowed by military jets.
During the 1980s, rumors abounded about a spy plane codenamed Aurora, said to be capable of hypersonic speed. Although the US authorities denied its existence, alleged sightings frequently made headlines in UFO magazines. The DI55 papers confirm that officials also believed it was possible that someone was flying an advanced aircraft within UK air space.
The most intriguing incident involving such a craft occurred at 9pm on Aug. 4, 1990, at Calvine, a remote hamlet near Pitlochry in Scotland. According to the brief details released by the MoD, witnesses saw a diamond-shaped UFO hovering for about 10 minutes before it disappeared upwards at high speed. During the incident, Harrier jump jets were seen making a number of low-level passes. Color photographs reveal both the UFO and at least one of the jets.
Former MoD official Nick Pope described the photographs as “one of the most intriguing [UFO] cases in the MoD’s files.”
David Clarke, a lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University and author of Flying Saucerers: A Social History of UFOlogy said: “Many questions remain. Who was the photographer and how can we be sure his story was genuine? Why did the Daily Record decide not to publish the photographs in 1990? If they really were taken on the date stated, then why was the MoD unable to trace the origin of the Harriers clearly shown in the print?”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese