I often hear people say that the UFO phenomenon is a strong one and that “they” are here to help us. Well, that might be the case. On the other side of the coin, however, a case can be made that the mystery isn’t as quite as friendly as so many might think it is. In fact, the visitors might actually be weak entities that fear us – but who have found intriguing ways to make themselves appear way ahead of us. For example, consider the number of UFO encounters that have occurred over military bases. There are more than a few cases of this particular type. And, that’s what I’m going to share with you today. We know for sure that the Summer of 1947, in the United States, was swamped with reports, sightings and encounters – and many of them involving military installations. For example, during that same 1947 wave (in New Mexico), there were a number of significant sightings of UFOs at what used to be called the White Sands Proving Ground (and that, today, is titled the White Sands Missile Range). What if the real truth of these events was something much stranger? Consider this: just because the “visitors” may have had technology way ahead of ours in 1947 (and now, too), it doesn’t mean they had a huge armada of craft. Perhaps, it was the exact opposite: that they had a limited number of ships, but carefully managed to make it look like they were all over the place by placing one incident here, one there, and so on.

Perhaps, the various – and famous – cases of UFO sightings in the direct vicinity of military and government facilities over the decades have been nothing but staged events designed to show their power, when, in reality, they might be quite vulnerable when it comes to numbers and power. Let’s look at some other examples of UFO “invasion” with military connections. The curious and fantastic UFO events of July 1952, over Washington, D.C., deeply troubled the CIA and the Air Force. And, for very intriguing and alternative reasons that had very little to do with literal alien invasions or visitations. On December 2, 1952 the CIA’s Assistant Director H. Marshall Chadwell noted in a classified report on UFO activity in American airspace: “Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations [italics mine]are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles.”

A similar wave hit the U.K. in 1957. On March 26 of that year, there was an amazing encounter. The U.K. Air Ministry documentation (now in the public domain at the National Archives) states in part: “A report was received from Royal Air Force Church Lawford on 26th March, 1957 of a sighting of an unusual nature. The object moved at a speed timed at exceeding 1400mph. This in itself was unusual as the object had accelerated to this speed from a stationary position [italics mine]. No explanation has yet been found for this sighting but a supplementary report, including a copy of the radar plot, was requested and has been received from Church Lawford this afternoon.” The craft came perilously close to the base and was described as a Flying Saucer. On the morning of April 4, 1957 – according to now-declassified British Royal Air Force documents housed at the National Archives, Kew, England – radar operators at Balscalloch, Scotland reported to RAF West Freugh, Wigtownshire that they had detected a number of “unidentified objects on the screens of their radars.” And it quickly became apparent this was no Cold War penetration of British airspace by Soviet spy-planes or bombers. As the mystified radar-operators watched their screens, they were amazed to see a large, stationary object hovering at 50,000 feet that then proceeded to ascend vertically to no less than 70,000 feet. The U.K. was also hit with a similar UFO wave in 1967.

Moving on, there is the UFO deluge that occurred in the United States from 1973 to 1974. At the time of the encounters, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)  took a significant interest in them. The most interesting file is titled “Spanish UFO Sightings.” It surfaced, in the 1980s, from the archives of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). It’s a collection of data that the DoD secured specifically from Spanish newspapers and that provides a notable and useful look at that large wave of activity. In part, the DoD said: “During the period September 1973 to June 1974 a rash of UFOs appeared over Spain and sightings were reported by various types of people. The following table summarizes these sightings. Date: 11 Sep 73. Location: El Ferrol del Caudillo. Description: Bright, circular, with two hoops, appeared to have feet on bottom part. Emitted a very powerful light. Observer: Various. Remarks: Was immobile during time of observation. Date: 11 Dec 73 (early morning). Location: Malaga. Description: Circular, like a flying saucer, had an intense red light. Observer: Various residents of Salitro and Cuarteles Streets, Malaga. Remarks: Remained quiet for about 15 minutes, then departed suddenly towards Torremolinos.” And, one year later – in 1975 – there was a strange wave of mysterious helicopters seen near U.S. bases – a matter that was never fully resolved. Some might say that the Rendlesham Forest incident of December 1980 was such an example, too: a theoretical, careful ruse to make aliens look powerful in the midst of trained military personnel. Extremely notable, too, is the 1989/1990 sightings of “Black Flying Triangles” that got the Belgium military in states of confusion and concern.

In all of these cases we can theorize that whoever was behind them, they deliberately put on spectacular shows for us. They wanted to be seen. They wanted to demonstrate a power they might not actually have had. But, for our wide eyes, and by flying over top secret installations, it did look like they were all-powerful. And, surely, there must have been a high degree of dicey gambling on their part. The alien phenomenon – if that is really what it was/still is – may not be what it appears to be. Our strange visitors might be doing their best to make it look as if we are here, there and everywhere and are armed with technology way ahead of us. And, by successfully manifesting around sensitive sites time and again, our world leaders probably believe the invaders are the stronger ones. But, in reality, we might have the upper hand – if only we knew it.

Parents generally want their children attending college to major in a field that will pay well and not embarrass their friends when they get together and discuss what their kids are up to. If you’re one of those parents, what would you say if they came home and announced their chosen field of study is Unidentified Aerial Phenomena? Would you fling something unidentified aerially at the wall? Well, get ready – a school in Germany has become the first high-profile western university to recognize UAPs as a legitimate field of academic research. Can you get tickets to the graduation ceremony for ETs?

“The Interdisciplinary Research Center for Extraterrestrial Science (IFEX) is an interdisciplinary scientific institute of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science at the JMU. It was founded with the aim of intensifying and institutionalizing cooperation between the people and institutions involved.”

If it helps convince your parents you’re serious about studying UFOs, the press release states the coursework is part of the math and computer science departments at Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg. Founded in 1402, it’s one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in Germany and the source of over a dozen Nobel prize winners in the sciences. Will there be a Nobel someday for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena?

“IFEX members develop technologies to explore space, objects in our solar system, stars and galaxies. They also keep an eye on signs of extraterrestrial life and extraterrestrial intelligence.”

Julius Maximilian University has an excellent reputation and will provide students with access to the Max Planck Society, the German Aerospace Center, the Federal Aviation Office and the German weather service for their studies. While he doesn’t have a Nobel (yet), the chairman of IFEX is Hakan Kayal, a professor of aerospace engineering and space technology who was in the news recently for demonstrating his new SkyCAM-5 camera system installed on the roof of a university building which uses artificial intelligence to search for and photograph UFOs and weed out non-UFOs.

“The step of including the UAP/UFO topic into the research canon of a German university or academic-scientific institution represents a paradigm shift in the previous handling of these phenomena – not only in Germany but worldwide.”

Will this be on the exam?

A number of schools have included information on UAPs and the search for extraterrestrial life in individual classes, usually in the fields of astronomy or astrobiology, but none has a complete program. Is it because there is little demand? That may be changing in the growing increase in interest generated by the establishment of new government programs in the U.S. to track UFOs and the acceptance of the subject by the mainstream media. The main resistance is more likely to come from scientists, as a spokesperson for the Max Planck Society explained.

“ ( This field is) not a topic for basic research.”

In response to the announcement of IFEX, the German Aerospace Center (the country’s national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research) said “there is no need to undertake such (research) activities.”

What would your parents think? What would YOU think if your child wanted to pursue studies in Unidentified Aerial Phenomena? Would you check to see how much Giorgio A. Tsoukalos makes? ($4 million per year.)

NOW what’s your answer?

There is one thing UFO believers and UFO skeptics have in common – besides a love for one of the two stars of “The X-Files” – and that is a mutual dislike/disgust/frustration/hatred of blurry photos. While this trait is shared with Bigfoot and other cryptid fans, it’s most pronounced amongst those hoping for confirmed visible evidence and identification of strange aerial phenomena. Well, folks … your prayers, burnt offerings, magic lamp wishes and animal sacrifices have been answered. Everyone’s favorite Harvard genius astrophysicist who believes in UFOs – Abraham ‘Avi’ Loeb’ – has made a personal commitment to provide clear UFO photos and videos very soon … possibly as early as this summer.

I thought YOU had the cellphone.

“I really want the next generation to be free to discuss it, and for it to become part of the mainstream. My hope is that by getting a high resolution image of something unusual, or finding evidence for it, which is quite possible in the coming year or two, we will change it.”

In an interview with The Guardian, Loeb compares himself to a fisherman on the beach who can’t see any fish because he’s not casting a net. Loeb has two UFO nets to cast – the first is data collected by the mini-satellite network of Planet Labs which will take photos from space of the entire surface of the Earth once per day. On the ground, Loeb and his Galileo Project are setting up a worldwide network of telescopes controlled by artificial intelligence to search the skies for UFOs – learning as they go along to eliminate birds, planes, bugs, clouds and other explainable anomalies.

Between the photos from above and below, Loeb thinks a clear picture of one or many UFOs will be taken. And that’s a good thing for both sides of the discussion.

“I really want the next generation to be free to discuss it, and for it to become part of the mainstream. My hope is that by getting a high resolution image of something unusual, or finding evidence for it, which is quite possible in the coming year or two, we will change it.”

Loeb and his combined Planet Labs/Galileo Project search is not without competition. Last week, Hakan Kayal, a Professor for Space Technology at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) in Germany, revealed he has already set up a dual AI-controlled SkyCAM-5 camera system on a university building that has been watching for UFOs since December 2021. While Kayal may e ahead of Loeb on from-the-ground scans, he’s not incorporating satellite images. Perhaps they should join forces – it would provide a good example for the next generation and move the search for extraterrestrial intelligence even closer to the mainstream.

We needs some photos like this … only real.

Avi Loeb has always been open about his expansive beliefs in UFOs and extraterrestrials – he led the team who believed the ‘Oumuamua interstellar comet could be an ET spacecraft exploring our solar system. You can’t have big discoveries without some big ideas … even if some end up to be big mistakes.

Let’s hope Avi Loeb finds and photographs the UFOs … before someone (or something) shuts him down.

ALL RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

The more that military aircraft advance, the more difficult it will be to differentiate between a genuine UFO and something constructed out at the likes of Area 51. Although there is no doubt in my mind there is a real UFO phenomenon, there are also high-tech craft flying around that are ours and no-one else’s. So, with that said, today I’ll share with you some examples of what I believe to be highly advanced planes that many might suspect are the work of extraterrestrials. Here’s the first story: It was around 11:00 p.m. on September 26, 1994, when a small, twin-tailed aircraft crash-landed onto the lengthy runway at Boscombe Down, which is situated in the English county of Wiltshire. At around the time of the incident, a number of aviation enthusiasts were listening in on air-band radios and were aware that something untoward had taken place. The following day, several of those same enthusiasts drove to the installation – which is near to the A303 road and not at all far from Stonehenge – and were apprehended by local police who had set up road-blocks to keep away prying eyes. Before being ushered away, however, a number of people succeeded in catching sight of a disabled aircraft. It was situated at the end of the runway and, aside from its twin-tail fins, was completely covered over by tarpaulins.

(Nick Redfern)

Aliens visiting Stonehenge? Or did something of ours cause all the problem?

The account of the crash at Boscombe Down is made all the more intriguing by a story that was published in the U.K.’s Salisbury Times newspaper on August 23, 1994 – just about a month before all hell broke loose at Boscombe Down. The location: the aforementioned A303 road. The article states: “A green flying saucer hovered beside the A303 road at Deptford last week – according to a lorry driver who rushed to Salisbury police station in the early hours of the morning. The man banged on the station door in Wilton Road at 1:30 a.m. on Thursday after spotting the saucer suspended in mid-air. ‘He was 100 per cent convinced it was a UFO,’ said Inspector Andy Shearing. The man said it was bright green and shaped like a triangle with rounded corners. It also had green and white flashing lights. Other drivers had seen it and were flashing their car lights at him. A patrol car took the driver back to the spot but there was no trace of the flying saucer. Inspector Shearing said police had been alerted about similar sightings in the same area in the past.” Although the Salisbury Times called the object a “flying saucer,” the description of it being “shaped like a triangle with rounded corners,” sounds very much like the a “secret aircraft” called the TR-3A. Some say it has the ability to hover – and in silence, no less. Seeing such a thing would surely make one think they had seen a real UFO.

Moving on, there are the so-called “Flying Triangles” that have been seen for years, but that know can be sure if they are “ours” or “theirs.” It was in the summer of 1989 that Chris Gibson had what can accurately be termed the encounter of a lifetime. An engineer with an Honors degree in geology and someone who’s worked focused on oil-exploration, Gibson was also attached to the U.K.’s Royal Observer Corps. The work of the ROC – which closed down in December 1995, after seventy years of work to help protect the United Kingdom from attack – required its volunteers to keep a careful watch on the skies above and what was flying in those same skies, too. As luck – or fate – would have it, and at the time when the Aurora program may very well have been compromised, Gibson was working on an oil rig in the North Sea. The name of the rig was the Galveston Key. It was August 1989, specifically, when one of Gibson’s colleagues, a friend named Graeme Winton, who went to university with Gibson, excitedly told Gibson to come with him to the deck. There was something Winton needed to show him.   A startled and amazed Gibson caught sight of something incredible in the skies above. A pair of General Dynamics’ F1-11 aircraft were shepherding a very strange-looking, completely black aircraft. And, a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker seemed to be fueling it. It was in the form of a triangle.

(Nick Redfern)

Flying Triangles: UFOs or high-tech craft of ours?

When it comes to the matter of Area 51 and the 1970s, there are two important issues that cannot be ignored. And they should not be ignored. One was the early development of what has become known as “Stealth” technology for aircraft The other issue revolves around NASA and is a real can of worms. We’ll begin with matters of the stealthy kind. It was in 1988 that both the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter and the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit were unveiled for one and all to see. The completely black, triangular-shaped aircraft caught the world’s attention, primarily because of their strange, angular shapes. It’s intriguing to note that in 1982 a wave of encounters with what became known as “Flying Triangles” began over portions of New York State, specifically in Hudson Valley. In their 1988 book, Night Siege, authors Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Philip J. Imbrogno and Bob Pratt wrote: “Can 7,000 eyewitnesses be wrong? They were there to witness the huge, hovering object in the sky, three flashing lights, the eerie silence. They are ordinary people from all walks of life: stay-at-home moms, kids, business people, engineers. They tell their stories here, and they all agree on one thing: they saw the same massive object cruising over their backyards. And it was like nothing they had seen before…” Sounds just like a UFO story, right? Maybe not, though. Possibly the whole thing was down to us. Perhaps, there are more “home-grown” secret aircraft than we can imagine.

ALL RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

A UFO investigator in Brazil has come forward with a startling revelation – official documents from the Brazilian government detailing UFO encounters with indigenous people between 2013 and 2016, videos of their testimonies, videos of UFOs and evidence of possible alien contact … some which was violent and possibly fatal.

“The investigation by Rony Vernet, engineer and researcher of unidentified aerial phenomena, culminated in the release of more than 120 pages of official documents by the Brazilian government and more than 20 minutes of videos, including the affected indigenous people testimonials as well as a UAP footage filmed by Paula Colares, who was doing her doctoral research in anthropology in the tribe.”

The UFOs reportedly shot beams of light at the people on the ground.

Rony Vernet is an electronics and computer engineer, UAP researcher and the founder of UAP Brazil, where he first revealed the fruits of his Freedom of Information request to the Brazilian government for what were UAP encounters beginning in 2013 by members of the Kampa do Amônia Indigenous Tribe living in the Apiwtxa Village in the sparsely populated, rainforest covered state of Acre in northwestern Brazil on the Peruvian border. While the initial UFO sightings were just that, the documents (read them here) revealed the first violent contact occurred on on July 24, 2014, when a UAP reportedly “descended into the village and fired light beams at the indigenous people.” In an interview with The Daily Star, Vernet shared more from the documents.

“People jumped scared out of the house, which led to one of the women, three months pregnant, to lose the child. According to the people who witnessed the fact, the light – in the colours green and red – is very strong, fast and silent and approaches the house without anyone noticing, with the light low and then increases its bright.”

Vernet says the villagers asked for help from the National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI), which contacted the Federal Police and the Armed Forces. Meanwhile, the UAP sightings continued into 2015, prompting an investigation to be opened by the Federal Public Ministry after University College London researcher and anthropologist Carolina Comandulli also witnessed one of the UAPs. Coincidentally, the sightings in Apiwtxa village ended in 2015. However, the violent contacts picked up a year later.

“This time in the Kampa and Isolados do Envira indigenous tribe, when a light phenomenon descended and was received with shotgun fire by an indigenous person who then received a beam of light and had to be hospitalized.”

A news account, translated on the UAP Brazil website, says the villagers Indians thought it was a drone at first, but changed their minds when “it burned the beaks of all the lanterns and emitted strong electrical discharges.” Indigenous professor Airton Silva de Oliveira interviews the witness, who told him the UAP “turned on red, blue and green lights” and had an odor of burning tires.

What was the origin of these UAPs?

In addition to the testimonies in the more than 120 pages of official documents, the cache also included more than 20 minutes of videos filmed by Paula Colares (watch them here), who was doing her doctoral research in anthropology with the tribe. The videos are available for viewing on the UAP Brazil website, as are the government documents, which Rony Vernet translated into English.

Federal Police Testimonials - Part 1

Federal Police Testimonials - Part 2

UAP footage obtained by the Federal Police

Kudos are in order for Rony Vernet, whose dogged efforts paid off with the release of the documents and videos, and who later spent countless hours translating them to English. Kudos also go to the researchers who interviewed the indigenous villagers and recorded their experiences, and to Paula Colares who recorded the UAPs.

There’s still one batch of kudos left – for the person(s) who identify what these Brazilian villagers saw.

“Pirouettes” are something we expect to see done by dancers at the ballet or during the figure skating competition at the upcoming Winter Olympic Games. But in the sky? By UFOs?

“A video made in the Los Naranjos urbanization, located in the El Hatillo Municipality, southeast of Caracas, captured the exact moment in which at least three unidentified flying objects crossed the skies of the Venezuelan capital at high speed, and carried out some pirouettes before disappearing from the scene.”

Remember to hold your hand steady when recording UFOs.

The video described above was reportedly taken at around 10:30 am on Friday, January 21, 2022, by Luis Alfredo Sanz, who claimed to UFO investigator Héctor Escalante of Ovnis en Venezuela (UFOs of Venezuela) that he was sunbathing when he decided the blue sky was pretty enough to share with his family so he took a short video of it. Sanz claims he saw nothing in the sky but blue, but upon later viewing of his phone he “noticed that there were some bright sparks.”

“When making a graphic analysis of the video, presented here in slow motion, it can be distinguished that the three bodies, which are light in color with a dark fragment at one end, and have apparent wings or propellers, do not seem to have similarities. with birds or insects.”

The account posted by Héctor Escalante does not say who did the graphic analysis and includes only still images, with only one showing the non-magnified version. (See them here.) That means we have to take his word that there were three of these UFOs, they were traveling extremely fast and were too high to be drones. Unfortunately, the magnifications seem to contradict the observation that the “three bodies” do not look like birds or insects – in fact, that’s exactly what the magnifications look like. (Take another look.) Escalante provides a link to his blog, but it doesn’t appear to have the original video posted either.

Wait! I need to get my phone!

It’s too bad this recording of three alleged UFOs over Caracas is not provided or better analyzed, since Venezuela has had many good UFO sightings recently and Héctor Escalante is a good source of information – he investigated one in April 2021 over Fort Tiuna Military Complex, one of Venezuela’s most important military installations, and another in March 2021 taken by a cyclist in the Venezuelan Andes. His Instagram page and blog have some other recent reports from different areas of Venezuela. Media reports on the sighting have no other information either.

Venezuela is a politically volatile country, so some of these UFOs could easily be military operations or surveillance drones. With this video claiming to capture three high speed UFOs over the country’s capital city, it would be helpful to have more information. Because of that, the needle on the UFO Meter is pirouetting between “bugs” and “drones” for now.

A couple of days ago I wrote an article here at Mysterious Universe with this title: “Taking a Look at Some of the Most Interesting Figures Tied to the Roswell ‘UFO Crash.'” It highlighted some of the very intriguing aspects of the Roswell affair. So, with that in mind, I thought today I would share with you some interesting – and lesser-known – aspects of the Rendlesham Forest “UFO landing” incident of December 1980 in Suffolk, England. Based upon their personal encounters, many of those who were present believed that something almost unbelievable came down in the near-pitch-black woods on the night of December 26. Lives were altered forever – and for the most part not for the better, I should stress. Many of those who were present on those fantastic nights found their minds dazzled, tossed and turned – and incredibly quickly, too. The incidents involved American military personnel who, at the time it all happened, were stationed in the United Kingdom. Their primary role was to provide significant support in the event that the Soviets decided to flex their muscles just a little bit too much – or, worse still, planned on hitting the proverbial red button and ending civilization in hours. Maybe, even in minutes. Depending on who you ask, those who were were in the area came face to face with a crashed Soviet satellite, a secret drone-type craft, extraterrestrials, an early stealth plane, time-travelers, and a top secret experiment involving mind-manipulation. It’s clear already that the Rendlesham affair was confusing from the beginning. Perhaps, though, we might get a few answers to what really happened. And from some who knew more than the rest of us.

(Nick Redfern) A Mystery that still continues

In November 2000, Georgina Bruni’s Rendlesham-themed book was published. Its title: You Can’t Tell the People. I found from Georgina that in late December 1980 a team from the U.K.’s biological-chemical facility in Wiltshire, Porton Down, was dispatched into the heart of Rendlesham Forest. Dressed in full-body protection (hazmat) outfits, they entered into the woods on a classified operation. It was assumed among those in the UFO research community who Georgina had confided in, that the Porton Down team was there to try and determine what happened over the course of those three nights and to see if there were any chemical or biological hazards still present. Georgina confided in me a list of various characters in this story who knew of the Porton Down ties to Rendlesham. By “a list” I mean she gave me the names of several people who had confided in her. Georgina was clearly worried about what she had uncovered – to the extent that she asked me to sign a sheet of paper that basically stated I would not reveal the names of those sources. It certainly wasn’t a legally-bounding contract, but, out of respect for Georgina, I agreed to take it as exactly that. I’m sure that part of the reason was because Georgina wanted to get the scoop for her own book on the case – which, as an author myself, is something I can easily understand. That said, I also got a feeling that Georgina had certain concerns about publicizing the names of the people who were sitting on the Porton Down story – and who had done so for years. So, the names stayed hidden. Now, onto another intriguing angle that was brought forth by people with something to say.

(Nick Redfern)

The Rendlesham  affair: Secret experiments, time-travelers, aliens or something else?

On October 25, 1988 Squadron Leader E.E. Webster of RAF Watton wrote me the following, after I raised questions about RAF Watton’s claimed connections to the Rendlesham Forest case: “Our log book for the period does indeed say that a UFO was reported to us by RAF Bentwaters at 0325 GMT on 28 December 1980 but that is all the information we have.” Apparently, though, it actually wasn’t “all the information we have.” Someone – or an agency – was being decidedly economic with the facts, such as those facts were. Nick Pope revealed that Georgina Bruni’s RAF Police sources knew of a far greater story concerning RAF Watton than the brief one provided to me by Squadron Leader E.E. Webster in 1988. Apparently, on the very same night that staff at RAF Watton recorded the presence of a UFO (on December 28, 1980), a pair of military dog-handlers were patrolling the facility when something very strange happened. The pair was shocked and baffled to see just outside the perimeter fence a number of figures. No, they were not aliens. They were all too human: they were dressed in NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) outfits, head-to-foot. One of Georgina’s police sources revealed that he and his comrades were interviewed, questioned, and warned to remain silent with regard to what they had seen on that cold, winter’s night. Or, rather, who they had seen.

Now, onto another revelation; this one from a man who wanted to reveal what he knew. The genesis of this part of the story dates back to 1986. That was the year in which the late Graham Birdsall – who ran the popular and successful U.K.-based UFO Magazine – had a notable conversation with a man named George Wild. Back in the eighties, Wild was employed as a prison officer at a facility called Armley Prison. Built in the 19^th century, and located in Leeds, England, it is a “Class C” jail, which means the prisoners are considered those who “cannot be trusted in open conditions but who are unlikely to try to escape.” George Wild quietly confided in Birdsall something highly disturbing, something that he had learned from a fellow officer: that on the night of December 27, 1980, the U.K. government’s Home Office was hastily readying local law-enforcement personnel to evacuate several prisons in Suffolk. Wild said that he knew for sure one of the prisons was HM [Her Majesty’s] Prison Highpoint North. It is situated in the village of Stradishall, Suffolk, which is approximately forty-four miles from Woodbridge. As for the primary role of the Home Office, its staff state that: “The first duty of the government is to keep citizens safe and the country secure. The Home Office has been at the front line of this endeavor since 1782. As such, the Home Office plays a fundamental role in the security and economic prosperity of the United Kingdom.” The inference was that the planned evacuations were due to what was happening in Rendlesham Forest.

(Nick Redfern)

Graham Birdsall, Rendlesham and a prison

Still on this matter of significant sources, there’s a story that surfaced on July 31, 1994. The source of the story? None other than Charles Halt, the man who prepared the almost-legendary “Halt Memo” on the Rendlesham case. In a lecture at the city of Leeds, U.K., Halt revealed that only a few hours after the first night of activity in the woods, a C141 Starlifter aircraft, which was used in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, arrived. A number of what were intriguingly termed “special individuals” exited the plane and made their quick way to the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge. Not even Halt knew what was going on. The team was in the woods for a number of hours, after which they left the woods, took their seats on the plane, and got the hell out of Dodge. What all of this data means – from key figures willing to share what they knew – is that there is still a great deal to be solved when it comes to Rendlesham. Let’s hope even more will come forward with what they know.

Those who take the view that the UFO phenomenon has no reality to it should take a look at some, hard-to-deny, cases involving military pilots. And, guess what? That’s the theme of today’s article: reports of UFOs by expertise pilots. We’ll begin with a 1973 military helicopter incident. One of the most notable UFO encounters ever recorded occurred shortly after 11:00 p.m. on October 18, 1973. That the prime witnesses were serving members of the U.S. Army Reserve only added to the credibility of the report. Having departed from Port Columbus, Ohio, their UH-1H helicopter was headed for its home base at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Aboard were Captain Lawrence J. Coyne; Sergeant John Healey, the flight-medic; First Lieutenant Arrigo Jezzi, a chemical engineer; and a computer technician, Sergeant Robert Yanacsek. All seemed normal as the crew climbed into the air and kept the helicopter at a steady 2,500 feet altitude. But approximately ten miles from Mansfield, they noticed a “single red light” to the west that was moving slowly in a southerly direction. Initially they thought the object might be an F-100 aircraft operating out of Mansfield. Nevertheless, Coyne advised Yanacsek to “keep an eye on it.”

These were wise words, as suddenly the unidentified light changed its course and began to head directly for them. Captain Coyne immediately swung into action, putting the helicopter into an emergency descent, dropping 500 feet per minute. Equally alarming was the fact that radio contact with Mansfield Tower could no longer be established, and both UHF and VHF frequencies were utterly dead, too. When it seemed that a fatal collision was all but imminent, the red light came to a halt, hovering menacingly in front of the helicopter and its startled crew. At that close proximity to the object, Captain Coyne and his team were able to determine that this was no mere light in the sky. Coyne, Healey, and Yanacsek agreed that the object before them was a large, gray-colored, cigar-shaped vehicle, which they described as being somewhat “domed,” and with “a suggestion of windows.”

(Nick Redfern)

They could now see that the red light was coming from the bow section of the object. Then without warning, a green “pyramid shaped” shaft of light emanated from the object, passed over the nose of the helicopter, swung up through the windshield, and entered the tinted, upper window panels. Suddenly the interior of the helicopter was bathed in an eerie green light. A handful of seconds later the object shot off toward Lake Erie. But the danger was still not over. To the crew’s concern, the altimeter showed an altitude of 3,500 feet and a climbing ascent of 1,000 feet per minute, even though the stick was still geared for descent. The helicopter reached a height of 3,800 feet before Captain Coyne was able to safely and finally regain control of the helicopter. Shortly thereafter, all radio frequencies returned to normal and Coyne proceeded on to Cleveland Hopkins Airport without further problems. Moving on…

One of the more interesting UFO-themed documents – that demonstrates post-Project Blue Book, 1969 interest in the UFO puzzle – focuses on those strange Flying Triangle-type UFOs, specifically over Belgium in the 1989-1990 time-frame. The story originates with the U.S. Department of Defense and is titled “Belgium and the UFO Issue.” Circulated widely among the U.S. Intelligence community, it reveals the following: “Numerous UFO sightings have been made in Belgium since Nov 89. The credibility of some individuals making the reports is good…Investigation by BAF [Belgian Air Force] continues.” In a January 1997 interview, Nick Pope told me of this affair: “I approached the Belgians to get a comparison after their sightings. I phoned the Air Attaché at the British Embassy in Brussels and he spoke to one of the F-16 pilots who had been scrambled to intercept a Flying Triangle over Belgium back in 1990. Well, the Air Attaché reported back to me that the corporate view of the Belgian Defense Staff was that they did believe that they were dealing with a solid, structured craft. Apparently, the word from the Belgians was: ‘Thank God it was friendly.’ If it hadn’t been, it was made clear to me that there was very little that the Belgian Air Force could have done anyway – despite the fact that the F-16 is no slouch.”

(Nick Redfern)

The late U.K. UFO researcher, Omar Fowler, with a model of one of the “Flying Triangles”

Now, let’s have a look at the U.K. and its pilots and UFOs. At around 10:20 a.m., on the morning of April 29, 1957, two British Royal Air Force Hunter aircraft took to the skies from an RAF base called Odiham, located in the English county of Hampshire. The plan was for the aircraft to take part in a mid-air military training exercise. Things didn’t quite turn out as planned, however. When the planes reached a height of roughly 45,000-feet, one of the pilots found himself confronted by what can only be described as an undeniable, unidentified flying object. The official Air Ministry report on the affair states: “…when over Hayling Island Mission 28 No. 2 saw a large white object at 10 o’clock slightly above. The object was circular with a white slightly curving tail hanging below. The time was approx. 1110. Formation leader was informed and both pairs turned east onto a northerly heading to look for the object. At first the object was thought to be a parachute but later it was realized that the object must have been larger and at a greater distance because of the slow passing speed.”

One of the most fascinating of all UFO pilot-based encounters – an incident that almost resulted in a mid-air collision between a UFO and a Meteor jet – occurred over Royal Air Force Gaydon, Warwickshire, England, on the night of October 21, 1957. Less than a week later, the UK media was chasing down the story. Describing RAF Gaydon as “one of the RAF’s top V-bomber stations,” the Sunday Express newspaper stated that the Air Ministry (today, the Ministry of Defense) had taken rapid steps to get to the heart of the mystery. Reportedly, the UFO was seen visually by the pilot and tracked by ground-radar personnel – and only a few minutes apart. Questions, unsurprisingly, were quickly being asked: could the UFO actually have been a Soviet spy-plane? It was certainly a scenario that the Air Ministry felt important enough to address. Although – as will become apparent – the description given by the pilot did not sound like that of the average Russian aircraft. Plus, six days after the event occurred, Air Ministry staff were still scratching their heads. The reports can still be found in the U.K.’s National Archive.

(Nick Redfern)

The National Archives, where the U.K. Ministry of Defense’s pilot-based UFO reports are held.