Ministry of Defence UFO files Released
UFOs: the (boring) truth is out there
Stories such as the Michael Howard UFO report are entertaining – but the MoD archives sadly explode the ‘X-Files’ myths
Source: Nick Pope, guardian.co.uk
There’s an old saying that the best place to hide a book is in a library. The latest Ministry of Defence UFO files released to the National Archives contain more than 6,000 pages of documentation, so if there was a memo somewhere in there saying the MoD had a crashed spaceship hidden away in an RAF hangar somewhere, it might not be found.
Before I start all manner of conspiracy theories with that remark, however, I should say that there is no such memo and no such spaceship – and I say that as someone who spent three years of my 21-year MoD career working on this issue.
This is the fifth batch of UFO files to be made available and is part of an ongoing three-year programme to release the entire archive. The decision to release the files was taken in 2007, to deal with the administrative burden of responding to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act. At one time, MoD was receiving more FOI requests on UFOs than on any other subject.
The newly released files cover the period 1994 to 2000. It’s interesting to note that the cult TV series The X-Files was at the height of its popularity at this time. Might this have influenced people making UFO reports?
I’m sceptical about the link between science fiction and UFO sightings. While the popularity of The X-Files might make some people speculate about aliens and government cover-ups, there’s no evidence to suggest that sci-fi films and TV shows influence people’s perceptions of anything strange that they see. Given the current stratospheric popularity of the blockbuster movie Avatar, if people were being influenced by sci-fi in the way suggested, we’d be inundated with reports of people seeing blue aliens. We’re not!
So, how do the MoD’s real-life Mulders and Scullys compare to their fictional counterparts? Having done the job myself, from 1991 to 1994, I’m sorry to have to report that it’s not quite as glamorous as people might suspect. There’s no running around dark warehouses with guns and torches. It’s more a case of asking colleagues in the RAF to check the radar tapes and writing polite letters back to members of the public, stating that most UFOs turn out to be misidentifications of ordinary objects and phenomena.
For those with the patience to wade through 6,000 pages of documents, it’s a mixed bag. There’s a great deal of mundane correspondence between the MoD and the public, together with a vast number of UFO sightings which are clearly aircraft lights, satellites or meteors. But there is some more interesting material.
As well as today’s news story regarding the sighting of a large, triangular “humming” object in the sky above Michael Howard’s Folkestone home, other examples include the UFO seen by a police officer over the ground of Chelsea FC, and the air traffic controller at Prestwick who tracked an uncorrelated target on radar, travelling at phenomenal speed. Most disturbing, however, is the incident that occurred on 6 January 1995, when a Boeing 737 on approach to Manchester airport nearly collided with a delta-shaped UFO. The pilot and first officer both witnessed this and made an official report. Neither the MoD nor the Civil Aviation Authority could find any explanation.
As one reads the files, one can sense the MoD’s growing irritation with the subject – an irritation that arguably culminated on 1 December 2009 when the MoD finally disengaged altogether and announced that they would no longer be investigating UFO sightings reported by the public. Some of the files are entitled “persistent correspondent”. This is a coded way of saying “this person is becoming a nuisance”. As will be seen in future file releases – the last files won’t be released until 2011 – this frustration boiled over when the Freedom of Information Act came fully into force.
Another sign of the MoD’s “corporate irritation” with the subject is revealed in the response to somebody who claimed to have been kidnapped by aliens (it’s not just UFOs; these real-life X-Files include material on other mysteries such as alien abductions and crop circles). The person concerned had written to ask about MoD policy on alien abductions and pointed out that if the experience was real, the MoD was failing to maintain the territorial integrity of UK airspace – a core defence mission. After explaining the MoD’s role with respect to UFOs, the somewhat sniffy response stated: “Abduction is a criminal offence and as such is a matter for the civil police.”
This conjures up the bizarre thought of a flying saucer landed on the side of a road, with a bemused constable leaning through the entrance hatch saying, “Excuse me sir, have you any idea how fast you were going?”
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Feb 18 2010 
February 19th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
“While the popularity of The X-Files might make some people speculate about aliens and government cover-ups, there’s no evidence to suggest that sci-fi films and TV shows influence people’s perceptions of anything strange that they see”
…there is only no evidence if you refuse to look for it. The analogy between UFOs and Science Fiction is a good one, because there is nothing in UFO lore that didn’t first appear somewhere else. The “modern day†abduction phenomenon had its roots in mass media as early as the late 20s, years and years before it finally showed up in abduction fairytales…
1929. MYSTERIOUS ISLAND had little aliens with big eyes.
June 1935. ASTOUNDING STORIES had a stories about aliens who abducted and placed women on examination tables.
September 1946. AMAZING STORIES, Earth Slaves to Space, by Richard Shaver.
1954. KILLERS FROM SPACE. Remarkably, this movie had *every* aspect of “modern day†abductions, with the exception of implants and the color of the aliens skin. They had hypnotic regression, missing time, big eyed aliens, doomsday warnings, and mysterious scars. All this many, many years before it was first reported by any abductees.
1956. THIS ISLAND EARTH.
1955. INVADERS FROM MARS. Here we see the first instance of implants.
All of this was before Betty and Barney Hill had seen aliens exactly like the ones they reported, just 12 days after their aliens had first appeared on the BOLERO SHIELD on THE OUTER LIMITS. TAKEN and
“Neither the MoD nor the Civil Aviation Authority could find any explanation”
No explanation means that there is *NO* explanation, including the flying saucer or ET explanation. The interesting thing about every single one of these alleged encounters is, there is absolutely no physical proof that any of the witnesses saw or experienced anything. That is true for every other UFO program by every other country in the world. Of course, what would you expect, seeing as it is kind of hard to catch a hold of someone’s imagination.
“The person concerned had written to ask about MoD policy on alien abductions and pointed out that if the experience was real, the MoD was failing to maintain the territorial integrity of UK airspace”
So if we pretend that flying saucers are real and ET is visiting in droves, what are they supposed to do? Give up and not even try to defend the territorial integrity of UK airspace? Obviously it wouldn’t even matter since they are clearly not here to attack us.