LONDON: National Archives has released the first batch of documents that deal with UFO sightings in the late 1970s and early 1980s. One of the incident involved two air traffic controllers who saw UFO in 1984.
The National Archives is releasing the files now because of numerous Freedom of Information requests seeking information about the government’s UFO reports.
The air traffic controllers, each with more than eight years on the job, posted at an unspecified small airport near the eastern coast of England described how they were helping guide a small plane to a safe landing on runway 22 when they saw by a brightly lit object approaching a different runway without clearance. It happened on April 19, 1984.
They knew that the object is unidentified and were so worried about losing their jobs that they demanded their names be kept off the official reports.
No one, they knew, would believe their claim that an unidentified flying object landed at the airfield they were overseeing in the east of England, touched down briefly, then took off again at tremendous speed.
According to the report:
SATCO (codename for a controller with 14 years experience) reports that the object came in ‘at speed,’ made a touch and go on runway 27, then departed at ‘terrific speed’ in a ‘near vertical’ climb.
The fact that it was reported by air traffic controllers makes makes it credible. They were experienced, calm professionals and nobody was drinking.
David Clarke, a UFO expert who has worked with the National Archives on the document release said:
They were absolutely astonished. It was a bright, circular object, flashing different colors, and after it touched down it disappeared at fantastic speed. The report comes from very qualified people, and it’s one of the few that remained unexplained.
He said other incidents were at times reported by aircraft crews whose members also asked to remain anonymous because they did not want to jeopardize their careers by seeming to believe in UFOs.
In one case, the pilot of a commercial plane crossing the Atlantic reported an unidentified object just 1.5 nautical miles from his wing. He speculated that it might be a meteor or a missile.
In the documents released names of many individuals had been blacked out to protect their privacy and the entire files had been reviewed to make sure their release did not compromise national security.
Ministry of Defense says in the files that UFO reports were only investigated to make sure that no enemy aircraft had illegally entered British airspace. This was crucial during the Cold War when Russian planes posed an ongoing threat.
The vast majority of the reports come from members of the public who see strange things in the sky and jump to the conclusion that a UFO is involved even though there is likely a logical scientific explanation for what they are observing, experts say.
In one case it was reported that a number of people leaving a Tunbridge Wells pub at 9:30 at night saw strange craft “with red and green” lights. It turned to be a commercial airplane.
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