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#1 ·
#3 ·
London UFO mystery solved

Wedding link to UFO sighting

A UFO mystery has been solved by a guest at a wedding reception.

A couple from Longwalk, Istead Rise, were left dumbfounded after they encountered strange lights in the night sky. The pair, who insisted they were not nutters, claim they saw six red lights moving slowly in an inverted V shape with a long tail.

Helen Hanreck, 49, was looking for her cats in the garden when she noticed a bright light in the sky.The insurance manager called to her partner, Nick Claydon, to have a look at the spectacle at 9.45pm.

Nursery nurse Becky Linehan was at a Japanese wedding reception at The Leather Bottle, The Street, Cobham, on the same night. It is a Japanese tradition to let off sky candles to bless the marriage. The 23-year-old, of Barr Road, Gravesend, says the candles must be the explanation to the sighting.

She said: "We lit the candles at 9.30pm and this was around the same time people said they saw them.
"I was in hysterics when I saw that people thought it was a UFO, I told the best man and he thought it was hilarious too."

Co-ordinator of Lancashire Anomalous Phenomena Investigation Society (LAPIS) Rob Whitehead thought the sighting was Chinese lanterns. He said: "I managed to catch some of these lanterns on tape here in Lancashire just a few months ago.
"They do look very spooky as they glide silently across the night sky and I can understand why they would alarm ordinary members of the public who might see them."

North Kent police say they had one report of someone seeing flashing lights at 10.01pm on September 8.

6:36am Friday 15th September 2006
 
#4 ·
Britain sought UFO unit cover-up

Report: Britain sought UFO unit cover-up

By ROBERT BARR, Associated Press WriterMon Sep 25, 4:37 PM ET

Britain's Ministry of Defense sought to prevent the public from knowing about the work of a unit that investigated reported sightings of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, a published report said Monday.

The Guardian said that documents released under the Freedom of Information Act to two academics showed that ministry officials had hoped to expunge information about the unit, known as DI55, from records routinely released after 30 years.

A defense ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy, said that during the 1970s - at the height of the Cold War - officials were concerned about a Soviet invasion - not extraterrestrial activity.

The ministry "examines any UFO sighting reports it receives thoroughly to establish whether there is any evidence suggest that U.K. airspace has been compromised by unauthorized air activity," the official said.

The latest files were released following Freedom of Information Act requests by David Clarke, a lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University and his colleague Andy Roberts.

"These documents don't tell us anything about UFOs but they do show how desperate the (ministry) have been to conceal the interest which the intelligence services had in the subject," Clarke said.

Following a request for information on the program in 1976. The ministry's head of security opposed releasing files because they were confidential and of "very little of value to a serious scientific investigator."

"It is undesirable that even a hint of this should become public and we are currently consulting the (Air Historical Branch) on ways of expurgating the official records against the time when they qualify for disclosure," under public records laws, the official said.

That view had changed markedly by 1997 when security officials said there was no reason to deny that authorities had an interest in UFOs.

In May, the Ministry of Defense released a four-volume report on military investigations of UFOs, concluding that: there was no evidence to associate the phenomena with any particular nation; that many reports were based on natural phenomena which observers didn't understand and that less frequently sightings were associated with smoke and dust.

___

On the Net:

Official report on UFO investigations:

http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/7D2B11E0-EA9F-45EA-8883-A3C00546E75 2/0/uap_exec_summary_dec00.pdf
 
#5 ·
UFOs Across Michigan's Upper Peninsula

UFOs Across Michigan's Upper Peninsula

(PRWEB) September 27, 2006 -- At least 60 sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have been reported across Michigan's Upper Peninsula since 1968, but for some time now the region has needed a field investigator certified by the international Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). The Michigan chapter of MUFON recently appointed the UP's only certified field investigator, Lisa A. Shiel, as the State Section Director for the UP as well as the Chief Investigator for the state of Michigan.

Documented UFO sightings in the UP include a huge, slow-moving triangle with edge lights in Dickinson County (May 2006), a disc that hovered for two minutes over Boston Location (May 1998) and three lights (one white, two green) that illuminated the night like daylight near Bessemer (August 1987). Whatever they might have been, unusual objects have certainly been observed in the skies over the Upper Peninsula.
 
#6 ·
Missing jet from the 1953 Kinross UFO incident found?

Is this the missing jet from the 1953 Kinross UFO incident?

By David Helwig
SooToday.com
Tuesday, August 29, 2006

At 6:22 p.m. on November 23 1953, an F-89 Scorpion jet was scrambled from Kinross Air Force Base near the Michigan Soo to intercept an unidentified object detected in restricted airspace over the Soo Locks.

The U.S. fighter was seen on radar over Lake Superior, merging with the craft it was pursuing.

Then, it disappeared from radar.

Never to be seen again.

Ever since, the UFO-theorist circles have been speculating what might have happened.

In October 1968, the Sault Star reported that aircraft parts believed to have come from a "high-performance military jet aircraft" had been discovered by prospectors on Lake Superior's Canadian side.

Today, the UFO circles have started buzzing again, with speculation that this side-scan sonar image might be the missing F-89 Scorpion.

The dive company's website indicates it's currently involved in a forensic investigation of the Canadian wreck site.

A company map shows the search area as being in Ontario waters off the tip of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula.

The dive company also intriguingly indicates that its sonar detected another "interesting" object near the sunken aircraft, that might be part of whatever it was that the jet was pursuing.
 
#9 ·
I've seen some crazy stuff over lake michigan. one was hovering right along the coast. had a blue haze around it with a small light circling it. I was close enough that I could have hit it with a rock. Although it was not bright, it was hard to look at, like it was out of focus. Very strange.
 
#10 · (Edited)
"Gigantic black" UFO sighted over Minnesota

"Gigantic black" UFO sighted over Minnesota

Column: The Stainless Steel Wizard
Posted on Sunday, 1 October, 2006

A few years ago I thought I would try an interesting experiment. I took out a classified ad in several small-town newspapers across northern Minnesota. Here is what the ad said: "Have you seen a UFO, ghost, or anything you can't explain? Please call me: xxx-xxxx. Confidentiality guaranteed."I was expecting nothing, but my phone started ringing almost as soon as the ads hit the streets. The very first call was from an elderly gentleman whom I had known for years, and whom I would describe as an extremely Bible-oriented Christian conservative type -- a lifelong farmer, and a real no-nonsense, salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. His name is Bernard Hanson and before retirement he lived just out side the tiny town of Greenbush, Minnesota. Bernard had a strange tale to tell, and here is the article I wrote based on his experience:

It was peaceful, clear June evening in 1987. Bernard Hanson and his son Dexter were heading north from Minnesota Highway 11 on a dirt road three miles west of Greenbush when they saw a fantastic thing floating above a grove of trees. It was massive! It had the look of plastic, deep black in color. It was easily bigger than a barn and hovered serenely, about 30 feet above the tree tops over the farm of Bob Melby. Hanson and his son were surprised-and "a little scared.""We just didn't know what it was," Bernard said. "It was cigar-haped and pure black, coal black. There were no markings on it. It was smooth all over. I would say it had the look of plastic. It was about 3/4 a mile from us. It was at least as big as my barn, if not bigger."Bernard said he and Dexter sat in the pick-up and watched it for a long while. It was not a fleeting image or a streak across the sky. The object had the definite look of something solid-real enough to touch. "It was a clear June evening," Bernard said. "There was not a cloud in the sky. The sun had just gone down, but you know the way it stays light in the summer. There was still plenty of daylight and we could see it clearly."Even though they were somewhat frightened, Bernard and Dexter decided to get a bit closer. "We turned toward it on County Road 104, but when we moved, it moved," Hanson said. "We followed it for a while, and then we turned north, and it turned north." After following it for a couple of miles, Bernard said the object suddenly zoomed away. "It tilted upward and streaked away from us - it turned into a tiny black dot in just seconds and was gone. It flew upward at a 45-degree angle ...the rate of speed was tremendous... it was almost as if it just vaporized."After the object left, the Hansons decided to stop in at the farm of Wayne Juhl's and ask him if he saw the curious object, but Juhl said he saw nothing. Bernard knows he wasn't "seeing things" because he and his son could not both have had the same hallucination. Also, he is certain it was not a conventional aircraft.

"A large balloon could never move that fast and go up at that angle," he said. Then what was it? Bernard has no guess, and he is not ready to say that he saw a spaceship or a UFO. But he knows that what he and his son saw was something entirely unexplained. "I think we all have to admit that there are things in the world we don't know about-there are a lot of mysteries. All I'm saying is that this was something I have never seen before, and I don't know what it was."He is not alone. The object Hanson described has a long history of being sighted not only in America and around the world, but especially here in the American Midwest. Cigar or zeppelin shaped "airships" were reported frequently in Minnesota and Iowa in the late 1800s, and some of the most curious and famous UFO cases involve crafts of similar description. In fact, Hanson's description of both the shape and the way this object acted closely fit other such sightings. For example, in his book, Dimensions, computer scientist and former NASA consultant Jacques Vallee, writes: "Usually the airships flew very slowly and majestically...except in a few close-proximity cases when it was reported to depart "as a shot out of a gun."That matches Hanson's experience to the letter. Furthermore, huge cigar-shaped flying objects have been observed by thousands of people throughout history.

In the year 1211 A.D., for example, in the tiny Irish village of Cloera, the local residents were attending Mass in a church dedicated to St. Kinarus when such an object was sighted above the church. In the 1890s, airships sightings were common. Thousands of people saw them throughout the United States, even over large population centers, including Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, Sioux City, San Francisco, and many others.

From the tiny 11th Century borough of Cloera, to modern-day Greenbuh, Minnesota, the mysterious giant airships are still making their appearances, perhaps looking down at human beings and wondering about our activities as much as we do their's.
 
#12 ·
Oh damn.
I used to have one of those "encyclopedias of the unexplained" deals that had a HUGE section on the mystery airship scares of the late 1800's/early 1900's. It was really quite fascinating. They were pretty much the same as todays UFO sightings, but instead of metal spaceships, they were blimps. Little green men and everything.:ninja:
 
#13 ·
UFO college class

UFOs sighted locally - for class study, anyway
By Krista J. Stockman
The Journal Gazette

UFOs and alien life forms aren't just the subjects of science fiction books and movies.

Plenty of people in Indiana claim to have seen them. With such interest, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne's Division of Continuing Studies is offering its first class on unidentified flying objects.

The class, called UFOs - Perception, Reality and Sightings in Indiana, will cover the history of UFOs, crop circles and recent local sightings.

The course might sound out of this world to some, but it is a legitimate topic of study, said Mike Kelly, IPFW director of personal and professional development.

"It's not that we're legitimizing alien life form, per se, but that there are unexplained phenomena and just having a conversation about that is interesting," Kelly said. "We support critical thinking, obviously, no matter what the topic is, especially something that has far-fetched components and is challenging."

The three-course class, which begins Tuesday, is being taught by Roger Sugden, assistant state director and chief investigator of the Mutual UFO Network and a member of the Independent Crop Circle Research Association. Eight people have signed up for the class so far - a number that pleased Kelly but disappointed Sugden.

Sugden approached IPFW about teaching the course because no one had ever done it before, he said. He has offered information sessions at the Allen County Public Library and had as many as 75 people attend, so he thought there would be plenty of interest in a three-week class.

Sugden said he has run into plenty of skeptics, but that doesn't bother him. He simply wants to offer factual evidence of UFOs.

"There's plenty of interest in it," Sugden said. "I'm not trying to make you a believer. I'm just here to give you an education."

Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and the executive director of the Skeptics Society, said a university setting is ideal for critical discussions of claims of UFO sightings.

But a danger exists when institutions such as IPFW affiliate with a class that offers such claims as fact, because "it lends credibility where there actually isn't," Shermer said.

"What we try to strive for is keeping an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out," he said.

The class will include the history of UFOs starting from the first documented sightings by Egyptian pharaohs and Roman emperors. Sugden said the history of UFO sightings includes the stories about Alexander the Great's sightings of flying objects in 332 B.C. The UFOs helped knock down fortress walls during the siege of the island Tyre, Sugden said.

"(UFOs) have a history of interfering with history," he said.

The course will extend through modern-day sightings, including those in Indiana. One sighting was in December 2003, when three police officers saw a strange object drifting through the skies over Huntington.

In March and April of this year, Indiana had the highest number of UFO sightings in the world, Sugden said. Reports are collected by the Mutual UFO Network and the National UFO Reporting Center.

"I'll tell about some of the cases where these things have actually landed and beings have gotten out and been seen and gotten back in and took off," Sugden said.

If this course is successful, Sugden hopes to someday be able to offer the class for credit. Already, he is planning to teach another non-credit course on UFOs in Warsaw in the spring - for both skeptics and believers.

"It's an educational thing," he said. "If you don't believe it, that's fine."

:D
 
#14 ·
Waterville, WA "spooklights"

Mystery of the Waterville spooklights

09:56 PM PDT on Friday, September 15, 2006

By JOHN STOFFLET / Evening Magazine

There's something in the air near Waterville, Washington - mysterious lights no one can explain, or perhaps now a scientist in Australia can?

"It was so mysterious, and then we found out later that other people were seeing it, mostly the farmers out in the fields," said Mabel Knowles.

"No one could explain this. It wasn't rational, but it was real," said Dick Osborne.

Are eerie lights seen over an Eastern Washington town UFO's, ghostly spirits, or has one professor a world away found a scientific answer to the mystery of the spooklights?

On late summer nights over the years, many people in and around the small farming town of Waterville have seen unusual lights flitting around the sky.

"We knew it wasn't an airplane, because it darted around, it would hover around the house, then it would dart another place and go somewhere else, then pretty soon it would come back," described Mabel. "So then it just acquired the name of spooklight and that's what several people have called it since then because we just were spooked. We didn't know what it was."

"Just a light appearing out of nowhere, with nothing around it, able to travel at high speeds, maneuver in 90-degree angles. It could streak away, reappear, transfer to the next hill," said Dick. "It was like something from a space movie that you'd see on TV."

People all over the world have seen and apparently photographed similar mysterious lights. They've appeared in places like Norway, Texas, Missouri, and Canada.

At North Carolina's Brown Mountain and in Marfa, Texas, the government even erected signs acknowledging the presence of the lights.

Spar Giedeman said he photographed an odd light near Mount Adams.

"It just disappeared and faded out," he said. "I sure would like to know what it was. I've wondered all these years."

There have been a number of eyewitnesses over the years. Clearly, there is something out there. But what? Is it something supernatural? A UFO? The spirit of a dead person? A top secret government aircraft no one' s talking about? Or perhaps it's something completely natural.

One scientific theory is that spooklights are some type of electrical energy or are somehow related to seismic activity below the surface.

A brand-new study by Professor Jack Pettigrew of Australia's University of Queensland might have an answer to the origin of our spooklights, which Downunder are called min-min lights.

They've been known to baffle ranchers in the outback, the way spooklights have baffled farmers near Waterville.

Prof. Pettigrew thinks he's found what causes Australia's version of the lights. On some days when there's a temperature inversion, when warm air traps cooler air below it, light coming from things like car headlights, fires, the moon, or whatever, can bounce around in strange ways. The source of the light can be hundreds of miles away, beyond the horizon, but the observer sees it as an eerie mirage that seems to be close by.

The descriptions Dick Osborne and Mabel Knowles give sound similar to the lights Prof. Pettigrew researched in Australia and seems to have explained. His theory might even explain some of the UFO sightings in the Northwest over the years.

Whether the source of spooklights is supernatural or simply natural, folks around Waterville who've seen them say they'll never forget them.

"This is beyond anything I've ever witnessed or been part of, because there was no explanation and nobody could ever explain to me," said Dick.

Dick says one summer when the spooklights were particularly common, there were a lot more traffic accidents than usual on the highway outside of Waterville. He thinks maybe the drivers saw spooklights, were distracted, and drove off the road.
 
#15 ·
UFO Over Mexico

UFO Over Mexico

10-6-06
According to a report by Mexican researcher Alfonso Salazar, Captain Luis Guillermo Cruz, first officer of a Boeing 737-200, registration XA-MAR, reported a tubular unidentified flying object with a metallic appearance directly over Lake Tequesquitengo in the Mexican state of Morelos.

The sighting occurred on September 16, 2006 at 14:00 hrs. during a flight from Huatulco to Mexico City along air corridor L-47. Weather conditions were clear with some clouds.

According to the witness, he was alerted by an intense reflection visible four miles away from the airline, toward the right side of the cabin. At first he thought it could be a glider, but as they approached, he had a clear observation of an unknown object.

He added that the tubular flying object crossed at the same altitude the airliner was flying but in the opposite direction and with a north/south trajectory, remaining a mile and a half distant from the airliner.

The object vanished 4 minutes later.

* (translation (c) 2006, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Ana Luisa Cid)

* Source: www.analuisacid.com
 
#16 ·
Texas UFO sighting

10/19/2006
UFO more than a glow 10-19-2006
From the Plainview Daily Herald

By KEVIN LEWIS

Herald Editor

Mark Harmon promises he's not crazy, despite what some of his family and friends are telling him. Harmon, a 48-year-old grain elevator operator at Providence Farm Supply, believes he had a close encounter with a UFO on Monday night outside his home in the 600 block of Wayland. "Never in my life have I seen anything like this," Harmon said. "I really don't know what I saw."

Harmon was in the middle of watching Monday Night Football when he stepped outside. "I stepped out in the backyard to smoke a cigarette and happened to be looking up because it was such a pretty night," Harmon recalled.

From out of nowhere, Harmon encountered lights like he had never seen before. "From the edge of the house, something came over. It was in a perfect V-shape. There were seven distinctive yellowish-white lights," he said. "I've seen UFO programs where people have drawn this exact same picture."
Harmon said the lights weren't flashing or changing colors, and "weren't moving real fast. "Unless it was a mile wide, this thing was pretty close to the ground, maybe 1,000-2,000 feet."

Harmon said he saw the object, which was moving east, for about 4-5 seconds before it disappeared behind a tree. He hurried around the tree but never saw the lights again. "I don't know if you had to be right under it" to see the lights or what, he said. Harmon found it especially interesting that whatever the object was did not make any noise. "The thing that got me the most was it was dead silent," he said. "I was dumbfounded." Harmon immediately called TV stations in Lubbock to see if they had heard of any strange object in the skies over Plainview.

None had.

"I was truly curious if anybody else in the area saw anything." Harmon was supposed to call the person at KLBK back after the 10 o'clock newscast, but after telling his two teenage sons and brother-in-law about his encounter, "we got to talking about it and I never called them back." And what did his family think about his story?

"My 16-year-old (Dustin) said he had never seen me act this way about anything before," Harmon said. "My 18-year-old (John) was kind of looking at me like these farmers have been." Those farmers were customers at Providence Grain Supply on Tuesday morning when Harmon was telling his story to anyone who would listen. "I feel like the person on the (TV) program" trying to convince people they saw something. "These farmers are getting a kick out of it, but I know I saw something."

Harmon did a good enough job convincing his boss, Glen Graves, that he saw something. Graves did some research on the Internet and found a picture taken Oct. 16 in Croatia that Harmon said "was the same-looking deal, just a little fuzzier than what I saw." Harmon, who moved here about a year ago from Dallas, was married to the late Lisa Daffron, a Plainview native who died July 26, 2005. "My wife used to be an (astronomy) buff. We had a couple of telescopes." Harmon is hoping somebody else in town saw what he witnessed Monday night, if for no other reason to confirm to disbelieving friends that he, in fact, saw something up there.

"I'm starting to doubt myself a little, but I know I saw something."

(Contact Kevin Lewis at 806-296-1353 or 1kevin@plainviewdailyherald.com)
 
#18 ·
KFC targets extraterrestrials with huge logo

KFC targets extraterrestrials with huge logo

2 hours, 47 minutes ago

From space, extraterrestrials and astronauts can look back to earth and see The Great Wall of China -- and KFC's Colonel Sanders.

The KFC Corp. on Tuesday launched a rebranding campaign with an 87,500 square-foot image of Colonel Sanders in the Nevada desert which the company says makes Kentucky Fried Chicken the world's first brand visible from space.

"If there are extraterrestrials in outer space, KFC wants to become their restaurant of choice," KFC President Gregg Dedrick said in a statement.

The logo consists of 65,000 one-foot by one-foot painted tile pieces that were assembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

"If we hear back from a life form in space today - whether NASA astronauts or a signal from some life form on Mars - we'll send up some Original Recipe Chicken," said Dedrick.

The logo also depicts an updated version of KFC icon Colonel Sanders who wears his signature string tie but with a red apron instead of his classic white double-breasted suit.

The logo was built at the remote Area 51 desert near Rachel, Nevada, which KFC said was known as the UFO capital of the world and famous for its association with UFO conspiracy theories.
 
#26 ·
"Cheekan-Goot!"

I can hear it now: "Yes, I want a two piece original, with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy, and Zork will take an extra crispy with Macaroni and cheese...hold on a sec...what is it Zork...Oh Yeah! Can we get a lot of Wet Naps? Good. And two Pepsi's. Also could you step it up here? The dilithium crystals in our hover craft start loosing energy the longer we sit idle in the drive-thru."
 
#27 ·
"Cheekan-Goot!"

I can hear it now: "Yes, I want a two piece original, with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy, and Zork will take an extra crispy with Macaroni and cheese...hold on a sec...what is it Zork...Oh Yeah! Can we get a lot of Wet Naps? Good. And two Pepsi's. Also could you step it up here? The dilithium crystals in our hover craft start loosing energy the longer we sit idle in the drive-thru."
IMAO....
 
#28 ·
Is it a UFO or a flying saucer?

Is it a UFO or a flying saucer?

MONDAY , 06 NOVEMBER 2006

By HANK SCHOUTEN
More than 40 years after an official Defence Force photographer snapped an image of the navy cruiser Royalist, debate is raging over the unidentified flying object in the background.

The print is believed to have languished since being taken in February 1965, but a plan to display it by the Devonport Navy Museum has sparked speculation about the mystery object. UFO expert Peter Hassall, who wrote a book on the subject in New Zealand, is excited by this previously unreported sighting.

The image was captured by the photographer on large-format black and white negative film shot from the cruiser's wing bridge as it approached what looks like Cape Brett in Bay of Islands. The Royalist was on its way back from Waitangi celebrations in February 1965.

It was first spotted by museum staff member Paul Restall as he was assembling images for the museum's new website.

He checked the negative on a light table and called in digital imaging expert Hans Weichselbaum to perform a high resolution scan. This established that the object was part of the original image.

Museum director David Wright said there was nothing to explain what it was.

The object appeared to be some distance in front of the ship and none of the sailors working on the bow was taking any notice, as would be expected if something was going on.

He said it looked to be too distant to be a dinner plate thrown from the bridge and the same would apply to a clay pigeon used as a shooting target. The angle of the object and absence of visible lines suggested it was not a parachute. So what is it?

"We're not saying it's a UFO," Mr Wright said. "It is just one of those interesting things we came across."

Museum staff did not have the time to hunt down former crew members who might be able to solve the mystery but "if people are interested in it and want to pursue its provenance we'll assist them", Mr Wright said.

Mr Hassall said it was an intriguing photo. His first thought was that it might be a flaw on the negative but, if that was the case, it was an unusual one.

"It is a very interesting image and the classic dome shape that's often reported." However, he is mystified that the photograph has never been reported before.

The object looked to be in front of the ship and at least as big as a rubbish tin lid - too heavy for somebody to have thrown it that high.

He was also intrigued that nobody on the deck was looking up - "If somebody had thrown it up you'd expect everybody to be looking up at it."

However, Carter Observatory senior astronomer Brian Carter disagrees.

He said that when the object was enlarged it had a sharp edge to it. Under the same enlargement, the edge of the cliff on the right and the bow of the ship were not that sharp, he said.

That suggested the object was quite close and therefore quite small.

He believed it was something thrown from the bridge or some other part of the ship.
 
#29 ·
'Aliens could attack at any time' warns former MoD chief

'Aliens could attack at any time' warns former MoD chief
By CHARLOTTE GILL Last updated at 14:03pm on 10th November 2006

So when a former MoD chief warns that the country could be attacked by extraterrestrials at any time, you may be forgiven for feeling a little alarmed.
During his time as head of the Ministry of Defence UFO project, Nick Pope was persuaded into believing that other lifeforms may visit Earth and, more specifically, Britain.

His concern is that "highly credible" sightings are simply dismissed.

And he complains that the project he once ran is now "virtually closed" down, leaving the country "wide open" to aliens.

Mr Pope decided to speak out about his worries after resigning from his post at the Directorate of Defence Security at the MoD this week.

"The consequences of getting this one wrong could be huge," he said.

"If you reported a UFO sighting now, I am absolutely sure that you would just get back a standard letter telling you not to worry. ''Frankly we are wide open - if something does not behave like a conventional aircraft now, it will be ignored.

"The X-Files have been closed down." If these words had come from a sci-fi fanatic, they could be easily dismissed by cynics.

But Mr Pope's CV - he was head of the UFO project between 1991 and 1994 - cannot be ignored.

When he began his job, he too was sceptical about UFOs but access to classified files on the subject and investigation of a series of spectacular UFO sightings gradually changed his mind.

And while Mr Pope says that there is no evidence of hostile intent, he insists it cannot be ruled out.

"There has got to be the potential for that and one is left with the uneasy feeling that if it turned out to be so, there is very little we could do about it," he said.

"If you believe these things are extra terrestrial craft then you cannot rule out that what is happening is some kind of covert reconnaissance."

One incident which persuaded him of the existence of alien lifeforms was in 1993. There were reports of a "vast, triangular-shaped craft" spotted flying over RAF bases in the West Midlands.

"Most of the witnesses were police and military personnel," he said.

"Hundreds of members of the public also had sightings over a period of several hours."

In another incident in 1980 at RAF bases in Suffolk, staff investigated a suspected plane crash after bright lights were reported coming from nearby woods.

They found a kind of lunar landing module standing on three legs which then flew off. The indents it left in the ground were found to emit ten times the normal levels of radiation. Mr Pope said: "These sort of incidents are why I got so frustrated.

"In my time I would brief the more interesting sightings up the chain of command to people like the Chief of the Air Staff and would get the answer back that it was very interesting and I had clearly done a good job investigating it and that was it.

"Every one is a piece of a puzzle but no one takes it seriously. There needs to be more resources and people who are prepared to look past the philosophical issues, look at the reports and investigate them properly.

"Whether you believe these things are foreign air forces testing prototype aircraft or whether you believe they are something more exotic, with the speeds and movements they are capable of, it's technology we would very much like to get hold of."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence insisted that all UFO sightings were investigated for "evidence to suggest that UK airspace has been compromised by hostile or unauthorised air activity."

She said: "Unless there is such evidence, the MoD doesn't attempt to positively identify what was seen."

Mr Pope is continuing his UFO research in a private capacity since leaving the MoD and is recognised as a leading authority on UFOs and the unexpected.

He has written four science fiction books drawing on his experience at the MoD, and lectures around the world on the subject.

He has appeared on BBC Newsnight and Radio 4's Today programme and has acted as consultant on numerous television documentaries.
 
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