London - On Feb. 15, 1999, an air traffic controller in Scotland noticed something strange on his radar screen. A bright blip on his screen suggested there was a very large object traveling at 3,000 mph over the Scottish coastline heading southwest. The size of the blip suggested the object was 10 miles long and two miles wide. Two minutes later, the object disappeared from the radar screen.
Three months earlier, British Ministry of Defense documents record that a commercial pilot flying over the Midlands region reported an unusual object traveling at "very high speed" with a very bright strobe light flashing once every 20 seconds.
Although the two incidents were unrelated, both were reported to a little-known department in the ministry known as Secretariat (Air Staff) 2a, the secretive section which collates reports of unidentified flying objects that cross British airspace.
The government has traditionally treated reports of UFO sightings as highly classified and only released information to the public after 30 years. But the parliamentary ombudsman insisted that the Ministry of Defense hand this information to Colin Ridyard, a research chemist from Wales who had been seeking information relating to UFO sightings by pilots or radar operators between July 1998 and July 1999.
Initially, the ministry refused on the ground it would be too expensive. But after the intervention of the ombudsman, Michael Buckley, the ministry agreed to release the information as a one-time exercise for $120. The ministry handed two reports to Ridyard, yet official information from the Civil Aviation Authority suggests there had been additional sightings. During the same period the CAA said it reported two more UFO sightings to the ministry, neither of which it disclosed.
According to official CAA reports, in the same month that a radar picked up an enormous object flying across Scotland, a pilot flying over the North Sea became startled when his aircraft became illuminated by an "incandescent." light. Three other aircraft in the area reported seeing a ball of light moving at high speed. Air traffic controllers reported there were no strange aircraft in the area, but five minutes later an operator at a weather station picked up a fast-moving object on his radar.
The other incident which the CAA reported to the ministry occurred in June 1999 when the pilot of a B757 flying over the North Sea reported an unidentified military-looking aircraft passing close by in the opposite direction. Nothing was seen on the plane's radar or by air traffic controllers. The ministry told the CAA there were no military aircraft known to be in that area at the time.
Although a ministry spokeswoman would not discuss individual sightings, she said all these events had perfectly normal explanations.
In a letter to one of Ridyard's local Members of Parliament, Defense Minister John Spellar said: "My department has no interest or role with respect to UFO/flying saucer matters or to the question of the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial life forms - about which we remain open-minded."
But Ridyard said: 'This is not about little green men, but about freedom of information. It is clear there are many strange incidents that happen in the British skies that are kept secret. There may be issues of aircraft safety or natural phenomena, but by keeping this information secret these incidents cannot be scrutinized by the public or the scientific community."
One of the most infamous incidents relating to a UFO sighting in Britain only came to light through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. This revealed that in December 1980 three security patrolmen investigating a potential air crash near the U.S. Air Force base in Suffolk, England, saw a strange glowing triangular object hovering near the base which had a "pulsing red light on top and blue lights underneath."
An official report by Lt. Col. Charles Halt , the deputy base commander, included a description of the events and stated that the next day three depressions were found in the forest where the object was discovered which showed radiation readings. Later that night three star-like objects were seen in the sky moving "rapidly in sharp angular movements."
UK Government Forced to Reveal UFO Secrets
Recently recovered FarShores file Jan 2007
[Original headline: Britain's UFO secrets revealed]
The Observer / London via Rocky Mtn News / CO | By Antony Barnett - June 4 2000
Note: See original story carried here: British MoD Criticised
