Highlights Guide This document contains details of how to navigate through the newly released files. We have included bookmarks in each of the PDF files of key stories and reports highlighted by Dr David Clarke. This will make it easier to navigate through the files. For information on the history of government UFO investigations and where these files fit in please read Dr David Clarke‟s background guide to the files. Navigating the files using the bookmarks To view the bookmarks, click on the „Bookmarks‟ tab on the upper left hand side of the PDF window, the bookmarks tab will expand – as shown below.

1. Click on „Bookmarks‟ tab

The „Bookmarks‟ tab will then expand and a list of relevant bookmarks will be displayed – as shown below.

2. Bookmark tab will expand.

Clicking on a bookmark will take you to the pages of the file related to that particular story. To see the details of each bookmark – hover over the icon that appears on the top left hand corner of the relevant page of the PDF document – as shown below.

3. Hover or click on bookmark icons to see detail

Below is information on the key stories and reports of UFO activity contained in these files. It includes a list of the bookmarks contained in each file, with a short summary of each bookmark. Please note that not all files contain bookmarks.

Highlights & Key stories

This is the ninth tranche of UFO files. There are 25 files containing 6,785 pages.

Topics include UFO policy, Parliamentary Questions, media issues, public

correspondence and UFO sighting reports.

The six DIS files (DEFE 31/189/1-194/1) contain some duplicates of UFO sighting

reports copied by the Air Secretariat between 1996-1999. The original papers were

released by The National Archives in February 2010

Due to the volume of files released, highlighted files have been divided into the following categories for ease.

UFO Policy

UFOs & Politicians

UFO Sightings and Reports Sighting reports by geographical location

UFO Policy

MoD decision to release the UFO files

There are three files (DEFE 24/2043/1, DEFE 24/2061/1, DEFE 24/2090/1) covering

Dr David Clarke‟s correspondence with the MoD and its UFO Desk Officers between

2003-2008. The files cover the latter stages of Dr Clarke‟s campaign using the Code

of Practice and the Freedom of Information Act that led MoD to release their Defence

Intelligence report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in 2006. The three files also

cover the decision to transfer the UFO files to The National Archives in 2007. A copy

of the Ministerial Submission dated 18 September 2007 that authorised the release

of UFO files to The National Archives can be found in DEFE 24/2087/1 (p28-32).

File DEFE 24/2061/1 (p1451) covers a meeting Dr Clarke had with the UFO desk

officer and MoD Assistant Director in October 2004 at MoD Main Building. There is

Cabinet Office approval to release to Dr Clarke a large number of UFO policy papers

in 2005-2006 including several declassified from secret (p1198-1199). The note says

of Dr Clarke “We have developed a good relationship with this researcher who takes

a sensible approach to this subject”.

MoD UFO Desk Officer post

File DEFE 24/2087/1 (p5-7), contains a summary of the „daily mechanics‟ of the UFO

desk officer job, written by the last incumbent of the post in December 2008. He was

transferred to another post in November 2009 when the UFO desk was closed.

Subjects covered include MoD position on UFOs and extraterrestrial life, UFO

investigations, FOI requests (hundreds received each year), UFOlogy and

UFOlogists, UFO „experts‟ and press interest. He says the idea of MoD UFO

investigations “tends to suggest to the public that there are Top Secret teams of

specialist scientists scurrying around the country in a real life version of the X-

Files….[but] this is total fiction.” He continues “The closest we have to the post of

'UFO Expert' is probably my own, but this has always been a generalist, non-

technical post with the emphasis on correspondence with the public….whilst I have

naturally built up some degree of knowledge of various UFO cases as part of my

tenure in this post, I often find the best source of information is simply to Google the

internet!”

A job description for the UFO desk officer post, advertised internally by MoD in

October 2006, can be found in DEFE 24/2073/1 (p6-15) and DEFE 24/2078/1 (p21-

22). The post was advertised at D Grade which was described as “the most junior of

MoD managerial grades”. Four applications were received.

Intelligence papers

File DEFE 24/2080/1 contains a collection of MoD UFO papers from 1972-1995

assembled by the MoD for a policy review in 1997. It includes some intelligence

papers declassified from secret.

Briefing for House of Lords UFO debate

In a briefing prepared for MoD prior to the House of Lords UFO Debate in

1979 a UFO (DI55) Intelligence Officer questions why in such a vast universe

aliens would want to visit “an insignificant planet (the Earth) of an

uninteresting star (the sun)”. He says such a visit “would probably not occur

more than once in a thousand years or so, even if one assumes that every

intelligent community made say 10 launches a year.” He questions why, if

UFOs were piloted by aliens, no “intensive radio listening searches carried out

by reputable scientific organisations, particularly in the US, have intercepted

some of the transmissions between spacecraft or between spacecraft and

their base”. He concludes “claims of thousands of visits in the last decade or

so are far too large to be credible.” (p157)

UFO sighting during Falklands War

A 1982 memo notes a fall in numbers of UFO sightings reported to MoD since

the beginning of the Falklands War but notes one letter claims “large numbers

of UFOs have been seen in the vicinity of the Task Force – presumably Little

Green Men in ponchos.” (p76)

Alien Tourism

A 1995 briefing by a UFO desk officer at DI55 on the need for a full study of

UFO data as national security implications have never been properly

assessed. Under the heading „possibilities‟ the author lists mass

hallucinations, hoaxes, US Black Project aircraft, Russian or Chinese aircraft

or Extra-Terrestrial visitors. He says there is no hard evidence for alien craft

but says “if the sightings are not of this earth then their purpose needs to be

established as a matter of priority. There has been no apparently hostile intent

and other possibilities are: a) military reconnaissance b) scientific c) tourism”

(p38-43).

Harnessing UFO technology

A UFO Intelligence officer flags up need to capture UFO technology for UK

use: “…if the reports are taken at face value then devices exist that do not use

conventional reaction propulsion systems; they have a very wide range of

speeds and are stealthy. I suggest we could use this technology, if it exists.”

(p38-43)

Project Condign

DEFE 24/2090/1 (p157) contains David Clarke‟s 2005 FOI request for the report

„Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region‟, code-named „Project

Condign‟. The report was completed in 2000 and was originally classified Secret/UK

Eyes Only before being declassified for release. The Under Secretary of State for

Defence was briefed prior to the release of the report (DEFE 24/2090/1 p68-80).

MoD was concerned news of the report‟s existence would contradict previous

Ministerial statements that MoD had no interest in UFOs and had never carried out

any studies of the subject.

Two other topics included in the report caused concern:

US hypersonic spyplane ‘Aurora’

The report contained references to a study of unexplained fatal accidents

involving RAF aircraft over a 30 year period (DEFE 24/2090/1 p80). Some

concern was expressed about a possible link to the crash of a Chinook

helicopter on Mull of Kintyre in 1994 that some conspiracy theorists had

linked to UFOs and/or the movements of the mysterious US hypersonic

spyplane code-named Aurora (DEFE 24 2090/1 p126). Aurora and rumours

about US black project aircraft flying in UK airspace were the subject of

Parliamentary Questions by MPs Martin Redmond and George Foulkes in

1992. These followed reports published by The Scotsman and Janes’s

Defence that Aurora was flying from RAF Machrihanish on the Kintyre

peninsula. The Parliamentary Question file responds to reports of

unexplained aircraft on air traffic control radar and mysterious sonic booms.

Publicly MoD said they had no knowledge of the existence of Aurora but a

background briefing (DEFE 24/2061/1 p1265) says UFO Desk Officers

would “not be surprised if it did exist”.

Using atmospheric plasmas as weapons

One of the subsidiary findings of the UAP study was that some UFOs were

rare atmospheric plasmas (e.g. ball lightning) that could be harnessed or

used by the military as „novel weapon technology.‟ MoD initially redacted a

paragraph from the executive summary of the report (at DEFE 24/2090/1,

p47) but later cleared this section for release on review following an appeal

by David Clarke.

Flying Saucer Working Party

In 1998 copies of „Top Secret‟ minutes of the MoD‟s DSI/JTIC Flying Saucer Working

Party of 1950-52 were opened at the Public Record Office, now The National

Archives. A note in file DEFE 24/1987/1 (p158) says: “Oh dear! This makes our line

„no interest „in [flying saucers] look suspect. I know not now but maybe then. Also

make it look like we were in cahoots with the Americans on this subject”.

US interest in UFOs

DEFE 24/1985/1 (p239-40) contains a response by MoD to a US Air Force request

for information on British UFO policy in 1965. MoD says “our policy is to play down

the subject and to avoid attaching undue attention to it”, as a result there had never

been any political pressure for an official study. In 1995, the UFO Desk asked RAF

Air Attache in Washington to ascertain the US Department of Defense‟s „line on

UFOs.‟ In file DEFE 24/1985/1 (p81-82) the response says “after posing the

questions to a variety of staff [in HQ US Space Command] and receiving blank

stares in return” he was referred to the Department of Defense‟s website which said

the US had no interest in UFO reports, a policy which was “consistent with our own,

but they discourage approaches from the public rather more politely than we do.”

Roswell

DEFE 24/1985/1 (p10) in January 1997 a Defence Intelligence official responded to

a question on briefings given to MoD by CIA on Roswell incident and reports of

„crashed UFOs‟ stating “we have no data on the alleged „Roswell incident‟ or any

UAP/UFO crashes in either the UK or US and have never, as far as we can tell from

existing files, received any briefings from any US agencies, including the CIA”.

UFOlogists

File DEFE 24/1984/1 (p294) contains a 1996 Parliamentary Question from Martin

Redmond MP asking on how many occasions MI6 and GCHQ have monitored UFO

investigations. This was interpreted to mean 'have the agencies been keeping watch

on UFOlogists.' A background briefing says “neither agency in fact undertakes such

activity, though GCHQ cannot rule out the possibility” they had monitored “in other

contexts individuals who have made a study of UFOs”. The MP was told the

government do not comment on the intelligence and security agencies (p298). File

DEFE 24/1987/1 (p262-65) reveals that in 1997 Special Branch took an interest in a

UFOlogist who became obsessed with rumours of a secret UFO facility beneath RAF

Rudloe Manor in Wiltshire. The base had become known as the British equivalent of

the secret US military airbase 'Area 51' among conspiracy theorists. An internal note

said “Special Branch…do not believe he poses a specific threat to security, but they

are alert to the risk that others may use him as a conduit for their activities”.

Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Report

File DEFE 24/2090/1 (p47) contains a 'Secret: UK Eyes Only' memo from 4

December 2000 which announces the completion of the 'Unidentified Aerial

Phenomena (UAP) Report'. The report concludes that “sighting reports provide

nothing of value to the DIS in our assessment of threat weapons systems”. It said

“many of the sightings can be explained as mis-reporting of man-made vehicles;

natural but not unusual phenomena and natural but relatively rare and no completely

understood phenomena”. The report recommends that the Defence Intelligence

branch should no longer receive UFO reports and reminds staff “of the media

interest in this subject and consequently the sensitivity of the report…please protect

accordingly and discuss the report only with those who have a need to know”.

UFOs & Politicians

Tony Blair

File DEFE 24/1987/1 (p199-201, 84-85 and 77-81) contains a lengthy briefing to No

10 on UFO Policy in 1998 after the author of the book A Covert Agenda, Nick

Redfern, wrote to PM Tony Blair urging him “to consider making available for public

scrutiny all of the many and varied UFO reports compiled by the government” that

were being with-held from the public. The request arrived as Blair's government

began to implement the white paper on Freedom of Information.

John Major

DEFE 24.1984/1 (p289) in October 1996, PM John Major answered a Parliamentary

Question tabled by the Martin Redmond MP, asking if he would set up an official

inquiry into UFO sightings. Major responded: 'the government has no plans to

allocate resources to research extra-terrestrial phenomena'.

Michael Heseltine

In November 1996 Martin Redmond MP wrote a letter to Defence Minister Michael

Heseltine asking why RAF had failed to launch aircraft to intercept a UFO spotted by

police officers in Skegness and Boston, Lincolnshire, a 'sighting' that was later

confirmed by RAF radars (DEFE 24.1984/1 p117). In the same file there is a copy of

an investigation of Redmond's claims conducted by a RAF Wing Commander. He

said the Royal Greenwich Observatory had identified the lights spotted by the police

as bright stars and his report concludes the radar echoes were caused by a tall

building - the Boston church spire (p26-48).

UFO sightings and reports

'Welsh Triangle' and silver-suited spacemen (DEFE 24/2043/1 p31-48)

A spate of UFO and alien sightings in West Wales during 1977 led to tabloid

headlines linking the region with the infamous Bermuda Triangle. The local MP,

Nicholas Edwards, said he was “inundated” with reports from constituents and asked

MoD to investigate. He received a letter from the proprietor a local hotel who claimed

she saw a dome-shaped object land “like the moon falling down” behind the hotel.

Two tall silver-suited “faceless humanoids” emerged and began “making

measurements”. She told her MP she was left in a state of shock. MoD asked the

RAF police to make “discreet enquiries” in the area and sent an officer from RAF

Brawdy to interview the woman. He suspected a practical joker was at work in the

area and noted that a silver protective suit used in nearby oil refineries had been on

display in a shop window at Haverfordwest shortly before the 'spacemen' were seen.

‘Men in Black’ visitation (DEFE24/2089/1 p471)

A member of the public from Spalding, Lincolnshire who had reported a UFO

encounter to police, later went on to receive a late night visit from three tall men

dressed in black suits who “seemed to move silently”, according to a friend who

witnessed the visit whilst hiding in the downstairs toilet. The men apparently broke in

through the back door, before entering the bedroom of the UFO witness and having

a conversation, the content of which was not overheard. The “petrified” friend locked

themselves in the toilet until „men in black‟ left in a black Jaguar soon afterwards.

When asked afterwards, the UFO witness did not recall seeing any „men in black‟ or

encountering a UFO in the first place.

Sighting by RAF pilot 1958 (DEFE 24/2080/1 p160)

RAF Air Commodore (Intelligence) Hugh Anthony Caillard, in a 1978 memo to the

Defence Intelligence Staff, says “I have never dismissed UFOs as a figment of

imagination and during some 5,000 hours of flying I have on one occasion seen an

object, at the time (in 1958) I was flying across the [United] States at about 40,000

feet when I saw a brightly illuminated object greatly in excess of my altitude…at the

time the civilian jet airliner had not had its debut and I reported the phenomena to an

air traffic control reporting centre who accepted my observation as if were something

quite routine!”

Alien Abduction in Scotland (DEFE 31/189/1 p360-61)

A report submitted to MoD in August 1992 by two men described a UFO seen over

the A70 which “dropped a curtain of light across the road”. The men later underwent

regression hypnosis and an alien abduction story emerged. This story is the basis of

a feature film to be released later this year.

Chinese lantern UFOs 2005-7

A craze for releasing sky lanterns led to a spate of UFOs reports to MoD from 2005.

DEFE 24/2083/1 (p180-190 and p149-50) includes four separate reports of “golden

orbs” seen by people near Loughton tube station in Essex and reported to police in

September 2005. In DEFE 24/2088/1 (p155) a similar sighting from Brighton in

August 2007 led a woman to call the MoD's UFO hotline “panicking [and] saying we

had to ring her back (She left three messages saying this). She was petrified and so

were her friends. She had never seen anything like this before”. A caller from

Houghton-le-Spring, Co Durham, saw similar lights but did not think they were UFOs

as he didn't believe aliens would want to visit Houghton (p146-7).

UFO sighted by Police (DEFE 31/194/1 p11)

A mounted police officer reported a sighting of a “square/diamond shaped object

moving across the sky and changing shape” whilst on duty at Chelsea FC ground in

1999.

Geographical distribution of UFO sightings from the files

Note: this is not a comprehensive list of all the UFO sightings in the 9th tranche of

files. It is a representative sample of the more interesting and newsworthy sighting

accounts.

Belgium

DEFE 24/2061/1 (p645, p588-615, p594-95, p2-103)

DEFE 24/1985/1 (p267-84)

DEFE 24/1984/1 (p86-99)

Cambridgeshire DEFE 24/2084/1 (p227-31, 458-71) Channel Islands

DEFE 24/2077/1 (p39-48) DEFE 24/2079/1 (p34) Cornwall DEFE 31/189/1 (p241) Derbyshire DEFE 24/2043/1 (p98-99, 76-88, 64-72) Co Durham DEFE 24/2083/1 (p175) DEFE 24/2088/1 (p146-47) East Yorkshire DEFE 24/2079/1 (p119-30) DEFE 31/192/1 (p43) Essex DEFE 24/2083/1 (p180-90, 149-50, 24) DEFE 24/2073/1 (p27-28) Falkland Islands DEFE 24/2080/1 (p76) France DEFE 24/2080/1 (p77-80) Germany DEFE 24/2084/1 (p175-76) Gloucestershire DEFE 24/2083/1 (p113) Hampshire DEFE 24/2084/1 (p3-24) DEFE 24/2088/1 (p116) Kent DEFE 24/2083/1 (p47) DEFE 24/2088/1 (p24) Lancashire: DEFE 24/1985/1 (p124-122, 6-9) Lincolnshire DEFE 24/1985/1 (p20-29) DEFE 24/1984/1 (p116-17, 13-82) DEFE 31/189/1 (p48-81) DEFE 31/193/1 (p16)

London DEFE 31/193/1 (p14) DEFE 31/194/1 (p11) Manchester DEFE 24/1985/1 (p175-77, 159) North Yorkshire DEFE 24/1987/1 (p6-8) DEFE 24/2083/1 (p92-100) DEFE 24/2088/1 (p143) Northumberland DEFE 24/2088/1 (p18) Netherlands DEFE 24/2090/1 (p62) New Zealand DEFE 24/2061/1 (p946-47). Norfolk DEFE 24/2061/1 (p646) DEFE 24/1985/1 (p208-10) DEFE 24/2084/1 (p190-92) DEFE 31/194/1 (p20) Northern Ireland DEFE 24/2073/1 (p24-25) Orkney Islands DEFE 24/2089/1 (p498-99) Rendlesham Forest incident (Suffolk): DEFE 24/2061/1 (p1344-48; 1111, 1102) DEFE 24/2080/1 (p61-73); DEFE 24/1984/1 (p108-10) DEFE 24/2005/1 (p276-99, 147-201, 17-36) Scotland DEFE 24/2005/1 (p309-11) DEFE 24/2061/1 (p1265-70) DEFE 24/2083/1 (p40-41) DEFE 24/2074/1 (p155-74) DEFE 24/1985/1 (p204-5, 161-62) DEFE 24/1987/1 (p312-13) DEFE 24/2087/1 (p82-83) DEFE 24/2088/1 (p30) DEFE 24/2090/1 (p126-7) DEFE 31/189/1 (p360-61)

DEFE 31/191/1 (p192-94) DEFE 31/193/1 (p17-19) DEFE 31/194/1 (p23, 32) Shetland Islands: DEFE 31/192/1 (p22) Shropshire DEFE 24/2093/1 (p22) DEFE 24/2088/1 (p12) DEFE 31/194/1 (p9) Somerset DEFE 24/2088/1 (p62) South Wales DEFE 24/2090/1 (p6-11) DEFE 24/2084/1 (p245-46) DEFE 31/191/1 (p126-27) South Yorkshire: DEFE 24/2074/1 (p103-124) DEFE 31/193/1 (p23-27) Staffordshire DEFE 24/2073/1 (p83-103) Suffolk: DEFE 24/2080/1 (p141-46) DEFE 24/2084/1 (p175-76) DEFE 24/2083/1 (p32-34) DEFE 24/2077/1 (p88-94) Sussex: DEFE 24/2088/1 (p155) DEFE 24/2074/1 (p19) Thailand DEFE 24/2084/1 (p175-76) United States of America DEFE 24/2080/1 (p160) West Midlands DEFE 24/2061/1 (p389-472) West Wales DEFE 24/2043/1 (p31-48) DEFE 24/2088/1 (p221)

West Yorkshire DEFE 24/2088/1 (p163) Wiltshire DEFE 24/1987/1 (p203-217, 286-99, 254-80, 114) DEFE 24/1984/1 (p271-75) DEFE 24/2078/1 (p101-102) DEFE 31/192/1 (p36)