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This Ministry of Defence file, released through The National Archives and published by The Black Vault, holds the MOD's 2002 handling of Dr David Clarke's requests for UFO documents under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. It includes the MOD's 9 December 2002 reply, which covered reports from 1976, 1980, 1993 and 1996 and charged £260. It also contains internal emails and file requisitions, plus Foreign Office and United Nations papers from 1978 on Grenada's proposal for UFO research.
“RAF”60+ pages
IY . ~ ( .... '' ,'': 1247 Unidentified [LORDS ] · Flying Objects 1248 Before speaking about the need for an in 1947, millions of people all over the intra-governmental study of UFOs, which world have seen the UFOs. This brings is the basis of my Motion being debated me to the class of witnesses that see today, I think it advisable to give your UFOs. It is true that occasiona!ly one Lordships some background to this fas- gets the odd crank or hoaxer; but the cinating subject of UFOs. I shall briefly majority of witnesses are sincere people. cover a little history, the classes of wit- Then again many witnesses are pilots, nesses, the characteristics of UFOs and police officers, coastguards, radar opera- some important sightings, and then I shall tors-in short, trained observers. Manv deal with the vital subject of the attitude astronauts have seen UFOs. Many of governments to these important people ask me: " Why is it that astron- phenomena. omers do not see them? ,. The answer is that they do. In a letter published in the Although UFOs have come to the fore Daily Telegraph on 4th January last year since the end of the last World War, I listed eight well-known astronomers wh~ there are reports of them all through had seen UFOs, including Dr. Clyde history. Among the papers of the late Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto. Professor Alberto Tulli, former director of the Egyptian Museum at the Vatican, was found one of the earliest known records of a fleet of flying saucers. It was written on papryus long ago in ancient Egypt-actually, it was at the time of Thutmose III, circa 1504 to 1450 BC, who, with his army witnessed the sighting of what we today would call UFOs. Now, I am not going to bore your Lordships with accounts of UFOs in every century because I want to get on to the very intere~ting tl-Jngs happening today. In modern times things began to happen during World War II when both allied and German pilots saw strange circular lights around their planes. We called them Foo fighters. Both Allied and German piiots thought that they were secret weapons of the other side. After the war, on 24th June 1947, an American called Kenneth Arnold, piloting his own plane, was on a mercy mission trying to find another aircraft that had crashed somewhere in the Cascade Mountains in the State of Washington. Suddenly, he spotted nine gleaming objects, crescent shaped, flying in a zigzag fashion between his plane and the mountains. He managed to calculate their speed because he was · able to get a fix-! think that is the tech- nical term-between two mountain peaks, Rainier and Baker. It appeared that the objects were travelling at some 1,400 miles per hour-a very fast speed in 1947. Some time after landing, Arnold, in answer to a question from the Press, des~rihed the motion of the flying objects as being like saucers skimming over water. Next day the Press headlined them as "flying saucers". Since Arnold's sighting Now a few words, my Lords, about the UFOs themselves. Actually, the name " flying saucer" given by the Press in 1947 was a misnomer as they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes: cigar, oval, disc, sphere, doughnut, crescent and tadpole shaped. You name it, my Lords, the list is endless. I should like to say a few words about their characteristics. UFOs often have \;ery bright lights and sometimes when in flight change colours all the way through the colour spectrum. Sometimes the light from a UFO is so intense that its shape is obscured from view. This light energy is so powerful that witnesses have been burned on the face and hands if in too close a proximity to a UFO. Another characteristic of the UFOs is eiectrical interference with various machines. UFOs have been notorious for stopping cars at short range. The driver will hear his engine splutter and it stops running. Besides cars, many other machines have been affected, including aircraft, motor cycles, buses, lorries and tractors. UFOs are said to be the cause of some of the power blackouts in the USA, Mexico and other countries. Indeed, UFOs have been seen flying along power lines in the USA just before black-outs. Furthermore, I have a picture on the wall of my study at home of a UFO doing just that! Now, I will mention one or two of the more impressive sightings since the war. On the 29th June, 1954, a BOAC Boeing stratocruiser " Centaurus " had taken off from New York for London. Dinner had been served. The time was just after sunset when the skipper, Captain James Howa the p) There· ones. out to who fi force i1 five mi stayed 80 miJ, object radio c Labrad in the Bay se All the the figt disappe ones we a crew< saw the In 1\ Comma Ncrth J UFOS\ Several' storage were se dimmed One of ever oc report c Levy ar 27th Fel give yo1 A very l Teheran. telephon the Irani tom j.!t t some 70 about h< of the k instrame pilot 1m< base. A SCC faster tlu began to and soo extraord a SCCl\!1 big one The jet air-to-ai .No S:.!CC panei w systems only on
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