UFO files briefing guide

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4. To keep in touch with American occurrences and evaluation of such (DEFE
41/74.)
The working party included intelligence officers from each of the three armed services
and was chaired by G. L. Turney, head of scientific intelligence at the Admiralty. This
team reviewed what was known about the subject and investigated a number of
sightings reported to it by RAF Fighter Command. During their inquiries they questioned
a group of test pilots from the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough who had
reported sightings of aerial phenomena. In June 1951 the working party produced a brief
final report that debunked the sightings and concluded that flying saucers did not exist. A
surviving copy of DSI/JTIC Report No 7 was found in MoD archives in 2001. It was
released in the following year in DEFE 44/119. A copy of the original report and covering
letter to Sir Henry Tizard are in DEFE 19/9, released in July 2008 at The National
Archives. A copy of this report is also available in DEFE 24/2050/1.
Classified as 'Secret/Discreet' the six-page report concluded that all UFO sightings could
be explained as misidentifications of ordinary objects or phenomena, optical illusions,
psychological delusions or hoaxes. They concluded with the following statement: 'We
accordingly recommend very strongly that no further investigation of reported mysterious
aerial phenomena be undertaken, unless and until some material evidence becomes
available.' (See DEFE 44/119)
The members of the working party relied heavily upon information supplied by the US Air
Force UFO project (now renamed Grudge) and the CIA. US policy was to debunk the
subject and restrict the release of information to the public about UFO sightings made by
the armed services. The Assistant Director of the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence,
Dr Harris Marshall Chadwell, was present at the meeting of DSI/JTIC in 1951 when the
report was delivered to MoD. American influence upon the team's methodology can be
seen both in the adoption of the USAF term UFO in its title and the conclusions.
Circulation was restricted within MoD with just one copy sent to Sir Henry Tizard.
4. Air Ministry investigations 1952-64
The sceptical conclusions of the Flying Saucer Working Party set the template for all
future British policy on UFOs. After the report was delivered the team was dissolved and
investigations ended. However, during the summer of the following year a new wave of
sightings were made across the world. In July 1952, as Cold War tension increased,
UFOs were detected by radars in the US capital Washington DC, prompting the USAF to
scramble jet interceptors. The scare made headlines across the world and led Winston
Churchill to send his famous memo to the Air Ministry on „flying saucers.‟
The Prime Minister was told on 9 August 1952 that „nothing has happened since 1951 to
make the Air Staff change their opinion, and, to judge from recent Press statements, the
same is true in America‟ (PREM 11/855). In September this policy was revised as a
direct result of further UFO sightings that occurred during a major NATO exercise in
Europe. The most dramatic were those reported by a group of Shackleton aircrew who
saw a circular silver object appear above the airfield at RAF Topcliffe in North Yorkshire.
In a report made to the base Commanding Officer one of the men, Flt Lt John Kilburn of
269 Squadron, RAF, said he watched as the object appeared to descend to follow a