The Howden Moor Incident: Sonic Booms and Low Lights over the Dark Peak

Monday 24 March 1997. Hale-Bopp was at its peak. Many people watched the sky. West of Sheffield lie the Dark Peak moors and the Howden and Derwent reservoirs. Mountain rescue teams there knew an old tradition of "phantom plane" crashes.

At 21:55, near Dronfield, a witness later given the pseudonym Emma Maidenhead saw two jets. Then "a triangle with the corners cut off", with "two pink lights on the front and blue lights all around it". It flew "just above the rooftops", moving "pretty slow heading for the moors". At 22:00 in Stannington, an 81-year-old pensioner saw "a long dark cigar shaped object" crossing the moors at almost rooftop level. It had an eerie glow and made "no noise at all".

On Midhope Moor, gamekeeper John Littlewood watched something pass straight over him. "Definitely a plane and it was a big one," he said. No usual aircraft lights, just two red ones. A loud humming noise. "Very long, slow and low, probably about 500 feet."

At Edge End Farm, Bolsterstone, a farmer and his mother saw a low flying plane pass. He instinctively dipped his head. Then an orange glow, several plumes of smoke and a strong smell of burning.

At Hollindale Cottage in Strines, Mike and Barbara Ellison heard "a terrific explosion". Mrs Ellison went out expecting "carnage, aeroplane, fire. But there was nothing, just nothing there."

The first call reached police at 22:15; at 22:30, 40 police officers were called out. A police helicopter searched the moors with a searchlight and thermal imaging, joined by an RAF Sea King and 141 mountain rescue volunteers from seven teams. At 07:00 the RAF declared a 10-mile danger area centred on Howden Reservoir. By 14:00 on 25 March, about 200 people had spent roughly 15 hours on the moors. Mountain rescue coordinator Mike France reported "no scouring to the moor… no bits of wreckage… no oil traces on the reservoirs."

The British Geological Survey had recorded two sonic events, at 21:52 and 22:06. Senior seismologist Glenn Ford said the signal came "from the direction of Sheffield" and was "not consistent with a ground impact". He suspected a military aircraft going supersonic. "I believe it was probably a covert operation."

In 1998, Helen Jackson, MP for Sheffield Hillsborough, questioned the Ministry of Defence in Parliament. Minister John Spellar confirmed military aircraft were booked for low flying training in northern England that evening; RAF Marham separately confirmed six Tornado GR1A aircraft flew low through the Peak District. Yet there was "no record of sonic events being generated by RAF or NATO aircraft". An RAF Provost & Security Service report, later obtained by David Clarke under the Freedom of Information Act, concluded: "no military link can be established to this reported event and the case is now considered closed." The National Archives released related papers in 2011.

Researcher Max Burns argued that jets were scrambled to intercept a large, silent black triangle, and that a Tornado probably crashed. Rumours of Men in Black and body bags followed. Clarke says the body bags were routine mountain rescue equipment. Dan Grayson, a witness Burns cited, told Clarke: "No I did not, and I have never claimed I had seen a triangular UFO."

Police and rescue leaders favoured an unidentified light aircraft, possibly flying illegally low. A bolide meteor was proposed too, though Clarke reports RAF Fylingdales ruled it out. Clarke's own view is misperceived military aircraft. South Yorkshire Police said simply: "No explanation was ever found and we remain open-minded."