MoD UFO Files Highlights Guide — Final Tranche, June 2013

Brief

Published alongside the June 2013 release of 25 DEFE 24 volumes (4,400 pages), this guide centres on a Carl Mantell briefing to Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth on 11 November 2009, which concluded that more than 50 years of investigation had produced no evidence of extraterrestrial presence or military threat and recommended closure of the UFO desk. The document reveals MoD deliberately avoided formal contact with foreign governments during the closure process to prevent perceptions of 'international collaboration and conspiracy.' A concurrent surge in sighting reports — from roughly 150 per year to 643 by November 2009, the second-highest total since 1978 — was attributed largely to Chinese lanterns. The guide also indexes Rendlesham Forest documentation across 109 separate files and flags unresolved radar and police-helicopter encounters.

Metadata

Agency

UK National Archives / UK Ministry of Defence

Release

2013-06-21

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

13 pages

Classification

UNCLASSIFIED

Programs

MoD UFO Desk, DEFE 24, RAF Air Command, UK Airprox Board

Tags

UK-2007-2009, Chinese-lanterns, radar-track, cube-shaped-object, police-helicopter, Rendlesham-Forest, RAF-Lyneham-1993, Beachy-Head-1953, Tern-Hill-barracks, DEFE-24-final-tranche

Key points

• The 10th and final tranche comprises 25 files and 4,400 pages, covering late 2007 to November 2009; ten files originate with DAS and fifteen with RAF Air Command after the desk relocated to RAF High Wycombe in December 2008.p.3
• Carl Mantell of RAF Air Command briefed Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth on 11 November 2009, recommending closure of the UFO desk on the grounds it consumed increasing resource while producing no actionable defence output.p.4
• MoD told Ainsworth that in over 50 years no UFO sighting had ever revealed anything to suggest an extraterrestrial presence or military threat to the UK.p.4
• MoD deliberately refrained from making formal approaches to foreign governments during the closure process, with the reason recorded in writing: such contacts could be viewed as evidence of 'international collaboration and conspiracy.'p.4
• UFO sighting reports surged from an average of 150 per year (2000-2007) to 208 in 2008 and 643 by 30 November 2009 — the second-highest total MoD had recorded since logging 750 in 1978.p.5
• Chinese lanterns were identified as responsible for a large proportion of the 2008-2009 surge; a June 2008 sighting by Royal Irish Regiment soldiers at Tern Hill barracks, Shropshire — filmed on a mobile phone and splashed on a newspaper front page as 'ALIEN ARMY' — was traced to lanterns released at a nearby wedding.p.6
• Rendlesham Forest documents were held across 109 separate MoD files; MoD's 2008 response to a US inquiry stated the department had 'little interest in the matter at the time and even less interest now' and considered the incident closed.p.7
• A formal Airprox Board investigation was convened after a police helicopter crew over Birmingham reported a near-collision with an unidentified aircraft displaying non-standard lights; nothing appeared on radar and the inquiry was unable to explain the incident.p.7
• A 1953 radar track at Beachy Head recorded an unidentified blip over the English Channel moving at four times the speed of contemporary jet aircraft.p.8
• The UFO desk's dedicated hotline and email address had been created in 1997 in response to a surge of public interest surrounding the 50th anniversary of the Roswell incident.p.4

Verbatim

• should seek to reduce very significantly the UFO task which is consuming increasing resource, but produces no valuable defence output .

  p.4

• no UFO sighting reported to [MoD] has ever revealed anything to suggest an extra-terrestrial presence or military threat to the UK

  p.4

• there is no defence benefit in [ MoD] recording, collating, analysing or investigating UFO sightings .

  p.4

• would become public when the relevant UFO files are released and could be viewed by "ufologists" as evidence of international collaboration and conspiracy .

  p.4

• I believe it is fair to say that the release programme itself…has been a success for the MoD. It has accrued a great deal of national and international press publicity, the majority of which can be considered to be positive or at worst neutral. Naturally a section of ufologists will never be convinced of that, but frankly, whatever we say, they will choose to believe whatever they believe and we will never convince them otherwise

  p.5

• The incident was over a quarter of a century ago and despite the assertions of many people who chose to believe in the existence of UFOs or extra terrestrials, the MoD had little interest in the matter at the time and even less interest now. Put simply, we consider the incident closed

  p.7

• moved in an unusual manner like a feather or a cork bobbing on water .

  p.6

Most interesting

• MoD's decision to avoid formal foreign-government contact was recorded in writing specifically to prevent ufologists from interpreting such contacts as evidence of conspiracy — making the concealment of non-collaboration itself a documented policy choice.
• A caller to the MoD UFO hotline reported that he had been living with an alien in Carlisle.
• A Cardiff man claimed a UAP abducted his dog, car, and tent while he was camping with friends in 2007.
• A woman in Poole reported a bright white fireball that entered her kitchen through the window, fell into a carrier bag, and was followed by blinding white sheet lightning — with no burns found in the kitchen afterward.
• A schoolchild in Altrincham wrote to the UFO desk describing lights dancing in the sky and asserting 'I have the right to know'; the desk replied with a bag of RAF goodies.
• Coastguards in Cumbria and the North West received dozens of 999 emergency calls in September 2009 from people who mistook Chinese lanterns for maritime distress flares.
• A retired RAF Flight Lieutenant's account of tracking a UAP on airfield radar at RAF Lyneham in 1993 includes simultaneous visual observation by two members of a ground security patrol.
• A NATO official referred a December 2007 sighting near Portsdown Hill, Portsmouth — where a UAP appeared to cross an airliner's path — to MoD for investigation; the RAF studied radar tapes and could not rule out light aircraft at lower altitude.