A MUM who insists she was abducted by aliens on the A5 said yesterday: “I knew they would be back.”
Rosemary Hawkins, 53, recalled her close encounter on the Shropshire road after we reported a spate of new UFO sightings in the area.
She was returning from a June night out with two pals 27 years ago when their car was enveloped by a bright light they believe was a spacecraft.
They made statements to police then told separately under hypnosis how they had seen 4ft aliens dressed in green who spoke with gruff robotic-like voices.
Rosemary, Valerie Walters and Viv Hayward, all in their late-20s at the time, were heading home to Telford from a Shrewsbury disco where they only drank cola.
It was around 2am and Viv was driving her Avenger saloon when they spotted hovering lights near the hamlet of Atcham.
Mum-of-three Rosemary recalled: “The lights became blinding. It became obvious we were looking at a UFO. It followed us along the road. We were very frightened.
"Viv tried putting her foot down but it was as if the brakes were on. Then the lights dipped and the craft disappeared.”
They drove straight to Telford police station to report their “out of body” experience.
But a journey that should have taken them 20 minutes took an extra half hour.
The women were convinced during the lost 30 minutes they were held, unharmed, on a UFO.
They later agreed to be hypnotised and gave chillingly similar accounts — even scrawling near identical drawings.
Expert Harold Harris said at the time: “I’ve no doubt this UFO existed.”
By ANDREW PARKER
and JOHN COLES
Published: Today 25.06.2008
A SHAKEN soldier told last night how he saw THIRTEEN UFOs spinning in the skies above his military barracks.
Corporal Mark Proctor was among three squaddies who spotted the objects while out on night patrol.
He filmed them on his mobile phone and reported the close encounter to Army top brass.
Mystery ... UFO seen on soldier Mark Proctor's video
Ministry of Defence experts were studying his report and video yesterday — after ordering Mark and his pals NOT to say anything else about the incident.
The sighting, at Tern Hill barracks near Market Drayton, Shrops, came two hours before helicopter police officers reported an encounter with a huge craft 80 miles away near Cardiff.
And three hours before a couple claimed they were followed by a strange light in the sky along the A5 near Shrewsbury.
Yesterday further mind-boggling evidence emerged as dog walker Bonnie Lewis, 29, told how she filmed seven UFOs at Bromsgrove, Worcs, last Friday.
To see the amazing footage of Bonnie's alien encounter click on the multimedia link for Saturday night lights, below right.
Cpl Proctor, 38, of the 1st Battalion Irish Regiment, recalled how he saw the amazing “craft” just after 11pm on Saturday, June 7.
Sky lights ... strange shapes seen by Bonnie
He said: “I was on duty in the guard room when the other boys outside began shouting. I went out to see what the commotion was about and could see thirteen craft in the skies.
“They were zig-zagging, but I filmed two before they disappeared. They were like rotating cubes with multiple colours.
“I made a full report to my commanding officers and gave them my footage. The other lads were as amazed by it as I was.”
Astonishing ... map indicating UFO discoveries
A 19-year-old private on patrol said he also saw the “fleet”.
The soldier, who asked not to be named, said: “I saw these things flying in the sky and I told my guard commander.
“There were about 30 lights passing over for a few minutes, very high but not at a great speed. They were bright red. Another soldier saw them too.”
An MoD spokesman said: “We deal with any UFO sightings to see if there was a military threat.”
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The Sun told last week how helicopter cops were confronted by an object as they attempted to land at their base near Cardiff the same night.
Cabaret duo Katy Cunnion and Russell Quinn claimed they were pursued by the light in the sky for nearly an hour at 1am the following morning.
And last night Bonnie told of seeing cylinder-shaped craft.
She said: “They weren’t from this world. They made no sound and had flashing dots inside.”
STUNNED police gave chase to a UFO after it attacked their helicopter near a military base.
The mystery aircraft zoomed straight at the chopper as the three-man cop crew prepared to land.
The pilot banked sharply to avoid being hit, then launched into a high-speed pursuit. But he was forced to give up the chase as the helicopter’s fuel ran low – and the UFO escaped.
'Unusual' ... where incident took place
All three crew described the object as “flying saucer-shaped” and circled by flashing lights. They reported it to senior officers, who passed on the report to Britain’s UFO investigators.
The incident happened as the helicopter was returning to the MoD’s St Athan base near Cardiff, where it is stationed.
The chopper was at 500ft and waiting to land when the crew saw the UFO speeding towards them from below.
A source said: “It closed in at great speed, aiming straight at the helicopter.
“The chopper had to swerve sharply to avoid being hit. The guys said if they’d stayed where they were, they’d be dead – it would’ve been a direct hit.
“They are convinced it was a UFO. It sounds far-fetched, but they know what they saw.
“These guys are hardened professionals and know people will take the mickey, but they are certain they saw a UFO.”
The source added: “After the near-collision they decided to follow it to find out what the hell it was. They belted across the Bristol Channel in pursuit, but it was too quick. They got to the North Devon coast and had to turn back because they were running low on fuel.”
The chopper is crammed with hi-tech cameras and surveillance gear, but the UFO somehow avoided being caught on film.
Strangely, the crew could not see the craft with night-vision goggles – but all said it was “clearly visible” to the naked eye on the night of June 7.
South Wales Police said last night: “We can confirm the Air Support Unit sighted an unusual aircraft. This was reported to the relevant authorities for their investigation.”
The MoD, which usually investigates UFO sightings, said: “We’ve heard nothing about this. But it is certainly not advisable for police helicopters to go chasing what they think are UFOs.”
A UFO seen from the shuttle Atlantis in 2006. Photograph: Nasa/Getty Images
There was the man on a fishing trip who was shown around a flying saucer by aliens in green overalls; another who befriended an extraterrestrial called Algar and wanted to introduce him to the government; and the astonished air traffic controller who watched a UFO land on his airport's runway, then disappear.
Inevitably, the Ministry of Defence papers, released to the public for the first time, will be known as Britain's X-Files. Over the next three or four years, 160 files will be handed over to the National Archives. Covering 1978 to 1987, the first group of eight files, one of which is more than 450 pages long, is available via its website today.
Some of the incidents are truly bizarre, but although some UFO sightings remain unexplained there is no evidence in the files for alien contact. "There simply is no saucer-in-a-hangar smoking gun," said Nick Pope, a former civil servant who worked at the MoD for 21 years, spending three years on its UFO desk.
The MoD has decided to release the files because of the deluge of requests it has received from UFO buffs and conspiracy theorists under the Freedom of Information Act. "They are sinking in a sea of FOI requests on UFOs," said Pope. "The administrative burden in dealing with them on a case by case basis is horrendous."
The National Archives is expecting huge interest in the release. "This is a subject that interests a vast number of people, believers, sceptics and agnostics. My understanding is that this is possibly the largest launch event they have done since the census," said Pope.
A similar release of UFO files by France's national space agency last year attracted more than 220,000 users on its first day, causing it to crash. To avoid such problems, the National Archives is using an external hosting company which can add extra capacity as needed to handle the web traffic.
The files consist of a variety of documents, including numerous individual sightings, accounts of investigations and briefings prepared by MoD staff for ministers on the subject. "There are a lot of conspiracy theories that have grown up about the military interest in UFOs. What we are getting to see in these papers are the actual facts," said Dr David Clarke, a lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, in a podcast prepared for the National Archives on the release.
"The vast majority of them are just ordinary people who have seen something unusual and thought that they ought to tell someone about it." In the great majority of cases, the MOD did very little if anything to follow them up.
At the more colourful end of the spectrum is a letter dated January 1985 from someone who claimed to have been in contact with aliens since he was seven. He said he had visited alien bases in Wirral and Cheshire and had observed a UFO being shot down next to Wallasey town hall. "As I was watching, the front end of the UFO hit the water, then the whole UFO disappeared leaving the water to splash, as if done by an invisible entity." He later tried to arrange a meeting between an alien called Algar and the British government, but said Algar had been killed by other aliens before the meeting could take place.
Other reports are more credible. At quarter past midnight on Christmas Day 1985, three police officers in Woking were surprised by a white light descending on the Horsell area. The officers were worried their report would not be taken seriously, because Horsell Common features in HG Wells's War of the Worlds as the place where the first Martians land. The account reads: "Genuine report. Two competent officers slightly embarrassed."
In another credible sighting, from September 5 1986, a civil pilot described a UFO that shot past his aircraft 1.5 nautical miles to its left. He speculated about whether it might have been a meteorite or a missile and then wrote: "If it's a missile, myself and my crew are not impressed."
The files include a damning verdict on the so-called Rendlesham Forest incident, an apparent UFO contact near an RAF base in Suffolk in 1980 which is often referred to as "Britain's Roswell", a reference to a famous UFO incident in the US.
In a briefing document, an MoD official wrote: "We believe the fact that Colonel Holt [the RAF base commander] did not report these occurrences to the MoD for almost two weeks after the event, together with the low-key manner in which he handled the matter, are indicative of the degree of importance in defence terms that should be attached to the incident."
Clarke said releasing the files was a good move. "The very fact that these documents are being released shows that there isn't a cover-up. It's a good move on the part of the Ministry of Defence to demonstrate what they know, which doesn't amount to much, on this subject," he said.
But Pope said that conspiracy theorists are unlikely to be satisfied. "If that's what people believe, absolutely nothing will dissuade them," he said. "If 100% of the UFO material from every nation on Earth was disclosed and there were no aliens, those that believe there are aliens would cry foul."
Close encounters
· Early on August 12 1983, a 77-year-old Aldershot man who was out fishing said he was contacted by the inhabitants of a flying saucer. Four feet high and wearing pale green overalls with helmets and black visors, they gave him a tour of their craft and told him: "You can go. You are too old and too infirm for our purpose."
· On August 5 1985, crop circles appeared in a wheatfield near Andover. An officer in the Army Air Corps investigated and reported his findings to the MoD. The officer said there were no tracks in the wheat: "To have set the holes in such a precise pattern manually would have required a tape measure or string, and the users would have been bound to leave tracks ... none of us could offer any reasonable explanation."
· On April 26 1984, two police in Edgware, north London, investigated a call from a 29-year-old woman who had seen lights in the sky. They watched the object for an hour with binoculars, describing it as circular with blue lights around the middle. "During that time it moved erratically from side to side, up and down and to and fro, not venturing far from the original position."
Link to this audio
James Randerson on the supposed UFO sitings recorded in government archives
By ANTONELLA LAZZERI
Published: 13 May 2008
UFOs hovering over Waterloo Bridge? Green men known as Elgar? This can only mean the British 'X-Files' have been opened up to the public for the first time.
The fascinating reports, taken so seriously they were documented by the Ministry of Defence, have been revealed after a Freedom of Information request by UFO researchers.
And, according to the files, the number of reports of UFOs doubled after the release of Steven Speilberg's sci-fi drama Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977.
Among the most sensational is the famous Rendlesham Forest case.
report from Lt.Col Charles Halt on 13th January 1981 tells how on the night of December 27th security patrolmen spotted odd lights above the forest.
they saw the lights plunge down and went to investigate.
In the forest they found a triangular shaped object 9ft long by 6ft high hovering above the ground.
Flashing lights
The object had a pulsing red light on top with blue lights underneath.
According to the patrolmen a white light coming from the UFO illuminated the whole forest.
The object suddenly took off and flew away. Other airmen on the base also saw the lights.
Investigators studying the site where the craft landed found three depressions in a triangular shape. A radar reading spiked at each depression.
Two nights later more lights were noticed.
Fiction ... but movie Close Encounters Of The Third Kind sparked UFO reportings
Lt.Col Halt's report states that a large red glow split into five separate white objects which hovered in the sky for two to three hours.
His investigations showed that there were no aircraft in the vicinity on the two nights which could account for the phenomenon.
MoD investigators also admit in the files that they could find no explanation for what was seen.
But their task was to ensure that the object was not some sort of spy craft.
Once that was done, investigation stopped and the sighting remains a mystery.
One of the strangest reports in the files is the case in Northumbria where 12 police officers say they saw a UFO in December 1981.
They all reported seeing an intense green light.
In the same month of the same year another policeman in Shropshire claimed to see a UFO hovering above Wolverhampton hospital.
He saw a two foot long, 18 inch wide object like an 'inverted meat dish' flying in the air.
The cop said the dish had an arm which descended from underneath it for about 18 inches.
Other mystery space craft seen flying over Wallasey Town Hall were also recorded by government officials.
One file reveals how easy it is for people to be fooled into thinking normal aircraft are flying saucers.
A group of drinkers at The Walnut Tree near Tunbridge Wells in 1982 reported seeing red and green flashing lights above the pub.
When the local bobby investigated what direction the lights appeared to be travelling he realised it was always towards Gatwick airport.
But other sightings were not so easy to dismiss.
In 1986 a pilot reported seeing a UFO object passing his aircraft just 1.5 nautical miles away.
In his report he states that if it was a missile, he and his crew were, "not impressed".
Two police officers also recorded a sighting of a UFO in April 1984.
The cops responded to a call from members of the public in Stanmore, Middlesex, claiming to have seen a flying saucer.
When they arrived at the scene the two cops saw a circular object, with a dome on the top and bottom, and multi-coloured lights.
Misidentification
Nick Pope, who worked for the MoD for 21 years investigating sightings said: "While there's no evidence of little green men in these files, they should be of immense interest to sceptics and believers.
"Most of the UFO sightings here are probably misidentifications of aircraft lights and meteors, but some are more difficult to explain, and include UFOs seen by police officers and pilots, and cases where UFOs have been tracked on radar."
In the first files released an MoD 1983 memo admits that their experts were sometimes baffled by the sightings saying: "The sole interest of the Ministry of Defence in UFO reports is to establish whether they reveal anything of defence interest (e.g intruding aircraft).
"The Ministry of Defence does not deny that there are strange things to see in the sky."
The memo goes on to say that much of what is seen may be space junk burning up in the atmosphere, unusual cloud formations and weather balloons.
It concludes that the MoD "certainly has no evidence that alien spacecraft have landed on this planet."
But many of the people who made the reports which feature in the files obviously feel that they have evidence.
The Waterloo Bridge UFO was seen by numerous people many of whom called police.
One man, acccording to the files, certainly belives he has seen little green men in the UK.
He claims he was visited frequently by an alien called Elgar who he says was killed by another race of beings in the 1980s.
He also claimed to have seen a space craft crash land near Wallasey Town Hall.
Dr David Clarke, journalism lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, was one of the people who campaigned for the release of the files.
He said: "It has taken 10 years of campaigning to get these papers out and now that they are it lays to rest some of the claims of a cover up by the MoD.
"Personally I think that some of the sightings have got to be of scientific interest. There are some that just cannot be explained."
Another 150 files are due to be released over the next four years.
Wednesday, September 15, 1999 Published at 18:29 GMT 19:29 UK UK UFO baffles aviation experts
An airline pilot said the UFO looked like a jet fighter
A UFO that narrowly avoided colliding with a passenger jet flying from London's Heathrow Airport has baffled aviation experts.
The metallic grey-coloured object was spotted by the pilots of an Oslo-bound McDonnell Douglas MD81 plane on 12 June 1998, and passed just 20-50 metres from them.
The captain said the object was the size of a small aircraft, while the co-pilot described it as a "bright light, very close".
Reporting to an air traffic controller, the captain said "a flare or something passed 20 feet from our aircraft", but nothing had been recorded on the radar screen.
Radar blank
The pilot later filed a near-miss report, known as an airprox, in which he said the object looked similar to a fighter.
But a report by the Civil Aviation Authority found no explanation for the incident, which has also confounded local military experts and local police.
"Air traffic controllers were certain that even a very small aircraft would have been detected, particularly on Heathrow radar," said the report.
Although the evidence of the unnamed airline's crew is considered to be reliable, the report notes that they only caught a brief glimpse of the object.
Fewer near-misses
The incident was included in a Civil Aviation Authority report, which found that dangerous aircraft near-misses fell to an all-time low last year.
It is the first report to include airprox incidents filed by both pilots and air traffic controllers.
The number of near-misses involving public transport flights per 100,000 flying hours in 1998 was 1.20, compared with 2.37 in 1997 and 2.87 in 1996.
Three-quarters of those misses were judged as having no actual risk of collision.
"The figures speak for themselves and show that more flying does not automatically mean more risk as a consequence," said Gordon McRobbie, director of the UK Airprox Board.
Chance miss
But he warned against complacency. "This report is aimed squarely at all pilots and air traffic controllers and I would encourage them to read about the incidents.
One of the most serious incidents listed involved two passenger jets, which avoided collision only by chance after a mistake by an overworked air traffic controller.
The incident happened near London's Stansted Airport on 14 August 1998, and involved a Stansted-to-Cork Ryanair Boeing 737 and a Dublin-to-Stansted Aer Lingus BAe 146.
Even when a collision alert flashed up, the controller was unsure what was happening and gave no instructions to the planes to take avoiding action.
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