5 of the most chilling British UFO sightings in history revealed
TALES of unidentified flying objects have always shaken up conspiracy theorists and, in the spirit of the X-Files, we’ve rounded up the top five British sightings which sent shivers down our spine.
1) Not the whole picture... Photos plundered
In 1990, two hikers in the Scottish Highlands were startled when a huge diamond-shaped object appeared in the air, where it hovered for 10 minutes before shooting off into the sky.
Whilst most UFO ‘sightings’ lack convincing photo evidence, these savvy spotters managed to snap the mysterious craft.
A series of 6 colour photos showed the 25-metre metallic craft with an RAF jet in pursuit, and the pictures were said to be the best ever evidence of UFO activity.
Of course, these snaps ended up in the hands of government officials, but Nick Pope, an MoD employee charged with logging UFO sightings, said a blown-up image was removed suspiciously from his office.
He said: “It was the best UFO photo we ever received... intelligence personnel came to the conclusion that these photographs are real – it’s a solid craft and no-one has the faintest idea what it is.”
He claims this was part of an internal cover-up, but he was told by officials there was no record of the original photos when he pressed them.
2) Was a UK UFO sighting ‘covered up’?
In December 1980, two members of a US security patrol at an Air Force base in Suffolk went to investigate a suspicious light in nearby Rendlesham Forest.
One of the men, Jim Penniston, claimed he saw a strange craft in the woods.
“I estimated it to be about three metres tall and about three metres wide at the base,” he said. “I walked right up to it. I noticed the fabric of the shell was more like a smooth, opaque, black glass.”
The object then apparently vanished, but other staff at the base noticed some strange sights over the next few days.
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt described a hovering object and “a beam coming down to the ground”, whilst other guards investigating another supposed UFO landing in the forest were warned away by shadowy military personnel.
Whilst the official investigation said the sightings were due to a lighthouse, Halt, now, 75, claims he obtained reports saying local radio operators did log a mystery craft.
He believes he was part of a serious UFO cover-up.
3) Copper nicked by aliens
Former British cop Alan Godfrey believes he was the victim of an alien abduction when he was on a night patrol in November 1980.
The respected policeman was suddenly startled by a brightly lit craft on the road in front of him, which he claimed was “the size of a bus.”
The UFO was 14ft tall, rotating and hovering five feet above the ground, but when the creeped-out cop tried to radio for help, Pc Godfrey found his device was dead.
The next thing remembered was driving along the road again 30 yards beyond the point where he was stopped.
He found he couldn’t remember the 15-minute period after spotting the craft, and filed an official report when other officers and a lorry driver saw similarly strange lights in the same area as his encounter.
Under hypnosis, the policeman later recalled seeing small beings on the UFO, as well as a figure who conducted medical tests on him. Pc Godfrey said: “This was a solid craft, not a trick of the mind.
“I would swear on the Bible it was from somewhere else."
4) The mysterious ‘Dudley Dorito’
A black triangular UFO spotted several times over the Midlands has been dubbed the ‘Dudley Dorito.’
In 2008, the craft was snapped over Dudley, with a report following in 2010 that a triangular craft “four or five time bigger than a plane” had been spotted in the region.
And, mere weeks later, 21-year-old quality inspector Minuesh Mistry saw a similar craft hovering above his home in Tipton.
He said: “Me and my closest friend saw an amazing fast-moving and silent craft in the shape of a triangle made up of what appeared to be three lights fly across the sky at a mind-boggling speed.”
Officials dismissed the reports as likely to be caused by “supernormal atmospheric plasma phenomenon”.
A shocked jumbo jet pilot was left fearing for his life after a near-miss with a UFO in July 2013.
His aircraft was flying over Berkshire at 34,000ft when the cabin crew spotted a strange object hurtling towards his port side window.
In the last moment, the “bright silver rugby ball-shaped” craft allegedly vanished into thin air as quickly as it appeared.
The panicked pilot radioed air traffic control, but radar came up blank – as did military scanners when an official report into the sighting was launched.
The investigation concluded it was “not possible to trace the object or determine the likely cause of the sighting.”
