- While recently reorganizing many of my old UFO files,
I came across a whole batch of cases and reports that I had investigated
a number of years ago, but that I had never publicized. But upon reflection,
I feel that due to their content, a number of them are worth bringing to
the attention of the Phenomena readership.
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- Case 1:
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- Throughout the course of 1971, the British Ministry of
Defense, by its own admittance, received almost four hundred UFO reports
ñ a figure that remained unsurpassed until 1977. There are indications,
however, that it was not just the MoD that was undertaking investigations
into unidentified aerial activity during that year.
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- It was shortly after midnight on a Saturday night in
August 1971, and a courting couple in a car on the cliff-top at Joss Bay,
Broadstairs, Kent, had a close encounter of a kind that they certainly
did not anticipate when they drove to the site. According to Keith Young
and his girlfriend Linda Catt, the first thing that struck them as being
odd was a "glowing red ball" that could be seen over the Channel
and that was moving "at great speed" in their direction.
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- According to Young, "A huge glowing ball suddenly
appeared from the direction of the sea. It seemed to be making straight
for us. It seemed to be only a few feet away when there was an explosion.
It was a miracle that nobody was hurt." Indeed, local residents stated,
the explosion was heard at a distance of no less than three miles.
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- Interestingly, according to the Kentish Express newspaper,
a host of official bodies took note of what occurred: Kent police officers
visited the scene; the coast-guard launched an inquiry into shipping activity
at the time; and the Royal Air Force checked for any possible aircraft
movements. All drew a blank.
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- "In view of the mysterious nature of the incident
we can only log it as an unidentified flying object," said a police
spokesperson. But, in this case, there was another player too: the British
Atomic Energy Authority.
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- Further information obtained by the Kentish Express revealed
that the Atomic Energy Authority was launching "a full scale investigation"
that would possibly involve scientists from the Harwell facility inspecting
the scene of the encounter.
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- Whether or not Harwell did have a role to play in this
particular episode is still to this day unclear; however, the newspaper
learned further that in the days that followed the mysterious event, Atomic
Energy Authority personnel "were busy collecting statements from eye-witnesses"
in the vicinity.
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- The tone of the article suggested that the object might
have been some form of rare natural phenomenon (although it should be noted
that the AEA had ruled out lightning as the cause). What was perhaps the
most illuminating aspect of this case, however, was that the Kentish Express
discovered that the AEA had in its employ "officers with special responsibility"
who were mandated to conduct such investigations.
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- This, of course, raises an important question: how many
more incidents of a UFO nature was the Atomic Energy Authority involved
in? One? Ten? A hundred? The possibilities ñ and the implications
ñ are endless.
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- Case 2:
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- It was at approximately 8.30 p.m. on an autumn evening
in 1985 and a father and son were driving across the Cannock Chase (a densely
packed and huge forest that dominates Staffordshire, England) towards the
town of Rugeley, having visited the nearby town of Penkridge to purchase
a motorbike.
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- All was normal until they approached one particular area
of the Chase that the military uses as a shooting range. As they rounded
a bend in the road, both the father and son were shocked and amazed to
see sitting in the sky at a distance of around one hundred feet and at
a height of no more than one hundred and fifty feet, a large, black triangular-shaped
object that was lit up by a series of three lights attached to its underside.
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- They screeched the car to a halt, jumped out and stared
in awe at the incredible spectacle. For a moment, the object simply hung
there in utter silence above the silhouetted trees of the forest, and then
without warning shot away at an incredible speed. Both father and son looked
at each other and then raced back to the car and headed home to Rugeley.
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- On arriving, the father breathlessly telephoned Rugeley
Police Station to report what had occurred. Interestingly, the police responded
immediately and two uniformed officers arrived on the doorstep post-haste.
Detailed witness statements were taken from the two men who, significantly,
were informed by the officers: "You know, you should never have got
out of the car."
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- Precisely why this should have been the case was never
made clear; however, the police did admit that a report on their close
encounter would be forwarded to the Ministry of Defence for analysis.
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- To this day, no explanation has been forthcoming as to
why police at Rugeley responded with such speed to the report; however,
the possibility that the police action was prompted by other, similar reports
on the night at issue, or that the object was being test-flown by the military,
must be given some consideration.
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- Case 3:
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- In that same month, an equally curious and somewhat disconcerting
UFO event occurred at the aforementioned Staffordshire town of Penkridge.
In this particular case, the prime witness had previously served as a military
policeman with the British Army in Egypt.
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- At approximately 5.00 a.m. on a weekend morning and along
with a friend, the man in question had driven to Penkridge to take part
in a "duck-shoot" at a river that was situated on farmland at
Penkridge. All was normal until around 5.30 a.m.
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- Suddenly, the man caught sight of a light in the sky
that appeared to be moving in his direction and across the fields on the
opposite side of the river at a height of what he estimated to be approximately
three hundred feet.
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- He watched carefully and with mounting concern as the
light came to a complete halt above one particular field and proceeded
to fire a beam of light down to the ground. As it did so, the man was able
to see illuminated in the beam of the object a herd of cows that were blissfully
munching away on their breakfast of grass.
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- Astonished by what he was seeing, the man leapt to his
feet; as he did so, however, three smaller lights came out of the larger
one ñ two "swept off" and one, to his horror, headed straight
for him!
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- "Don't point your gun, whatever you do!" the
man told me he said to himself. And so what course of action did he take?
He made a run for it! Clearing a fence of not inconsiderable height, he
ran to his friend who was busy at the car and blurted out what he had seen.
Both decided to head back to the scene, but the lights had vanished. As
for the cows, they were still eating breakfast, seemingly oblivious to
all that had taken place.
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- The above-cases are just three of approximately 50 that
I found within some of my older files that have never seen the light of
day; however, they add an intriguing body of evidence to the collective
UFO mystery. From time to time, I'll post more of these to the site for
public consumption.
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