UFO News

Once upon a time there was a boy, let us call him Moonlight, who loved nothing more than a good UFO story. In fact, it wouldn't be going too far if I was to say UFOs were the centre of his interest in the unusual and the paranormal. Then one day he changed and, whilst his interest in zoology allowed his cryptozoological interests to flourish, his declining interest in the X-Files lead his interest in UFOs to reach rock bottom. Eventually he became cynical and rather uncharitable towards those who continued to believe in UFOs. In fact he thought most of them were a little bit bonkers (Louis Theroux's show was the nail in the coffin when he found himself hunting aliens in the desert in the USA with a mind powered gun...)

To be honest I still recoil at stories of UFOs, alien encounters or any other related phenomena as my brain simply refuses to put up with of the craziness. I was listening to a podcast about star children today and found myself wanting to scream out "YOU ARE ALL INSANE" but thought that as I was on a rather crowded train this might not be the best idea...

But I am being somewhat unfair, I'd much rather share a pint with a ufologist than with a fundamentalist Christian (not to say that if a fundamentalist Christian were to offer me a pint I'd say no, I wouldn't... I'd say yes, hint hint hint...)

Anyway... yesterday brought us more news of UFO sightings over the United Kingdom! Woo, I hear you cry! Don't get too excited, this is just old reports finally being released to the public. But they are quite interesting in themselves. Yahoo has a good report on the story, including this about an encounter involving an Italian jet flying over... Lydd, Kent (did you think I'd go four posts in a row without mentioning Kent! As if!)

Documents show the McDonnell Douglas MD80 aircraft was en route from Milan to Heathrow at 22,000ft with 57 people on board when pilot Achille Zaghetti saw the strange object 1,000ft above him.

He recounted: "At once I said, 'look out, look out,' to my co-pilot, who looked out and saw what I had seen.

"As soon as the object crossed us I asked to the ACC (area control centre) operator if he saw something on his screen and he answered 'I see an unknown target 10nm (nautical miles) behind you'."

It goes on:

The files show that Southern TV broadcast a story about a 14-year-old boy who reported seeing a missile flying at low level before climbing through the cloud and disappearing on the same evening.

An unnamed Whitehall official wrote: "It is our intention to treat this sighting like that of any other Unidentified Flying Object and therefore we will not be undertaking any further investigation."

There were a number of other similar incidents recorded in the same year.

On June 17, 1991 four passengers onboard a Dan Air Boeing 737 saw a "wingless projectile" pass beneath the aircraft as it climbed from Gatwick Airport headed for Hamburg.

And on July 15 the pilot of a Britannia Airways 737 reported seeing a "small black lozenge-shaped object" travelling at speed as they approached Gatwick.

Included in the released files are some pictures detailing peoples sightings. One finally explains what is happening with a picture subtly labeled "solar-power geostationary satellite"...



That's no satellite!! That's a Tie-Fighter! No doubt the Emperor's advanced guard. Oh all those fools who labeled themselves Jedi's in all those censuses are going to feel mighty stupid when the purges begin... Ok this is unfair, let's see what the man who submitted this picture in 1986 says...

"I am subjected to mysterious happenings which can only occur with the use of an electromagnetic device," he wrote, enclosing this drawing. "By using high technological equipment I have been deliberately introduced to form of radio communication by which I am able to receive messages.”

Far more sane....

Anyway it is some quite interesting stuff, what are your thoughts on aliens, ufos and the like?