Lightning XS894 – Still a UFO mystery

Several pilots have lost their lives when trying to intercept UFOs, Capt Mantell being probably the most famous. The following incident is very interesting for several reasons, primarily because the UFO element of the incident is blatantly ignored by the MoD, who prefer to focus their investigation on alleged pilot error. Why this is now returning to the attention of some UFOlogists is that the files relating to this incident have been released in the latest batch of UFO related files (released March 2009). The file contains the official report by the MoD, a lot of newspaper reports and some letters from a variety of UFOlogists and UFO organisations requesting information. But first, let us see how this business began…

  It is September 8^th, 1970, we are in the depth of the Cold War and tensions are high on both sides. Saxa Vord was a radar station based on the Shetland Islands whose primary function was to spot unidentified craft approaching the North Sea. Around this time Russian bombers made regular, unauthorised flights along the British coastline (or as near as they could get) to test the RAF and NATO defences. It was a constant game of ‘Cat and Mouse’.  This particular night, a radar operator detected an unidentified aircraft halfway between the Shetland Islands and Alesund, Norway. The object was tracked and held steady at a speed of 630mph at 37,000ft and on a south-west trajectory. Suddenly the object turned 30 degrees to head South and accelerated to 980mph (Mach 1.25) and climbed to 41,000ft. As per procedure a scramble message was despatched to the nearest NATO airfield which was RAF Leuchars. Within several minutes two Lightning interceptors were in the air homing in on the object, which they were expecting to be a Russian jet. Then the object performed a manoeuvre that astounded the radar operators. The object, which until now had been performing within the range expected of a Russian plane, now turned through 180 degrees and disappeared to the North at a speed calculated at 17,400mph.

 Despite the sudden disappearance of the object the two Lightning jets stayed airborne and over the next hour the object returned from the North and the Lightning interceptors would turn to approach the object, which would then retreat in the usual manner. Now the chase was joined by two F4 Phantoms scrambled from the USAF base at Keflavek in Iceland. The radar onboard the Phantoms was quite sophisticated and was able to detect the object. But when the Phantoms attempted to give chase the object effortlessly disappeared at high speed, leaving the Phantoms helpless. It was at this point NATO Commanders were becoming concerned and the situation was being monitored at the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) at Fylingdales. It was also being tracked by a second BMEWS in Greenland. The information being gathered by all these different stations was now being relayed to NORAD, deep in the Cheyenne Mountain.

 Meanwhile the game of chase was still taking place, until around 9pm when the object seemed to vanish completely. The Lightning interceptors were ordered to return to base while the Phantoms were ordered to patrol off the Icelandic East coast. Approximately 40 minutes later radar operators detected the object again. This time the object was travelling at a more leisurely 1,300mph, well within the range of both Lightnings and Phantoms. Two Lightnings were scrambled again from  RAF Leuchars, with another two being scrambled from Coltishall, Norfolk. Unbeknown to those already taking part in the chase Strategic Air Command HQ at Omaha, Nebraska was ordering its B52 bombers to get airborne. Things were escalating quickly.

 NORAD were now informed by Pentagon officials that USAF pilot Captain William Schafer was currently on secondment at RAF Binbrook. Captain Schafer was considered a very experienced and capable pilot, he was a Vietnam veteran, and a request was made by a ‘high-level source’ through Strike Command HQ at High Wycombe for Captain Schafer to get airborne and join in the chase of the mystery object. Luck was with NORAD as Captain Schafer was on-base and could be airborne within minutes.

 By this time, the planes already in the air were joined by a Shackleton Mk3 from Kinloss. The other Lightnings at RAF Binbrook were not scrambled, only Capt. Schafer was scrambled and within minutes was in the air. According to newspaper reports at the time Capt Schafer ignored the usual pre-flight checks and got airborne as quickly as he could.

 Now the object was also being tracked by radar at Staxton Wold, just outside Scarborough. The object was now flying 90 miles off the East coast at approximately 530mph and at only 6,000ft. Ground crew were confident that the object could now be intercepted by Capt Schafer. The following is considered the most accurate transcript on the conversation between Schafer and the radar station at Staxton Wold and was reported in the Grimsby Evening Telegraph on October 10, 1992.

 

Schafer: I have visual contact, repeat visual contact. Over

Staxton: Can you identify aircraft type?

Schafer: Negative, nothing recognisable, there is no clear outline.  There is blue-ish lights,  hell, that’s bright… very bright

Staxton: Are your instruments functioning, 94? Check compass, over.

Schafer: Affirmitive…I’m alongside it now, maybe 600ft off my… It’s a conical shape. Jeez, that’s bright, it hurts my eyes to look at it for more than a few seconds.

Staxton: How close are you now?

Schafer: About 400ft, he’s still in my 3 o’clock. Hey, wait… there’s something else, it’s like a large soccer ball… it’s like it’s made of glass.

Staxton: Is it part of the object or independent? Over.

Schafer: It … no, it’s separate from the main body… the conical shape… it’s at the back end, the sharp end of the shape, it’s like bobbing up and down and going from side to side slowly. It may be the power source. There’s no sign of ballistics.

Staxton: Is there any sign of occupation? Over

Schafer: Negative, nothing.

Staxton: Can you assess the rate…?

Schafer: Contact in descent, gentle.  Am going with it …50, no about 70ft… it’s levelled out again…

Staxton: Is the ball object still with it? Over.

Schafer: Affirmative… it’s not actually connected… maybe a magnetic attraction to the conical shape. There’s a haze of light. Ye’ow… it’s within that haze. Wait a second, it’s turning… coming straight for me… shit… am taking evasive action… a few … I can…

Staxton: 94? Come in 94. Foxtrot 94, are you receiving me? Over? Come in ’94. Over.

 

The wreckage of Capt. Schafer’s aircraft was recovered a month later from the seabed but Capt Schafer’s body was never recovered. It was normal practice to take the wreckage of a downed craft to the MoDs Crash Investigation Branch at Farnborough but this was not the case with Schafer’s aircraft. The aircraft was returned to RAF Binbrook where it was kept out of sight by a series of shutters in the far corner of one of the Hangars. Normally press photographers got to photograph the wreckage of downed craft, and as there were regular crashes they were used to this, but Schafer’s wreckage seemed to be moved with maximum security and photographs were definitely not permitted. When aircrash investigators arrived from Farnborough to start a report on the incident they were surprised to find that many of the aircrafts instrumentation had already been removed. Missing was the compass, voltmeter, direction indicator and the complete auxiliary warning panel from the starboard side of the cockpit below the voltmeter.  The investigators were assured these items would be returned but they never were.

 The investigators were also wary of the ejector seat, they believed it was not the one that Schafer took off in. They felt that there was something wrong with it, but they were told by the Squadron Officer that this was the original seat, but still the investigators do not believe this was the case. During the examination by the aircrash investigators they also noted an unusual smell within the cockpit and the craft having an unusual ‘slimy’ feel to it. Throughout their very brief time with the aircraft they were supervised at all times by 5 un-named civilians, two of whom were American.

 The following day the investigators were rounded up and informed that under no circumstances were they to discuss anything to do with the crash of Schafer’s aircraft. The reason quoted was ‘national security’.

 The report that was compiled by the MoD as to the circumstances of the crash varies wildly with the events reported. The MoD claim that Captain Schafer was involved in a tactical exercise whereby he was instructed to intercept an aircraft. The MoD claim that Schafer was meant to be intercepting a Shackleton Mk3 but was initially unaware of the type of craft he was meant to intercept. But Schafer, when he makes contact with the object describes something very unlike an airplane. He describes a conical object and a ball shaped object. He is also only several hundred feet away and surely his wealth of experience as a pilot would give credence to what he was actually seeing? Was he really likely to make such a mistake in regards to identifying an aircraft, especially at this short distance?

 The MoD also state that the crash occurred because of Schafer’s lack of experience in flying this type of craft, and in the report state that “The MRS Chief Controller had appreciated that this was a difficult interception, and had monitored the latter stages very closely”. If Schafer was not experienced enough to fly this craft in such an exercise why was he there? Why was he involved in such a “difficult interception” if he was so inexperienced? The MoD also claim that his ejector seat failed to deploy properly which would indicate the reason why the canopy was still attached (but open) when the wreckage was recovered. The report indicates that negligence was the reason the ejector seat failed to deploy, but the Corporal implicated was ‘excusably negligent’.

 

What is surprising that the two sides of the story seem so very much at odds with each other. On one side we have the MoD’s claims that Schafer was involved in a tactical exercise that went horribly wrong. Whereas the other intimates that Schafer was involved in chasing a UFO and died as a result of that crash. The MoD report also fails to mention the object initially detected by the radar operators.

 

The file released lacks anything else to give us direction so a lot of detective work is still involved, but this case is very important for a number of reasons as we shall discuss later. But again, the lack of documentation and the aircrash investigation being manipulated show that there are unseen forces keeping this phenomena in check.

Tim Good Interview…

In regards to my previous post on the MoD DI discovering ’someone’ talking about UFOs on Radio 1, I have discovered that the someone was in fact Timothy Good, and this interview is actually online. I haven’t listened to it yet, I will save that guilty pleasure for later…

http://www.nickycampbellatradioone.co.uk/ufo.htm

Also taking part is Bob Oeschler, this part of the interview is on youtube

Enjoy

Soil analysis and investigations of the airwaves

In the release of the MoDs UFO reports, there is very little of value. As previously stated it is no more than a collection of sightings and various other bits and pieces. Occasionally there are some pages that raise a few questions, and two interesting questions appear in file defe-31-180. Firstly, a woman has sent in some soil for analysis (page 203 in the file), she also witnessed a UFO according to the note in the file. We can therefore assume she saw a UFO close to the ground or landed and sent a soil sample in. The MoD, as highlighted in the note, do not even know whether they have responded. (I would have thought looking through the file would answer that question – but obviously that would be too simple). So where did this soil sample go to? It has disappeared into the evidence black hole, never to be seen again. I can assume that it has been sent off to be analysed, and we will not hear of it again otherwise the results would be in the file. It was the same with the RAF Harrier’s photographed with a large diamond shaped object. The pictures simply ‘disappeared’. I believe this is more evidence of the department within the department. (See previous blogs – ad naseum).

Meanwhile on page 201 of the same file, a newly recruited DI is relaxing in a hotel room when he begins to listen to the Nicky Campbell show on Radio 1, (the show was broadcast 19th June 1991), and is amazed to hear an interview with someone (who it is, is edited out under Section 40 of the FOIA) who explains that:

1) The interviewee was aware that alien craft had been visiting Earth and that top officials in Whitehall were aware of this and it was “[the] most sensitive area of UK intelligence of all time”

2) Sources made him [the interviewee] aware of MoD Intelligence based in Northumberland Avenue, using Room 801 to work on this topic (This is a confirmed fact that I have had discovered via the FOIA)

 3) There had been reverse engineering of downed UFO craft according to an ex-NASA physicist.

4) There was video footage of them [UFOs] in the Nevada desert.

5) The USA have a Black Budget to deal with the situation. Ex-president George Bush (senior) had seen these craft

Our man in the MoD is new to DI (defence intelligence) but feels this is all important information and make detailed notes, decides not to ring this in, but takes a taxi (which he claims he may put on his expenses) to somewhere (not revealed in his report) and reports his findings to a Squadron Leader [name edited under Section 40], who is “unconcerned” and will pass it to the day shift.

The following page has a statement in response to the report: “I think it would be prudent to obtain a transcript of the interview in order to verify/correct the foregoing for accuracy. I guess then its down to considering whether there is a justification for the security services to take the matter further in regards to what has been broadcast”.

Excuse me? I thought the MoD/DI55 all thought this UFO stuff was just a load of nonsense, not of defence significance? Yet something obviously peaked this newbies interest, and somebody somewhere decided to double check exactly what has been said and if necessary get the security services to investigate.

Funnily enough the piece of paper that responds to the report has no heading, no contact details, no department number. Nothing other than the text. Transparent government? Don’t make me laugh. What is also interesting is the “verify/correct the forgoing for accuracy”. How can you check all these claims for “accuracy”? How do you “correct” these claims? If you look at the files released by the MoD, they do contain a lot of information culled from the media, how this got into these files is not always clear. For example, within file defe-31-181 there is a copy of the MUFON symposium featuring a reappraisal of the Area 51 claims made by Bob Lazarr. There are press articles about the secret plane ‘Aurora’. But this report is evidential that the MoD do take an interest in anything broadcast about the UFO phenomena. And if the UFO Desk are doing it, you can bet the hidden UFO department does the same. What is also interesting is the correct information about Room 801 in Northumberland Avenue (in the Metropole Building) being the central clearing house for UFO information within Whitehall. I am unsure that back in 1991 whether this was common knowledge within the UFO field. But the person being interviewed obviously had access to some inside information.

D-notices – UFOs – Crop Circle debunking in an easily deniable form and Nick Pope; strings still being pulled…

One of the more interesting facets of Colin Andrew’s ‘Operation Blackbird’ was the D-notice served to Swindon’s GWR station, preventing a live broadcast from the operation. The broadcaster involved was Dave Barrett, who emailed Colin after the event and stated the validity of his claims. Despite several FOIA attempts by myself the MoD have claimed that no such D-notice was served, or rather they had no documentary evidence of that fact. Using the text of the email, provided by Colin himself, I wrote to Air-Vice Marshal Andrew Vallance, who is the secretary of the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee. The committee is responsible for monitoring the DA Notices within the UK. (They used to be referred to as D-Notices but now re-titled to DA notices.) The committee is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) but the committee try to be as open as possible to avoid claims of cover-up.

In his response to my enquiry of the aforementioned D-notice, Mr Vallance is quite dismissive; “The phrase ‘slap a D-notice on it’ is commonly used by the media with great carelessness and to cover a multitude of circumstances. Claims such as that made by Dave Barrett carry no weight unless they can be supported by some form of documentary evidence”. So the committee denies any D-notice was ever served, or rather, no evidence of it exists. There is a subtle difference. So has Dave Barrett lied? Unlikely, he stands to gain nothing by concocting such a claim. He is not involved in the crop circle phenomena as such, so gains absolutely nothing. We can look at the definite facts: for some reason the live broadcast from Operation Blackbird was cancelled. Swindon’s GWR dedicated resources to this live broadcast so something significant would need to happen to cancel this live broadcast.

What this really points to is that someone, somewhere can use the power of the D-notice to cancel coverage of the crop circle phenomena, and can do it in a way that leaves no paper-trail or subjects anyone to any level of accountability for their actions. Again, the hidden-hand, the inner circle, the nameless ones, who can control situations with impunity, flex their muscle.

What this also highlights is that the MoDs ‘UFO desk’ is just a mickey-mouse public front that does not have any idea of the true scale of the UFO/Crop Circle phenomena. This also highlights the ‘expert’ status of the former MoD staff member Nick Pope. Nick had access to all the files that are currently being released by the MoD, and Nick claims no such D-notice was issued, so he has no knowledge of these inner workings and therefore we have to question why he still seems to publicise the official version of events when others such as Colin Andrews can blow huge holes in the ‘official story’.

When I made a FOIA request to the MoD as to the extent of Nick Pope’s role, the response was that Nick’s general role was to “answer parliamentary enquiries, and correspond with members of the public on matters to do with UFOs,” I believe that Nick’s role was to front this public face of the MoD UFO desk, and broadly knows no-more than what is being released by the MoD anyway. Once all these files are released we will all know what Nick knows or had access to. The media views Nick as some expert and is regularly consulted, but his knowledge on what the MoD knows is very limited, so thus the information he provides the media with still toes the MoD line, he continues to do what he did for the MoD. And he generally plays down the MoD involvement with UFOs and Crop Circles. I have always been doubtful of ‘game-keepers turned poachers’, and I consider the media’s continual courting of Nick rather than other researchers part of the conspiracy of silence.

 The files being released are an attempt to fool the public, but as I have written and lectured on previously, the evidence of an inner-circle manipulating anything to do with UFOs and Crop Circles within the MoD is over whelming. The D-notice issue is not over yet, nobody is that good at continually covering their tracks, and I will shortly show, through ‘their’ mistake, that the D-notice was indeed issued. Stay tuned…

UFOs and Free Clogs

As we may or may not be aware, the majority of the information in the recently released MoD UFO files is just a vast collection of sightings made by the general public. Generally it makes for uninteresting reading. Occasionally you may come across an interesting little item such as the Harrier jets and UFO picture or this little gem from file ‘defe-31-180’ page 157.

 

A UFOlogist has requested information from the MoD about an incident where six RAF Tornado jets were overtaken by a UFO while on exercise in Germany on 5^th November 1990. The exercise was being controlled by Dutch radar. An internal document reads as follows:

 

 

“1. In the light of our recent meeting, the points raised and discussed, I believe any further information made available to [edited under Section 40] would only add fuel to the fire.”

 

So basically the MoD are going to limit the information given as they feel it may, as they put it, add fuel to the fire. Then:

 

“2. Clearly the incident happened, and clearly the pilots saw what they believe (with hindsight) to be a stealth aircraft. I doubt very much if the United States or even the Soviet Air Force (if they were flying) would admit to anything”

 

Actually the ‘official’ story was the pilots witnessed re-entry burn-up of a Soviet satellite. Easy mistake to make I am sure. Then they finish off with:

 

“3. I therefore agree with GE 3 Wg Cdr [edited under Section 40] the only way ahead for the good [edited under Section40] is probably with the Dutch MoD. However, I am sure that our Dutch allies will not be sending us any free clogs for some time to come of we add our blessing to them being introduced semi-officially to one of our regular UFO problems.”

 

I like the free clogs bit, nothing like a little racial generalisation, but I particularly enjoy the last bit, the UFOlogist being branded one of their ‘regular UFO problems’.

More crop circles arrive

Very early in the year, but here they are…

http://andypotter.com/news/update-on-new-crop-circle-all-cannings-6th-may-2009

Sighting of white object in Pewsey Wilts

Hi I would just like to report that my husband Tom was on his way to work this morning in Pewsey Wiltshire when he observed a bright white light hovering over a field. He said at arms length the object was the size of a 10 pence piece. He watched it then he blinked and it was gone. He phoned me very excited at 8am on friday 1st May 2009.
 
He said it was approximately 100 feet in the air over a field of grass. If anyone else has seen this lately we would love to hear from you.
 
Thanks Tom and Kerry Blower