스코트랜드 1990년 > UFO 자료실

Sent by the Pentagon? ... this five-sided UFO had small green and red lights around
the outside, powerful 'headlights' and hovered despite not having any wings

The records also reveal PHOTOGRAPHS taken of a diamond-shaped UFO hovering next to an RAF jet in Scotland in 1990 were treated seriously by DI55.

Harrier jump jets were scrambled when the craft buzzed a tiny village near the hill-walking resort of Pitlochry, Perth and Kinross.

The photos were handed to a Scottish regional paper who forwarded them on to the MoD.

Gem of a spot ... diamond-shaped craft next to RAF plane

Experts concluded the aircraft was indeed a Harrier, but could not identify the UFO despite commissioning detailed line drawings.

Fearing there could be significant media interest, the MoD took the unusual step of briefing ministers about the sighting.

Other sketches on file show a shuttle-shaped craft and a pentagon, both illuminated by bright green and red spotlights.

Several of the DI55 documents cover reports of craft flying at hypersonic speeds - more than five times the speed of sound.

In 1992, two air traffic controllers at Heathrow reported a UFO shaped like an upside-down boomerang. It hovered and then flew steadily with the morning sun behind it, possibly to reduce chances of it being seen.

No firm conclusions were drawn in this case but DI55 suspected the US of trying to develop a high-speed plane without telling its allies.

The records also offer an insight into the 1970 death of US Air Force pilot William Schaffner.

Some UFO conspiracy theorists believe he was shot down in a duel with aliens over the North Sea while on an exchange trip at RAF Binbrook, Lincolnshire.

The files say the 28-year-old captain died in a flying accident when his Lightning plane clipped waves. Schaffner apparently drowned when the cockpit canopy failed to open due to poor maintenance.

The documents make NO mention of a 17,000mph UFO that some believe he was scrambled to intercept - or Schaffner's radio message that the rogue craft was "like a large soccer ball... made of glass".

But the records do contain information on a mistakenly released 1985 US Budget item of ?15million for "black aircraft production".

According to US magazine Aviation Week, this was part of a top secret ?.6billion project to develop a hypersonic plane called Aurora. DI55 simply seems to have taken this information as read and not properly investigated possible alien involvement.

In 1990, the crews of SIX RAF Tornado jets claimed to have been passed at high speed over Germany. Staff at RAF West Drayton, West London, concluded the sightings were: "Aerial phenomenon, possibly identified as a stealth aircraft."

The US was known to have developed bombers using so-called stealth technology that made the aircraft almost invisible to radar.

But a later report back-tracked and instead put it down to burning debris from a Soviet Union rocket used to launch a spy satellite.

A shuttle from space ... spotted in March 1988, the back of this shuttle-shaped craft was
illuminated by a set of lights. The largest were green and the smaller ones were red

Sheffield Hallam University lecturer David Clarke, author of Flying Saucers: A Social History of UFOlogy, said: "From suspected US Air Force spy planes to Russian rockets burning up in the atmosphere, these files show the many varied explanations for UFO reports submitted to the MoD.

"Making the material available allows us all to make an informed decision on the mystery of UFOs."

When considering the diamond-shaped UFO, the Harrier jet and the mysterious photographs, Dr Clarke said: "Many questions remain. Who was the photographer and how can we be sure his story was genuine?

"Why did the newspaper decide not to publish the photographs in 1990? If they really were taken on the date stated, why was the MoD unable to trace the origin of the Harriers shown in the print?

"All we have is the usual rather bland statement that the MoD decided the incident was unexplained but of no defence significance - case closed.

Lightning strike ... jet similar to the one flown by Schaffer

"I don't think there's any solid evidence that we have been visited by intelligent life - but I don't think you can rule it out."

"There are many examples of puzzling things, for example seen on military radars, that need investigating."

Some UFO mysteries do seem to have been cleared up by the DI55 documents.

A bright cigar-shaped object seen flying over East London in 1992 was "almost certainly" an airship advertising the soon-to-be-launched Ford Mondeo.

Dr Clarke said: "The MoD did not believe Britain was being visited by aliens but these files show they were obsessed with the fear that our closest ally was developing spy planes and keeping them secret from us."

The Government want us to believe the truth is now out there - but these cases prove there are plenty of UFO mysteries that remain unanswered.