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UFO files reveal ‘Rendlesham incident’ papers missing
A holidaymaker' s photo of an "airburst" in Sri Lanka was sent to the MoD, the files showIntelligence papers on a reported UFO sighting known as the "Rendlesham incident" have gone missing, files from the National Archives reveal.
The missing files relate to a report of mysterious lights from US servicemen at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk in 1980.
The disappearance came to light with the release of 8,000 previously classified documents on UFOs.
Officials found a "huge" gap where defence intelligence files relating to the case should be, the papers show.
Russian rocket
The documents are the latest MoD files on UFOs released into the National Archives which will be free to access on its website for a month.
Photographs and sketches of UFOs made by members of the public are included, as well as their eyewitness reports.
Among the documents is testimony from an airline pilot and his son who say they spent five minutes watching an object made up of three circles fly past their garden in Hellingly, East Sussex.
The pilot reported it to Air Traffic Control in West Drayton, and an official labelled his sighting as one by "a credible witness".
But another defence official later wrote a memo saying the report "contains nothing of air defence significance".
More attention is given to the crew of an RAF Tornado who encountered an object the size of a C130 Hercules transport aircraft while flying over the North Sea in 1990.
The pilot describes flying at Mach 0.8 but being overtaken by an aircraft the like of which he had never seen before.
He talks about lights and even "an engine area" but the files also show how a possible explanation emerges – a Russian rocket booster was re-entering the earth's atmosphere on that same night.
There is also a report from a London man who believed he may have been abducted by aliens.
Minister's request
The files reveal that key documentation relating to the Rendlesham Forest incident has disappeared.
Some UFO researchers believe the episode, which happened over two nights in 1980 is a classic example of a "close encounter".
