"Plane spotting"

Dear readers

Adelaide is in the grips of a cold spell. Yesterday's minimum of 1 degree Celsius was a three year record.

Today's post concerns an article by English ufologist Jenny Randles which just appeared in the June 2011 issue of the English Fortean Times magazine (issue no 275, page 27.)

In the article Jenny takes a look at two previously unknown pilot encounters from the United Kingdom, which were discovered in the latest batch of UFO files released by the UK Ministry of Defence.

The first was on 28 August 2001 when a light aircraft pilot was flying over Cherry Valley, near Belfast. In clear sky, he reported seeing "...a large, circular white light moving silently and at high speed at an estimated height of 500 feet."

The second pilot encounter took place on 13 Aug 2005 from an Air France aircraft flying at 30,000 feet 10 miles west of Gatwick airport, near London, at 5.11pm. The object was travelling in front of the plane. The pilot adds that this sausage-like object was "...one-two metres long...and shaped like a 'yellow cylinder'."

Jenny then goes on to relate other aircraft observations she had investigated over the years.

Findings:

The 2001 observation was investigated by the Ministry of Defence which concluded"...nothing of any defence significance."

Jenny comments that "This is a useful insight, because it illustrates the futility of chasing major UFO secrets within the official files..."

At the end of the article Jenny writes "...makes us consider just what does or does not get documented when it comes to aviation source. How much more evidence exists 'out there,' but not on the official record?"

Comments:

I was taken, by Jenny's comments about the negative possibility of finding major UFO secrets in government files.

A previous post of mine (click here to view) looked at what the New Zealand, Australian and British government's defence intelligence agencies had said about UFOs. They all said that the UFO phenomenon had no defence implications. However, they also said that the UFO phenomenon deserved scientific study.