2017 UK UAP files release - the 1990 Tornado incident

Background

This is the fifth in a series of posts, drawn from material to be found in the 2017 release of UAP files by the United Kingdom government. As previously mentioned, I am not intending to provide a comprehensive catalogue of the contents of the files, I will leave UK researchers to do that. There are particular aspects of the files, namely certain documents, which have caught my attention, and this is what I am writing about. This post concerns a sighting by the pilot of a RAF Tornado aircraft on 5 November 1990, which at first glance, appears highly intriguing.

The report

Image courtesy of Google Maps

An 'unclassified' telex/teletype dated 6 November 1990 is to be found on file DEFE 24/3127/1 page 182. It is from RAF West Drayton to MODUK AIR, subject 'Aerial Phenomena.' It reads:

'A. 5 Nov 1990
B. One large aeroplane (shape). 5 to 6 white steady lights. 1 blue steady light. Contrails from blue area.
C. In the air. M.C. 6 area. Fl270 YPENBURG
D. Naked eye
E. Heading 100 degrees same alt Fl270
F. Into our 12 o'clock
G. One quarter mile ahead
H. Steady
J. N/k
K. N/k
L. Working Dutch Mill radar
M. [Redacted} 2 AC SQN
N. Nil
O. 2 others from Laarbruch
P. Other info. Aircraft was under Dutch mil control. UFO appeared in our right hand side same level. We were travelling at Mach point 8. It went into our 12 o'clock and accelerated away. Another 2 Tornadoes seen it and possible identified it as a stealth aircraft.'

More detail

On pages 171-174 of the same file, there is an expanded, more easy to understand summary of the sighting. This is included as part of a 'Loose Minute' dated 30 October 2000 to DAS4a1(Sec), responding to D/Sec(AS) 64/3/5 dated 25 Sep 00, titled 'Information on Air Defence matters.'

'3. A Tornado aircraft, probably one of a formation of 3GR1s, (1) was conducting a routine eastbound transit from an airfield in UK to Laarbruch in Germany during the evening of Monday 5 Nov. 19. The aircraft was following a standard TACAN route to join TACAN BLUE  6 at the Flight Information Region  (FIR) boundary at a military reporting point known as MC6. Shortly before reaching MC6 control of the aircraft was  transferred by the London Military air traffic controller at RAF West Drayton to his counterpart at Dutch Mil Radar in the Netherlands in accordance with standard procedure.

At 1800z, the time the aerial phenomena was observed, the aircraft was leaving UK airspace in the MC6 area at Flight Level 270 (FL270), heading 100 degrees at speed Mach 0.8.

The aircraft was overtaken on the right by an aircraft shaped object, displaying 5/6 steady white and one blue light, at the same altitude which then proceeded to its 12 o'clock position at a range of 440 yards. The probable route of the Tornado is shown on the map at Annex A. It is assumed that the aircraft was still in contact with West Drayton on this second radio and chose to report the incident to UK authorities rather than the Dutch.

4. The incident is unusual in that the aircraft chose to report the incident as an aerial phenomena rather than as  an Air Proximity Report (AirProx) to highlight the loss of standard separation between aircraft (at this altitude separation  should be 1,000 ft or 5 nautical miles). There is no record of an AirProx report being made on this date in the UK. It is not known, however, whether AirProx of Aerial Phenomena reports were filed with Dutch authorities.

At 1800z on 5 Nov it is dark both on the ground and at FL270. This explains the reference to lights and to  'one large aeroplane (shape)' rather than a more specific description which would be expected of a professional military observer. In these low light conditions, it is generally difficult to judge range and relative motion and it may well be that the aircraft captain had subsequently revised his appreciation of the incident and  decided not to take the major step of reporting an air proximity hazard. (2)  Significantly, had controllers at West Drayton or Dutch Mil witnessed a loss of standard separation on radar, they would have raised Air Prox Reports in their own right, this was certainly not done at West Drayton.

5. Finally, since the incident clearly involved one or more aircraft departing UK airspace, it is highly improbable that the situation generated any UK Air Defence interest....

8. The 3 Tornados on 5 Nov 00, were not air defence aircraft and were not on an operational mission. There is no evidence that the UK Air Defence radar network either did or did not detect the 'unknown.''

There were two notes which I have labelled as (1) and (2) above:

1. Air Defence Tornado F3s are unlikely to have been flying to Laarbruch.

2. GR's do not carry cameras. 'In addition, the GR1 radar at that time, designed for terrain following, had a very limited air to air capability...'

File DEFE 24/3128/1 page 18 contains a fully unredacted copy of the 6 November 1990 telex/teletype which shows that the reporting pilot was 'SQNLDR Garwood 2 AC SQN.'

An exceptional report?

From all of the above material, one could conclude that something rather unusual had been flying past the Tornados that night, over the North Sea. However, a number of the details rang alarm bells for me and I went off to search for additional information.

In 2009, and then again in 2011, the story hit the media, which conveyed additional details. This reported that there was no radar detection by the Dutch military, nor by the Tornado crew of two.
However, it was on the blog written by UK researcher, Dr David Clarke, that I found an answer.

In a 2009 blog post about the third release of UK UAP files, Clarke wrote that there were documents on files DEFE 31/180:180-182 about this sighting. Later, he wrote:

'It later emerged that the RAF Tornado pilots had actually seen burning debris from a Soviet rocket body, used to launch a satellite into orbit, that fell back to earth, re-entering the atmosphere in a spectacular light show over Central Europe. A re-investigation into the incident during 2005 by Dutch researchers - plus a recording of the discussion between the pilots and Dutch ground controllers - can be found here.' (KB - unfortunately the link provided, is now broken.)

Additional sources of information

I then went to a website run by Ted Molczan which contains a record of visually observed satellite re-entries and there it was. At 1800z on 5 November 1990, object 1990-094c, a Russian Gorizont 21 rocket, had been observed re-entering the earth's atmosphere over Belgium, France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland and Italy. Notably, there were no observations from the UK.

The data base of the French government research group, GEIPAN also contained sightings of the re-eentry. 

http://www.cnes-geipan.fr/index.php?id=202&L=1&cas=1990-11-01225

Further sources and discussion

I wish to thank Wim Van Utrecht, a researcher from Belgium, for providing me with links to other sources of both information, discussion and analysis of this event. For anyone interested in reading more, here are those links.

1. Discussion and analysis by US researcher, James Oberg.

2. A thread on the website, Above Top Secret.

3. A discussion by French researchers.

4. Some of the relevant documents from previous UK file releases.

A lesson to be learned

This incident is a perfect reminder that at night, it is extremely difficult for even trained professionals, such as aircraft pilots, to gauge the distance of objects seen in the sky. Secondly, that if someone simply came across the data on this incident in the UK files, and published only this, then the observation would seem to have been of some 'unknown' object. Thirdly, the UK files present only one observation. Once we have access to multiple others, spread across several countries, then the total picture of a re-entering object emerges. 

2017 UK UAP files release - Defence Intelligence interests

Background

This is the fourth in my series of posts based on material from the 2017 United Kingdom UAP files release. The UK National Archives advised that they would not be uploaded these files to their website, unlike previous releases. In addition, as the Archives require payment for the use of images of these documents, if they are placed on a website; I have chosen not to provide such images in my series of posts.

Introduction to this post

Various UK defence intelligence units within the Ministry of Defence (MOD) were on the distribution lists for incoming UAP reports. However, published analyses of the raw data, are few and far between.

An exception

One notable exception is to be found on file DEFE 24/3126/1 titled "Space Debris Impacts in Scotland/NE England on 23 September 1997.' It is a Scientific and Technical Memorandum - No. D/D150/97/17, and originally marked 'UK Restricted.'

The report, 12 pages in length, is an in-depth analysis of reported sightings over a wide area of the northern UK on 23 September 1997.

Between 0700 and 1000 zulu (UTC - the old GMT) on the morning of 23 September 1997, there were at least 15 sightings reported to ARCC Kinross. Individual reports cited the possibility of an aircraft crash; flares; a flash in the sky; and an explosion.

Reports came from people on the ground and from crews of aircraft in flight. Included in these observations were reports of a 'number of possible impacts.'

After initial suggestions of a crashed aircraft were eliminated; the Royal Observatory Scotland, suggested that a high altitude bolide (bright meteor) might account for the observations. Shock waves were detected by the British Geological Survey, before 0930z, near the Moray Firth.

The report, noted that a bolide 'does not account for all the observations reported to the police...' In addition, two of the observations from aircrews were one hour apart. The report then examined the possibility of more than one bolide being seen. However, it finally discounts the bolide hypothesis.

The final suggestion was that the entire group of sightings was due to the re-entry into the atmosphere of  fragments of the Russian satellite Cosmos 2343, which had been launched into a low earth orbit on 15 May 1997. Destruction in orbit on 16 September 1997 had left 50 smaller pieces. The report concludes that fragments of Cosmos 2343 were the most likely cause of the 23 September 1997 sightings.

My comments

1. As I mentioned, it is rare to see such an analysis from a defence intelligence area of the UK MOD. The distribution list for this report (90 copies) makes for interesting reading and includes D151; D152 and D157.

2. I examined the suggested cause, and found relevant data in the publication titled 'History of on-orbit satellite fragmentations' 13th edition, NASA, 2004.  Based on the raw data provided at the beginning of the UK MOD report, I agree with the report's assessment.

3. My former co-blogger, Pauline Wilson, wrote two fascinating blog posts about the interest of the United Kingdom; Australia; and New Zealand's defence intelligence agencies, and UAPs. These may be read here and here.

4. What is interesting, is that the focus of each of the UK, NZ and Australian defence intelligence areas, was said to be the national security interests of their respective countries. Each stated that, they had no scientific interest in UAP reports. Not withstanding these statements, the UK UAP files do contain some reports which seemed deserving of a follow up and analysis. I will simply give a couple of examples:

a. DEFE 24/2821/1, titled 'Air Traffic Control Low flying UFOs' has this report.

On Saturday 24 October 1992, at 2015hrs local time, a motor bike rider, was travelling on the A352 near Owermoigne, Dorset. The witness reported that in a clear sky, an object came down from above and travelled alongside the motorbike for 100 yards, then shot off into the sky. It was described as a yellow/orange 'bright blob.' The duration of the sighting was about 30 seconds. The witness was sufficiently intrigues as to report the incident to local police.

b. DEFE 24/2822/1 titled 'Air Traffic Control Low flying UFOs' has the following.

On 24 January 1995 at 1715hrs local time, two aircraft, travelling north west of Mintlaw, 'were shadowed' by a constant, faint white light at the apparent same altitude and speed as the aircraft. The light reportedly climbed and descended around the lead aircraft, then made a sharp climb and dive. It returned to the same altitude as the aircraft, then disappeared into cloud.

Even though these are not 'classic' UFO cases, they still seem to have been worthy of further attention, even if they ultimately were found to be caused by a rare atmospheric phenomenon.