Accounts of encounters with alleged space beings, along with sightings of alien craft are detailed in the release of the Ministry of Defence's papers concerning UFOs in the U.K. between the years 1978 to 1987.
The UK National Archives has released a number of Ministry of Defence files on UFO sightings, between the years 1978 to 1987. Photo: Purported 1952 shot of UFO, Passoria, New Jersey. Credit: Public Domain/CIA
Now available on the National Archives website, the papers reveal interviews with members of the public who claim to have seen UFOs shot down with one man's account of how he was allegedly released by aliens because he was, "...too old and too infirm for our purpose."
"The vast majority of them are just ordinary people who've seen something unusual and thought that they ought to tell someone about it," said David Clarke, a professor at Sheffield Hallam University and a UFO expert who worked with the National Archives to upload the files.
One report came from two police officers in London who witnessed a white spherical shaped object in 1984 which "...moved erratically from side to side, up and down and to and fro, not venturing far from its original position," the officers wrote.
The sighting was backed up by other sightings from the public and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) conducted an investigation into whether enemy aircraft has violated U.K. airspace, reported CNN.
A MoD statement said the Ministry did not continue the investigation once it had established that it was not a foreign aircraft.
"The Ministry of Defense has no other interest or role regarding UFO matters and does not consider questions regarding the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial life-forms," it said.
Also included in the release of files is a 1979 briefing for the government whip Lord Strabolgi, for use during a House of Lords debate on UFOs in the same year.
The briefing stated emphatically that "there is nothing to indicate that UFOlogy is anything but claptrap" and that the idea of an "inter-governmental conspiracy of silence" was "the most astonishing and the most flattering claim of all".
Tongue-in-cheek the briefing goes on, "Let me assure this House that Her Majesty's government has never been approached by people from outer space."
Nick Pope, a British UFO specialist, also says on the National Archives website that aircraft lights, bright stars and planets, satellites, meteors, or airships are most often confused with UFO sightings.
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