An unidentified flying object spotted over east Hull and Hedon by two police officers features in a raft of UFO documents released to the public today by The National Archives.
The 25 files, which contain 4,400 pages, include details of a lit object seen by Humberside Police officers in 2002.
Irregular patterns of light spotted in Withernsea are also featured in the files, along with a “purple and white pulsating jellyfish-like object” spotted by a member of the public above the North Yorkshire Moors.
The files are the 10th and final tranche of UFO files released by The National Archives. They cover the work carried out during the final two years of the Ministry of Defence (MoD)’s UFO desk, from late 2007 until November 2009.
They include details of Government policy, official correspondence with senior ministers and the handling of the largest ever number of UFO sighting reports received since 1978 - the year the film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” was released.
The files contain accounts of alleged abductions and contact with aliens, as well as details of UFO sightings near UK landmarks.
Included is a report about a lit object in the sky seen by two Humberside Police officers.
A Humberside Police report dated October 17, 2002, details how officers saw an object which “appeared as the size of a ‘normal’ bright star but of different colours – blue, green, red and white”.
The object “appeared to move fast and then stop – it stopped and started on a couple of occasions and repeatedly changed its colour/shape, fading and also becoming brighter at times,” the report says.
The lights, visible for around 45 minutes, were seen with the naked eye at just before 3am from various locations in the Hedon area from a police vehicle.
They were first viewed by officers to be in the sky over the BP chemical plant at Saltend, and then in the Thorngumbald area.
The report says the officers were not convinced by the explanation provided by the Humberside Police helicopter, that it was “a star or satellite and the colour changes being an optical effect due to possible gasses emitted from the nearby industrial plants”.
The police saw the object after responding to a call from a member of the public who said they had spotted a UFO.
The Hull resident said he could see two lit objects in the sky – one over the Eastern Cemetery in Preston Road, the other over the BP plant in Saltend.
“He stated the objects appeared to be ‘communicating’ with each other”, the report says.
Local officers were alerted and “sighted what they believed to be the object being reported by the caller”, the report says.
‘Strange lights’
Details of irregular patterns of light spotted in Withernsea in April 1999 are also included in today’s files.
According to a MoD report, lights coloured white, blue, yellow and red were spotted in the sky from a housing estate.
Similar lights were spotted near Withernsea in the years which followed. The Mail reported in August 2001 a woman was walking on the clifftop at Holmpton when, on the way back to her car at around 10.30pm, “two extraordinarily bright white lights were spotted heading away from Hull and towards the woman.
“The top light was approximately one thumb width away from the bottom light at an angle of about 45 degrees above the lower light.
“The two lights continued on a steady course. Its position never altered and there was no sound.”
And in October 2005 a witness reported seeing “exploding lights in the sky” in Withernsea.
‘Hull’s cigar-shaped object’
Files released today also include details of a well-documented “silver cigar shaped object” seen hovering near the Humber Bridge in August 1997.
In a RAF report sent to the MoD, the object is said to have had “sharp pointed wings with a red light on one and a green light on the other”.
The report says an individual saw the object with the naked eye and binoculars looking “south from Beverley towards the Humber Bridge”.
It hovered at first and “then moved off at great speed”, the report says.
The UFO was reported by nine individuals to a Mail reporter at the time, who then contacted RAF Waddington.
Details of the incident were first revealed several years ago. In 2010 a Royal Air Force official said it appeared to be a “dirigible with navigation lights”.
‘Jelly fish’
The files also include details of a “purple and white pulsating jelly fish-like object” spotted above the North Yorkshire Moors in August 2002.
The object had “smaller light circles surrounding [the] main object”, and a “smaller hazy looking object appeared to be attached to the main object and followed same”.
The object was spotted near Ralf’s Cross viewpoint outside the village of Rosedale.
The path of the object “crossed from right to left and followed the viewer’s car for approx. 4 miles keeping on the left”, the report says.
The report describes a “clear, cloudless evening” but says “some solar activity [was] seen in the form of shooting stars”.
‘The end of the UFO Desk’
Other highlights in today’s files include reports of UFOs spotted near UK landmarks; one hovering opposite the Houses of Parliament and one near Stonehenge.
The files also include a report received via the UFO hotline by someone who had been “living with an Alien” in Carlisle for some time, and a report by a man from Cardiff who claimed a UFO abducted his dog, car and tent while he was camping with friends in 2007.
The files also show in 2009 Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth was told that in more than 50 years, “no UFO sighting reported to [MoD] has ever revealed anything to suggest an extra-terrestrial presence or military threat to the UK”.
This led to their decision to close the UFO Desk and with it the UFO hotline and dedicated email address.
Dr David Clarke, author of the book ‘The UFO Files', said: “The last pieces of the puzzle have finally been revealed with this insight into the last days of the UFO desk.
“These files spell out clearly why the MoD decided – after 60 years – it no longer needed to keep tabs on sightings, even those made by ‘credible’ people such as police officers and pilots.
“The last files from the UFO desk are now all in the public domain. People at home can read them and draw their own conclusions about whether ‘the truth’ is in these files or still out there.”
The latest UFO files for this and your area (UK) can be viewed at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos.
Story: HullDailyMail