Reports of Unidentified Flying Object: A British Perspective 1988 – The 1988 Flap
April 10
On Sunday night, April 10, 1988, David White, head of Artwork and Illustration Studios in Oxford, was driving home after a visit to Blewbury. In the sky a red glow followed his car traveling several hundred feet above.
When he stopped at a crossroads, the light stopped too. He wound down his window but could hear no sound from the mystery object.
“I thought I was going crazy. Just for my own peace of mind, I drove back across the Downs to see if I could get closer to it. I drove off toward Wantage and it moved with me again. I kept flashing my car lights and when I stopped again, it stopped and was just sitting stationary above me. “I went through Wantage and I could still see it as I drove toward Faringdon. Then, two or three miles on that road, it disappeared. Just like that! I first saw the object at precisely 11 :00 p.m. When it vanished-it was 11 :41 p.m.-1 looked at the car clock. It could not have been a plane as no plane could just stop still in the sky without a sound.
“The second time I stopped, I could see that it was a red light and at the center it was white. There was no shape to it and as I kept looking at it, it was zig-zagging up and down. I knew everyone would say I was potty, or that some RAF pilot was having a damn good laugh at my expense, but it was really weird and I have never seen anything like it.”
Despite calls to the police and local RAF bases, no one could satisfy Mr. White with a rational explanation.
Another equally interesting account of a UFO encounter during April came from Cwmdare, South Wales. John Rees was out walking his dog when something caught his attention in the sky. He saw a luminous object moving along a spiral path in a north-easterly direction toward Neath:
“I would not have bothered to take a second look if it had not been for the spiral path and the intense luminosity-and two downwardly directed parallel beams. It had a cylindrical shape, like a lager can. The clouds were pitch black on the horizon, but the moon was above the cloud line and it was very bright. Fortunately, the object stayed above the cloud line and I was able to keep it in view. It moved toward Neath and then back, in a southerly direction toward the Meardy mountain. I was watching it for about three-quarters of an hour. ”I usually meet a teacher when I am out walking the dog between 10: 15 p.m. and 11 :00 p.m. I was hoping he would come by, so I could have someone to verify the sighting, but unfortunately he did not tum up this time. I was shocked I can tell you. I have never seen anything like that before. I thought it was a plane out of control at first. Planes do fly over the Cynon valley at that time of night. I have never believed in UFOs but there is no doubt that I saw something out of the ordinary. There was no noise from it. “
John is closely linked with local operatic groups in the area and is warden of Cwmdare Youth Club. A respected member of the local community, he is foreman at Enghart Fans, a large industrial firm where several workers have remarked “Beam me up Dr. John! ” He has nevertheless stuck to his account through all the ridicule and is typical of thousands of witnesses to UFO phenomena who brave the critics and speak the truth .
April 24
Some people, however, prefer to remain anonymous, like the Elsecar man who was driving home after finishing work in Ecclesfield, just north of Sheffield, on April 24. Just after 10:00 p.m. , he spotted a hovering UFO over Hoyland and Elsecar. He stopped the car twice so he could study the silent object more carefully.
“It was really very strange. Although it was dark I could see it was a vague box -shape and there were big green, white, and red lights on it which stayed lit-up all the time. It was huge and absolutely still , and what really surprised me was that it did not make a sound . I thought it must be some sort of aircraft, but it was so still and quiet it could not possibly have been.”
The 38-year-old man drove home keeping his eye on the object, but by the time he drove into his driveway, it had disappeared from view. A next-door-neighbor was out walking her dog, so he quickly 1nentioned what he had seen . They both set off walking down the road to see if it was still there, but there was no sign. Later, he went in doors and told his wife what he had seen. He kept returning to the window to see if it had returned, and was rewarded. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw it there again, so I called my wife to have a look.”
Together they watched the object move slowly across the sky until it disappeared for the last time.
“We even opened the window to see if we could hear a noise, but it did not make a sound. I could not believe how big it was. Then it suddenly disappeared. Neither of us have ever experienced anything like it before, and I don’t particularly want to ever again, although we were not frightened-just inquisitive really. “I don’t want people to think we are crackpots. I know it sounds stupid, but I know what I saw and I’m glad my wife witnessed it too. It’s just a pity that we didn’t have a film in our camera. If we had managed to take a picture of it, people would have to believe us!”
April 29
Since the beginning of the year, when it became apparent that UFO activity was much higher than normal, our re searchers had devoted many long hours during bitterly cold nights attempting to photograph the phenomena through out the region. On some rare occasions we had been successful, but none more so than on the night of April 29, around nine o’clock.
YUFOS investigators Paul Gamer, Ian Smith, and Allan Petres had been called out to the Kimberworth area of Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Several witnesses had re ported seeing an unusual light and contacted our South Yorkshire Coordinator Mick Hanson, who quickly organized a team to investigate. Our three-man team had be gun their journey full of optimism that perhaps this would be the night when they would arrive at the scene in time to see a UFO.
Armed with three cameras and films of various speeds, they reached a high vantage-point known as Fenton Road. At exactly 9:00 p.m. , the men noticed a distinct yellow and orange , glowing ball of light approaching their position. They estimated the first point of reference in terms of distance was approximately five miles. The men de scribed the object as long and oval-shaped, but no sound could be heard . Allan Petres, using Konicacolor very fast SR-V3200 ASA film, managed to take a series of photographs when the object came within a mile of their position .
Photo 2 is representative of many similar photographs that have been taken of UFOs. One finds an unusual shape, pretty colors, but little else. On the other hand, by adopting computer-enhanced techniques, one is able to compare such images with those of conventional craft. These scientific methods have been used by some UFO groups for many years, but as yet we have not received the completed findings for this particular shot. The apparent vapor image on the Kimber worth photograph was not visible to ground observers, yet the camera recorded it. This could prove to be highly significant .
Military Activity?
A common feature of many UFO reports that appeared throughout the summer months of 1988 was that of a large triangular-shaped object displaying bright, illuminated lights. Two of these appeared together over Stafford during May. One witness, Mr. John Teasdale, felt sure that the objects were no more than VC-10s flying from RAF Brize Norton in Oxford shire. Checks with the base revealed two such craft had taken off from the base on the night in question and it was possible they may have flown over Staffordshire.
However, another witness, Enid Turner of Uttoxeter, disagreed. “I don ‘t believe they were VC-10s, no way, ” she said. “I would know one if I saw it. I often used to go to air displays, and they definitely weren’t that. ‘ ‘ She said the objects were very low, silent and slow-moving, with a lot of very bright lights”. Other witnesses reported seeing a strange cluster of orange and red lights. This brings us to an area of UFO research which few groups in Britain become involved with: the role of the military, and as a consequence, the government.
The public has a fair conception of what is traveling on our roads, on the railways, and at sea. It has less idea of what is flying overhead. In Britain, there are numerous military airfields, as well as test sites for experimental craft, some of which are used to fly remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs) that are later used in Northern Ireland and along the Soviet border, for example. Combine these with flight-refueling exercises, and it is easy to understand how many people can be forgiven for thinking they are witnessing some form of UFO activity.
During the miners’ strike of 1984, hundreds of people reported seeing a cluster of lights over East and West Yorkshire. Headlines next day pronounced the visitor was a UFO; something the Ministry of Defense were happy to go along with, adding they had no idea what the object may have been. Our re search proved that it was in fact a military helicopter using a “Nightsun” searchlight that had been used to pinpoint several power plants and coal mines in the event that it would be needed by the police to hurry to a precise lo cation. This had happened in Nottinghamshire, where pickets had appeared from woodland to confront men who had defied the strike call and· were heading for work. The police had used helicopters to illuminate the area, thus depriving the pickets of their cover.
The government at the time insisted that the Armed Forces were not involved in the strike, but we eventually uncovered the truth. The Bradford Telegraph & Argus newspaper received our findings, conducted their own re search, and on New Year’s Eve splashed a front-page story confirming our analysis. The MoD would not comment, nor would a number of airport spokesmen who were actively involved in the episode.
Frightening Encounter
During the winter of 1988-89, four young women had set out in a car for a night out in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.
It was after 7:30 p.m. and their journey would take them through dark, remote country lanes. Suddenly, two of the women became aware of a large star-like object to their right which was airborne and keeping pace with them.
They frantically alerted their companions when the huge diamond-shaped object shot toward the car. On its top was a large, red light, and around the center were red, blue, green, orange, and mauve lights.
The driver panicked at the close proximity of the object, which was brilliantly illuminated. She accelerated to a dangerous speed in an effort to put some distance between them and the craft. The women became more terrified when it came to within feet of the car, sped past them and descended, stopping suddenly at ground level 100 yards ahead of them. As the driver braked, and the car went into a skid with wheels locked, the object “flipped” over and came down to land on the side of the road. All four women briefly observed some form of dome on the craft.
The car had come to a halt, but had spun round facing the opposite direction. All the women were hysterical and frantic with fear. The driver put her foot on the accelerator and raced away, leaving the UFO behind. Not daring to look back, they sped up a slight incline and were horrified to see flashing blue lights in the sky above it. All thought another UFO was waiting for them, but when they reached the top of the incline were surprised to see four police vehicles parked on the side of the road, which had not been there before. They slowed down but did not stop, for although they all felt relieved to see the cars, and six police officers who were moving into nearby fields and woodland, they somehow didn’t trust them and sped away.
The officers were carrying some kind of equipment, and a couple of the women thought that at least two were armed with rifles. All the women reported hearing the distinct sound of a helicopter after passing the police vehicles, but the UFO was not a helicopter, they agreed, and in any event it was enormous and silent.
The women took another route back home, canceling their night out, and were comforted by their parents.
This case is under investigation by our organization. We find it significant that four police vehicles should converge in such a remote area, and hope to be able to throw more light on this aspect of what is clearly an important case.
The summer months saw a familiar crop of reports, but clearly there had been a marked downturn in the number of sightings. Some areas, however, experienced a burst of activity, notably in the Midlands, around Stafford. The Member of Parliament for Stafford, Bill Cash, requested that witnesses contact him directly in order that he could raise the matter with an appropriate minister at the House of Commons.
Reports continued to come to our attention until the end of the year; some good, others indifferent, but each given our attention-from the Merseyside cinema manager who left his premises on October 17 and saw a silver disk shaped .craft descending over the area, hover and then de part-to the Sheffield couple who watched in awe as a Mexican hat-shaped object illuminated the sky just 600 ft above them, its dazzling light spinning continuously.
We also ended the year with a spectacular night-time ‘ ‘fireball’ ‘ event which was seen over much of northern England. On December 21 , reports began to reach local police authorities and the media that a large glowing ball of light had passed across the sky around midnight. By contacting civil and military authorities, coastguards, and witnesses, we built up a picture of the event that satisfied us we were dealing with either space debris or satellite re entry, which disappointed a number of journalists who thought a UFO story was about to break.
Whilst no single UFO case in Britain drew national or international front-page headlines during 1988, we still witnessed a greater increase in the overall number of sightings than in recent years. The Ministry of Defense received approximately 400 reports, a figure not exceeded since 1981 (600 reports). And at the same time, 1988 pro vided us with the largest public gathering for an organized UFO conference here in Britain for a decade, when 420 people attended our annual event.
We were happy that so many witnesses to the year’s phenomena had come forward to divulge their experiences, but disappointed that no real breakthrough had been made in our efforts to identify the true nature of UFOs.
Much of the progress in that field has come from the United States, where researchers have access to documentation through the Freedom of Information Act, the media is more responsive than in the U.K. , and the public are more positive in their attitude.
The reports we have gleaned throughout the year, and last decade, tell us that we are dealing with a very real phenomenon that demands scientific study and greater interest shown by politicians, who must begin to appreciate that not everyone who claims to have seen a UFO is al ways mistaken. Until that takes place, it is left to organizations like ours to maintain vigilance, and to apply pressure on those key personnel within the government who prefer the status quo to remain-perhaps forever.
https://scienceandspace.com/ufos/the-ufo-report-a-british-perspective-1988-the-1988-flap-part-3/
The UFO report: A British Perspective 1988 – The 1988 Flap (Part 2)
https://scienceandspace.com/ufos/the-ufo-report-a-british-perspective-1988-the-1988-flap-part-1/