UFO files: photographs of 'UFO next to RAF jet'

Military experts concluded the aircraft was a Harrier, but could not identify the UFO despite apparently commissioning detailed line drawings of it.

Fearing there could be significant media interest, the MoD took the unusual step of briefing ministers about the sighting.

The incident also discloses that British military intelligence officers tasked with investigating UFO reports took a close interest in claims the US was developing a top secret spy-plane.

The sighting is included in military UFO documents made available online today by the National Archives.

The seven files, produced by the DI55 branch of the Defence Intelligence Staff, relate to the period between November 1987 and April 1993 and contain details of around 1,200 separate UFO sightings.

They demonstrate that British officials were more concerned about advanced new aircraft being developed by the Russians and Americans than little green men.

The files include numerous cuttings from magazines and newspapers relating to rumours that the US military was developing a hypersonic spy-plane known as Aurora.

Attached to one article about Aurora from September 1991 was a note from an MoD official that read: "Attention is really focusing on this now, notwithstanding a recent USAF 'denial briefing'.

"This is bound to prompt further questions/Parliamentary interest."

There is also an intelligence report quoting an October 1991 sighting in Kazakhstan of a UFO with "a semi-transparent halo and rays 'shooting out' in different directions".

Other incidents recorded in the files include:

:: A woman who said she was approached by an alien with a "Scandinavian-type accent" as she walked her dog near Norwich in November 1989;

:: A spate of UFO sightings in London in 1993 which were explained by the presence of a brightly illuminated airship advertising the new Ford Mondeo;

:: A sighting by crews of six RAF Tornado jets of a UFO over Germany in November 1990 which they believed to be a stealth aircraft;

:: A recommendation that the Royal Ulster Constabulary should investigate a missile-shaped UFO, accompanied by a "muffled bang", reported near Belfast Airport in December 1989;

:: Details of how the crash of a USAF pilot into the North Sea in September 1970 made headlines again in 1992 over claims that he was on an operation to intercept UFOs;

:: The MoD's decision to halt a project to computerise UFO records amid concerns about public reaction if it became known.

But the British military officials appear to have paid most attention to the sighting of the diamond-shaped object next to the RAF Harrier on the A9 at Calvine, north of Pitlochry in Scotland, on August 4 1990.

Two members of the public took colour photos and provided them to Scotland's Daily Record newspaper, which in turn passed six negatives to the MoD for comment.

The military responded by drawing up guidelines for responding to media questions about the incident.

An official wrote in a memo: "Such stories are not normally drawn to the attention of ministers, and the MoD press office invariably responds to questions along well-established lines emphasising our limited interest in the UFO phenomenon and explaining that we therefore do not have the resources to undertake any in-depth investigations into particular sightings.

"On this occasion, however, the MoD has been provided with six photographic negatives of an alleged UFO by the Scottish Daily Record and has been asked for comments almost certainly for inclusion in a forthcoming story."

The memo noted there was no record of Harriers operating in the area at the time and suggested the media should be told "no definite conclusions (were) reached regarding (the) large diamond-shaped object".

The files contain blurry photocopies of two of the pictures next to aviation journal reports about a secret triangular-shaped stealth aircraft said to have been developed by the USAF.

And in late 1991 the MoD apparently commissioned line drawings of the UFO, noting that the "sensitivity of (the) material suggests very special handling".

Dr David Clarke, a UFO expert and journalism lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, said the newly-released documents showed the MoD was "not in the slightest bit interested in aliens".

"They're only interested in the defence implications," he said.

"The question is what are the Russians testing, and could any of these sightings be something of that kind? As soon as they have eliminated that, they're not interested."