Alien story: The UFO files

Aliens from outer space have been visiting Britain for years and UFO sightings have doubled after the film Close Encounters was released in 1977.

These details form part of secret files released by The British National Archives to the public yesterday, and contain a range of UFO-related documents covering the years 1978–2002.

First batch

The archives (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos) are the first batch of a four-year release programme of all the ministry’s UFO files since 1978.

The ministry has dismissed 90 per cent of the reports as having mundane explanations, but left a question mark over the balance 10 per cent, albeit with the assurance that they do not constitute a defence threat.

A 1983 report tells of a 78-year-old man, who was out fishing at midnight, following aliens in green overalls into a spaceship, only to be told to go away because he was too old and decrepit for their purposes.

The ministry has files on 11,000 sightings dating back to the 1950s. They were checked out in case they were Soviet aircraft probing Britain’s defences.

Flying saucer

The term Unidentified Flying Object was coined in a US Air Force report three years after the description ‘flying saucer’ was applied to a sighting in Washington in June 1947.

In Britain, so worrying was the spate of reports that a secret Flying Saucer Working Party was formed to check them out. It concluded that flying saucers did not exist.

But its report in 1951 was still classified as 'secret/discreet’ and given limited circulation.