Could US government hold key information on Rendlesham UFO sightings?

The UFO trail in Rendlesham Forest. Picture: TOM POTTER Archant

Information about Suffolk’s best known UFO encounter might be contained in a dossier held by the US government, according to a former MoD staff member.

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Colonel Charles I. Halt when he returned to Rendlesham Forest last year. Picture: TOM POTTER Colonel Charles I. Halt when he returned to Rendlesham Forest last year. Picture: TOM POTTER

The incident at Rendlesham back in December 1980 has received a lot of attention from national and global media over the years and has often been called Britain’s Roswell.

American officers stationed at the former RAF Woodbridge site reported seeing strange lights and an alien craft on two occasions in the forest area surrounding the base.

Sceptics have since rubbished the claims of extraterrestrial activity by claiming that the beams were nothing more than lights on a police car or nearby Orfordness Lighthouse.

Recently new information has come to light in the United States about a dossier that may be held by the Department of Defense.

American newspaper the New York Times revealed that over $20 million had been spent on what was known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program or AATIP by the Department of Defense between 2007 and 2012.

Another US publication, the Washington Post, stated that a 490 page report from this program contained alleged historical UFO sightings from foreign countries as well as the United States.

Nick Pope was the Ministry of Defence’s UFO desk officer between 1991 and 1994, he led a review into the case years after the event itself.

“For many years the US said we don’t do UFO’s but the Pentagon has had a programme all along,” says Nick.

It is not known exactly what details may be inside the file but Nick believes the incident at Rendlesham has a strong case for inclusion.

“It’s inconceivable to me that information on the Rendlesham Forest incident wouldn’t be in that dossier, as it’s the UK’s best-known and most credible UFO incident, and because it involved US personnel at USAF bases,” says Nick.

“It’s a big deal. It may be that the Pentagon has data nobody in the UK (even in the MoD) has about the case, and possibly a definitive explanation for the Rendlesham mystery.”

What information is or isn’t held about the incident is unclear, but the hope remains that information in the dossier may help to explain what happened nearly 40 years ago.