A FORMER British police detective who probed the 7/7 London terror bombings is aiming to crack Britain’s most famous UFO case.

Gary Heseltine, who was heavily involved in major rail disaster investigations including Hatfield and Great Heck, is now looking into the so-called Rendlesham Forest incident, reports The Sun.

The 56-year-old believes new evidence from two retired radar operators, who claim they tracked a UFO travelling 193kmin eight seconds, should be taken seriously by the Ministry of Defence.

The department closed its “UFO desk” in 2009 and no longer officially investigates reports.

But former detective Mr Heseltine, who retired three years ago after 24 years in the force, is calling on Defence Secretary Michael Fallon to reveal the truth.

He enlisted his local MP Jason McCartney to ask the defence chief to make a statement after new information came to light from Ike Barker and Jim Carey.

The two radar operators were on duty in the air traffic control centre at RAF Bentwaters, in Suffolk, when an unidentified target was tracked on radar during a spate of bizarre sightings between December 26-28, 1980.

On December 26, a small team of security police officers reported seeing a strange triangular shaped craft land in Rendlesham Forest, just outside the base.

Strange flashes in the night

Two nights later, the Deputy Base Commander Lt-Colonel Charles Halt and several other US Air Force personnel observed strange flashing lights moving through the trees.

The military team were shocked when a beam of light hit the ground just a few feet away. And, even more bizarrely, there were reports that beams were being fired into the weapons storage bunkers at the NATO base.

Colonel Halt went on to write a memo detailing what happened which he sent to the MOD but defence chiefs said the incident was of “no defence significance”.

The UK and US government have always had a policy of neither confirming nor denying that weapons of mass destruction were at the base. If the base did have nukes, it could have contravened UK/US armament treaty obligations of the day.

But Mr Heseltine claims Colonel Halt told him “there were more nuclear weapons in the Bentwaters Weapons Storage Area than anywhere else in Europe.”

In a response to Mr Heseltine’s MP, the MOD stated it no longer investigated UFO reports adding: “All historic MOD files relating to UFO sightings, including Rendlesham Forest, have either been released, or are in the process of being released to The National Archives.”

Mr Heseltine, who lives in Holmfirth, near Huddersfield, thinks there is still a cover-up 36 years after the incident — dubbed the British Roswell.

He said: “For them it is clear the Rendlesham Forest incident is a closed issue despite whatever new information arises.

“The MOD’s response is a classic case of dismissing any legitimate questions about UFOs and in particular those about the Rendlesham Forest incident.

“How can it not be of defence significance that two radar controllers have come forward publicly to say that they observed a UFO over the base, moving at fantastic speeds as well as being seen visually on the base radar?

“How can it be that people have confirmed that a UFO shone a beam down in the weapons storage area nuclear bunkers, that this act is not of acute defence significance? How can it be that the MOD are not interested when it is confirmed that there were ‘more nuclear weapons’ in the Bentwaters WSA than anywhere else in Europe?”

Mr McCartney, who represents Colne Valley, Yorkshire, said: “All I’ve got to say is I asked the question of the Minister on behalf of my constituent as I do on many issues for those I represent.”

Since 2002, Mr Heseltine has collected a database of more than 425 UFO cases involving 940 British police officers.

The Sun contacted the MOD for comment.

This article originally appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission