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The Ministry of Defence has been accused of covering up a top secret investigation into one of Britain's most infamous spates of UFO sightings.

In the late 1970s, a number of mysterious objects were spotted above an area which became known as the Broad Haven Triangle, in Pembrokeshire.

One extraordinary incident occurred near a primary school , when 14 pupils saw a UFO landing and drew strikingly similar pictures of it.

Now a Tory peer has called on the MoD to come clean and tell the world what it knows about the bizarre events.

Lord Black of Brentwood said: "A number of recently released Ministry of Defence files leave little doubt that a small number of sightings of aerial phenomena - particularly by military personnel, pilots and air traffic controllers - remain unexplained and unidentified.

"There needs to be further examination of these issues in the hope of learning something new."

(Image: PA)

The peer has a long-standing interest in the subject of UFOs, but his interest in this old case was sparked by new research into the Broad Haven sightings.

Neil Spring, a novelist, investigated several of the cases during the research for his upcoming book The Watchers, digging up a document which suggests a secret UFO investigation was carried out in the area, without politicians knowing about it.

"I visited Broad Haven a sceptic, and came away convinced that some of the locals knew far more about the mysterious occurrences of 1977 than they are willing to reveal," he said.

The declassified document is a letter from the head of S4, a wing of the MoD, to the Provost & Security Service, which functions as a kind of internal police force within the RAF.

In this letter, an official expressed surprise that so many otherwise "level-headed" witnesses had reported UFO sightings to the press and suggested a "discreet enquiry" could be the best way to proceed.

"I have not even told the Minister I am consulting you," the defence chief wrote.

At the time the MoD had denied there was any unusual activity in the area.

Nick Pope, who worked as UFO investigator for the MOD, said: “This bombshell document shows how the MoD's UFO project asked the RAF Police to conduct a secret investigation into these mysterious events, while Parliament, the media and the public were being told the subject was of no defence significance."

"Defence ministers were cut out of the loop," he suggested.

The sightings in Broad Haven took place near a military base, leading some observers to suggest the crafts had actually been Harrier jump jets and the aliens were just men wearing fireproof flying outfits.

We have contacted the MoD for comment.

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