A RETIRED US air force colonel says two airmen involved in Britain’s most infamous UFO case may have been abducted by aliens in secret video footage.

Staff Sgt Jim Penniston and Airman John Burroughs claim to have witnessed a small triangular craft which landed in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk — in what has been dubbed the UK’s Roswell incident.

Sgt Penniston apparently got so close, he even managed to touch the craft, describing it as “smooth to the touch” and covered with strange symbols similar to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs — before it took off.

Now in secret video footage obtained exclusively by Sun Online, the deputy commander of the base at the time, Charles Halt, can be heard stating that Burroughs “may have been abducted” and that the men were “unaccounted for” for hours.

It is believed it is the first time Halt has ever made the bombshell claims — and they did not appear on his official memo of the incident which was sent to the Ministry of Defense.

The mysterious Rendlesham incident took place in December 1980 — at the height of the Cold War — in woods just outside the twin NATO air bases of RAF Woodbridge and RAF Bentwaters.

Penniston and Burroughs headed into the woods to investigate some strange flashing lights, which is where they saw the UFO.

Two nights later, the UFO returned, and Halt led a team of military experts into the woods in a bid to “debunk” the claims.

However, the military team were shocked when a beam of light from the UFO hit the ground just a few feet away.

Halt, who made an 18-minute audio recording of the incident, 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.”

For years it has been rumoured Penniston and Burroughs, who were security policemen, may have been snatched by the UFO as they were out of radio communication with their Central Security Control (CSC) for several hours — but no one officially involved in the incident has ever publicly stated it.

Now former British police detective Gary Heseltine has released a video clip from 2010 — when he toured the forest with Halt for a documentary that was never made.

The video clip was recorded by Heseltine’s wife during a break in filming and shows Heseltine walking with Halt in the forest in an effort to retrace his steps during the third night of UFO activity during the 1980 incident.

In the video, Halt says: “He [Burroughs] may have been abducted who knows ... You know there is LOST TIME, we know that? They were not on the radio ... You’ve got men out in the forest that you can’t …. unnaccounted for hours.”

Heseltine, 57, of Scholes, West Yorkshire, told Sun Online: “My wife Lynn took quite a few video clips as we walking around the forest.

“It was only recently while watching them again that I picked up on the admission by Halt that Penniston and Burroughs had been missing off air ‘for several hours’.

“I did some research and realised that this admission had never been made public by Halt and so for the benefit of taking the case forward I have decided to release the clip.”

Heseltine, who edits the UFO Truth website, added: “As someone who is just trying to piece together the events in Rendlesham Forest, I think it is in the public interest that they have a right to know such information and hence why I have released the clip.”

Former UFO investigator at the MoD Nick Pope said the revelation was “hugely significant”.

“This is a bombshell statement, coming from someone who was Deputy Base Commander of one of the most sensitive military bases in the NATO alliance, at the height of the Cold War.

“It’s one thing to see a UFO, as Halt and many of the men under his command did, but it’s quite another to suggest one of your men might have been abducted by aliens.

“A few weeks ago it would have sounded crazy for a senior American military officer to believe such things, but following the revelations about the Pentagon’s secret UFO project, maybe it’s not so strange after all.

“That said, it’s not entirely clear to me whether Halt is being deadly serious, whether he’s speculating, or if he’s simply making a tongue in cheek comment.”

Heseltine, who is currently making a documentary called Capel Green about the Rendlesham Forest incident, and Halt ended their collaboration with him in 2014.

However it is not the first time Heseltine has released information about something Halt admitted as they walked through the forest together.

Back in May 2016, Heseltine, who clocked up almost 24 years in the British Transport Police before retiring, claims Halt told him the Suffolk air base had the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in Europe.

Halt later denied making the comment, saying: “Those are his conclusions.”

When approached by Sun Online about the video clip, Halt denied making the comments about abduction but acknowledged that “something happened” to the two airmen on the first night of the incident and there was missing time.

He told Sun Online: “I never said anyone was abducted.

“Something happened to the first responders the first night (Dec. 25/26) but what it was even they don’t know. We do know there was unaccounted for time.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and has been republished with permission.