UFOs: When Governments Come Clean
by Nick Redfern May 27, 2018 (mysteriousuniverse.org)
• A British Government file, declassified in the 1980’s, presents the following account: On Friday, September 19, 1952, Flight Lieutenant John Kilburn of the Royal Air Force in Yorkshire, along with four other aircrew personnel of No. 269 Squadron, witnessed a meteor gradually descending from the east at about 5000 feet. Suddenly a silver, saucer shaped object appeared in the sky at about ten to twenty thousand feet in altitude and five miles astern of the meteor, maintaining a similar course before slowly descending toward the meteor. “Suddenly it accelerated at an incredible speed towards the west turning onto a south-easterly heading before disappearing. All this occurred in a matter of fifteen to twenty seconds. The movements of the object were not identifiable with anything I have seen in the air and the rate of acceleration was unbelievable.”
• Another declassified British government file reveals that on March 26, 1957, Royal Air Force personnel, Church Lawford, reported seeing an object on radar instantly accelerate from a stationary position to a speed of 1400 mph.
• A week later on April 4, 1957, Royal Air Force personnel in Scotland picked up a squadron of huge, unknown aircraft over UK airspace. The Air Ministry “… deduced from these reports that altogether five objects were detected by the three radars. …[T]hey must have been either of considerable size or else constructed to be especially good reflectors. …Even if balloons had been in the area these would not account for the sudden change of direction and the movement at high speed against the prevailing wind. …It is considered unlikely that they were conventional aircraft, meteorological balloons or charged clouds.”
• When these military files were declassified in the late 1980s, more than a few U.K. ufologists were surprised by the government’s decision to release them, given the fact that their content verified that UFOs are real.
Just recently I wrote an article titled “A factual object of very unusual nature.” It served to demonstrate that, contrary to what some have said, the U.S. Freedom of Information Act has led to the release of genuinely intriguing UFO reports. It’s certainly not the case that all the “good” reports remain hidden behind closed doors. Yes, many probably do remain classified. But, that does not take away the fact that there are some fascinating, once-classified, files on UFOs in the public domain. Today, I’m focusing on some of the files that the British Government declassified back in the 1980s. They too demonstrate – to an amazing degree – that at times government agencies are prepared to reveal to us accounts of a very extraordinary type.
In September 1952, a notable UFO encounter occurred at Royal Air Force Topcliffe, a military base in Yorkshire, England. One of the witnesses, Flight Lieutenant John Kilburn, said of the incident: “Sir, I have the honor to report the following incident which I witnessed on Friday, 19th September, 1952. I was standing with four other aircrew personnel of No. 269 Squadron watching a Meteor fighter gradually descending. The Meteor was at approximately 5000 feet and approaching from the east. [Flight Officer R.N.] Paris suddenly noticed a white object in the sky at a height between ten and twenty thousand feet some five miles astern of the Meteor.”
“The object was silver in color and circular in shape, it appeared to be traveling at a much slower speed than the Meteor but was on a similar course. It maintained the slow forward speed for a few seconds before commencing to descend, swinging in a pendular motion during descent similar to a falling sycamore leaf…After a few seconds, the object stopped its pendulous motion and its descent and began to rotate about its own axis.
“Suddenly it accelerated at an incredible speed towards the west turning onto a south-easterly heading before disappearing. All this occurred in a matter of fifteen to twenty seconds. The movements of the object were not identifiable with anything I have seen in the air and the rate of acceleration was unbelievable.”
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