Subj: 6                     2/2      Conf: (195) UFO
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These facts were confirmed by the MOD who added: "If an
unidentified object is picked up on radar screen which we could
not explain we would scramble fighter aicraft to intercept. This
has happened on a number of occasions, not so much now but
certainly in the past. But we often find that these radar blips
are caused by people in light aircraft who have wandered onto the
radar screens without notifying anyone of their presence.
"Air defence radar is directed out towards the sea to detect
incoming incoming objects as a result of the Cold War. We would
only intercept an object if we thought it was a threat to this
country as we are only interested in establishing if there is a
threat to UK airspace. We don't discount some of these objects
may be unexplained phenomena but we are not funded to investigate
these."
The sonic booms
The MOD/RAF current position is that the two sonic booms recorded
at 2152 and 2206 that night remain "unexplained." They claim the
low-flying exercise was over around 50 minutes before theese
sonic events were recorded, and say they have no record of them
at the time of the exercise.
They do admit they received a complaint from the British
Geological Survey people afterwards and the BGS say the RAF told
them they "could not confirm" one of their aircraft was
involved.
But note they are admitting the exercise was "booked" between the
times admitted which does not rule out the presence of other
aircraft later that night. They have already admitted they
received 13 complaints about "aircraft activity"  from different
parts of the country. Certainly numerous witnesses testify (in
the South Yorkshire Police log of the events of which I have a
copy) to the presence of aircraft until 11pm, and when pressed
Pattison accepted it was "logical" to connect the exercise with
the sonic events which occured within one hour of the admitted
times.
Note also sonic events have three general causes, space debris
[none reported that night], Concorde [not flying] and military
aircraft. The BGS say the two booms "could only have been caused
by a military aircraft reaching supersonic speed possibly while
performing a mid-air turn."
Pattison says: "Our pilots know very well they should not fly at
twice the speed of sound over land. It's not imposssible that a
pilot might have accelerated to supersonic speed in order to take
avoiding action if a civil aicraft was detected in their
flightpath.
It is also possible a pilot might have covered his tracks if he
had broken the rules and the only way we could prove this is by
studying radar traces from the night in question. We could never
rule this out."
Final words
In summary the MOD have made an unambiguous statement about the
events of March 24, 1997. They say: "We did not chase a UFO and
there has been no cover-up. "  What's more they add: "We
responded to a request by the police for  help to search for a
crashed aircraft and sent a helicopter from RAF Leconfield. We
don't know what caused the sonic events and the whole thing is a
mystery to us too."
We are left with a limited number of options. South Yorkshire
Police and numerous witnesses testify to the presence of an
unidentified low-flying aircraft in the Margery Hill area of the
Peak around 10pm, coinciding with the two sonic events recorded
in Edinburgh. One witness described it as a cigar-shaped object
"glowing like it was on fire". A police special constable
described it as a large four seater plane brightly illuminated.
There was a flash and bang as it disappeared over the Howden
Moors, leaving a red glow which gave the impression it had
crashed.
Was this part of the military exercise earlier in the evening
which the MOD have now admitted took place? Are the RAF telling
the truth, or is there another explanation?
Answers to dclarke14@compuserve.com.
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