Extra-large Terrestrial

Alien ... how Manchester UFO may have looked

AN ALIEN spaceship "20 times the size of a football field" is among a string of bizarre UFO sightings included in top secret MoD files released for the first time today.

The huge craft was reported to the military after it was seen hovering above Manchester Airport in January 1995.

Incredibly, it was spotted the same day a British Airways pilot reported a "near miss" as he tried to land a Boeing 737 on the runway leading to a highly-classified MoD investigation.
Other sightings include a "cigar-shaped" object flying above Lancashire in February 1977 and in October 1980 two security police officers on patrol at RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk, saw a "strange, glowing object" in the woods.

UFO ... sketch of craft

A report said: "The individuals reported seeing a strange glowing object in the forest. The object was described as being metallic in appearance and triangular in shape. It illuminated the entire forest with a white light. "The object itself had a pulsing red light no top and a bank of blue lights underneath. The object was hovering or on legs. As the patrolmen approached, it manoeuvred through the trees and disappeared."

Invasion

One Brit drew a sketch of an alien invasion he claimed to have spotted in Morecambe, Lancashire, in May 1997 and sent it to the MoD. He drew three triangular UFOs resembling stealth aircraft, two of which had lozenge-shaped lights along the wings.
He described how the flying saucers hovered over people's homes and had followed cars but were not helicopters, planes or balloons.
A small rocket with a rear engine shaped like a "ten-petal flower head" was also seen apparently orbiting the moon in 1984.
A Brit living in Toronto, Canada, told the MoD in October 1995 that the craft was part of a group of spaceships resembling a "naval task force" captured in the background of a magnified photograph of the planet Jupiter.
He warned: "I see this as a potential serious threat to our security from a totally unexpected quarter by people who are technologically more advanced than we are."

'Stealth aircraft' ... triangular shape crafts

A black triangular craft with a pulsing red light at the front and two continuous white lights at the rear was seen in Stanley, County Durham, on the evening of September 29 1995. The witness said it travelled at about 40mph and was accompanied by a high-pitched tone like an aircraft in a dive.
And a circular "space station", with red, green and white lights pulsing like a heartbeat in an anti-clockwise direction around the outside, was seen above Gwent, South Wales, in May 1998.

'Space station' ... lights pulsed around circular object

Incredibly, the top secret files released to the public for the first time today also revealed that Sir Winston Churchill was accused of covering up a close encounter between an RAF and a UFO during the Second World War. The former prime minister said the unexplained incident should be kept secret for 50 years amid fears it would provoke "mass panic".
The claim was made in the files by a scientist who said his grandfather was one of Churchill's bodyguards.

UFO ... sketch drawn of mysterious aircraft

Allegations of the cover-up emerged when the man, from Leicester, wrote to the government in 1999 seeking to find out more about the incident. He described how his grandfather, who served with the RAF in the war, was present when Churchill and US General Dwight Eisenhower discussed how to deal with the UFO encounter.
The man, who is not named in the files, said Churchill was reported to have exclaimed: "This event should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic amongst the general population and destroy one's belief in the church."

Hovering ... U-shaped object seen over Firth of Forth

The incident allegedly involved an RAF reconnaissance plane returning from a mission in France or Germany towards the end of the war. It was over or near the English coastline when it was allegedly suddenly intercepted by a strange metallic object which matched the aircraft's course and speed for a time before accelerating away and disappearing.
The mysterious files also reveal that a gambler approached the MoD for help after Ladbrokes refused to pay out on his 100-1 bet that aliens would land on earth before the end of the 20th century.

While a black U-shaped object was seen from Edinburgh travelling above the Firth of Forth without disturbing the water on October 9 1995.
During the Cold War, RAF jets were scrambled 200 times a year to investigate UFOs picked up on radar. But this fell to zero after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Nick Pope, a former MoD expert who worked on the official UFO files, said: "Whatever you believe about UFOs, there's some fascinating material in these real life X-Files.
"Most of these sightings turned out to be misidentifications of things like aircraft lights or meteors, but a small proportion could not be explained."