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By Root 979 0

the MoD had amassed over the decades and come to a definitive view about the UFO phenomenon. My opposite number in the Defence Intelligence Staff, who was my main DIS contact and my gateway to this secretive organization, had first discussed this with me in 1993. Like me, he seemed intrigued by certain UFO cases in our files and our discussions about UFO aerodynamics and propulsion systems were like something from a Star Trek script. Nothing was said openly, but when conventional explanations for some of the most compelling UFO cases were eliminated, fingers were pointed suggestively upward. And whenever the question of who was operating these UFOs was mentioned, the marvelous phrase “these people” was used. More often than not, these were private meetings between the two of us, at which no notes were taken. However, on one occasion my boss accompanied me and sat in silence for most of what turned out to be a particularly surreal briefing. “What did he mean by the phrase ‘these people’?” he asked, in an exasperated fashion, on the way back to our own office.

But how were we going to get a study commissioned when so many of our colleagues thought the MoD should drop its UFO investigations altogether, as the United States Air Force had done in 1969? One of our tactics to pull this off was a simple linguistic sleight of hand: We banned the acronym “UFO.” One mention of a “UFO,” and people’s prejudices and belief systems kick in, be they skeptics or believers; the term was too emotive and had too much baggage. So we devised “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP) as a replacement, and tried to use this in all internal policy documents, retaining the phrase “UFO” only for our dealings with the public.

It worked. With the term “UFO” having been quietly dropped, we pushed to get a study approved. To my surprise and delight, given some of the more skeptical voices in the department, resources were eventually obtained. I assessed the formal proposal when it arrived and recommended to my bosses that the study be commissioned; against my expectation, my recommendation was accepted. However, the project was subsequently delayed, and in 1994 I was promoted and posted to a different section. Accordingly, I played no part in the study and am certainly not—as has been alleged on the Internet—its anonymous author.

So what did we get? After four years and 460 pages of analysis, had we solved the UFO mystery? Well, no, we hadn’t. What we got was a comprehensive drawing together of some existing research, coupled with some exotic new theories. “That UAP exist is indisputable,” the Executive Summary states, before going on to say that no evidence has been found to suggest that they are “hostile or under any type of control.” But by its own admission, the report has not provided a definitive explanation of the phenomenon: “The study cannot offer the certainty of explanation of all UAP phenomena,” it says, leaving the door open.

One of the most contentious aspects relates to what the report refers to as “plasma-related fields.” Electrically charged atmospheric plasmas are credited with having given rise to some of the reports of vast triangular-shaped craft, while the interaction of such plasma fields with the temporal lobes in the brain is cited as another reason why people might feel they were having a strange experience. The problem with this is that there’s no scientific consensus here, and as a good rule of thumb one shouldn’t try to explain one unknown phenomenon by citing evidence of another. In other words, you can’t explain one mystery with another one.

The report also deals with flight safety issues. There are numerous UFO sightings involving pilots, and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has records of some terrifying near-misses between aircraft and UFOs. In one such case, on January 6, 1995, a UFO came dangerously close to hitting a Boeing 737 with sixty passengers on board on its approach to Manchester Airport. The CAA commended the pilots for reporting the UFO, yet the official report states that both the degree of risk to the