The Rendlesham Forest Incident is the name given to a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights and the alleged landing of an extraterrestrial spacecraft in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England in late December 1980. It is perhaps the most famous UFO event to have happened in Britain, ranking amongst the best-known UFO events worldwide. It has been compared to the Roswell UFO incident in the United States and is commonly referred to as "Britain's Roswell" or the "English Roswell".
Following the event, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) denied that it posed any threat to national security and stated that it was therefore never investigated as a security matter. Later evidence indicated that there was a substantial MoD file on the subject and this led to claims of a cover-up. Some interpreted this as part of a larger pattern of information suppression concerning the true nature of unidentified flying objects, by both the United States and British governments (see the UFO conspiracy theory). However, when the file was released in 2001 it turned out to consist mostly of internal correspondence and responses to inquiries from the public. The lack of any in-depth investigation confirmed that the case was never taken seriously by the MoD
Around 3 a.m. on 26 December 1980 an Unidentified Flying Object was reported by a security patrol near the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge. Servicemen initially thought it was a downed aircraft but, upon entering the forest to investigate, they saw many strange lights moving through the trees, as well as a bright light from an unidentified object. Shortly after 4 a.m. local police were called to the scene but reported that the only lights they could see were those from the Orford Ness lighthouse, some miles away on the coast.[4]
Some of the airmen claim to have seen a conical metallic object, suspended in a yellow mist, hovering over a clearing in the trees, with a pulsating blue and red circle of light above.[citation needed] One eyewitness claims to have seen triangular landing gear on the object leaving three impressions in the ground that were visible the next day. The servicemen further claimed that the object seemed to move away from them as they approached, and they followed it out into a field. Some reports claim that local farmyard animals had been behaving in a state of fear and panic, although this was an arable farm and had no animals.
The airmen were allegedly debriefed, threatened and ordered to sign documents that vowed silence; one even claimed to have been forced to sign a document claiming the UFO was a lighthouse.[citation needed] Some reports suggest that they were reportedly ordered to stay quiet, with the warning "bullets are cheap". Lieutenant Colonel Halt, however, claimed in a 2008 interview for U.S. news channel CNN that to this day he has not been debriefed over the incident.
After daybreak on the morning of 26 December, servicemen returned to the small clearing where the conical object had been seen, and found three small impressions in a triangular pattern, as well as burn marks and broken branches on nearby trees. Radiation levels were extremely high where the branches were broken. At 10.30 a.m. the local police were called out again, this time to see the impressions on the ground, which they thought could have been made by an animal.
On the 28 December servicemen returned to the site again in the early hours of 28 December 1980 with radiation detectors, although the significance of the readings they obtained is disputed. The deputy base commander Lt Col Charles I. Halt investigated this sighting personally and recorded the events on a micro-cassette recorder.The site investigated by Halt was near the eastern edge of the forest, at approximately 52° 05’ 20” N, 1° 26’ 57” E.
It was during this investigation that a flashing light was seen across the field to the east, almost in line with a farmhouse. Later, starlike lights were seen in the sky to the north and south, the brightest of which seemed to beam down a stream of light from time to time.
There are claims that the incident was videoed by the USAF; but, if so, the resulting tape has not been made public. It has been rumoured that small beings with domed heads left the craft, and that twin base commander Gordon Williams claimed to have made sign language communication with the aliens. These rumours have no evidence to back them up, and come from unconfirmed reports.
