FLYING SAUCERY

ANDY ROBERTS & DR DAVID CLARKE PRESENT THEIR REGULAR SURVEY OF THE LATEST FADS AND FLAPS FROM THE WORLD OF UFOLOGY

THE RISE AND FALL OF BLUE BOOK

In January, many mainstream news organisations got excited about the online disclosure of 130,000 pages of ‘declassified’ UFO documents from the Project Blue Book archives. But seasoned researchers refused to get too excited, as anyone with even a basic knowledge of UFO history knows the Blue Book files have been in the public domain since 1970. Case files generated by the project, that ran for 22 years until its closure in 1969, were deposited at the US National Archives after the United States Air Force decided it wanted to “make UFOs history”. Unfortunately, anyone who wanted to consult this archive had to travel to Washington, DC, and spend hours cranking through obsolete rolls of microfilm to access the 12,618 case files. But thanks to the efforts of an industrious ufologist with the nickname ‘Xtraeme’, John Greenewald was able to convert images from the files into 10,000 searchable PDF documents. These were uploaded to Greenewald’s Black Vault Internet archive in January, and, for a few days, this handy resource was available to anyone with a web browser – leading to the media hype and a huge spike in the number of online searches for Blue Book files. But on 29 January, Greenewald reluctantly took down his database following a wrangle over the legal ownership of the images. Until the dispute is resolved the Blue Book files will remain in limbo, unlike the British MoD files, many of which can be downloaded for a small charge online. But, as Greenewald says, although the USAF material doesn’t contain anything new, his laudable efforts to establish a searchable database that allows visitors to do research “without going to any hassle of registering, or even paying for access” should be applauded by all forteans. Huffington Post Weird News, 26 Jan: tinyurl. com/qeh5cko; BBC News Magazine, 26 Jan; Black Vault: http://projectbluebook. theblackvault.com/

THE NASA CONSPIRACIES

Ever since NASA set up a live feed from the International Space Station, UFO hunters have been trying to use it as a source of ‘evidence’ for a conspiracy by the agency to hide the truth that aliens are visiting the Earth. Last October, some claimed that a ‘strange object’ was visible near the ISS during a space walk by astronauts Reid Wiseman and Alexander Gerst. But sceptics later identified this as either a speck of dust or a lens flare from the Sun. UFO watcher Toby Lundh is unconvinced. Toby describes himself as “a persistent viewer” who spends four to six hours every day peering at the live footage from space and, perhaps unsurprisingly, often sees what he believes are UFOs in orbit. He has accused NASA of deliberately cutting the live feed whenever a UFO gets close to the ISS and says footage is removed from its archives “to conceal alleged communication between astronauts and UFOs”. Lundh points to two separate incidents in January when he spotted mysterious objects hovering outside the space station. One “looked remarkably like the Starfleet insignia in Star Trek”, but moments after cameras panned onto the UFO the stream was interrupted for 10-15 seconds. On another occasion he spotted a grey object coming up over the horizon and then disappearing, moments before NASA switched to a different camera. NASA have not commented on the still images captured by Lundh. But UFO pundit Nigel Watson pointed out the majority are “as vague and elusive as those posted by UFO witnesses on Earth” and have similar mundane explanations. But, as Nigel says, “the more NASA denies such things or explains them the more people think there is a conspiracy to hide the truth.” Daily Mail Online 26 Jan: tinyurl.com/o2nve53

THREE GO MAD IN SUFFOLK

It was bound to happen. Take a generation steeped in The X-Files and UFO conspiracies and mix it up nicely with the enduring myth of alien visitation in Rendlesham Forest. Stir lightly with some Blair Witch Project found footage and lo, you have this year’s celluloid saucer smash sensation: The Rendlesham UFO Incident. This film genre mash-up tells the everyday story of three metal detecting chums who go down to the woods hoping to unearth buried treasure. What could possibly go wrong? In typical film fashion, their mobile phones malfunction, tensions rise and the inevitable high strangeness ensues. In a nod to the cattle mutilation myth, dead horses are seen and ignored and it’s funny (both peculiar and hilarious) how even though the protagonists lose phone communication, their camera soldiers on to record their trials for posterity! The true star of the real-life Rendlesham UFO mystery, the Orford Ness Lighthouse, doesn’t even get a mention in the credits, never mind its own personal assistant. Film makers trying to grasp the nettle of successful UFO films really need more imagination than this and flying saucery suggests they refer to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Communion as exemplars of the real weirdness and obsessions people experience when meeting ‘them’ from ‘there’.

In a timely, ahem, ‘coincidence’, a UFO was caught on film over Rendlesham Forest on 26 January, just weeks away from the film’s opening. A military helicopter ‘seemingly’ inspects the UFOs which flash and flicker above it. Is this the truth come to set us free? FT contributor Nigel Watson, author of The UFO Investigations Manual, thinks otherwise: “If I was being cynical I’d say this is a stunt to give publicity for The Rendlesham UFO Incident. Like this video, it features helicopters and anomalous lights in the sky.” We couldn’t possibly comment. (See FT324:66-67 for an interview with the film’s director, Daniel Simpson). www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_ detailpage&v=qfYOlwBftRY;www.openminds. tv/video-shows-flashing-ufos-rendleshamforest/31872