A COLD WAR CLOSE ENCOUNTER
A previously unknown Cold War close encounter witnessed by the crew of a US Air Force spy-plane has been revealed in files released by Britain’s National Archives. In June, a small group of RAF files were opened that had not been part of the UFO file release programme that ended in 2013 (see FT304:28-9). They include an account of an incident on 19 October 1982 when a USAF RC-135 plane, monitoring Soviet military activity, was buzzed by “a big object” over the eastern Mediterranean. British personnel at RAF Troodos (pictured at right) on Cyprus listened to the radio calls of the American crew as the encounter unfolded at 35,000ft (10,700m) above the sea.
The UFO – described as covered in “a multitude of flashing lights, 20 at a time” – was picked up on the spy-plane’s radar as it approached from the south. It circled around the plane, call-sign Beano 73, and closed in. Two US Navy F-14 fighters were scrambled from an aircraft carrier and a RAF Phantom was diverted from a night flying exercise to intercept the UFO, south of the island. As the three interceptors approached the USAF crew saw the UFO depart towards the African coast. Nothing was seen by the fighter pilots.
The files reveal how personnel at the radar station high on Mount Olympus monitored the incident for a period of 90 minutes. But nothing was seen by British air defence stations – “nor was it seen on any ground or seaborne radar, including at 280 SU [280 Signals Unit – RAF Troodos]”. A signal reporting the sighting sent from RAF Troodos to MoD UK on 20 October describes the UFO as “larger than [a] RC135”. Boeing RC-135 aircraft are used by the USAF and RAF to support intelligence gathering. They have been used in every armed conflict including Cold War operations around the borders of the former Soviet Union. The aircraft are 136ft (41m) in length with a wingspan of 130ft (nearly 40m). The signal refers to the ‘object’ first spotted: “…initially about two miles from wing of RC135… moved position around aircraft and closed… object tailed Beano 73 for 90 mins on its northeast/southwest race track…” The message says the UFO was seen by the “whole crew”.
Following the encounter, a secret investigation was launched by the British authorities. The results were sent to the US Department of Defense in November 1982. Officially the US Air Force’s UFO Project, Blue Book, was closed in 1969. The British Ministry of Defence closed its own UFO desk in 2009 and its secret space intelligence unit, DI55, said it was no longer interested in ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’ (UAP) in 2000. But the newlyreleased RAF file reveals that officials ordered a transcript to be made of the tape recording that captured radio transmissions made between the spy-plane crew and ground controllers. Film provided by the RAF Troodos radar station was scrutinised by intelligence officers in London. The file does not reveal what happened to this evidence. The results of the joint UK/US investigation do not appear in the file, but a tentative explanation is offered by a senior RAF official, who wrote: “We have a strong suspicion that the ‘UFO’ was a mirage effect from lights on the coast of Israel or Lebanon”.
Elsewhere in the files, there is a collection of UFO statistics compiled by a Group Captain based at the RAF’s HQ No 11 Group at Bentley Priory. He collated information on UFO reports received by RAF radar stations for a 30-year period ending in 1996, in response to a Parliamentary Question from the Labour MP for Don Valley, Martin Redmond. The bases who responded to his request included the Ballistic Missile Early Warning Station at RAF Fylingdales on the North York Moors. Although most stations had received calls from members of the public and occasionally police officers reporting sightings, none had ever been corroborated by RAF itself. His report to the MoD says he could find “no reports or mention… of UFOs detected by ADGE [Air Defence Ground Environment] units or 11/18 Group aircraft using radar equipment”.