It came from outer space . . and paid the Lothians a visit

Published on Wednesday 4 August 2010 15:42

THEY are the once-secret files which many believe prove that the truth is indeed out there - in the Lothians.

Thousands of Ministry of Defence documents relating to UFO sightings were today made available in the National Archives.

They show that the skies above Edinburgh have been something of a hot-spot for strange phenomena.

Among hundreds of reports of sightings, "UFO crashes" and other close encounters were reports of U-shaped UFOs over the Forth, flying lights over Niddrie and queries about cattle mutilations.

The files revealed that UFOs were taken seriously enough at the highest level to be discussed by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) in 1957, while modern reports of UFO sightings reached a peak in 1996.

Among the local incidents highlighted was a letter from an investigator working with the British Unidentified Flying Object Research Association (BUFORA), who worked to try to gather unbiased scientific research into the subject.

They were querying sightings of "lights or objects" in the sky over Edinburgh in June 1995, with one report from June 7, stating that "at 2.15am a craft was seen moving slowly over the Niddrie area about 15 metres from the ground and it was without wings".

The "craft" was described as having "a very intense single red spot light flanked on both sides with two white lights".

It was around 100 metres from the witness, who said the object "did not make a sound" as it travelled eastwards.

The group asked whether the object had been picked up by radar, although the MoD said it had no reports of objects in the sky for that date.

Another sighting was made by a Meals on Wheels worker driving along Granton Road at around 12.30pm on October 9, 1995, who saw a strange object moving away from Inchkeith island in the Forth.

They wrote: "Saw object move away from Inchkeith fairly rapidly.

"Thought it was car ferry or hydrofoil at first, but it left no wake and was above water level."

A drawing by the witness showed a large dark grey U-shaped craft, similar to other drawings given to the MoD in documents also released today.

Paranormal investigator Ron Halliday said: "It is great that these documents are being released as for years the MoD refused to admit they were collecting UFO data."

Nick Pope, a former MoD civil servant who worked on the official UFO files, said: "Most of these sightings turned out to be misidentifications of things like aircraft lights or meteors, but a small proportion could not be explained."

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