Rendlesham Forest UFO case – the story concluded
What had made the airmen think that
something had crashed into the forest in the first place? I
already knew from previous UFO cases that a brilliant meteor, a
piece of natural debris from space burning up in the
atmosphere, could give such an impression. But I was unable to
find records of such a meteor on the morning of December 27
[the date given in Halt’s memo].
Here the police account provided a vital
lead by showing that Col. Halt’s memo, written two weeks
after the event, had got the date of the first sighting wrong.
It occurred on December 26, not December 27.
With this corrected date, I telephoned Dr
John Mason, who collects reports of such sightings for the
British Astronomical Association. He told me that shortly
before 3 am on December 26 an exceptionally brilliant meteor, almost as bright as the full Moon, had been seen
over southern England. Dr Mason confirmed that this meteor
would have been visible to the airmen at Woodbridge as though
something were crashing into the forest nearby. The time of the
sighting matched that given in Col. Halt’s memo.
Finally, I turned to the question of the
radiation readings. I learned [from the UK’s National
Radiological Protection Board] that readings like those given
in Col. Halt’s memo would be expected from natural
sources of radiation such as cosmic rays and the Earth itself.
In short, there was no unusual radiation at the site.
As for the star-like objects in the final
paragraph of Col. Halt’s memo, they were probably just
that – stars. Bright celestial objects are the main
culprits in UFO sightings and have fooled many experienced
observers, including pilots. The object seen by Col. Halt to
the south was almost certainly Sirius, the brightest star in
the sky.
If it seems surprising that a colonel in
the US Air Force should identify a star as a UFO, consider the
alternatives. Is it likely that a bright, flashing UFO should
hover over southern England for three hours without being
spotted by anyone other than a group of excited airmen? And if
Col. Halt really believed that an alien craft had invaded his
airspace, why did he not scramble fighters to investigate?
[Actually, we now know from Halt himself and from RAF Watton
that Halt asked if anything was seen on radar, but evidently
nothing was. Researcher Nicholas Redfern found that
Halt’s call was logged by RAF Watton at 03.25 on December 28, which shows that
Halt got the date of the second sighting wrong, too].
UFO hunters will continue to believe that
an alien spaceship landed in Rendlesham Forest that night. But
I know that the first sighting coincided with the burn-up in
the atmosphere of an exceptionally bright meteor, and that the
airmen who saw the flashing UFO between the pine trees were
looking straight at the Orford Ness lighthouse. The rest of the
case is a marvellous product of human imagination.
POSTSCRIPT:
One of the original promoters of this
case, British UFOlogist Jenny Randles, who has probably spent
more time investigating and writing about it than anyone else,
has gradually come to accept most of the explanation outlined
above, although she still nurtures the belief that something
unusual may have happened even if it wasn’t a genuine
UFO. In a 1998 book on the case, UFO
Crash Landing, she writes glumly:
“Many people think the Rendlesham story is a nonsense
that was debunked out of existence. One might even be tempted
to argue that if a UFO case like Rendlesham falls, then none is
safe. The whole mystery may collapse into misperception and
witness exaggeration.”
That, of course, is exactly why the UFO
community dare not let Rendlesham fall.
**************
LINKS TO MORE DETAILED DISCUSSION:
n
For more about the identification of the Orford Ness
lighthouse, including photographic evidence demonstrating the
visibility of the lighthouse from the forest and the question
of whether Col Halt saw the lighthouse as well as the UFO,
click here.
n
For more about the landing marks, including a sketch of
them, and a discussion of the supposed tree damage, click here.
n
For more about the suggested connection between the
Cosmos 749 re-entry and the events in the forest, click here.
n
For a discussion of claims that the sighting was the
result of a hoax or practical joke, click here.
I would be particularly interested to hear
from anyone who was on the base at the time and can add their
own insights to the case.
One interesting development for
researchers came in 2001 when the formerly secret file of the British Ministry
of Defence on the
Rendlesham incident was released. It provides a fascinating
insight into official attitudes towards UFOs.
ian @ ianridpath.com
Content last updated: 2008 April
© Ian Ridpath 2008. All rights
reserved
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