Highlights Guide This document contains details of how to navigate through the newly released files. We have included bookmarks in each of the PDF files of key stories and reports highlighted by Dr David Clarke. This will make it easier to navigate through the files. 

For information on the history of government UFO investigations and where these files fit in please read Dr David Clarke"s background guide to the files. 

Navigating the files using the bookmarks 
 
To view the bookmarks, click on the "Bookmarks" tab on the upper left hand side of the PDF window, the bookmarks tab will expand - as shown below. 

1. Click on "Bookmarks" tab 

The "Bookmarks" tab will then expand and a list of relevant bookmarks will be displayed - as shown below. 

## 2. Bookmark Tab Will Expand. Clicking On A Bookmark Will Take You To The Pages Of The File Related To That Particular Story. To See The Details Of Each Bookmark - Hover Over The Red Or Blue Icon That Appears On The Top Left Hand Corner Of The Relevant Page Of The Pdf Document - As Shown Below.

3. Hover or click on bookmark icons to see detail 

## 

 Below is information on the key stories and reports of UFO activity contained in these files. It includes a list of the bookmarks contained in each file, with a short summary of each bookmark. Please note that not all files contain bookmarks. 

Key stories and events featured in the files (red text): 
Rendlesham Forest incident, December 1980 
The file **DEFE 24/1948** covers the Rendlesham incident, Britain"s best-known UFO 
incident. It involves several sightings of lights in the forest, outside the perimeter fence of RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk, by United States Air Force personnel in December 1980. They claimed a UFO had landed in the forest, leaving traces including markings on the ground and radiation. The events were detailed in a famous memo to the MoD by Lt Col Charles Halt (USAF deputy base commander), who was present during one of the sightings. Halt"s memo opens this file (p6), which consists largely of correspondence between the MoD and members of the public from 1983-1995. 

Note: This file has previously been released to individuals requesting it under the Freedom of Information Act. Details of this are given on p4 of the file. 

Further material can be found in **DEFE 24/1970** (UFOs: Parliamentary correspondence 
1985-1995). This file includes background material covering a range of Parliamentary Questions and private inquiries to the Ministry of Defence from MPs, often forwarding letters from constituents, on UFO matters. 

The file contains the Ministry of Defence"s final position statement on the Rendlesham incident in a briefing for the House of Lords Defence Debate (p10-11), along with a letter from the late Lord Hill-Norton, a former Chief of Defence Staff, to the Rt Hon Michael Heseltine, then Secretary of State for Defence, where he described the incident as, "a potential "banana-skin" looming for the MoD" (p366-367). 

UFOs reported over Belgium - 1989-1990 
A story which appears in a number of the files concerns a wave of sightings that occurred in Belgium during 1989-90. The files reveal how in March 1990 the Belgian Air Force scrambled F-16 fighters to intercept UFOs reported by police officers and others. An official statement from the Belgian Air Force sent to the MoD in November 1993 is at DEFE 24/1970 p86-87. A letter from Malcolm Rifkind to Lord Hill-Norton explains the MoD was not informed of the incident at the time and concluded there was no threat to the UK **DEFE 24/1970** p58-59. 

In addition see (not an exhaustive list): 
DEFE 24/1970 p66, p70-71, p75-76 and p86-87 DEFE 24/1960 (p320-324) - a four-page account of the UFOs detected by NATO radars and F-16 fighters over Belgium in 1990, which remain unexplained. The account, from General Wilfried de Brouwer, Chief of Operations, Belgian Air Staff confirms that F-16 pilots obtained "lock-ons" with their radars but were unable to explain the phenomena. 

DEFE 24/1962 (p177-179) DEFE 24/1965 (p272) Cosford incident, 31 March 1993  
The file **DEFE 24/2086** covers sightings of bright lights seen across central England in the early hours by police officers and military witnesses (including a police patrol at RAF Cosford, near Wolverhampton). The file includes more than 30 sightings during a sixhour period. The MoD"s UFO desk asked the RAF to replay radar tapes but this found nothing unusual had been detected. However, the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (ACAS), Sir Anthony Bagnall, was briefed that there was evidence a UFO had evaded UK defences. It soon emerged that the majority of sightings were caused by the Russian rocket that launched the Cosmos 2238 satellite, re-entering the earth"s atmosphere. 

UFO sightings in London, 1993-94 
Dozens of sightings of a brightly illuminated oval object were reported over London, caused by what was actually a Virgin airship advertising the launch of the Ford Mondeo. 

Some accounts include sketches and several people refused to believe the UFO was the airship (see DEFE 24/1963, 1959, 1960 - more details of pages are given in the regional highlights for **London**, below). 

 
Aircraft encounters A number of reports of UFOs sighted by pilots and air crews, along with near-misses between UFOs and airliners, are included in these files. 

 DEFE 24/1961 (p381) - a "lit object" passed close to an aircraft approaching 
Manchester in January 1995 
 DEFE 24/1960 (p294) - a "black lozenge-shaped UFO" passed close to an aircraft 
over Berkshire in August 1994 
 DEFE 24/1963 (p198) - a UFO Solar balloon was blamed for an incident at Gatwick 
in July 1991 
 DEFE 24/1970 (p86-87), DEFE 24/1960 (p320-324) - UFOs seen by Belgian Air 
Force F-16 fighter pilots in March 1990 
 DEFE 24/1960 (p424-425) - An air crew flying from Moscow to Tokyo in March 1994 
reported seeing a huge object was seen entering the Earth"s atmosphere over the 
Arctic that created a shockwave 200 miles long. The crew reported that the UFO came in over the [North] pole at an estimated speed of 10-15,000mph. They initially 
believed it must have been a Space Shuttle, but subsequently found it was already down.  

## Ufos On Radar 

 DEFE 24/1970 (p125) - Ministry of Defence statement from 1993: "I am not aware of 
instances where radar operators have detected an object, judged it to be solid, and 
not been able to identify it…" continuing, "..we have never detected a structured 
aircraft in UK airspace, that has remained unidentified". 

## Crop Circles Parliamentary Questions In 1989 And 1990 Regarding Crop Circles Are Found At: 

 DEFE 24/1970 (p175-178, p229-231, p275-278) 

## Attempted Alien Abductions 

 DEFE 24/1961 (p191-207) - Staffordshire Police report May 1995 on two youths 
who claimed they saw a UFO land in a field at Chasetown. A face appeared and a 
voice said: "We want you, come with us." 

## Ufo Attack On Cemetery 

 DEFE 24/1976 (p180) - Cheshire police report from July 1996. A young man 
returning home near Widnes ran after seeing a UFO over a cemetery. He reported that beams of light were projected onto the ground, a wailing noise was heard and smoke rose from the ground. Investigations at the scene found a hole burned in a railway sleeper still smouldering when police arrived. 

## Glastonbury Festival Ufo 

 DEFE 24/1960 (p295-305) - two female festival-goers reported a UFO over the jazz 
field in June 1994. 

## Scotland Ufo Sightings 

 DEFE 24/1959-1961 (a number of Scottish sightings are included in these files) - 
Bonnybridge, near Stirling, was featured in the national press during 1994-1995 as 
Britain"s hotspot for UFO sightings. A local councillor wrote to John Major asking for 
an inquiry and tried to twin the town with Roswell. 
Reports of UFO activities according to regions (blue text): 
Note: These regional bookmarks are a rough guide only and may not include all of the reports related to the region featured in this release. 

 
Berkshire DEFE 24/1960 (p294) 
 
Birmingham DEFE 24/1970 (p287) DEFE 24/1976 (p240-241) 
Buckinghamshire DEFE 24/1961 (p14) 
Cambridgeshire DEFE 24/1964 (P152-164) 
Cheshire DEFE 24/1976 (p180) 
Cornwall DEFE 24/1959 (p114, p213) DEFE 24/1975 (p25) 
Derbyshire DEFE 24/1960 (p46) 
Devon DEFE 24/1965 (p83-86, p330, p333-334) 
Essex  
DEFE 24/1960 (p85-86) DEFE 24/1974 (p62) 
Hampshire DEFE 24/1963 (p8-11) 
Jersey DEFE 24/1964 (p138-142) Lincolnshire DEFE 24/1959 (p23-25) DEFE 24/1975 (p237) 
London DEFE 24/1970 (p192-203) DEFE 24/1959 (p101-110, p282-283) DEFE 24/1962 (p67-69) DEFE 24/1963 (p49-54, p112-117) DEFE 24/1964 (p9-11, p12-13, p308-310) DEFE 24/1965 (p8-9, p91-92, p94, p216-247, p262-265) 
 
Manchester DEFE 24/1961 (p381) DEFE 24/1975 (p172) 
Middlesex DEFE 24/1976 (p109-110) 
 
Northern Ireland  
DEFE 24/1974 (p5) 
Northamptonshire DEFE 24/1964 (p240-242) DEFE 24/1959 (p220) 
Norwich DEFE 24/1960 (p101) Portsmouth DEFE 24/1960 (p186-187) 
Reading DEFE 24/1960 (p137) 
Scotland Please note DEFE 24/1960 contains numerous reports from Scotland (see Key Files notes above) including: DEFE 24/1960 (p10, p21, 149, p162, p362, p447) DEFE 24/1961 (p241, p343, p312) DEFE 24/1975 (p227) DEFE 24/1976 (p113-115) DEFE 24/1962 (p274-275) 
DEFE 24/1963 (p249-250) 
 
Somerset DEFE 24/1960 (p295-305) DEFE 24/1964 (p188) Southampton DEFE 24/1960 (p265-267) 
Staffordshire DEFE 24/1961 (p191-207) DEFE 24/1970 (p299-300, p301-303) Suffolk DEFE 24/1974 (p104-106) 
Sussex DEFE 24/1976 (p51) 
 
Teesside DEFE 24/1963 (p255-257) Wales DEFE 24/1975 (p174-176) West Midlands DEFE 24/1961 (p332) 
Wiltshire DEFE 24/1959 (p54-55) DEFE 24/1961 (p319-321) DEFE 24/1975 (p83-84, p172) DEFE 24/1976 (p200) 
 
Worcestershire DEFE 24/1959 (p249) DEFE 24/1975 (p12) 
Yorkshire DEFE 24/1959 (p288, p368) DEFE 24/1961 (p88-89, p216) DEFE 24/1965 (p20)