MoD checks UFO reports (From Witney Gazette)

MoD checks UFO reports

8:01am Monday 6th August 2007 in Witney By Matt Wilkinson

DEFENCE chiefs remain 'open-minded' about life on other planets after revealing they had logged more than a dozen UFO sightings above Oxfordshire in eight years.

Government files last week highlighted the number of sightings in the county's skies, reported by the public to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) between 1998 and 2006.

There have been three sightings in Oxford during the period, including a bright white halo seen heading north west in 2001.

City sightings also included an oval object with green, red, and blue flashing lights, spotted in 2000, and a spinning oval with about 250 lights, reported in 1998.

In total, 13 reports had been logged with the MoD, and the biggest year for sightings was 2000, when four separate reports were recorded. The most recent report was a structure which glinted like metal, which was spotted above Banbury in June last year.

Elsewhere, in June 2001, an object four times the size of a star, shining brightly, was spotted as it moved north in Eynsham.

Two months later, a spotter in Chipping Norton reported several very bright, purple, green, and white objects in the sky.

While in February 1998, a witness reported a very large object, like a firework rocket, descending over the A34 near Abingdon.

But UFO expert Michael Soper, from Marston, Oxford - a member of Contact International UFO research group - believes there has been hundreds of sightings in the skies above the county over the same period.

He said: "People here do report things relatively readily, and report very closely what they see, and with no embellishing at all."

Elsewhere, a family from Faringdon had reported suffering an alien abduction, while Uffington and the Rollright Stones were known as 'window areas', because so many UFOs were spotted, Mr Soper added.

"Oxford is a very interesting place. It gets exciting reports of objects in the sky, and there are a number of reports of abductions in Oxfordshire," he said.

Frances Morrill, 51, of Eynsham, saw a large orange and pink sphere above Wytham Woods in the late 1970s, which she believes was a UFO.

She said: "It has stayed with me until today. I know other people who have said they saw things up at those woods. I think its all kept secret because no one wants to scare us to death. I always keep my eye on the sky, and haven't seen anything else, and I really don't want to."

The MoD is preparing to publish all UFO files, dating back to 1967, including witness reports of apparent UFO sightings, many by civil pilots and military personnel.

An MoD spokesman said: "We do not have any expertise or role in respect of UFO or flying saucer matters - or to the question of the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial life forms, about which we remain totally open-minded."

The MoD examines reports to establish whether UK airspace may have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised military activity.

The MoD said 'rational explanations' - such as aircraft lights - could be found if resources were pointed in the right direction.