Document · 1992

MoD file DEFE 24/1972: alleged UFO involvement in the crash of Lightning F6 XS894 (1970)

Also known as DEFE 24/1972, Lightning XS894 file, Schaffner UFO file

A Ministry of Defence file opened at The National Archives in August 2009, on the stories that circulated from 1992 about the loss of an RAF Lightning and its American pilot, Capt. William Schaffner, off Flamborough Head on 8 September 1970. It holds the Grimsby Evening Telegraph's series on the “Riddle of Foxtrot 94”, letters from UFO researchers, the UFO desk's research into the Board of Inquiry papers, a summary of the Aircraft Accident Report and a 1994 RAF flight-safety article, “Don't believe everything you read!”.

Source: The National Archives, DEFE 24/1972 (our copy is The Black Vault's mirror)

Facts and claims

documented The file collects the 1992 newspaper story that a USAF exchange pilot was ordered to intercept an unidentified contact and lost, the MoD's replies to researchers, and a summary of the RAF's Aircraft Accident Report on the crash. Source: defe-24-1972.pdf
documented The MoD wrote to researchers in November 1992 that the Lightning was taking part in an exercise in the night shadowing of low-speed targets, Shackleton aircraft, and crashed into the sea while intercepting one: “There is no indication of any unidentified target having been encountered, and no reason to suggest that there is any sort of UFO incident in any way connected with this tragic crash.” Source: defe-24-1972.pdf

Connected files

Organizations

Ministry of Defence (UK) (prepared by) — Papers of the MoD's UFO desk, Secretariat (Air Staff) 2a
The National Archives (UK) (released in) — Opened in August 2009