Document · 1992
MoD file DEFE 31/181: Defence Intelligence (DI55) UFO papers, February 1992 – April 1993
Also known as DEFE 31/181, DI55 UFO file 1992-93, DEFE 31/181/1
A file of DI55, the Defence Intelligence Staff branch that looked at UFO reports for anything of defence interest, covering February 1992 to April 1993 and opened at The National Archives in March 2009. It is mostly copies of what the UFO desk and RAF West Drayton sent the branch: signals, report forms, letters from the public and press cuttings, with the names of witnesses redacted. The branch's own comments are rare.
Source: The National Archives, DEFE 31/181/1; page numbers are those of the Archives' PDF (the March 2009 highlights guide's numbers run one higher).
Facts and claims
- documented The file's one-page signals and forms record the Heathrow tower sighting of 17 December 1992 (p. 127), the Louth triangle of 9 December 1992 (pp. 280–281) and the Britannia Airways near-miss off Elba passed on by the Department of Transport on 1 May 1992 (pp. 351–352); none carries an assessment by DI55. Source: defe-31-181.pdf
- documented Its longest runs are a civilian research group's report on the sightings of 31 March 1993 over the West Country, Wales and Ireland (pp. 45–59), press cuttings on alleged American spy planes over Scotland (pp. 122–154, 287–288), and the Grimsby Evening Telegraph's 1992 series on Captain Schaffner with the RAF's 1970 accident report, which makes no mention of unidentified objects (pp. 186–267). Source: defe-31-181.pdf
Connected files
Organizations
- Ministry of Defence (UK) (prepared by) — Papers of DI55, the Defence Intelligence Staff branch that assessed UFO reports of possible defence interest
- The National Archives (UK) (released in) — Opened in March 2009; our copy is the Archives' digital copy, in six parts merged into one file
Incidents
- Heathrow control tower: a black inverted boomerang watched by two controllers (about) — Page 127: RAF West Drayton's signal of the control-tower sighting of 17 December 1992
- Louth, Lincolnshire: three lights in a triangle hover over the coast road, then shoot off at 500 mph (about) — Pages 280–281: the UFO desk's handwritten report form of 17 December 1992
- Britannia Airways 737 near-miss with a 'Mach 3' object off Elba (about) — Pages 351–352: the Department of Transport's letter of 1 May 1992 and the desk's note to DI55
- Cosford incident: police and RAF sightings across western England and Wales (about) — Pages 45–59: the Plymouth UFO Research Group's report on 31 March 1993, with the Irish aviation authority's findings and the Cosmos 2238 re-entry; sketches at p. 60
- Loss of RAF Lightning XS894 and its USAF exchange pilot off Flamborough Head (about) — Pages 186–267: the 1992 press cuttings and letters on Captain Schaffner, with the full RAF accident report at pp. 240–245
Documents
Mentioned in this file
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)
More documents
- MoD file DEFE 31/180: Defence Intelligence (DI55) UFO papers, June 1991 – March 1992
- MoD file DEFE 31/179: Defence Intelligence (DI55) UFO papers, January 1990 – June 1991
- The National Archives: guides to the Ministry of Defence UFO files (2008–2013)
- MoD file DEFE 24/2086: UFO sightings of 30–31 March 1993 (Cosford incident)
- MoD file DEFE 24/1972: alleged UFO involvement in the crash of Lightning F6 XS894 (1970)
- Ministry of Defence UFO files: release of 21 June 2013 (25 files)