Incident · 5 October 1996 · The Wash, off Skegness and Boston, Lincolnshire
Lights over the Wash and radar plot over Boston, Lincolnshire
Also known as Skegness lights 1996, Boston Stump radar, Lincolnshire UFO 1996, MV Conocoast lights
Partly explained. An RAF investigation found the radar plot was a permanent echo, almost certainly the Boston Stump church spire, and the lights seen from Boston and Skegness probably Venus, but could offer no explanation for the two sets of lights seen from the tanker MV Conocoast.
In the early hours of 5 October 1996 police officers in Skegness and Boston, and the crew of a tanker in the Wash, watched bright, stationary, multicoloured flashing lights until dawn, while a stationary plot appeared on a civil radar over Boston. The coastguard passed the reports from agency to agency, the press reported a radar-confirmed UFO, and Labour MP Martin Redmond asked why no RAF aircraft had been scrambled.
An RAF Wing Commander spent eight working days on the case, interviewing the observers and consulting the Royal Greenwich Observatory. He traced the radar plot to a permanent echo, almost certainly the Boston Stump church spire, and the lights seen from land to Venus rising, but left the tanker crew's two sets of lights unexplained.
Source: MoD file DEFE 24/2032 (pp. 419–450), The National Archives (opened March 2011)
Facts and claims
- documented The RAF's report records that at about 02:05 on 5 October 1996 a Skegness police officer on patrol saw stationary multicoloured lights low in the sky to the east; the coastguard, unaware of any incident at sea, asked the air rescue centre and RAF Neatishead about air activity, and a stationary plot was found over Boston on the civil Claxby radar. Source: defe-24-2032-1-1.pdf
- documented Lights were reported by Skegness and Boston police until dawn, filmed on video by Skegness police, and seen by the crew of the tanker MV Conocoast about 8 miles east of Skegness; police at King's Lynn, another ship and two airliners crossing the area saw nothing unusual. Source: defe-24-2032-1-1.pdf
- documented The report found the radar plot was “a permanent radar echo”, seen on only one nearby radar, and that “It is highly probable that the echo was caused by the 273ft Spire of St Botolph's Church, Boston (the “Boston Stump)”. Source: defe-24-2032-1-1.pdf
- documented Drawing on the Royal Greenwich Observatory, it concluded that the lights seen from Boston and Skegness “were probably due to light from the planet Venus”, but “No explanation can be offered for the two sets of lights observed from MV CONOCOAST.” Source: defe-24-2032-1-1.pdf
- documented The officer wrote that his report was the result of “almost full time, painstaking investigation over a period of 8 working days” and that research had not revealed evidence “that alarming or extraordinary events were being witnessed”. Source: defe-24-2032-1-1.pdf
Connected files
Documents
- Ministry of Defence UFO files: release of 3 March 2011 (35 files) (subject of) — DEFE 24/2032, pp. 419–450: the RAF investigation
Mentioned in this file
- The National Archives: guides to the Ministry of Defence UFO files (2008–2013) (Document)
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)
- Ministry of Defence (UK) (Organization)
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