Incident · 4 September 1967 · From the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, to the Bristol Channel
Six “flying saucers” across southern England: the Farnborough students' hoax
Also known as 1967 flying saucer hoax, Farnborough flying saucer hoax, Bromley saucer, Clevedon saucer, rag-day saucers
Hoax. The saucers were a rag-day hoax by engineering students from Farnborough Technical College.
On the morning of 4 September 1967 six small saucer-shaped objects were found in a straight line across southern England, from the Isle of Sheppey in Kent to Clevedon on the Bristol Channel. For a few hours the discovery was treated as a possible real event: police cordoned off the sites, bomb disposal teams opened some of the saucers, one was flown by helicopter to RAF Manston, and the MoD sent its UFO investigator to Bromley.
The saucers were a rag-week stunt by engineering students at Farnborough Technical College. The case surfaced in the MoD files thirty years later, when a television producer researching it asked the ministry for help.
Sources: The National Archives' highlights guide (March 2011) · MoD file DEFE 24/1986 (pp. 305–311)
Facts and claims
- documented The National Archives' guide says that early on 4 September 1967 police and RAF were flooded with calls about six small “flying saucers” found in a line across southern England from Sheppey to the Bristol Channel; four police forces, bomb disposal units, the army and the MoD's intelligence branch were mobilised before it emerged the saucers were a rag-day hoax by engineering students from Farnborough Technical College. Source: mar-2011-highlights-guide.pdf
- claimed A television researcher's 1997 summary in the file lists the six sites: wasteground at Queenborough on Sheppey (flown to Manston by helicopter), Sundridge Park golf course in Bromley (opened by Scotland Yard's bomb disposal squad), Winkfield near Ascot, Welford near Newbury, a road near Chippenham (blown open with two controlled explosions) and Dial Hill at Clevedon. Source: defe-24-1986-1-2.pdf
- documented A retired technical intelligence officer wrote to the MoD in 1997 that he had held the post responsible for investigating UFO sightings in 1967–68 and “was the MOD investigating officer who attended Bromley Police Station to examine Saucer 2”. Source: defe-24-1986-1-2.pdf
Connected files
Documents
- Ministry of Defence UFO files: release of 3 March 2011 (35 files) (subject of) — DEFE 24/1986, pp. 305–311
Videos
Mentioned in this file
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)
- The National Archives: guides to the Ministry of Defence UFO files (2008–2013) (Document)
- Ministry of Defence (UK) (Organization)
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