Incident · 7 June 2008 · Tern Hill barracks, near Market Drayton, Shropshire
Soldiers' video of lights over Tern Hill barracks, Shropshire
Also known as Tern Hill UFO, Ternhill barracks UFO, Alien Army, Royal Irish Regiment UFO
Explained. The lights coincided with Chinese lanterns released by a nearby hotel at a wedding reception, and the MoD closed the case on that basis.
On the night of 7 June 2008 soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment on duty at Tern Hill barracks in Shropshire filmed a formation of coloured lights on a mobile phone. The footage reached The Sun, which reported the story later that month; the MoD obtained the video through the Army.
The UFO desk found the square shapes were pixels from the zoomed phone camera and the lights slow-moving, and a nearby hotel said it had released Chinese lanterns at a wedding that night. The case is typical of the lantern sightings that swelled the MoD's last two years of reports.
Source: MoD file DEFE 24/2625 (pp. 107–112), The National Archives (opened June 2013)
Facts and claims
- documented The MoD's UFO desk noted that soldiers at Tern Hill had seen lights in the sky at about 11 pm on 7 June 2008 and filmed them; the video “shows a number of lights in the sky”, which change colour and appear square, “but this looks like the pixels showing up as the photographer zoomed in”. Source: defe-24-2625-1.pdf
- claimed A BBC report kept in the file quotes the corporal who filmed them as saying he saw 13 craft “zig-zagging”, “like rotating cubes with multiple colours”, and the manager of the nearby Tern Hill Hall Hotel as saying sky lanterns released at a wedding that night were to blame. Source: defe-24-2625-1.pdf
- documented The desk officer wrote: “I do not intend to investigate any further as I think we have our answer”, and told the regiment that, given the reports of Chinese lanterns, the MoD would not pursue it. Source: defe-24-2625-1.pdf
Connected files
Documents
- Ministry of Defence UFO files: release of 21 June 2013 (25 files) (subject of) — DEFE 24/2625, pp. 107–112
Mentioned in this file
- Ministry of Defence (UK) (Organization)
- The National Archives: guides to the Ministry of Defence UFO files (2008–2013) (Document)
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)
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