Rendlesham Forest Incident — Night Two: December 26–27, 1980
Rendlesham Forest Incident — Night Two: December 26–27, 1980
Overview
Night Two — the early hours of December 27, 1980 — is the least thoroughly documented of the three main incident nights and occupies an ambiguous position in the case record. It sits between the dramatic Night One craft encounter claimed by Penniston and the well-documented Night Three Halt investigation. The principal witness for Night Two is Sergeant Adrian Bustinza, and additional activity was reportedly observed by a large number of base personnel, including civilian Sarah Richardson.
Colonel Conrad's Initial Investigation
Following the Night One reports, base commander Colonel Ted Conrad conducted a brief early morning investigation on December 26. Conrad went into the forest and located the triangular pattern of ground impressions. He subsequently interviewed two of the Night One witnesses. His conclusion, stated in the 1983 OMNI magazine article, was measured: "Those lads saw something, but I don't know what it was."***
Conrad's willingness to personally investigate and his acknowledgment in 1983 that his personnel saw something genuine stands in sharp contrast to his much harsher 2010 statement attacking Halt and Penniston. The shift over 27 years is one of the most striking changes in official testimony in the entire case.
Sergeant Adrian Bustinza: Key Night Two Witness
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Adrian Bustinza |
| Rank at time of incident | Sergeant |
| Role | Acting Commander of Security Police, RAF/USAF Woodbridge |
| Night Two function | Investigated further anomalous light phenomena near the forest |
| Physical description of what he saw | Object hovering; red light on top; several blue lights below; many other colours; of enormous size; described as barely fitting into the clearing |
| Departure description | "Gone in a flash" |
| Emotional description | "A really scary feeling" |
| Post-incident experience | Reported being taken underground at the base and interrogated about his participation; warned not to speak |
Bustinza's description of the object — hovering, going in and out through the trees, then departing suddenly — is consistent with the Night One reports and provides an important bridge between the two documented nights. His account of enormous size is among the most dramatic physical descriptions offered by any witness.
Bustinza also reported that photographs were taken by base personnel during the incident. These photographs, if they existed, have never been officially released.
The Base-Wide Observation
On the night of December 26–27, the phenomenon was reportedly observed not just by the investigation teams in the forest but by a much larger number of personnel. Sources indicate that hundreds of base personnel*** observed strange lights over the base itself — not just in the forest. A civilian named Sarah Richardson*** is also reported to have witnessed strange lights over the base from outside the perimeter.
This reported mass observation — if accurate — would place Night Two as the largest-scale sighting of the entire incident, involving far more witnesses than the more famous Night Three. The absence of formally documented statements from this larger group is one of the more curious gaps in the evidentiary record and has been attributed by proponents to a deliberate decision not to take formal witness statements from the general observation.
Larry Warren's Account of a Later Night
Airman First Class Larry Warren*** — who has provided some of the most dramatic and most contested testimony in the Rendlesham case — describes events that he places on what he calls the final night of the incident, which he dates to December 29. His account describes:
- Being driven by bus to a field at Capel Green***, on the outskirts of RAF Woodbridge
- Arriving to find approximately 200 people assembled — military and civilian, including MoD and police personnel
- Observing a dim red light over a strange mist on the ground
- The light transforming into a triangular object approximately 30 feet wide and 20 feet high
- Three entities suspended in shafts of light emerging from or near the object
- Wing Commander Gordon Williams approaching and appearing to communicate with the entities
- A time-distorted, dreamlike quality to the experience: "Everything was on half speed and something was wrong."***
Warren's account is the most spectacular in the Rendlesham literature. It is also the most contested — his credibility has been severely compromised by documented fabrications in other parts of his life history, and his co-author Peter Robbins eventually formally disassociated from him, publishing a document cataloguing specific false claims Warren had made. The Williams communication claim in particular — suggesting the senior American commander at the bases greeted alien beings — has not been corroborated by any other witness.
The Underground Interrogation Claims
Both Bustinza and Warren independently describe being taken to an underground facility at the base for interrogation following the incident. Bustinza described being led underground and interrogated about his participation. Warren claimed similar experiences and added that he was shown video footage of UFOs before being warned to stay silent with the statement that "bullets were cheap."***
The underground interrogation claims introduced a dimension to the Rendlesham case that connects it to the broader government suppression framework described in other UFO cases — witness intimidation, classified facilities, and threats intended to maintain secrecy.
