Editing Ufology Handbook 080713/The quest for proof (section)

==UFO Photographic Cases in the British Isles:==

There are a substantial number of alleged British UFO photographs, but few have gained the status of "classics" (due predominantly to most UFO books being written from an American perspective). The vast majority of these, sadly, are proven or suspected hoaxes.

One of the earliest English UFO photographs was reportedly taken by a 13-year old boy at Coniston, Cumbria on the 15th February, 1953. It shows a blurry image bearing a very close resemblance to George Adamski's "Venusian scout ship". As a result, most Ufologists dismiss the photograph as a hoax, but the witness (when questioned in 1995) still maintained it was genuine. The book "Flying Saucers from Mars" (detailing a supposed February 1954 encounter between a Mr. Cedric Allingham and a "Martian" in the Scottish highlands) features several (very unconvincing) pictures of the entities' domed-saucer shaped "spacecraft". These images are, in all probability, extreme close up shots of a small model.

In February 1962 a 14 year-old boy claimed to have photographed a hovering formation of five domed discs at Mosborough, Yorkshire. A decade later the "witness" admitted to hoaxing this picture by photographing an outdoor scene through a glass plate, upon which the group of "UFOs" had been painted. In the evening of the 29th August 1965, at Warminster, Wiltshire (during a "wave" of UFO reports focused around that town) a 19-year old male reportedly photographed a fast-moving domed disc against a featureless sky. The authenticity of this picture remains a matter of notable controversy, although the photographer still claims it to be authentic. Two women at Cappoquin, Eire, claimed to observe a glowing elliptical "UFO" at about 3.15-3.30pm on the 26th December, 1965. One of the witnesses managed to take a photograph of the phenomenon just before it was lost to sight. Its veracity remains undetermined to this day. At Conisborough, Yorkshire, around 8.30pm on the 28th March 1966, a young boy (with four other members of his family) reputedly photographed a "throbbing" hovering orange light. When developed, the resulting picture did not show a luminous body, but a formation of 3 dark domed discs. Today, most British Ufologists agree it is a fake, involving "cut-out" UFO's stuck onto a transparent surface and then photographed.

Approximately 12.00pm on the 26th October 1971 at Enstone, Banbury Oxfordshire, an Anglia Television camera crew (in the course of shooting a countryside documentary) observed a stationary round silvery object, which suddenly ejected a "contrail" as it moved away towards the East. It was later discovered the "UFO" had been observed over a considerable area by other independent witnesses. This event is now believed to been instigated by a high-altitude aircraft illegally dumping aviation fuel. The static phase is attributable to the 'plane coincidentally traversing along the witnesses' line of sight.

On the 11th January 1973 a luminous orange sphere was filmed 6.5 kms S.W of Thame, Oxfordshire at around 9.05am. The same "object" was also seen by some primary school children and a teacher located several kilometres away at the villages of Chilton and Shabbington. Near the time and location of these sightings it is known that a malfunctioning F-111 aircraft had been incinerating "dumped" fuel with its afterburners, prior to a planned (but later aborted) emergency landing. The UFO incidents are therefore attributable to the ignited plume of aviation gas then being emitted by this aircraft (which eventually crashed at 9.46am, some 30km away, near what is now Milton Keynes). Another film, taken in October 1977 close to the Stonehenge Neolithic monument probably shows flares (the region around this ancient site being heavily used for military exercises). However the witnesses have disputed this explanation, alleging the lights caused severe effects on themselves and upon various electronic and mechanical devices.

On the morning of March 16th 1981, at the village of Cracoe, North Yorkshire, several individuals (including two police officers) witnessed a static grouping of three intense white lights, situated by the side of a distant, craggy fell. Six photographs of the phenomenon were taken during the course of this almost 1 hour-long incident. Several years later these "lights" were found to have resulted from solar lumination reflecting off exposed damp quartz-bearing rocks. More recently, on the 5th August 1987 at around 5.00am, a slow-moving dark domed-disc UFO was reputedly photographed in Barnsley, Yorkshire. Photographic analysis from several individuals and organizations (including Ground Saucer Watch) indicates this picture probably shows a cut-out image stuck onto a window. However, this evaluation is disputed by the photographer.

In March 4th 1989 (due to a wave of "UFO" sightings in NW London and SW Hertfordshire mainly instigated by the Virgin Airship) Hertfordshire police redirected a traffic monitoring video camera situated near Junction 6 of the M-1 motorway. On four separate occasions during this period the camera recorded images of unusual moving lights, and also two static aerial light-sources that were continuously visible in the distance. The stationary lights were subsequently identified as Mars & Venus. The moving lights are thought to be aircraft, shuttling to and from Heathrow aerodrome. Around 7.44pm at Corby, Northamptonshire, on the 7th May 1994, a family observed (and filmed with their camcorder for almost five minutes) a hazy, slow-moving silver & black coloured elliptical object with "round bubbles" located around its outer rim. A subsequent investigation discovered the "UFO" was probably a cluster of birthday-party balloons.

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