By Sean Rayment Defence Correspondent
A Senior Ministry of Defence official has confirmed the existence of UFOs, it was claimed yesterday.
Believed to be a member of the RAF, he was coaxed into appearing on a TV documentary by investigator Jenny Randles.
In a programme to be shown on BBC2 next month, the official reveals how some case reports of UFOs over Britain consistently defy rational explanation.
'It becomes apparent there are now people at the highest levels of the Government who have not discounted the possibility of life on other planets,' he added. The programme also features a former head of a Government UFO monitoring unit confirming reports of craft moving at huge speeds. 'We had radar reports of objects travelling at 4,000 mph across the North Sea into British airspace - objects as big as battleships,' he reveals.
An incident in which two fighter planes were scrambled over East Anglia on the night of August 13, 1956 to intercept a UFO is investigated. Surviving crew members insist they had a 'close encounter'.
A BBC spokesman said: 'The MoD finally concede that they remain "totally open-minded" about extraterrestrial life forms.'
However, a Ministry spokesman poured scorn on the claims, adding: 'We have one person in the RAF secretariat answering inquiries about UFOs - that's it.'
Enthusiasts will be pleased to learn that we are at an advanced stage of negotiations with the producers of this three-part series to make the tapes available after the final episode had been broadcast.
I can confirm that it is an excellent series, and includes interviews with most of the world's leading UFO researchers. Significantly, this is not the first effort to inform its listeners about the subject, the BBC World Service ran a series on the topic to Middle East nations two years ago, and then it was suddenly taken off the air because it was not thought a suitable enough subject.
Incredibly, the BBC then began to receive complaints from avid listeners throughout Iran, Iraq, Lebenon etc. This prompted the BBC to bow to public pressure and the series ran for several more weeks.
This new series is aimed at the world's population, or at least all those who regularly tune into their programmes. Theorists may speculate at the timing, but the BBC is held in high esteem throughout the world for its objectivity and honest reporting.
This will definitely impact on millions of people, and its significance cannot be underestimated.
The article was written by their Defence correspondent, SEAN RAYMENT.
We have been working closely with the producers for several months, and provided them with a considerable amount of data. Jenny Randles has overall editorial responsibility, and tells me that the programme will air on 11 April.
Graham W. Birdsall