The mystery, dubbed “Britain’s Roswell”, is still keenly debated by UFO enthusiasts and skeptics alike.
Hints of a government coverup, compelling eyewitness accounts from airforce officials, a spacecraft purportedly hovering through trees and landing; the Rendlesham Forest UFO incident has it all when it comes to instances of the unexplained.
Here’s a look at some of the standout witness statements, and what experts have said about the 1980 incident which has been dubbed “Britain’s Roswell”.
1. The first of several sightings occurred in the early hours of December 26, 1980
It all started on December 26, 1980, when U.S. military personnel spotted strange lights above Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, United Kingdom.
2. The sightings took place near RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge in Rendlesham Forest
RAF Bentwaters was an airbase used by the United States Air Force (USAF) during the Cold War until 1993.
The east gate of RAF Woodbridge, where the incident began, Source: Taras Young/Wikimedia Commons
Sections of the U.S. Air Force were stationed at the airbase when the incident occurred, including eyewitnesses that, to this day, claim they saw an extraterrestrial craft in the forest in the month of December 1980.
3. It is one of the few officially documented UFO sightings where witnesses claim to have seen a craft land.
Nick Pope, who was a Ministry of Defence employee from 1985 to 2006, and who wrote a book titled ‘Encounter in Rendlesham Forest: The Inside Story of the World’s Best Documented UFO Incident’, described the incident with the following words: “This was not some vague ‘lights in the sky’ sighting – the UFO actually landed.”
4. U.S. Air Force officer John Burroughs described agitated animals and red and blue lights near a farmhouse.
One of the men asked to investigate the strange blue, red, orange, and white lights coming from the forest was, John Burroughs. In a witness statement, published in 1981, he said:
“The woods lit up and you could hear the farm animals making a lot of noises… You could see the lights down by a farmer’s house [on the forest’s edge]… We climbed over the fence and started walking toward the red and blue lights and they just disappeared.”
5. Officer Jim Penniston’s witness account describes a craft made from “smooth, opaque, black glass”
USAF officer Jim Penniston, who was with Burroughs during the incident, described seeing a craft covered in hieroglyphic-like characters. He said the following:
Source: ktsimage/iStock
“I estimated it to be about three meters tall and about three meters wide at the base. No landing gear was apparent, but it seemed like she was on fixed legs. I moved a little closer… I walked around the craft, and finally, I walked right up to the craft. I noticed the fabric of the shell was more like a smooth, opaque, black glass.”
6. Indentations on the ground and high radiation levels were recorded the next day
The morning after the incident witnessed by Burroughs and Penniston, indentations on the forest floor were spotted, as well as damage to the trees in the area where the lights had been seen.
Radiation levels recorded at the site of the indentations were also reported to be unusually high.
7. Colonel Halt recorded a running commentary during the second UFO sighting at Rendlesham Forest
During the recording, in which he mentions objects and lights in the sky, as well as a red orb floating near the ground, Colonel Halt says:
“It looks like an eye winking at you… Here he comes from the South, he’s coming towards us now… Now we’re observing what appears to be a beam coming down to the ground. This is unreal.”
The recording is considered today to be one of the most valuable pieces of evidence from the Rendlesham Forest incident.
8. Burroughs and Penniston, the first two witnesses, suffered Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
In the Encounter in Rendlesham Forest book, Penniston wrote: “I left the forest a different man… I was in awe of the technology and yes, a knowing that it was not an aircraft which could have been manufactured in 1980 or even now.”
Both Penniston and Burroughs have since suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, The Telegraph reported in 2015. In recent years, Penniston has claimed that the craft telepathically transmitted binary code into his brain.
Read More – 21 Facts About The Unresolved UFO Incident at Rendlesham Forest
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