Police Eyewitnesses Recall 1993 North Devon UFO Sighting

thisisnorthdevon.co.uk - Police officers who saw the UFO described in last week's Journal have come forward to give eyewitness accounts of the event.

The unexplained incident, on March 31, 1993, has recently resurfaced due to secret documents being released from The National Archives.

The incident involved numerous reports of a triangular object appearing near the Bristol Channel.

PC Nick Porter, of Barnstaple police station, said: "I thought it had all gone to bed, but when I saw the article, I had to phone and tell my story."

PC Porter and PC Hughes were on night duty driving from Higher Clovelly to Hartland when they saw an object coming from Bideford Bay.

"It was exactly as described in previous articles, and I remember it so clearly to this day," he said.

PC Porter confirmed the object was triangular with three bright white lights, all of which had a vapour trail.

"We thought it was some sort of aircraft initially, but when we got out of the car, it was quite clear it was a UFO," he recalled.

"The strangest thing is that it was deadly silent and just glided off into thin air.

"It was such a surreal moment that can't quite be explained."

The two officers were dubious about sharing their experience.

"I told PC Hughes we couldn't call it in over the radio because who was going to believe us?" said PC Porter.

"However, when we did report it, we found that our colleague in Lynton had seen the same sight."

Barry Mitchell and Gus Cottey were on duty in Ilfracombe when they saw the object in Lynton.

Det Sgt Barry Mitchell, now based at Bideford, said: "The strangest thing about it was the lack of correlation between its size and noise — there was no logic to it.

"I am not saying it was aliens or anything like that, but it was definitely an unidentified flying object."

PC Porter went on a programme about UFOs years later to speak to an expert.

"My mind was put at rest when I was told it was a Russian rocket," he said.

"But if this isn't the case, who knows how to explain it."

PC Porter said they also travelled to Morwenstow monitoring station to talk to government intelligence about the incident.

"We got a negative response from our enquiry, but I am not convinced.

"They would have seen something coming in to their air space.

"But I guess it would be subject to secrecy anyway."
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MoD Official Talks About North Devon UFO


sott.net - The Ministry of Defence official who investigated a UFO sighting which was seen by police officers in North Devon says the incident is still totally unexplained.

The North Devon Journal revealed last week that newly-disclosed documents from the National Archives showed that UFO sightings in the early hours of March 31, 1993, led to military fears about national defence.

Nick Pope was the person in charge of the MoD's UFO desk at the time and he said the release of the previously secret documents was a "blast from the past".

He told the Journal: "What was apparent to me was that for every report we got there were 10 to 20 sightings unreported. I remember talking to one of the police officers and he said that listening to the radio chatter, that was all they were talking about.

"There wasn't any resolution of this sighting but the common theme of a large triangular UFO that has cropped up many times since then."

He said to this day he "honestly does not know" what was seen that night, but at the time he was sufficiently concerned to highlight the incident as a possible breach of British airspace by an unknown aircraft.

Mr Pope said he was fairly confident the Americans were not lying when they said they had not been flying any prototype aircraft that morning, but he could not rule out activity by other nations. "Maybe it was Russia," he added.

At the time there were numerous reports, many from reliable sources such as on-duty police officers and military personnel, about a strange triangular aircraft with three lights.

A sergeant and police constable who had been on duty near Lynton noticed two bright lights approaching from the north across the Bristol Channel.

They stopped their patrol car and watched as the lights drew nearer to them. They also noticed a smaller third light between the other two lights.

The sergeant got the impression the three lights were attached to one large object, which he could not make out. Both officers saw two vapour-like trails, although they were more like "beams of light".

The mystery appeared to have been solved when it was revealed that a Russian rocket had been re-entering the Earth's atmosphere at around that time. The MoD conceded the majority of the sightings did not tally with the timing of the rocket.

There was talk in Parliament and the press at the time of the US Government testing an experimental aircraft called Aurora in the UK.

But the archives just released contain a restricted MoD minute from April 21, 1993, which states: "In summary, there would seem to be considerable evidence that a UFO of unknown origin has been operating over the UK.

"Given recent speculation about Aurora by both media and MPs, I am not sure that this is something we should necessarily let lie, although equally there would seem to be little else we can do."

Another minute states that the UFO was of "considerable defence significance".

Mr Pope, who worked at the MoD for 21 years, said the March 31, 1993, sightings were unusual because of the large number of reliable witnesses, and the fact that only 5% of UFO sightings remain unexplained; most turn out to be weather balloons, meteors, or aircraft.

"What we were really talking about," he said. "Was unauthorised penetration of British air space."