Rendlesham Forest Incident
The east gate at RAF Woodbridge, where the incident began in December 1980
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| Time | 03:00 GMT (23:00 EDT) |
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| Date | 28 December 1980 |
| Location | Suffolk, England, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 52°6′11.37″N 1°24′56.586″E / 52.1031583°N 1.41571833°ECoordinates: 52°6′11.37″N 1°24′56.586″E / 52.1031583°N 1.41571833°E |
| Also known as | Britain's Roswell |
In late December 1980, there were a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights near Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, which have become linked with claims of UFO landings. The events occurred just outside RAF Woodbridge, which was used at the time by the U.S. Air Force. USAF personnel including deputy base commander Lieutenant Colonel Charles I. Halt claimed to see things they described as a UFO sighting.
The occurrence is the most famous of claimed UFO events to have happened in Britain, ranking among the best-known reported UFO events worldwide. It has been compared to the Roswell UFO incident in the United States and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's Roswell". The Ministry of Defence (MoD) stated the event posed no threat to national security, and it therefore never was investigated as a security matter. The sightings have been explained as a misinterpretation of a series of nocturnal lights – a fireball, the Orford Ness lighthouse and bright stars.
A comprehensive 2009 evaluation by scientific skeptic author Brian Dunning concluded there was nothing unusual about the incident.
Around 3:00 a.m. on 26 December 1980 (reported as the 27th by Halt in his memo to the UK Ministry of Defence – see below) a security patrol near the east gate of RAF Woodbridge saw lights apparently descending into nearby Rendlesham Forest. These lights have been attributed by astronomers to a piece of natural debris seen burning up as a fireball over southern England at that time. Servicemen initially thought it was a downed aircraft but, upon entering the forest to investigate they saw, according to Halt's memo, what they described as a glowing object, metallic in appearance, with coloured lights. As they attempted to approach the object, it appeared to move through the trees, and "the animals on a nearby farm went into a frenzy". One of the servicemen, Sergeant Jim Penniston, later claimed to have encountered a "craft of unknown origin" while in the forest although there was no mention of this at the time and there is no corroboration from other witnesses.
Shortly after 4:00 a.m. local police were called to the scene but reported that the only lights they could see were those from the Orford Ness lighthouse, some miles away on the coast.
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