| How
UFO sighting baffled X-Files team |
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| Roger
Willey and Clifford Waycott have never been given an explanation
about what they saw |
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This
is the strange tale of a UFO sighting which was reported by two Devon
policemen and placed in Britain's X-Files. More than 35 years on,
there's still no explanation as to what it was that the two officers
saw in the sky above West Devon that October night... |
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You're
driving along a country lane in rural Devon when all of a sudden something
appears in the skies above you.
It's a series of bright lights arranged in the shape of a cross -
and you've never seen anything like it before.
It's not an aircraft, and it's definitely not the stars. It must be
a UFO.
Far fetched? Try telling that to retired policemen Roger Willey and
Clifford Waycott, because this is exactly what happened to them one
weird October night back in 1967.
They
reported the sighting, and were amazed to receive a visit from a team
of investigators from the Ministry of Defence.
Their report was then stored away in Britain's very own X-Files, deep
in the MoD's vaults in London.
There, the report has remained - together with almost 200 other UFO
files. All of them are now set to be released for the very first time
in 2005 as a result of the Freedom of Information Act.
Follow that UFO...
Sgt Roger Willey and Pc Clifford Waycott were on their way back to
their police station when they were diverted to an investigation which
they've never been able to solve.
This time, it wasn't criminals they were chasing - it was a UFO!
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| Roger
Willey |
Thirty-seven
years on, and the sighting is still vivid in Roger's memory: "We
were making our way back between Holsworthy and Hatherleigh when we
saw this unusual bright white light in the sky.
"We both registered that we'd seen something. It was something
we couldn't logically account for.
"It was something that I hadn't seen before; I haven't seen since;
and something that nobody can explain exactly what it was."
The two officers 'followed' the UFO before returning to the station.
Like Roger, Clifford also recalls the evening as though it was yesterday:
"My view of it was that it was moving slowly.
"It wasn't a star. It was bright - it was white. If you look
at glass which has got rain on, it was the same sort of inference.
It was a splash. It was just too...eerie."
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| Clifford
Waycott |
The incident
was reported on the national BBC TV news bulletins, but Clifford says
the powers that be wanted the sighting 'hushed up.'
"We were visited by a boffin from the MoD who told us that we were
still officers under the Official Secrets Acts and they would rather
we kept it to ourselves."
Back then, a number of debates were raging about the UFO sightings
in Britain. Could it be the Soviet Union spying on us? Were the UFOs
further evidence of life in outer space? Or were people just seeing
things?
The Government was concerned enough to keep the X-Files under lock
and key. But in 2000, some of the files started to be released and
next year, in 2005, they'll all be made available to the public.
The Government has wound down its investigations with the conclusion
that there's no hard evidence about UFO existence...but the MoD emphasises
it still has an open mind.
Roger and Clifford, meanwhile, say they didn't imagine their sighting
and they're still waiting for a logical explanation.
"No explanation has been given to us by anybody and we haven't
asked," said Cifford.
"We've just gently been asked to sweep it under the carpet. It
didn't happen - that's what they said. But we know what we saw."
Article first published: 9th February 2004
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