Page 14 - 200712 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - December 2007

14 RAF SOPLEY UFO - 1971 RAF SOPLEY UFO - 1971 14 RAF SOPLEY UFO - England was calm and sunny. I called the Met silent. RAF SOPLEY UFO - I am at a loss to explain what I, and 1971 Office to confirm the strength of the upper many other people, saw. In those days aircraft 1971 winds to find that they were also relatively calm by and were about fifty degrees off the could not climb at such a rate. To be seen on by Philip Mantle Philip Mantle southeasterly track of the blips; they also displays by three different ground radars, plus the airborne radar in the Canberra, is also a confirmed that there were not Met balloons/probes airborne at the time. mystery. The weather conditions were very t the UFO DATA conference in October The winds were not strong enough, nor definitely VMC or Visual Met Conditions; the 2007 I met up with veteran UFO investigator in the right direction, to cause the blips to travel aircraft was clear of cloud by at least a thousand David Beezer. I've known David for many years on their observed track especially at the speed feet vertically and with a forward visibility of at and he has regularly attended many of our they were travelling. It was estimated that they least five nautical miles. public events. David wanted me to read a report were doing around 250 knots, but it must be Alan Turner MBE 10th November 2007. he had received from a for RAF officer but on borne in mind that this was a lateral speed as the day I simply did not have the time. David seen on radar - they must have been travelling In Mr. Turner's letter to be dated 10th made me a copy of the report in question and I very much faster to climb over 50,000 feet in November 2007 he apologised for not read it a day or two after the conference had less than forty miles. Equally the weather was remembering the exact date of the incident and finished. such that there were no 'angels' to affect the believes that there are those out there that will The report came from a Mr. Alan Turner radar picture. "Angels" was a euphemism for, use this to discredit his account. I'll leave you MBE and concerned a UFO observed on radar what were believed to be, ionozed pockets of air with his final comments on the incident; "Please at RAF Sopley in the summer of l971. I which, under very specific atmospheric use the information in any way you see fit; I subsequently contact Mr. Turner and have his conditions, were often seen on radar screens in stand by what I saw because I know what I permission to document the following. His those days: when seen, these 'angels' traveled saw." report is published in full. extremely slowly simply drifting along Colleagues and I intend to submit a Alan Turner was aged twenty-five when haphazard tracks. In those days all radars were Freedom of Information request to the UK he joined the Royal Air Force in l966 and was 'raw'. That is to say that, whatever was within Ministry of Defence, and should we obtain any commissioned that year as an Air Traffic the coverage of the radar envelope and capable further information we will of course publish it Control Officer. RAF Sopley was a wartime of bouncing (returning) the radar pulse back to due course. bunker, which had been converted into a joint the receiver, would be seen on the radar tube. Thanks must go to David Beezer for military/civilian Air Traffic Control Radar Unit Today's radars are computerised thus such supplying the information and contact details (ATCRU): it closed in l974 when both the civil interference is processed out so as not to affect and special thanks to Alan Turner MBE for and military ATC functions were transferred to the picture. allowing me to publish his account. West Drayton. Looking around for some other method Alan Turner remained in the RAF of checking what was going on, I discovered ABOUT THE AUTHOR eventually to command the Central ATC School that a controller had two Canberras on PHILIP MANTLE from 1990 to 1992. In July 1995 he was frequency returning from Germany. One of the discharged from the RAF in the rank of Wing pilots agreed to investigate so I assumed control Philip Mantle is an international UFO Commander. of his aircraft and, having confirmed he was in researcher, author and broadcaster. He can be This is Wing Commanders Turner's good visual met conditions, I vectored him on to contacted via email at: philip@ account of what he personally observed at RAF the blips keeping him regularly updated on their mantle8353.fsworld.co.uk Sopley in the summer of l971 in full: position relative to the Canberra. The aircraft In the summer of 1971 I was the Duty was flying at around nineteen thousand feel and All photographs copyright Alan Turner MBE Military Supervisor at RAF Sopley, which was when it got within a mile or so of one particular and reproduced with his kind permission a joint military/civil Air Traffic Control Radar blip, the pilot reported, in a very agitated voice, Unit (ATCRU). It was a Tuesday afternoon but that his radar had picked something up heading I cannot remember the exact date. The Duty down his port side by about a quarter of a mile Civil Supervisor drew my attention to a and 'climbing like the clappers', it was on a situation on radar the likes of which neither of reciprocal heading to the Canberra. The pilot us had ever encountered. admitted that neither he nor his navigator made Emanating from a point some twenty any visual contact and confirmed that the nautical miles east of the eastern extremity of weather conditions were such that they would the Salisbury Plain Danger Area were a series of have had no difficultly seeing something that six or seven blips moving on a south-easterly close. track each being separated from the other by The whole episode lasted for twenty about six miles. At about forty miles from the minutes or more before the blips stopped point they appeared on radar they disappeared appearing. I impounded the R/T tapes and the to be followed almost immediately by a Radar Video film and made appropriate entries replacement at the point of origin. in the log. Each person in the Ops Room who I put the FPS 6 Height Finder onto some witnessed the incident was required to write a returns to discover that they were about 3000 report. The Squadron Leader in charge of 1982: This was taken in l982 when Alan feet when they came into radar cover and Operations collated the reports and informed Turner was the Senior Air Traffic Control climbing extremely rapidly so that, by the time higher authority. Within a couple of days I was Officer at RAF Lossiemouth. He is pictured on they disappeared from radar, they were in interviewed in the Squadron Leader's office by the right. More Photos on Page 15 excess of 60,000 feet. To climb to such a height two men who were not identified to me. I, along in only forty miles was beyond the ability of with all the others in the Ops Room on the day Join Rob McConnell Monday thru Friday any fighter aircraft at the time. in question, were told in no uncertain terms not from 10 pm - 1 am Eastern / 7 pm - 11 pm The phenomenon was witnessed by four to relate what we had seen until cleared to do so. Pacific in The ‘X’ Zone, a place where Fact is civil and six military controllers on duty at the About four years later I was serving at RAF Fiction and Fiction is Reality, a place where time. I called Heathrow Radar to discover that Wattisham when the Station Commander asked people Dare to Bealieve and Dare to Be they, also, wee seeing a similar picture. The to see me. I was told that he had a Heard exclusively on The TalkStar Radio same situation prevailed in the Fighter Control communication from the MoD about the Network and their broadcast affiliates in Operations Rooms at RAF Neatishead. The incident at Sopley and that as 'nothing could be Alaska, Canada, the United States, Central three units involved operated different radars confirmed' the situation was such that doubt America, the Caribbean, South America, the from each other thus different frequencies were would be cast on anything I said about it. I took Pacific Rim and now in Asia. - in use. The weather forecast from the south of this to mean that I was no longer to remain www.xzoneradio.com