Page 15 - 20120708 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - July / August 2012

No Smoking Gun In Australia’s X-Files Secret UFO files released radar interference known colloquially as A similar sighting was made by Tim Barlass 'running rabbits' ''. Constable R. Keys from a separate position. He Squadron leader K. Keenan, in his six- was also of the opinion that it wasn't a normal page report, said operation Close Encounter aircraft. cost 66½ days of overtime, 1000 kilometres was Mr Priebe said both he and his wife saw It is probably the closest Australia has come to travelled by a staff car and a C130 Hercules a bright red glow gradually change to a white scrambling fighter jets to intercept a UFO. transport aircraft ''may have been diverted to light which then started to move slowly east. Documents that have just become Sydney airport'' to deliver one of the defence Through binoculars, ''the light was disc shaped available under the 30-year rule at the National controllers. with a very bright light around the perimeter of Archives of Australia reveal how two RAAF He wrote: ''The lines of communication, the disc with two flashing lights in the front and Mirage jets were placed on the second highest extending as they did across the width of an one to the side'', he said. level of alert to determine the cause of entire corridor, seem to have been insufficient The only photographs in the X Files unidentified radar contacts seen on screens at for the purpose.'' were of unusual lights over Bendigo, witnessed Mascot. He added rather dryly: ''Fortunately by hundreds in May 1983. An interim report by The ''X Files'' viewed in Canberra also there was no temptation to launch aircraft and the RAAF stated that Mike Evans, a 17-year-old give details of other unexplained sightings, add to the fuel bill occasioned by use of the disc jockey with the Bendigo radio station 3BO, some of which are supported by witness RAAF Datsun.'' A cautiously worded statement received calls from listeners, then saw the lights statements to police. was released as a result ''in a manner that would himself and took photos. In the Sydney alert, the papers stamped not embarrass departmental personnel'' which One anonymous caller to the RAAF said ''restricted'' tell how operation ''Close blamed ''random atmospheric conditions''. Other the lights were caused by a rock group Encounter'' was launched by No.3 Control and reports in the X Files give details of an experimenting with laser lighting. The report Reporting Unit at RAAF Base Williamtown ''unidentified physical feature'' of circles on said they were probably caused by train near Newcastle on June 30, 1983, after the Milo Station at Adavale, Queensland, in 1982. headlights or lasers or from planets or stars. phenomenon was first noticed earlier in the The file refers to photographs that apparently There had been unusual weather atmospherics month. were taken, but they were not among the papers. on the night. Senior air controllers at Mascot said the Constable Geoffrey Russell, from the Zoe¨ D'Arcy, director of digital and contacts were mostly located between 70 and local police station, visited the site and wrote a online access at the National Archives, said: 150 nautical miles north of Sydney at ''alleged report for RAAF Base Amberley near Ipswich. ''Where you and I might think UFO - a speeds of 1100-6500 km/h that suggested high The officer saw depressions in the ground and spaceship - the RAAF and other agencies were altitude''. thought they were caused by a motorcyclist probably wondering if there was a security The papers state that no scramble was to doing donuts but then dismissed the idea. threat. occur in the round-the-clock operation unless He wrote: ''I strongly feel this [is] no ''Most of the files you read and you think confirmation of any reported tracks was made hoax even though I do not know the cause of that most probably was a meteorite, but there on the radar screens at RAAF Williamtown or this 'feature'.'' are ones that you read and you think - well, what any radar other than Sydney. He described a large circle of 2330mm could that have been? At the same time, three senior air in diameter with one inner circle of 2010mm ''I can't explain that from my knowledge. defence controllers were dispatched to Sydney which were 160mm in width and about 15-20 ''So what was it that these people have to investigate and plot every contact and mm deep. The soil around the outer circle experienced? It has that open-ended question to ''control interceptors against these contacts if a appeared to have been ''blown away'', he said. it that I find really intriguing.'' [] reasonable chance of interception presented Elsewhere in Queensland, dairy farmer itself''. But then one of the defence controllers, Robin Priebe phoned Imbil police at 5.30am in a squadron leader, asked whether a comparison July 1983 to report seeing a strange object in the had been made of the contacts on the screens of sky to the north of the town. The papers state Mascot's Area Approach Radar Centre and that a Sergeant Waterson then went to his back those in a ''workshop across the corridor''. Soon verandah and saw ''a large white light with after, tests showed that the ''unidentified objects several flashing lights around it'' which did not reported by Sydney were generated entirely by appear to be a normal aircraft.