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This Ministry of Defence file, released through The National Archives and published by The Black Vault, holds the MOD's 2002 handling of Dr David Clarke's requests for UFO documents under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. It includes the MOD's 9 December 2002 reply, which covered reports from 1976, 1980, 1993 and 1996 and charged £260. It also contains internal emails and file requisitions, plus Foreign Office and United Nations papers from 1978 on Grenada's proposal for UFO research.
“Works”39 pages
, ... ·. ·:·.· 9. Expert Opinion. The observations were examined by the Royal Greenwich Observatory and a report of its findings is at Annex D. The report acknowledged the uncertainties in the estimates of azimuth and elevation of the observations and could only provide a best guess of the likely light source(s) as summarized below. a. The Boston Police may have been looking at the planet Venus which was exceptionally bright in the early morning sky on 5 Oct, rising at 0209Z on a bearing slightly north of east; this is consistent with the first Boston observation. b. Based on measurements obtained from the police video, the Skegness observations could also have been Venus. The Observatory notes that when a bright star or planet is low in the sky, even to elevation 200, it is quite common for it to appear to show colours which are often described as flashing or rotating. These characteristics and the report of the first Skegness observer tend to favour the Venus theory. c. The Observatory can offer no likely celestial explanation for either sets of lights observed from the MV CONOCOAST. SUMMARY 10. Following extensive investigation, it can be concluded that the radar plot observed in a position at Boston was a permanent radar echo; it was correctly assessed as such by CRC Neatishead at the time and no further air defence related action taken. The bright stationary lights observed from Boston and Skegness were probably due to light from the planet Venus which began rising at the time of the first observation; it was particularly bright and could have appeared multicoloured and flashing to some observers. No explanation can be offered for the two sets of lights observed from MV CONOCOAST. 11. For completeness and further reference, various notes are attached at Annex E, together with a list of organizations and persons consulted in the course of this investigation. In addition, abbreviated comment on the detail contained in Mr Redmond's letter to SofS are at Annex F. A copy of the video of the Skegness lights, copied by Lincolnshire Police HQ, is attached. 12. This report is the result of almost full time, painstaking investigation over a period of 8 working days and, although all the light phenomenae have not been conclusively explained, research has not revealed evidence or admissions that alarming or extraordinary events were being witnessed. It is likely that similar detailed investigation into light phenomenae would produce
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 492 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.