From
Directorate of Air Staff (Lower Airspace)
Operations & Policy 1
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
Room 6n3, Metropole Building, Northumberland Avenue, London,
WC2N SBP
Telephone (Direct dial)
(Switchboard)
(Fax)
(GTN)
Dr David Clarke Your Reference
OYI Reference
D/UAS/64/3/11
Date
31 October 2002
Dear Dr Clarke
Thank you for your letter of7 October regarding your request for copies ofUFO-related
documents. I will address your comments in the same order as your letter.
1. Copy of the me relating to a UFO report made by
Winchester, Hampshire on 14 November 1976.
•
and
I have now received file AIR 2/18977 from the PRO and it consists of eleven individual
. folders containing UFO sighting reports made to the MOD between 5th November and
. 30th November 1976. They are filed in date order and there is a list of correspondents in
'the front of the file. An · · list has revealed no reports for the
· 141h November, nor any
2. 'Copies of the files containing briefing and background notes on UFOs prepared by
the head of 84 (Air), with contributions from RAF Ops (GE) 2 and DI55 for
reference by Lord Strabolgi in his closing address during the House of Lords debate
on UFOs, 18 January 1979.
The file referred to in Hansard on 17 December 1998 was D/DSS/75/3 Part A, which is a
general parliamentary correspondence file covering 1978. I have recalled this file from
our archives and a brief examination has revealed several papers that may have some
relevance to your request. These papers were not generated by this Department so if you
wish us to pursue this request we would have to make further enquiries about their release.
With regard to your request for any papers that may be held by RAF Ops (GE) 2 and
DI55, both branches have been consulted. The Directorate of Air Operations (successor to
Ops(GE)) hold no relevant surviving files from this period. DI55 are still checking their
archives, but nothing relevant has been found so far.