THINK you’ve spotted a UFO? Then don’t call the Ministry of Defence - its UFO hotline has closed.
The MoD department that investigated sightings within the UK closed on December 1 after 60 years.
MoD chiefs made the decision to close the £50,000-a-year department, established in 1950, after deciding that investigating sightings were “an inappropriate use of defence resources”.
“The MoD has no opinion on the existence or otherwise of extra-terrestrial life,” said their statement. “However, in over 50 years, no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom.
“The MoD has no specific capability for identifying the nature of such sightings. Furthermore, responding to reported UFO sightings diverts MoD resources from tasks that are relevant to Defence.”
On December 1 the dedicated UFO hotline answer-phone service and e-mail address were withdrawn. And the MoD will no longer respond to reported UFO sightings or investigate them.
The ongoing programme to release Departmental files on UFO matters to the National Archive will continue.
MYSTERIOUS goings-on have blighted North Wales for many years, with unidentified objects regularly reported across the night sky.
The most famous story is the suspected UFO crash, that happened 35 years-ago on January 23, 1974 in the Berwyn Mountains.
Dozens of witnesses across Lancashire and Cheshire phoned the police that evening after seeing a strange formation of green lights flying erratically over the skies.
Then at 8.38pm something impacted into the Berwyn Mountains and the resulting tremor - which measured 4.5 on the Richter Scale - was felt in Wrexham, Chester, Liverpool and some areas of Manchester.
A nurse who lived near the scene of the impact was reported to have said that a flying saucer ‘the size of the Albert Hall’ had smashed into a mountain, throwing debris and bodies for over a mile.
The reports also said she walked up to a body, and realised it wasn’t human, but before she could describe what she had seen, two MoD officials ordered her to remain silent.
But 34 years later the nurse put the record straight in an exclusive interview with the Free Press.
“All these reports are a load of rubbish. I did not see any bodies and no-one stopped me,” said the nurse.
“We heard this almighty tremor, the house shook, we thought an aircraft had crashed, and being a nurse I thought I could help.”
Confidential Ministry of Defence files on Unidentified Flying Objects have since been made public.
But none have come to light surrounding the incident on the Berwyn Mountains in 1974.
The incident is only the latest in a long history of UFO sightings across Denbighshire and the surrounding counties over the last 50 years.
Last November a Vale of Clwyd housewife was startled by weird shapes in the sky over Ruthin. The woman was travelling to Ruthin and stopped her car after seeing strange lights in the sky.
“I was driving near the roundabout at Tesco and saw lights in the sky,” she said. “I was expecting them to be fireworks, so I was waiting for the bang or shower of colour, but nothing happened.
“They were moving, ever so slowly.
“When I got to my destination I got out of the car and saw them, there were about seven or eight of them, they were closer by now. And there was no noise whatsoever,” she added.
Last October, Sally Gavin of Llanynys was spending an evening with her boyfriend watching a film when they spotted a very bright white flashing light just above Moel Famau Country Park.
According to Sally: “It grew wider and wider and consisted of three lights which flashed on and off like Christmas tree lights before disappearing.
“I called a friend who lives in Gellifor and would have a better view and he confirmed that he, too, could see the red light.”
Five people, including Sally’s brother-in-law, saw the strange light and reported the details to North Wales Police who told them it might have been caused by the Army or someone out hunting.
But Sally is sure this wasn’t the case.
“It definitely wasn’t a plane or a helicopter. The lights were far to big and bright,” she said.