Police chopper's UFO encounter

10 August 2007

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IT was likely to be a night like any other for the crew of a Met police helicopter on patrol over Bromley borough..

But suddenly they found themselves in the middle of something resembling a science fiction film. All around them were flashing and pulsating red lights that made whirring noises.

Their report was filed among hundreds of others in a secret government storage facility. Now, less than four years on, their story can be finally brought to light thanks to a freedom of information request.

However Met police were reluctant to elaborate any further on what was released by the Ministry of Defence.

The accounts are varied and in some cases bizarre. A massive light, shaped like an iron that hung in the sky without moving was spotted in Orpington in 2005.

In Grove Park, Bromley, witnesses saw a black ruler-shaped object 'move across the moon' and disappear in 1998.

Most of the sightings are little more than just an entry in a log that gathers dust on military shelves, but some are willing to speak of their experiences.

The Kentish Times reported how in April this year, a couple Stacy Shaw, 19 and her boyfriend Gavin Drummond, 22, saw 'burning balls of fire' in the sky.

They had seen them hovering over the Tollgate Hotel roundabout, next to the A2. Astounded, they followed one light to the site of an old BP petrol station in their car.

She said: "When it got there it just shot up into the sky really quickly. That was the most amazing part, the way it moved so fast."

In south east London witnesses spoke of a 'cigar-shaped' object that looked like a disc side on, which accelerated to a speed that would outstrip a fighter jet.

Information on UFOs has previously been exempt from freedom of information requests because it was considered a matter of national security.

A spokesman for the MOD said that it would only retain information on potential threats.

Nick Pope who recently just stepped down from the government's UFO project complained that the project had been 'virtually closed' and lack of investigation of reports had left Britain 'wide open to attack'.

However a spokesman for the British UFO Research Association remained sceptical.

He said: "If you work on the basis that anything considered to be of potential significance would be retained by the Ministry for any period of time they deemed necessary, then anything freely released into the public domain will ultimately have been viewed as worthless."