Thaindian News

London, June 20 (IANS) Will Martian crime become the next thing to plague security forces? Police reportedly gave chase to an UFO near a military base in Cardiff in what is the latest in the chain of claimed alien sightings in Britain. A three-member police team in a helicopter was on its way back to a defence base at St. Asthan, near Cardiff. They were hovering about 500 feet above the ground, awaiting clearance to land when the aliens struck.

The pilot apparently noticed a strange craft approaching them from below. It was aiming straight for the helicopter at great speed and the police pilot swerved sharply to avoid a collision.

The craft, by now believed to be a UFO by the crew as it was “saucer-shaped”, did not try to follow the helicopter and instead vroomed in the direction of the North Devon coast.

The helicopter gave chase and even crossed the British Channel in the process. They soon lost sight of it. That, and fuel shortage forced them to return to base. The incident occurred on June 7, but was reported Friday by The Telegraph.

A spokesperson for South Wales Police said: “We can confirm the air support unit sighted an unusual aircraft. This was reported to the relevant authorities for their investigation.”

Did the spokesperson believe it was a UFO? “They are convinced it was a UFO. It sounds far-fetched, but they know what they saw.”

There are thousands of reports of civilian sightings of UFOs in Britain. However, now there is evidence that even police officers and air traffic controllers see these objects.

The latest incident comes after the mid-May disclosure of secret files by the defence ministry, listing “official reports” of UFO sightings by policemen and airport officials. The witness accounts recorded on official forms were compiled by the ministry between 1978 and 2002. Another 150 files will be released over the next four years.

Disclosed for the first time is a report from three experienced air traffic controllers who attempted to “talk in” an UFO that landed on the runway before them. The incident occurred on April 19, 1984, at an East Anglian airfield, which was operating two runways called 22 and 27.

Others in the aviation industry also encountered unidentified flying objects, including a Sea King helicopter crew who tracked two objects on their radar for 40 miles, travelling at almost one nautical mile per second, in September 1985.

In June 1984, three officers at Edgware station in north London had been called to a garden after a sighting in Stanmore. On their arrival the uniformed officers found a “flashing light 45 degrees up in the sky” with a “dome on top and underneath”, which they watched through binoculars.

Nick Pope, who worked for the defence ministry for 21 years and was responsible for investigating the sightings, said: “Most of the UFO sightings here are probably misidentifications of aircraft lights and meteors, but some are more difficult to explain.”

The website of The Telegraph has received several posts from British citizens, including RAF pilots and engineers, who claim to have sighted UFOs.