9 years ago
Friday, October 12, 2012
The truth is out there… UFO expert Nick Pope talks about aliens
I’ve been involved with the subject of UFOs since 1991, but unlike
most people with this interest, this didn’t result from my having a
sighting and it wasn’t a hobby – it was my government job! I worked for
the Ministry of Defence for 21 years, from 1985 to 2006. I had a varied
and enjoyable career, but by far my most bizarre MoD job was one that I
did from 1991 to 1994, when my responsibilities included researching and
investigating UFOs.
The MoD’s UFO project dates back to the Fifties and the
wonderfully-named Flying Saucer Working Party. This had been set up in
1950 by MoD’s Chief Scientific Adviser, the great radar pioneer Sir
Henry Tizard, who said that UFO sightings should not be dismissed
without first carrying out some sort of proper scientific investigation.
In fact, the Working Party’s conclusions were sceptical. Their final
report – issued in 1951 – concluded that UFO sightings were
misidentifications, hoaxes or delusions and they recommended that no
further investigations be carried out. But in 1952 the MoD was
reluctantly dragged back into the subject after a wave of sightings
during a large NATO exercise, where UFOs were seen by numerous RAF
pilots, and tracked on radar, performing extraordinary speeds and
manoeuvres.
The suspicion, of course, was that we were dealing with Russians, not
Martians. However, the MoD and the RAF kept open minds and the terms of
reference of the MoD’s UFO project simply involved investigating all
UFO sightings to see whether there was evidence of any potential threat
to the UK, or anything of more general “defence interest” – a phrase we
carefully avoided defining.
When I was posted to this section in 1991 I had no idea what to
expect. I had no interest in UFOs and no particular beliefs on the
subject. So far as I can recall, the first sighting that I investigated
involved white, red and green lights not far from Heathrow! My
conclusion, unsurprisingly, was “probable aircraft”.
Most of the 200-300
sightings that I investigated each year turned out to have simple
explanations: aircraft lights, weather balloons, meteors, satellites and
various other conventional objects and phenomena. But around 5%
remained unexplained and some of these cases involved sightings from
police officers, military personnel and pilots.
One of the most fascinating cases I investigated took place in March
1993 and involved a UFO that flew over two military bases. One of the
RAF witnesses described seeing a large triangular-shaped craft which
flew very slowly over RAF Shawbury in the Midlands, before accelerating
away to the horizon many times faster than a military jet. Our first
suspicion was that this was a prototype aircraft or drone – a new spy
plane, perhaps. But our investigations drew a complete blank.
The job involved more than simply investigating UFOs. A typical day
might involve anything from responding to questions from the media to
helping a child with a school project on UFOs. It was a fascinating job,
but although I became known as the real-life Fox Mulder, MoD’s UFO
project wasn’t quite as glamorous as The X-Files!
Despite lots of conspiracy theories suggesting that we were covering
up the truth about UFOs, there was no conspiracy. Or rather, if the
authorities really do have a crashed UFO hidden away somewhere, I’m
afraid they didn’t tell me. People can see for themselves, because the
MoD is in the process of declassifying and releasing the entire archive
of UFO files. That’s because when the Freedom of Information Act was
introduced, MoD received more requests about UFOs than on any other
subject!
I’m often asked what I think aliens will look like or what might
happen if we ever encounter extraterrestrials. Hollywood has come up
with a variety of answers to the first question: some cute, others
frightening. My own view is that aliens may look like nothing we’ve even
remotely imagined. But one thing I think is quite likely is that we’ll
be dealing with robots or cyborgs. Our first encounter with
extraterrestrials might involve artificial intelligence and that being
the case, they might make contact via our computers: an email from ET,
so to speak!
When I left the MoD, I became a journalist and broadcaster.
Unsurprisingly, given my previous experience, I’ve specialised in the
unexplained, conspiracy theories and science fiction. I often get
involved with movies, TV shows or computer games with an
extraterrestrial theme and I’m currently involved in promoting the new
alien invasion computer game XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
It’s a
turn-based strategy game in which you build a headquarters, select a
team and undertake various missions, which can involve anything from
shooting down a UFO and battling aliens, through to researching alien
technologies. The game combines tactical gameplay with some incredible
action sequences and on-the ground combat. It’s challenging and great
fun.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
No comments :
Post a Comment