1 - The Black Vault

•
Frorn: .. llllllllll •
Directorate orArrsciff (Lower Airspace)
Operations & Policy 1
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
Room 6/73, Metropole Building, Northumberland Avenue, London,
WC2N SBP
Telephone
(Direct dial)
(Swrtchboard)
(Fax)
(GTN)
020 7218 2140
~
Your Reference
Our Reference
D/DAS/64/3
Date
14 August 200 I
I am writing with reference to your e-mail message of the 13 July in which you requested
information about an alleged sighting of an 'unidentified flying object' in April 1998. This office
is the focal point within the Ministry of Defence for correspondence relating to 'UFOs. '
Firstly, it may be helpful if I explain that the Ministry of Defence examines any reports of
'unidentified flying objects' it recei ves solely to establish whether what was seen might have some
defence significance; namely, whether there is any evidence that the United Kingdom's airspace
might have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised air activity. Unless there is evidence of
a potential threat to the United Kingdom from an external military source, and to date no 'UFO'
report has revealed such evidence, we do not attempt to identify the precise nature of each
reported sighting. We believe it is possible that rational explanations, such as aircraft lights or
natu ral phenomena, could be found for them, but it is not the function of the MOD to provide this
kind of aerial identification service. We could not justify expenditure of public funds on
investigations which go beyond our specific defence remit.
With regard to your particular request for information, a search of our files has revealed that we
did not receive any 'UFO' sighting reports about this alleged incident. We are aware that articles
appeared in The Daily Telegraph, The Express and The Daily Mail, in April 1998, which made
claims that RAF Fylingdales tracked a large unusual craft flying in a zigzag pattern over the North
Sea at speeds up to 24,000 miles an hour. However, RAF Fylingdales have confirmed that they
did not track any such object. There are, therefore, no documents that I can send to you.
Finally, you may wish to be aware that although the Freedom of Information legislation has
received Royal Assent and is known as the Freedom of Information Act 2000, it has not yet come
in to force. This is expected to happen across the public sector between 2002 and 2005 . Until
then, all requests for information held by the publi c sector will continue to be handled under the
current Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. The Code encourages the