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..<br />
' I<br />
•<br />
Dr David Clarke<br />
4 May 1999<br />
Your ref: D/Sec(AS)/64/3<br />
I refer to your letter dated 6 April, in reply to my<br />
who had<br />
written to AS2 asking for information concerning "UFO"<br />
atrcraft incidents<br />
reported to the MOD on March 24, 1997, from the Sheffield area.<br />
In your reply you stated that the RAF /MOD had no records of any complaints concerning<br />
low-flying aircraft from that particular night.<br />
However, as a result of questions on my behalf by MP Helen Jackson in Parliament on<br />
March 25, 1998, Defence Minister John SpeHar admitted that the RAF had received 13<br />
complaints concerning low-flying military aircraft from different locations in the UK for<br />
March 24, 1997.<br />
Mr SpeHar said these complaints stemmed from a pre-booked training exercise in the area<br />
of the Peak District involving low-flying RAF aircraft which ended at 2135 hrs.<br />
In addition, the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh have stated that their equipment<br />
recorded two sonic booms at 2152 and 2206 hours GMT in the Sheffield area which could<br />
only have been caused as a result of aircraft breaching the sound barrier.<br />
<strong>The</strong> BGS said that RAF Flying Complaints were contacted on March 25, 1997, and "were<br />
unable to confirm they were caused by military aircraft."<br />
As a result of the above could you answer the following questions:<br />
Did RAF Military Police or any other department of the MOD conduct an internal<br />
inquiry/investigation into the source and/or cause of the two sonic booms recorded on<br />
March 24, 1997, given the legal stipulation (Military Flying Regulations) that pilots must<br />
not break the speed of sound over land/urban areas?<br />
If an inquiry was launched, what was the conclusion reached concerning the source of the<br />
sonic booms?<br />
If no such inquiry was launched, why not given the clear breach of military flying<br />
regulations these sonic events consituted?<br />
You may be aware that as a result of reports concerning an '"explosion" and sightings of a<br />
low-flying aircraft by civilians on the border between the Peak District and Sheffield<br />
shortly after 2200 hrs on March 24, police and emergency services launched a 15 hour<br />
search and rescue operation, without result.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re has been considerable speculation concerning this event during the past two years,<br />
and I hope the MOD will be able to provide a definitive answer to the questions above.<br />
Thankyou for your attention to this matter,
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