MoD releases UFO sighting files

UFO files are being made available online

Details of UFO sightings around the UK, including a number in Northern Ireland, have been released by the Ministry of Defence.

A total of 19 files covering sightings between 1986 and 1992 have been made available online.

One of the file details three unidentified flying objects near Belfast International airport in December 1989 and January 1990.

Another relates to a sighting over nearby Glenavy in 1989.

RAF Aldergrove said there were no fixed wing aircraft in the area at the time, but that two helicopters were in the vicinity within five minutes either side of the sighting.

Read all the files

"Taking into account para's 2, 3 and 4, plus no other UFO activity being reported throughout the UK, I suggest that the individual in question probably witnessed the arrival or departure of the helo's at Aldergrove," read part of the relevant response."

Another file revealed that a passenger jet bound for Heathrow Airport had a near miss with a UFO.

It tells of how the captain of the Alitalia airliner shouted "look out" to his co-pilot at the sight of a brown missile-shaped object shooting past them overhead.

Civil Aviation Authority and military investigations could not explain the 1991 incident near Lydd in Kent.

This is the second instalment of UFO releases to The National Archives by the MoD.