Map of the area showing the track on the unidentified radar target. Map supplied by Alan Turner. |
The whole episode lasted for twenty minutes or more before the blips stopped appearing. I impounded the R/T tapes and the Radar Video film and made appropriate entries in the log. Each person in the Ops Room who witnessed the incident was required to write a report. The Squadron Leader in charge of Operations collated the reports and informed higher authority. Within a couple of days I was interviewed in the Squadron Leader's office by two men who were not identified to me. I, along with all the others in the Ops Room on the day in question, were told in no uncertain terms not to relate what we had seen until cleared to do so. About four years later I was serving at RAF Wattisham when the Station Commander asked to see me. I was told that he had a communication from the MoD about the incident at Sopley and that as 'nothing could be confirmed' the situation was such that doubt would be cast on anything I said about it. I took this to mean that I was no longer to remain silent.
I am at a loss to explain what I, and many other people, saw. In those days aircraft could not climb at such a rate. To be seen on displays by three different ground radars, plus the airborne radar in the Canberra, is also a mystery. The weather conditions were very definitely VMC or Visual Met Conditions; the aircraft was clear of cloud by at least a thousand feet vertically and with a forward visibility of at least five nautical miles.
Alan Turner MBE 10th November 2007.
In Mr. Turner's letter to be dated 10th November 2007 he apologised for not remembering the exact date of the incident and believes that there are those out there that will use this to discredit his account. I'll leave you with his final comments on the incident; "Please use the information in any way you see fit; I stand by what I saw because I know what I saw."
Colleagues and I intend to submit a Freedom of Information request to the UK Ministry of Defence, and should we obtain any further information we will of course publish it due course.
Thanks must go to David Beezer for supplying the information and contact details and special thanks to Alan Turner MBE for allowing me to publish his account.
Philip Mantle is an international UFO researcher, author and broadcaster. He can be contacted via email at: philip@ mantle8353.fsworld.co.uk
All photographs copyright Alan Turner MBE and reproduced with his kind permission.
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