It is widely accepted that this was one of the causes of the huge conspiracy theory that has followed The Flying Saucer Working Party and its findings ever since. It can be argued that if the MOD came clean from the outset then this entire incident would be nothing more than history now. Even the terminology is explained by the US connection and reflected American influence as the acronym UFO was coined by the USAF in the early 1950's although its original inception is credited to a journalist way back in 1947. Pilot Kenneth Arnold started the modern flying saucer craze when he reported seeing several UFOs. He described them as boomerang-shaped, but also noted that they were hopping, like a saucer skipping on the water. A reporter then modified the phrase to, "Flying saucer" and so the era of the flying saucer was born.

DSI/JTIC Report No 7

The culmination of The Flying Saucer Working Party's report was unspectacularly titled, “DSI/JTIC Report No 7.” This six page document was (as we've already mentioned) classified as “Secret, Discreet.” Discreet was defined as follows:

(Discreet) “Contains classified military information of US or joint US/UK origin, which may not be passed to a third country without the permission of the US Government.” The term is now obsolete and has been replaced by the James Bond-esque, “UK/US Eyes Only.”

The report was unenthusiastic about the chances of any of these craft being extraterrestrial in origin with the report summarising that,

“When the only material available is a mass of purely subjective evidence…..it is impossible to give anything like scientific proof that the phenomena observed are, or are not, caused by something entirely novel, such as aircraft of extraterrestrial origin, developed by beings unknown to us on lines more advanced than anything we have thought of.”

Listing several possible causes such as astronomical or meteorological phenomena, mistaken identifications of aircraft, balloons, birds (and great many other natural objects) optical & psychological delusions and/or just plain old-fashioned deliberate, orchestrated hoaxes. It did however have some interesting thoughts on gathering conclusive proof, whether that be either confirming or debunking the theory. They stated that it would be required to,

”Organise throughout the country, or the world, continuous observation of the skies by a co-ordinated network of visual observers, equipped with photographic apparatus and supplemented by a network of radar stations and sound locators.”

However The Flying Saucer Working Party also concluded that such a project would inevitably be an,

“Expensive and singularly profitless enterprise…….We recommend very strongly that no further investigation of reported mystery aerial phenomena be undertaken, unless and until some material evidence becomes available.”

Click on image to download the complete DSI/JTIC Report No 7 (.pdf format)

Flying Saucer Working Party & The Roswell Connection

Debunkers of the Roswell theory found an unlikely ally in the final report. For what was always thought to be the, “Smoking gun” of classified documents, actually turned out to be seemingly solid evidence that nothing happened at Roswell . The report tells how a member of the USAF investigation said that the discovery of a crashed flying saucer and recovery of alien entities had since been admitted <by the original author> to be a complete fabrication.