Twas the night after Christmas.....

[AdrianF]

Adrian, I'm not sure what you a pushing towards. Are you thinking that the lightalls themselves may have been responsible for the strange lights seen on the early hours of the 25th Dec '80? If that was the case I would love to know what they were being used to illuminate.

St.

Silvertop, I'm suggesting that the light alls malfunctioning probably played no part in the events at all, nothing new there. I thought that if it could be demonstrated why they might have been malfunctioning, then this part of the evidence could be eliminated from the enquiry so to speak.

Adrian

[Observer]

I think it safe to say that the Light Alls were not responsible for any of the lights seen in the forest and we need to put them back in the garage and look else where.

Obs

[Deep Purple]

Here's the puzzle, the duty crew in the Bentwaters tower some 2/3 miles away said a large indisinguishable object with lights on it was hovering/stationary over Rendlesham Forest for quite a long time.

No, these thin beams of light were shone down to earth from the sky, and we must look at how this was achieved.
I have a theory, but later

The duty crew would have been well used to regular night time aircraft movements such as Helos etc so this must have been something they were not familar with.
Could it have been a silenced covert helicopter testing out a new type of laser designator. I beleive the first laser designators were used in Vietnam, but aviation buffs may correct me on this. Certainly they were used later in the 80s. Rumours of silenced helicopters have been around for years. Could the whole thing have been a test something like this?
A silenced helo designates a high value target, a much higher flying plane tries to pick it up, or even an early type of cruise missle or UAV, the rest being a hoax/ cover up to disguise the test.
Hence the " no defence significance" statement
John Burroughs is awfully quiet now

[Observer]

Hi deep purple

Interesting stuff, to make a helicopter quiet requires 2 things, Rotor blade 'beat' and engine noise. Even after this the damn thing is still pretty noisy, certainly noisy enough for those in the forest to hear it.
Penniston mentioned a 'humming' noise while he was in the forest.

The Bentwaters tower duty crew could not make out what the large object was above the trees, but they said it hovered there for some time.

Was it a 'blimp' which had electric driven motors [Humming], they were around before and after that time. Did this blimp come from a ship out in the North Sea? Did it have lights on it including search spot lights?
They came in all sizes and some were used for advertising, and some were used for surviellance?
Electric driven blimps make a humming noise as do petrol engines driving ducted fans which most blimps are powered by.

Not sure what it's radar signature would be.

Another theory is that this event was conducted by the USAF from one of their other UK bases.

Obs

[Deep Purple]

This was what you said about it in January

Hi silvertop

I think we are all a bit obsessed with this mystery, but then we have a right to be. No body else is digging like we are.

I've had a feeling for some time that the reported search lights coming from the air were in fact from a helicopter doing a grid pattern search over the ness and adjacent sea areas. As for the light beams shining down at Halt's feet, it still could have been from a helicopter.
I don't wish to say on the forum what i think they were searching for.

The reported lights hanging in the sky at some distance were the nav lights of at least 2 HH-53's. In the hover mode. Well i think it was?

Observer

Whats changed your mind?

[Observer]

Hi deep purple

I still cling on to this as one of my favourite theories, but its the denial by those that were there that any choppers were flying that has cast doubt in my mind to this theory, but it hasn't quite changed my mind yet.

Helicopters can be made quieter, but from my engineering back ground you cannot make them silent. So even quiet running 'food mixers' [what we called them in the RAF] will still be heard flying over head.
Only LW and one other mentioned helicopters flying. You either believe him or you don't including when they flew?

The only other aircraft that could carry out this surveillance from the air and remain quiet is an air ship. Its a crazy idea, but logical in a way as an alternative to a chopper.

Obs

[Deep Purple]

Certainly I think the US could operate some very quiet helicopters.
Accounts of the cattle mutilations going on the US indicate very quiet helos were used.
For anyone not familar with the US Cattle mutilations story, it was linked to UFOs for years, but in reality it was likely to be the US sampling cattle tissue for effects of the A bomb tests.
They would fly up in a silenced Helo kill a cow , then cut out a large tissue sample using a laser knife developed for battle field surgery, and fly of silently.
A blimp would cause the confusion if it hovered over the base at night, it would certainly not be familar to ground controllers in appearance , and probably have a low radar signature ( for the time). Was the blimp Russian? ---- this they would have wanted to keep buried.
Did the blimp target/ designated the weapons storage for a high altitude aircraft to pick up. Then something went wrong with the blimp it crashed in the rendlesham forest and the rest is a sort of history.
This would explain police references to investigating an aircraft crash but why there was not a lot of damage caused by the crash. A blimp may not necessarily be in a rounded shape either. Thinking about it it has some hallmarks of Soviet thinking---- keep it simple but effective.
The goverments would certainly wish to keep a Soviet Blimp very quiet.
What do people think? I'm trying to fit the facts with the probable

[Observer]

What better time than at Christmas when the bases were stood down and no air movements for a Russian air ship to have a snoop. Especially a NATO base only 5 miles from the coast, and i might add one that was a huge threat to them. The weather was ideal to fly an airship.

I mentioned this in one of my articles where i suggested it was inflated and launched from a Russian sub in the North Sea. It could just as easily have been from a Russian surface ship just out side the 12 mile limit or even a Russian 'spy' trawler rather than their Navy.

Its the only thing that fits with no noise other than a humming sound and with the Bentwaters tower observations of a large object stationary over the forest. It could have radar absorbing paint on its envelope and search lights fitted. All very achievable even for 1980.

I think it had a crew of 3 in a gondola pod slung under neath, was this what crashed in the forest due to a mishap with the landing lights? Or was it the surviellance pod that was dropped for the same reason?
I know this all sounds crazy but is this what the ARRS meant when they said i wouldn't believe it if i they told me.

Obs

[Observer]

Actually, i don't think the blimp did crash, it however had an altitude problem and what was under slung beneath the blimp, possibly the crews capsule or a surveillance module collided with the landing lights. The module was dropped or tor loose and fell in the forest, this was on the first night. The 2 subsequent nights it came back looking for the module with search lights.

Was the C-5 there to pick up a small air ship?

I really should get out more,

Obs.

[ppulatie]

I am back for a bit.

About lightalls. They had to be towed to the locations when used. They had a terrible tendency to not work, especially if someone tried to start them and did not know what they were doing. Light alls were for area lighting so that troops could work on aircraft. And they could not have gotten all the way to the location where the event happened, due to the nature of the ground and vegetation.

The flashlight was standard USAF issue. The red lense indicates that it was probably one of the cops who lost it out there. (BTW, we used Rendleshem forest for a two day exercise once, including nights. It could even have been dropped then.)

What one has to question is why no security troops on the flightline ever saw the events. Once the vehicle started to take off, as it raised above the treetops, the troops in the aircraft parking areas would have been able to see the vehicle from there vantage point. But no one ever reported it. Go figure.

PJ's, medical, none of these type troops ever went out to the site. Only security and certain officers.