I have no strong opinions regarding what the UFO at Rendlesham was, but I would like to set straight one piece of the record that came to me in the course of completely different research (into time slips). By coincidence, an elderly lady named Jean Boast that I used to meet during dog-walking mentioned in passing that she had lived at Rougham, the location where a lot of time slips and other odd phenomena occur. Her two daughters had experienced something strange there: Caroline had just passed her driving test, in the mid 1980s, and took her younger sister Amanda out for her first official drive. It was evening and as they drove along Blackthorpe, to the north of the village, a man in Victorian clothing and with a dog, stepped out in front of them. They narrowly missed him but a hundred yards farther along, the same man and dog stepped out a second time. (A lot of things happen on that road, and my wife had a couple of similar experiences at the same location.) I was interested in the story and in due course met Caroline, who confirmed the story. She and her mother then reminisced about other weird events that their family had been involved in. Caroline's great uncle, David Boast, was the gamekeeper at Rendlesham Forest at the time of the alleged incident. He admitted to his family that he had seen the UFO descending into the forest, but that "the military" [I assume the UK military?] had ordered him not to say anything about it. By all accounts, they had seriously frightened him in the process.
I know that there was speculation about what Boast knew or didn't know at the time, and I hope this clears it up. Needless to say, he wouldn't have been deceived by lighthouses or any other activity. He knew the area intimately, as his father had been the gamekeeper there before him, and he probably spent more time outdoors there than anybody else. He saw something landing (not "crashing").
Incidentally, his father George Boast had in the 1930s seen a strange vortex travelling through the trees, snapping off tree branches as it went. Similar things have been seen at Rougham.
Sadly Jean died a year ago but Caroline still lives in Bury St Edmunds just two minute's walk from me, so if anyone has any questions that I could pass on to her, I will do so -- although I don't think she knows anything much beyond what she and her mum told me.