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Classic Case Reexamined: The Devon Police & The Flying Cross (1967)

Paul_Exeter

Paul_Exeter

Justified & Ancient
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This case is ne of my all time favourites, partly because it took place in my home county and not so far from where I grew up and also because of the archive interviews that take us back to the 1960s:


A 2004 interview with the now-retired coppers:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/news_features/2004/ufos.shtml

The case was even mentioned in Parliament:

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-...nov/08/unidentified-flying-object-north-devon

Skeptic Ian Ridpath was has featured this case in some detail on his skeptical website:

http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/flyingcross.html

He is firmly of the option that it was the planet Venus and cites several academics who agree with this stance and Ridpath is at times less than complimentary about the Ufologist involved in this case. Well Mr Ridpath, you might have been wrong as over at Metabunk.org a forum member has been reevaluating this case and it seems Venus has been ruled out:


"Actually I got that totally wrong. The situation for Ian Ridpath is even worse...as I had set Stellarium for London, and not for Devon. On setting Stellarium for Devon, Venus does not rise until 3.40am and at 4am is a mere 3 degrees above the horizon. Atmospheric dimming would have reduced its brightness from the usual bright -4.6...down to a far less bright -2.7 ( i.e by about 85% ) so it would NOT have been the usual glaringly bright Venus that fools so many people.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/news_features/2004/ufos.shtml"

https://www.metabunk.org/threads/devon-flying-cross-of-1967-uap.12987/
 
One question no-one seems to have answered yet was what, exactly, was the weather at the time of the sighting. 24th October 1967 shows rainfall approaching from the north, and covering the South West by the 25th. The Bristol based newspaper reporter in the article on Ridpath's page described the morning as "bitterly cold and damp"; was this correct?

Knowing the hilly countryside of North Devon, I find it very unlikely that an object at such low elevation as Stellarium seems to show would have been clearly visible.

There was a whole slew of 'flying cross' sightings at the time, most of which are now almost forgotten - I think a few were mentioned in Clarke and Roberts' 'Flying Saucerers'. The Angus Brooks sighting/hallucination was always a particular favourite of mine.

As an aside, I think some very useful stuff is posted on Metabunk but I do find the mindset of some of its regular posters tedious beyond belief.
 
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BS3 said:
One question no-one seems to have answered yet was what, exactly, was the weather at the time of the sighting. 24th October 1967 shows rainfall approaching from the north, and covering the South West by the 25th. The Bristol based newspaper reporter in the article on Ridpath's page described the morning as "bitterly cold and damp"; was this correct?

Knowing the hilly countryside of North Devon, I find it very unlikely that an object at such low elevation as Stellarium seems to show would have been clearly visible.

There was a whole slew of 'flying cross' sightings at the time, most of which are now almost forgotten - I think a few were mentioned in Clarke and Roberts' 'Flying Saucerers'. The Angus Brooks sighting/hallucination was always a particular favourite of mine.

As an aside, I think some very useful stuff is posted on Metabunk but I do find the mindset of some of its regular posters tedious beyond belief.
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Yes, a poster on Metabunk confirms it was cold and damp, although the skies may have been clear at any given point during the night (the weather on the Cornwall and Devon peninsular is notoriously changeable due to the proximity of the Atlantic). Also yes again, there were some other sightings of a similar object around that time and from other police officers including one in Dorset iirc.

It isn't evidence of aliens but I do think there is more to it than Ridpath et al have argued. That area is under a military flight path, for example with RAF Chivenor less than 30 miles away. and no shortage of both civilian and military radar installations either. If it wasn't 'you know who' then my money is on something Cold war, with a large USAF airbase operating at Newquay back then, too. Whatever the answer, I would love to have been there at 04.00am on that lonely road to see it...!
 
It's not much of a source given the proclivities of the author, but Arthur Shuttlewood in 'Warnings from Flying Friends' (in itself a nice, nostalgic snapshot of late 60s ufology) claims that the night was "cloudy over central Devon".

Another thing mentioned in one of the constables' interviews that he quotes was the claim the object was later joined by second one. If that's the case it does perhaps strengthen the argument that they were seeing Jupiter, later joined by Venus, but...who knows.
 
BS3 said:
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-...nov/08/unidentified-flying-object-north-devon

Questions were asked in Parliament about this one.

I was interested to read that there was an (apparent) corroborating sighting by "engineers at Hessary Tor". I'm guessing this refers to a transmitting station on North Hessary Tor. I'd not heard of this before.
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Good find. On a clear day or night you can see right across to the radar dome on the ridge at Burrington, which is in turn only 10 miles or so from Hatherleigh. So it is reasonable to say that a bright airborne object would have been visible if the sky was clear or it was below the cloud base.

"Will the hon. Gentleman bear in mind that this matter is not only of considerable interest to the South-West, particularly the Okehampton area, but also of some concern? How does this statement square with the statements of two police officers and of engineers at Hessary Tor that low-flying objects were moving for over an hour in the area?"

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-...nov/08/unidentified-flying-object-north-devon

Yes, a great shame there is no other source for this sighting. Assuming the engineers were stationary then if the object/s moved from their perspective it pretty much rules out Venus and Jupiter. Another point to consider is why the engineers reported this sighting and to whom? It might be that they considered the low-level flyer/s to be at risk of collision with the tall transmitter:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hessary_Tor_transmitting_station

Can we establish in which direction the police officers saw the object i.e. was it in the direction of Dartmoor?
 
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One Devon sighting I was always interested in was that reported by two Coast Guard officers at Berry Head, Brixham, earlier in 1967. They were able to train tripod-mounted binoculars on the object to reveal a sort of point-upwards cone, and also claimed an aircraft approached it at one point. It eventually disappeared into cloud.

There's more than a hint of 'secret balloon project' here.
 
I've looked for details of the Hessary Tor sighting and can't find any so far in the usual places. Evidently it must have been reported somewhere for the MP to get wind of it, perhaps in a newspaper article.

I've noted that the newspaper article reproduced by Ridpath does in fact make the point that a second object later joined the first (nothing about Hessary Tor, sadly). One thing that interested me given the attribution of the object's movement to movements of the car was Constable Waycott's assertion that they stopped the car and "when we got out to look, it started moving again". I appreciate autokinesis is a factor in these circumstances but it would depend on what 'started moving' meant in this particular context.
 
Paul_Exeter said:
This Moigne Down (Dorset) encounter happened within two days of the Devon case:

https://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/ufos/moigne-down-ufo-1967/
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Yes, that's the Angus Brooks sighting (image below). A really fascinating one and one of my favourites for a variety of reasons. Alex Cassie, an RAF scientist who dealt with UFO sightings during this period and who was interviewed by David Clarke in retirement, said this was the most puzzling case of all those that came across his desk (including the Okehampton 'flying cross'), although he felt after speaking to Brooks that the latter had some kind of odd dreamlike experience.

brooksdrawing.jpg


David Halperin has a typically Jungian interpretation of the Brooks sighting where he suggests the sight, perhaps, of a jet triggered what he calls "a bona fide religious experience".

https://www.davidhalperin.net/landed-ufos-and-a-flying-cross-two-stories-from-david-clarke/

Either way it seems possible that Brooks slipped into the state of consciousness that allows us to perceive (some) UFOs.
 
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It's reminiscent of Constantines's vision of a cross in the sky before the battle of the Milvian Bridge. It was a religious experience for him because it led to his converting to Christianity.
 
Jupiter would have been high enough to cause this sighting; Venus isn't necessary, although it did rise later in the night and may also have been seen.
I also note that Ian Ridpath was quoting a different astronomer (Howard Miles) who investigated this at the time; this just proves that you should always check the sky with up-to-date software, which wasn't available in the 60's. Ridpath didn't check (to be fair, he never said that he did).

Here's Celestia for 0300 UTC 27/10/1967, looking east. This corresponds to 0400 BST, since they hadn't put the clocks back yet. I don't think for a minute that the two British bobbies were using UTC at that time.

Jupiter is well above the horizon, but Venus would be barely visible and probably hidden by trees.
cross.png
 
Two more data points; in this newspaper clipping the policemen said the first object was joined by a second object towards the end of the sighting.
http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/image/flyingcrossTimes.jpg
Before the "thing" disappeared into the distance it was joined by a second object. This too was large, shaped like a cross, extremely bright, and noiseless.
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If the sighting continued until 0400 BST and maybe past that time, then Venus would start to be visible as well, perhaps becoming the second object.

-----------------------------
Also, Ridpath notes that the PCs accepted the explanation that they had been looking at Venus (which may have been true, however briefly). In later interviews they seem to have rejected this explanation.
 
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If anyone doubts that police can be fooled into a car chase by the planet Jupiter, here is a similar case from 2021
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/police-officer-followed-by-jupiter-24554188

Scots cop called officers for help after being pursued by drone but dot in sky was actually Jupiter
It was only after a drawn-out “pursuit” that she sought help from senior officers, who told her it was Jupiter – some 365 million miles away.
A rookie Scots police officer feared she was being pursued for miles by a drone – but the bright light in the sky was actually a planet.
The dozy PC had left a Glasgow police station at about midnight on Tuesday and noticed the object in the sky “following her.”
She tried to lose the “drone” as she drove towards the shopping complex at the Fort, just off the M8.
She called the general Police Scotland complaints number on 101 and told the call handler she was being followed by a drone along the M8 and “couldn’t lose it”.
The officer, who is in her first two years of service, was told to return to her station where she would be met by a senior officer.
She was found standing in the police yard with her hood up trying to hide from the “drone” and pointed out the bright white dot in the sky. They told her it was Jupiter, which is often visible on a clear night.
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Police are not necessarily astronomers (although at least someone finally recognised the truth).
 
Let's try thinking about this more rigorously.

The initial statement of the officers was that the object appeared "to their left", then travelled "in an arc" before appearing to drop down. We really need to work out exactly which bit of road they were on.

Most retellings suggest they were "approaching" the hamlet of Brandis Corner on the A3072. Here the road runs in an ENE direction.

Screenshot_20230720-072521_Maps.jpg


Immediately before Brandis Corner itself the road is lined with dense trees, large enough to have been there in 1967. We can't imagine them seeing anything to their left at this point. However just prior to that there is a more open bit of countryside so in theory there would be a good view of the sky; but an object due east would appear slightly to their right, not left.

However if the sighting started a bit further westwards, there is a short section where the road runs ESE. Here an object in the east could plausibly have appeared (slightly) to the left of the car - although I'm not really sure why they would have only noticed Jupiter at that point; maybe the local topography can provide some clues. Perhaps the subsequent turning of the road back to the ENE would have given the impression of the object travelling round in an arc?

Having said all that the following local history site:

https://www.hatherleighhistory.co.u...67-from-the-highampton-road-to-bassets-cross/

describes the chase as taking place "from the Highampton Road", which sounds much further on than Brandis Corner, so who knows.

Anyway, that aside, it would be good to have further contemporary information. I have read a bit more of Shuttlewood and he states that the object was also seen by officers in Okehampton, although in this case until "low cloud" intervened - which definitely makes me think that they, at least, were seeing a star (and also conflicts with Shuttlewood's earlier statement that it was cloudy across Central Devon).
 
Another thing that seems clear is that despite Miles' assertion that the PCs were "satisfied" with his explanation, they continued to maintain that what they had seen was not Venus even at the time (not just in 2004). An article in a 1967 Penthouse has the writer rechecking the Venus explanation with Waycott, who remained adamant that what they had seen was not Venus.
 
It is possible that Miles may have been correct after all; if the PCs were chasing Jupiter, then saw Venus at the end of their sighting, then it is true to say that part of the sighting was caused by the Morning Star. But this is conjecture. Jupiter was near the relatively bright star Regulus; if seeing conditions briefly improved at around 0400 BST, they may have noticed that star nearby.

Jupiter is a frequent source of UFO reports; I've had someone ring me up to report it as a UFO, as the sighting was ongoing. Most people don't realise that Jupiter is very bright, and often observed in a dark part of the sky (unlike Venus, which generally appears as the sky begins to brighten).
 
A lot more detail, including start point of the sighting (Anvil Corner), is given in the following article from Flying Saucer Review, Nov-Dec 1967:

Screenshot_20230720-083747_Drive.jpg


Plus Charles Bowen's comment on the various explanations given (Jupiter was, it seems, mentioned at the time):

Screenshot_20230720-083145_Drive.jpg
 

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Note that during the second half of the sighting, they lost sight of the light several times. Wignall notes that the first part did not seem to match with the right direction or elevation for Venus, but that in the later part(s) of the sighting they could well have been chasing it.

The first part then seems to go from Anvil Cross, through Brandis Corner, to a garage "east of Narracott Cross". I can't find the latter place name on present day maps but as successor businesses tend to stay in similar locations, perhaps the garage was in the current location of an auto business here:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Si2ApJ7wANmHK3s56

This would seem to be the point at which the object, supposedly "north of the road", "accelerated (...) over Black Torrington" and where the PCs stopped. They then followed a light to the north east which turned out to be a farmhouse light (possibly at Hayne Farm, which is up a lane northeast of the garage).
 
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BS3 said:
Note that during the second half of the sighting, they lost sight of the light several times. Wignall notes that the first part did not seem to match with the right direction or elevation for Venus, but that in the later part(s) of the sighting they could well have been chasing it.

The first part then seems to go from Anvil Cross, through Brandis Corner, to a garage "east of Narracott Cross". I can't find the latter place name on present day maps but as successor businesses tend to stay in similar locations, perhaps the garage was in the current location of an auto business here:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Si2ApJ7wANmHK3s56

This would seem to be the point at which the object, supposedly "north of the road", "accelerated (...) over Black Torrington" and where the PCs stopped. They then followed a light to the north east which turned out to be a farmhouse light (possibly at Hayne Farm, which is up a lane northeast of the garage).
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Certainly agree that in rural Devon business tended to stay put and just get passed to new owners, such as the garage near Eggesford that has been in use in various incarnations since I first passed it in the late 70s.

The famous Scorriton UFO encounter witnessed by Arthur Bryant had taken place just two years earlier and I believe would have been big news in that area of Devon in 1967, especially with the book published that year:

http://quatrain27.blogspot.com/p/scorriton-ufo-1965.html

That road to Holsworthy would have been deserted at 04.00 in 1967 - probably would still be in 2023 - so do we have a bright light in the sky which may have been planetary or military and two coppers who were aware of the Scorriton case or might even have had some working knowledge of it (it was about 25 miles away as the - ahem - UFO flies).
 
A couple of interesting points.

Willey supposedly saw what he regarded as the same object the next night from "south of Okehampton" but apparently in the area of Bassett's Cross. This was certainly a moving light; perhaps a helicopter or aircraft?

It's also stated that Willey's companion the next night, Droudge, was his "usual" colleague. Was Waycott not his regular colleague on night patrols in this case? I did wonder whether there might have been a slight element of one man playing a sort-of-prank on the other by encouraging their UFO misperception.
 
Droudge's sighting is in the PRUFOS database, sourced to the Daily Express, 29th October:

. Location – Devon. A uniformed police officer, PC KEITH DROUDGE observed a UFO and said of his sighting, “There is no doubt in my mind. It was a UFO. It wasn’t a plane. We’ve seen enough planes not to be fooled like that.” UFO CLASSIFICATION – NL (NOCTURNAL LIGHT). On Duty sighting. 2 Officers. Source: Sunday Express 29/10/67.
 
Given the lack of any mentions in the usual databases and newspaper archives, I do feel the Hessary Tor mast engineer's report would have been along the lines of concerns about low-flying at night by an unidentified and presumably brightly-lit arial craft that was operating dangerously close to the mast (and Dartmoor prison).. The MP might very well have picked this up from the police or another source.
 
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What does seem clear is that in addition to the outbreak of sightings nationally, starting with the "globe-shaped object with four projections" reported from Wembley on October 2nd and another from Northampton in mid-October, there was a more specific outbreak of sightings amongst the police officers attached to Okehampton police station. These include Willey (twice) and Waycott, two unnamed officers (one a police photographer) who saw a cross-shaped light moving over the town subsequently, and Droudge (twice - his sighting with Willey and another at 4 in the afternoon).

This could either be a classic case of a 'flap' or panic, or just possibly a case of the station practical jokers playing on the gullibility of one or two of their colleagues in particular, perhaps prompted by talk about the other cases happening at the same time.

There were also sightings of a 'cross' by officers in Sussex in October. One was by a motorcycle officer, Bryan Cawthorne, who had the presence of mind to confirm the object was genuinely moving (rather than via autokinesis) by lining it up with a telegraph pole. Given the 'refuelling' explanation for some sightings it does seem possible that something more than purely astronomical was happening.
 
BS3 said:
What does seem clear is that in addition to the outbreak of sightings nationally, starting with the "globe-shaped object with four projections" reported from Wembley on October 2nd and another from Northampton in mid-October, there was a more specific outbreak of sightings amongst the police officers attached to Okehampton police station. These include Willey (twice) and Waycott, two unnamed officers (one a police photographer) who saw a cross-shaped light moving over the town subsequently, and Droudge (twice - his sighting with Willey and another at 4 in the afternoon).

This could either be a classic case of a 'flap' or panic, or just possibly a case of the station practical jokers playing on the gullibility of one or two of their colleagues in particular, perhaps prompted by talk about the other cases happening at the same time.

There were also sightings of a 'cross' by officers in Sussex in October. One was by a motorcycle officer, Bryan Cawthorne, who had the presence of mind to confirm the object was genuinely moving (rather than via autokinesis) by lining it up with a telegraph pole. Given the 'refuelling' explanation for some sightings it does seem possible that something more than purely astronomical was happening.
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As regards the aircraft refuelling hypothesis, I recall a 1990s brightly-lit flying cross UFO sighting above Exmouth was demonstrated by local researcher Nigel Watson to have been an airborne refuelling exercise
 
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On a 1971 map I eventually found that the buildings at the site of the present day auto business are marked "Narracott" (though the spot is called "Hillmoor Cross" on earlier maps). So I think this is probably the right location for the point the PCs stopped at a garage and first lost sight of the 'object'.

Screenshot_20230720-140645_Chrome.jpg
 
Looking around on Google Maps I have, however, found another possibility. There is presently a garage and old filling station at Beara Cross a little further on (on the minor road at the junction opposite Beara Court on the map shown above).

If this is where the policemen stopped
rather than at Narracott itself (bearing in mind it's just off the main road rather than on it), then Black Torrington itself is more convincingly described as "north" of the main road at that point - although any light in that direction couldn't really have been Jupiter or Venus.
 
I should say that I have absolutely no confidence that these policemen were chasing anything other than a celestial object. Have there ever been any examples of people in a motor car successfully chasing an aircraft that was not a balloon, or even getting near it? (An honest question - I'd like to know. Old Enoia Gaia would probably found one or two examples of successful chases of this kind).

What did they expect to do if they caught it - arrest it?
 
As Martin Kottmeyer put it, "the spectacle of cars, including police cars, chasing vessels with the implicit ability to achieve escape velocity from Earth itself has to be viewed as pure farce if we aren’t meant to accept these episodes under the proviso of dramatic licence". It's part of the innate absurdity of the UFO experience. Why do these chases happen? I've no idea. But it is surprising how often they do - for that matter a car would be almost as unlikely to catch a plane, or indeed any airborne object, as they would a celestial object.
 
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