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Latest Reports Of UFO Sightings

In that case, I doubt the entire story very much. The image looks like a fake, and probably is one. The second witness probably didn't exist either. But if he ever turns up, that would be an interesting development.
 
eburacum said:
In that case, I doubt the entire story very much. The image looks like a fake, and probably is one. The second witness probably didn't exist either. But if he ever turns up, that would be an interesting development.
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And add to that the fact that neither of the two hikers have ever came forward (or have not been allowed to, maybe) - makes it all seem very iffy!
 
Well, one of them apparently did; his name is Kevin Russell and some say he now works for the MOD in photo analysis, although that is a little suspicious in itself. He now claims to have forgotten the event, but even that is in doubt.
 
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eburacum said:
Well, one of them apparently did; his name is Kevin Russell and some say he now works for the MOD in photo analysis, although that is a little suspicious in itself. He now claims to have forgotten the event, but even that is in doubt.
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I wonder if maybe he was offered the MOD job soon after conveniently being persuaded, and agreeing to, forget about the whole 'event' that he was a witness to ~ perhaps?:thought:
Afterall, if you already know what it is you're searching for, then it might well be a good few steps up the rungs?
Though I guess it comes down to being his personal choice whether or not to say anything further about it, as it is for all of us who witness such events.
 
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@Sid and @eburacum

I would ignore the generic websites as fortunately the Calvine plot is not an urban legend or a proven hoax and we have Dr David Clarke to thank for meticulously detailing every step of his investigation;

091f6d0b-a84d-4b07-9f9f-418eab3c7fc2_694x544.jpeg


Read the full account of what Clarke has uncovered so far here:

https://drclarke.substack.com/p/the-calvine-ufo-photo-an-unsolved?sd=pf
 
@Sid @eburacum

As regards Kevin Russell, he has not been found:


"The Calvine investigation team, with whom I have been working, were aware of the name since early last year, but we decided not to release it until we had done everything possible to trace Russell using publicly available sources.

But despite a ten month investigation, during which our team contacted more than 200 people in Scotland and further afield who share that name, no one has ‘fessed up to the being the Kevin Russell.

Our inquiries established that a man of that name, at that time in his mid-20s, both lived and worked at the Pitlochry Hydro Hotel in 1990-91 as a kitchen porter. Those who worked with him said he came from Glasgow or Falkirk (a town close to the so-called ‘Bonnybridge Triangle’ UFO flap zone of the mid-1990s). But despite wide media publicity no new leads have emerged…adding to the growing mystery.

How can someone disappear so completely? Has he emigrated? Or been abducted by aliens or MIB? Even so, one would expect his family or friends to know something about this story."


https://drclarke.substack.com/p/the-calvine-ufo-photo-an-unsolved?sd=pf
 
Paul_Exeter said:
As regards Kevin Russell, he has not been found:
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Thanks!
The most recent information I've heard actually comes from @BS3 's post, which mentions his 'amnesia'.
BS3 said:
They eventually tracked down one of the two witnesses and found out a) he claimed he couldn't remember the incident and b) he was now employed by the very department who originally investigated the photograph so...yes, all a bit strange.
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This does sound familiar, although I can't find a recent cite. Maybe BS3 has one.
 
There's a long interview with Illsley here where amongst various leads and dead ends he mentioned finding a Kevin Russell of the right age who worked as an MoD photo analyst, but who stated he had "no recollection" of being in Scotland in 1990. Which I have to say is kind of an odd response, but there you go.

 
Thanks!
Well, personally I have no recollection of being in Scotland in 1990, although I may have been there briefly during that period for some reason or other. I'd certainly remember working in a hotel, though.
 
BS3 said:
See the following, where the information is sourced to researcher Matthew Illsley

https://www.falkirkherald.co.uk/new...snapped-world-famous-1990-ufo-picture-4003793
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So to be clear this is one of the possible Kevin Russells they have tracked own but not definitively THE Kevin Russell and not necessarily the same Kevin Russell who worked at the hotel. But it is one hell of a Fortean coincidence that a Kevin Russell would be working at the same place where the photos were sent, although it might be no more than that - a coincidence.

Or were these two young men called Kevin and Russell and this is all a misunderstanding of what was scrawled on the back of the image
 
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Paul_Exeter said:
So to be clear this is one of the possible Kevin Russells they have tracked own but not definitively THE Kevin Russell and not necessarily the same Kevin Russell who worked at the hotel. But it is one hell of a Fortean coincidence that a Kevin Russell would be working at the same place where the photos were sent, although it might be no more than that - a coincidence.

Or were these two young men called Kevin and Russell and this is all a misunderstanding of what was scrawled on the back of the image
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Illsley seems fairly definite that "Kevin Russell" was the right name. This left two possible KRs born in the right area and timeframe to match the person working in the hotel and who supposedly took the photographs.

The MoD KR was the right age, but without a witness coming forward willingly, it's doubtful this can get much further.
 
eburacum said:
Thanks!
Well, personally I have no recollection of being in Scotland in 1990, although I may have been there briefly during that period for some reason or other. I'd certainly remember working in a hotel, though.
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There's no-way anyone could forget spending their time working inside a Hotel, unless their memory (brain) had been damaged, or distorted in some way.
 
BS3 said:
Illsley seems fairly definite that "Kevin Russell" was the right name. This left two possible KRs born in the right area and timeframe to match the person working in the hotel and who supposedly took the photographs.

The MoD KR was the right age, but without a witness coming forward willingly, it's doubtful this can get much further.
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It is such a bizarre coincidence that a Kevin Russell of the right age would be working as a photo analyst for the MoD at the very place where the photos were sent. Does make me wonder if this is one of those poacher-turned-gamekeeper stories where the young Kevin fooled the MoD with his clever hoax but had to come clean and was subsequently offered a job as a photo analyst? It certainly wasn't M0D disinformation as the photos were never actually published by newspaper.

Interesting to note that errors are creeping into this narrative as the is tale gets regurgitated in online newspapers:

"Minutes later an RAF Tornado fighter jet circled the object"

https://www.falkirkherald.co.uk/new...snapped-world-famous-1990-ufo-picture-4003793

The RAF analysts identified these as Harrier jump jets, e.g.:

"Holland gets around the tricky issue of where the Harriers came from (MoD said none were airborne at the time of the ‘sighting’) by stating they were ‘privately owned’ , presumably by BAE systems."

https://drclarke.substack.com/p/the-calvine-ufo-photo-an-unsolved?sd=pf

This is why I always stick to the original source with this case.
 
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Paul_Exeter said:
It is such a bizarre coincidence that a Kevin Russell of the right age would be working as a photo analyst for the MoD at the very place where the photos were sent. Does make me wonder if this is one of those poacher-turned-gamekeeper stories where the young Kevin fooled the MoD with his clever hoax but had to come clean and was subsequently offered a job as a photo analyst? It certainly wasn't M0D disinformation as the photos were never actually published by newspaper.

Interesting to note that errors are creeping into this narrative as the is tale gets regurgitated in online newspapers:

"Minutes later an RAF Tornado fighter jet circled the object"

https://www.falkirkherald.co.uk/new...snapped-world-famous-1990-ufo-picture-4003793

The RAF analysts identified these as Harrier jump jets, e.g.:

"Holland gets around the tricky issue of where the Harriers came from (MoD said none were airborne at the time of the ‘sighting’) by stating they were ‘privately owned’ , presumably by BAE systems."

https://drclarke.substack.com/p/the-calvine-ufo-photo-an-unsolved?sd=pf

This is why I always stick to the original source with this case.
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Or maybe from 'Leuchars,' Fife?
 
I think I Am right in that any Harriers held by BA systems or any company RR maybe
would still be owned by the MOD and as such any flight would have to be approved
by the MOD and logged.
 
RaM said:
I think I Am right in that any Harriers held by BA systems or any company RR maybe
would still be owned by the MOD and as such any flight would have to be approved
by the MOD and logged.
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There are so many unknowns. The photo may have been taken somewhere else and even outside of the UK or may simply be a clever hoax or even pareidolia. For decades we all wanted a clear photo of a UFO and when we get one it is impossible to pin down.

Jenny Randles is to my mind the most level-headed of the Ufologist to have had at least a foot in the believer camp and she has gone on the record to state how her British UFO investigations were plagued with coincidences to the point where she considered them to be a part of the phenomena itself. So we shouldn't perhaps be surprised to learn that a Kevin Russell works as a photo analyst at the same MoD facility as where the witness Kevin Russell's photos were sent for analysis and that they were both born in the same year...
 
BS3 said:
This one is a bit puzzling.

There was suspicion of a hoax at the time but it's clear from the paper trail that the British suspected that, if not a hoax, it might be an American secret project, and possibly that the Americans thought it might be a similar British project, so there was a certain element of arse-covering going on in the official back-and-forth.

It it was a clandestine project then no one has identified what - though an aerostat used to test 'stealth' technology is one possibility.

They eventually tracked down one of the two witnesses and found out a) he claimed he couldn't remember the incident and b) he was now employed by the very department who originally investigated the photograph so...yes, all a bit strange.
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That last bit seems to me like maybe they hired him and keep him on to keep things secret.
 
eburacum said:
Thanks!
Well, personally I have no recollection of being in Scotland in 1990, although I may have been there briefly during that period for some reason or other. I'd certainly remember working in a hotel, though.
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Another thing I've thought about with the absence of Kevin Russell, is, wouldn't he (like anyone else would) relay his experience with other staff at the Hotel?
 
I've seen a lot of similar reports; they are almost certainly custom-built figurines made from balloon material. Some of them are Star Wars stormtrooper balloons or other commercial figurines filled with helium, and others have been modified in various ways; some are even steerable human-shaped microlight aircraft.
 
Here it is from earlier in the thread:

Paul_Exeter said:
This is the saga of the 'green melon' UFO from the Northern UFO News 194 from MAY 2018 as posted about online by Jenny Randles. I hope that from member Jenny will forgive my pasting the who affair but unfortunately the source website does not have page numbers and it took me a while to find this again:

THE MOORLAND UAP AND THE MEN FROM THE MINISTRY

This is one of the most fascinating cases that I have investigated involving the MOD and mystery visitors. It has hidden depths that I will not go into here, as they are not directly relevant to the Ministry side of this story, but add nuance to the case itself. Particularly in what they reveal about how witnesses can be prone to experiencing the extraordinary in many shades and forms.

UFOs are but one colour on a very rich spectrum of events that intersect throughout a lifetime.

These witnesses first reported a different story to me that I investigated along with colleague Roy Sandbach. But after looking at the ghostly events and missing time adventure of this well to do couple who live in a smart home in Cheshire it became clear that they really started with an episode on the night of 16/17 August 1972.

Sandra was a professional dancer and her husband Peter ran a construction business. She had been performing far from home on this warm Summer evening on the north east coast. Because she would not finish until midnight her husband had arranged his schedule so that he could travel over 100 miles north and drive her home.

After such an exhausting day for both of them they were heading back through Swaledale in North Yorkshire. It was about 2 am and they were on the A 61 between Thirsk and Ripon at what I estimate to be near the village of Baldersby.

This is an interesting spot, though in the darkness on an unfamiliar route they were not to know.

Just south of here is the military field at Dishforth adjacent to an RAF base called Topcliffe.

Readers of Who or What Were They? - Alan Godfrey’s book - will recognize the importance of this. Dishforth is where he did his police officer training. And Dishforth and Topcliffe airfields were both part of the 1952 UFO encounter amidst the Operation Mainbrace NATO exercise that also saw a UFO buzz a nuclear weapons equipped US aircraft carrier off the Yorkshire coast.

These events were extraordinary in their time and led to the then prime minister - Winston Churchill - ordering an investigation. That was one of the first jobs to be carried out by a young Defence Ministry aid who was working for the minister and went to Yorkshire to gather evidence. His name was Ralph Noyes.

That study led to Churchill ordering the creation of an investigation unit into UFOs that matched the one created in the US as Project Blue Book.
In the UK that study became the UFO desk that operated from Whitehall right through to 2009 when, as reported above, it was shut down.

Noyes himself would rise in rank to run the full department including that UFO desk and oversaw those who manned it. This was over two decades before Nick Pope took the job in the 1990s and Noyes later told me how on taking the role he was shown gun camera footage of strange glows being chased by RAF planes. To him they were evidence of real unknown phenomena but did not appear to be craft or alien in origin.

This footage has never been released from the archives and is officially supposed to have just got lost somewhere over the years.

Ralph Noyes was a fascinating man who first came openly into the UFO mystery after his retirement in 1983 and for several years he was very helpful to our investigation of the Rendlesham Forest case where Noyes was adamant he saw evidence of a ‘cover up’ by the MoD that he had long worked for. As doing that was a no no during his tenancy he suspected there had to be good reasons why they acted so differently over this particular event.

He and I coordinated pressure on politicians searching for answers and he was a part time UFO lecturer in his retirement. Ralph gave me an excellent interview not long before he died about MOD files.

Noyes believed that most UFOs were explainable but that a few represented a natural phenomenon - a UAP in fact, though I do not think he used that term.

He once told me that he thought it was akin to a rainbow - something so strange occurring in the atmosphere that it once would have been deified by witnesses until we had the science to understand how it happened.
UFOs were not, in his view, signs of aliens, but an energy phenomenon we might one day tame. But right now were still perceiving it in the 'deification' stage where in this case the 'god' was an alien.

He thought that the MOD were interested in understanding the power involved in this natural phenomenon and perhaps using it in some way - probably as a weapon - hence the cover up.
If this is all sounding like a familiar record, it is, but I can assure you that Noyes was NOT the author of the Condign report - though he might have influenced the person who was, just like his thinking certainly influenced my interest in UAP.

Noyes wrote one UFO book after retirement - an extraordinary novel that clearly used the Rendlesham Forest case as a platform to explain via fiction because he felt unable to do so in fact what he really thought might be happening. It is about global forces harnessing power for offensive and defensive use culled from what we otherwise call UFOs.

That novel is ‘A Secret Property’.

Returning to Sandra and Peter on that Yorkshire road there is more to tell, because just a few miles south west of where they were driving was another military complex. RAF Menwith Hill just outside Harrogate is a vast electronics communication facility with golf ball dome technology that is a hive of covert interception activity. Jointly run by the UK and US and coordinated via the NSA - the US National Security Agency - it is very interestingly in the midst of an area where glowing light UFOs have long been reported.

So, quite without realizing it, as they drove home that night, Sandra and Peter were in a hotbed of both UFO activity and military covert intelligence facilities. Somewhere that if a UFO appears it would get the attention of the Ministry of Defence.

Which seems to be what happened that night.

Driving south west they saw to the south and east of them an object that appeared to be descending into a small copse. Peter slowed right down and as they cleared the trees they could see that it had, in fact, come down in a field beyond here.

Sandra told us ‘It was a large melon shape. I had no idea UFOs were supposed to look like that. I thought they were like saucers.’

Her husband added that its colour was very vivid. ‘It was a really bright green like those florescent socks’.

From apparent distance (50 feet) the size of the object was estimated to be around 30 feet across.

My first theory here was that this might be the moon, despite the colour. But checks revealed that it had gone below the horizon several hours earlier that Wednesday.

They were travelling the A61 at that point in a convoy of 4 vehicles which were close together in the dark surroundings. They were not travelling fast because the lead vehicle was a by chance a police car!

The witnesses are certain the occupants of the other three vehicles saw the object saying ‘it was impossible to miss in the sky ahead of us as it came down’. Indeed they saw them all slow to almost a stop suggesting they did do.

But nobody appeared to get out for a closer look.

At this point the object, now apparently on the ground in the field, did something extraordinary. A door opened in its side.

‘It was a vivid blue/white,’ Peter told us. ‘In sharp contrast to the vivid green around. It was like a slow motion flashbulb as it appeared’.

Sandra was more explicit likening it to when you used to turn off an old fashioned TV screen but in reverse. ‘It appeared from nowhere like a dot and then opened up into a T shape several feet across’.

Further discussion suggested that it might be akin to an ultra violet colour as Sandra said it reminded her of a sunbed lamp’.

There was now a very strange sensation - Sandra reports. ‘I felt a compulsion to get out of the car. To walk across the field to it. Something just made me want to get out and I started to do so.’

Peter added - ‘Yes, I grabbed her. I was pulling her back in. I had to drag her away from doing this.’

Both also added that in recalling this scary part of the story they had just realized that something else odd was happening.

It will sound familiar to you given the name of this website.

‘You know,’ Sandra told us, ‘that was strange. There was just no noise. Not even trees in the wind. Nothing. No normal night sounds.’

Peter started nodding, realizing she was right and that this eerie stillness had descended as they stopped to watch the landing and as his wife had tried to get out of the car.

This state of consciousness was the Oz factor.
‘That was the weirdest part. The silence. There is always something even at night. Birds twittering. Rustling. But nothing was doing nothing that night.’ he added.

As Peter hauled her back from heading out across the field as if following the ‘pied piper’ toward the landed object Sandra smiled as she recalled what he cried out to her, thus breaking the silence.

‘Sod this for a game of soldiers!’ Peter screamed - as he put his foot down and drove off at speed.

Oddly they do not recall passing the police car directly ahead of them on the road but would have had to do.
Their next memory was of the road ahead being clear and nobody else around them and them well on their way back to Cheshire.

We asked if they got home early or late, but as Peter said pointedly - ‘When you see something like this you don’t spend time looking at clocks.’

The couple arrived home in the pre-dawn a couple of hours after the sighting and were very surprised as they hurried back toward their house.

A police car was parked outside their door waiting for them!

Two officers got out and asked the couple quizzically - ‘Have you anything to report?’

They had decided en route they were not telling anybody about what just happened, so they said no. But were asked further questions - such as where had they been? Why are you returning home in the middle of the night?

They just mumbled replies hoping the cops were merely being cautious and were eventually allowed into their house.
Sandra felt that this was just a routine patrol being suspicious of their arrival after 4 am. Peter thought not as being parked waiting at their home was odd.

The Yorkshire police car would have seen them ‘flee the scene’ of the UFO landing and might have taken their number and sent local police to trace it and wait for them to reach home.

Either way they went to bed right away and fell asleep - though Sandra woke just 3 hours later ‘on a high’. She was literally euphoric and pleaded with Peter to ‘tell the world’, but he was much more reticent about doing so.

Sandra insisted they should and so phoned the local police that morning to say they had seen a UFO land and rather surprisingly two officers arrived before noon to interview her, which is certainly not what you would normally expect in these circumstances.
She was sure they knew what she was going to tell them. Indeed they more or less confirmed that by saying at one point - ‘Other cars were there, too, weren’t they?’ Something they could only know if they had been told this already.

This was quickly confirmed when the officers added that the ‘York police’ were investigating and had told them they had solved the case - ‘it was just a large tent’.

Sandra shook her head as she was asked: ‘Do you want to change your story in the light of that information?’
Her reply was succinct. ‘I have very good eyesight. I know what I saw.’

That was it as far as the couple was concerned. Sandra had reported it. Peter was happy to forget it. But that proved impossible.

A week later their regional newspaper carried a story about how a local couple had ‘fled in terror’ and on reading the story intrigued were stunned to learn that the couple were them!
At no point had they spoken to the press. They knew the police must have given them the story but had no idea why they would do so and were most upset.

Interestingly, this is very similar to what happened to Alan Godfrey where the police called the press and he was told to give an interview. Colin Perks, the police officer in Wilmslow was also put in the spotlight in this way by the police.

Could it have been a distraction tactic to subtly associate what was witnessed as a UFO in the traditional sense of that word within the public imagination? A distraction IF instead it was something else which the powers that be knew about but wanted to obscure. Odd tactic if this is the case.

Of course, the simplest option is that local media do talk to the police to get interesting stories from the case blotter. But they usually want to talk to the witnesses on something like this. Hard to understand why the police would on three occasions in cases where the MOD was involved bring the media into the picture of themselves.

However, if you think the extraordinary actions of the police had ended here, you would be wrong.

A few days after the article (which gave the couple’s address and led to ‘UFO buffs’ pestering them to tell their story) the police phoned to explain that the national papers now wanted to hear their story, too, and they - the police - would organize a press conference for the couple!

Sandra was by chance then working abroad in a cabaret so Peter, never keen to talk about this in the first place, accepted the police protection that was being offered.
On the day several reporters arrived at the house and the officer in charge set up a rota so they would be able to use the phone one by one to call in their story to the editor - then retired to the kitchen to make some tea!

I have never come across anything like this from the police in a UFO case before. It is really strange behaviour.

You might now be wondering why this story was not front page news and common knowledge to UFO researchers everywhere in 1972.
The answer is that a ring on the door aborted the entire press conference before it got underway!

A brand new looking dark car was parked outside and two men in black suits walked in. Only one did all the talking and led Peter away to another room for ‘a quiet word’.

Here the men flashed cards revealing they were from the defence ministry and said they wanted all the reporters to leave immediately.

‘It is in your interests that you do not talk to anyone about this experience’, the man explained.

Peter told them that none of this was his idea and the police had reported the story and set up the press conference but these reporters were here now so what could he do?

‘Leave that to me’ the man from the ministry said and went out and asked all the reporters to leave.

Peter heard a few murmurs of discontent but never understood how they were persuaded to leave by this man relatively easily.

So I talked to someone at the local paper and asked.

They did not recall the incident, then 16 years earlier, but suggested in similar situations the only thing likely to persuade them to leave such an open event was one reporter explaining they had signed the witnesses up to an exclusive.
This may be why the man from the ministry took Peter aside, to create the belief he had just negotiated the rights from him via a big money deal.

After the press had gone the ministry officer asked Peter a number of questions about the event.

He told me, ‘You know what is odd. Before they were made to leave the reporters all wanted me to tell them the full story. I never got the chance. These ministry people were only interested in one thing - the florescent T shaped door. The man kept asking me to tell him about it over and over and in as much detail as I could recall. It was really strange. He was obsessed with that part alone.’

What this story tells us about why the MOD are interested in a tiny few UFO cases and go to such lengths to pursue them as they seemingly did here is fascinating.
It may be a major clue as to what these things really are - be they UFO, military technology or UAP.

http://www.ozfactorbooks.com/northern-ufo-news-january-2019.html
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Dishforth is not far north of where I live. It has long been a helicopter base, and a few years ago was host to the weird (and extremely noisy) Bell V-22 Osprey aircraft. If there were any experimental helicopters or other VTOL craft in the region, this is where they would probably be stationed.
 
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eburacum said:
Dishforth is not far north of where I live. It has long been a helicopter base, and a few years ago was host to the weird (and extremely noisy) Bell V-22 Osprey aircraft. If there were any experimental helicopters or other VTOL craft in the region, this is where they would probably be stationed.
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That is really interesting to know. Those Ospeys flew over my house during the G7 in Cornwall, they seem more science-fiction than much actual science-fiction
 
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