A mysterious forest trail so famous for its UFO sightings that it was dubbed “Britain’s Roswell” was the site of a bizarre enounter back in December 1980.
Mystery lights were spotted by American troops at two airbases in Suffolk, reporting seeing strange bright lights for three consecutive nights.
US airman Jim Penniston even claimed to have gotten close enough to touch a “triangular spacecraft”.
Three years later, the encounter became national news, covering the front page of the now defunct News of the World, which proclaimed: “UFO LANDS IN SUFFOLK, And that’s OFFICIAL”.
The story was apparently based on a memo sent by the deputy base commander of RAF Woodbridge Lt Col Charles Halt to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). It had been released by the US government and described an encounter what appeared to be a UFO in the forest, BBC News reports.
The strange incident in Rendlesham Forest has become part of the folklore of UFO hunting in Britain, and visitors can still go on a trail dedicated to the supposed sighting featuring a replica of a flying saucer.
Various theories of what really happened have been put forward, including claims that SAS troops that they had simply “pranked” their American counterparts in a light-hearted act of revenge.
But others have believe the phenomenon may have been caused by something altogether stranger, a “mass psychosis” sparked by “electromagnetic plasma” emanating from the earth.
Philip Mantle, a UFO sightings expert, told The Metro: “If you look at what those involved said to begin with, the only concrete info was that they saw strange lights in the forest – that’s what we start with.”
The theory that the abundance of sightings could be explained by plasma-induced hallucinations was first put forward by British defense scientist Dr Ron Haddow.
“He was concerned this plasma emitted a type of electromagnetic energy, which could interfere with aircraft communications” and even “cause cognitive impairment”, Mr Mantle explained.
He referred to the work of Albert Budden, a British UFO society member who has written books on this bewitching plasma: “According to [Budden’s] research, the Earth naturally produces these electromagnetic forces, and sometimes gives off these strange lights; this plasma.
“Some people can be hypersensitive to these lights – in other words allergic – and can have the most bizarre experience you’ll think is absolutely real,” he told the paper.
“It could be these soldiers came into contact with it and all hallucinated.”
Mr Mantle said he doubted whether soldiers would have been trying to prank each other while Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union were so high.
He is also dubious about the claim from Penniston that he touched the unkown craft, noting that his account of the events have changed over the years.
In fact, Mr Mantle remains sceptical of all explanations he’s heard for the Rendlesham Forest Incident so far.
“Having undertaken a cold case review of this incident for the MoD, I can confirm that the events in Rendlesham Forest 40 years ago remain unexplained,” he added.
Even the plasma theory could prove to be erroneous as UFO researchers all “suffer confirmation bias”, Mr Mantle conceded.
But he is sure of one thing, that “Rendlesham’s legend will only continue to grow in the years ahead”.