The Wash incident

In the early morning a police officer on the Lincolnshire coast reported a rotating, multicoloured object over The Wash. The Claxby air traffic control radar reported a return in the same area. The report went up through RAF Kinloss and MoD Northwood before the conventional explanation was accepted.

Explanation

The radar returns were at least partly explained as echoes from St Botolph's Church ("the Boston Stump"), and the visual sightings as stars and planets.

What was seen

Shape: Rotating, multicoloured light
Witnesses: Police officer David Leyland; other witnesses
Duration: Hours

Sources

• The National Archives (UK) — MoD UFO files
• Wikipedia — UFO sightings in the United Kingdom

Browse

• United Kingdom
• 1990s
• Explained
• Radar-visual cases
• Official government documents
• Radar tracking
• Police witnesses
• Lights and fireballs

Similar cases

• Belgian UFO wave — F-16 intercepts 30 March 1990
• Lakenheath–Bentwaters radar-visual case 13 August 1956
• Howden Moor — sonic booms and the search for a crash 24 March 1997
• Lake Michigan lights — 911 calls and a weather radar 8 March 1994