So I've finally made it to season 4 (yay procrastination), and saw this case again. It's the case with the USAF personnel stationed in England who claims to have seen unexplained lights over the course of a 3 day span back in 1980. I always thought this one had more credibility than many of the other UFO cases because there were actual military reports done, acknowledged, and handed over. But I found this (https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4135) article from a skeptic who claims that the entire thing was nothing more than the men witnesses reflective lights from a nearby lighthouse (which most of the men did not know existed), and also lights from 5 nearby radio towers. And the landing spot was written off by the local English police as rabbit diggings. And there was an undisputed fact that on the first night of the sightings, a meteor had been witnessed by multiple people in the surrounding area, which could explain the craft like structure described by the air force.

On the surface, all of this makes sense. But the skeptic article does not address the fact that the "landing spot" described by the men was a perfectly symmetrical triangle, with each hole being an equal distance apart. I don't see how random rabbit diggings would be that precise. Nor does it mention the 2nd in command of the base (Col. Halt), who claims to have seen one object approach and shoot a beam of light down for a few seconds before disappearing into the sky. I still don't believe in aliens, but I am curious as to what these men could've witnessed that night. I'm still not convinced that they were all confused by nearby lights from a light house and radio towers. What are you're thoughts on this case?

Aliens don't exist.

So they saw lights.

skeptics have vivid imagination

I've always found this story extra-intriguing when you account for the fact that the Cash-Landrum UFO incident literally occurred only one day after the last reported sighting in Rendlesham. I know this happened in England and the Cash-Landrum sighting occurred in Texas, but the latter is undoubtedly the most credible UFO story on UM since the witnesses all developed serious illnesses, so they definitely encountered something strange, even if it wasn't aliens. When I originally watched these segments back in the nineties, I was convinced an alien spacecraft had traveled all the way from England to the U.S. and the military was trying to track it down.

Logically, there probably isn't any connection between these two incidents, but the timing is one hell of a coincidence.

interesting observation.

perhaps both encountered aliens from same fleet

I've always found this story extra-intriguing when you account for the fact that the Cash-Landrum UFO incident literally occurred only one day after the last reported sighting in Rendlesham. I know this happened in England and the Cash-Landrum sighting occurred in Texas, but the latter is undoubtedly the most credible UFO story on UM since the witnesses all developed serious illnesses, so they definitely encountered something strange, even if it wasn't aliens. When I originally watched these segments back in the nineties, I was convinced an alien spacecraft had traveled all the way from England to the U.S. and the military was trying to track it down.

Logically, there probably isn't any connection between these two incidents, but the timing is one hell of a coincidence.

The Cash-Landrum incident, from my understanding, never produced any real concrete evidence outside of their illnesses. No photographs were produced of the burn mark in the road, and they kept their medical records private. They never took pictures of the car, although they did let testing be done which showed no signs of radiation. And here's (http://www.cufon.org/cufon/cashlani.htm) the transcript from their interview with the military. They did not contact the police about what they saw, but did get in touch with a UFO research group. They also claimed that over 20 helicopters were essentially trying to corral the object as they headed towards the airport. You would think there would've been more witnesses of this, outside of 3 people (2 separate people did claim to see helicopters that night). You can read more about the possibility of it being an outright hoax, here (http://badufos.blogspot.com/2013/11/between-beer-joint-and-some-kind-of.html).

That's what makes the Bentwaters incident more believable to me. Multiple people, all stationed at an air force base, all claim to have seen similar, unexplained lights, with varying degrees of physical evidence to back up their claims.

I don't believe in UFOs myself (used to) but I've always found this one of the more credible stories. The people involved are military personal, including a Lt. Colonel. The last place you need to be making up stories like this is the military for the sake of your own career.

The Cash-Landrum incident, from my understanding, never produced any real concrete evidence outside of their illnesses. No photographs were produced of the burn mark in the road, and they kept their medical records private. They never took pictures of the car, although they did let testing be done which showed no signs of radiation. And here's (http://www.cufon.org/cufon/cashlani.htm) the transcript from their interview with the military. They did not contact the police about what they saw, but did get in touch with a UFO research group. They also claimed that over 20 helicopters were essentially trying to corral the object as they headed towards the airport. You would think there would've been more witnesses of this, outside of 3 people (2 separate people did claim to see helicopters that night). You can read more about the possibility of it being an outright hoax, here (http://badufos.blogspot.com/2013/11/between-beer-joint-and-some-kind-of.html).

Wow, thanks for those links. I had no idea the Cash-Landrum incident was under so much dispute. It's frightening to think they could have been deliberately making themselves sick in order to orchestrate a hoax. If they made everything up, part of me now wonders if they might have been inspired by the Rendlesham incident, but I highly doubt Cash and Landrum could have learned about it in such a short amount of time. Just an odd coincidence, I guess.

I've always found this story extra-intriguing when you account for the fact that the Cash-Landrum UFO incident literally occurred only one day after the last reported sighting in Rendlesham.....

....Logically, there probably isn't any connection between these two incidents, but the timing is one hell of a coincidence.
Wow.....I never made that connection.

Concerning the Landrum UFO incident, there's been a lot of debunking of this incident. IIRC, one counter-argument is that if the people really did suffer as much radiation as they claimed to the point of getting sick, it would've been fatal.

I remember the Bentwaters/Rendlesham Forest sightings were reenacted on the TV show Sightings and they showed one of the officers with a movie camera and it was implied much of the incident was filmed, but the films were withheld by he government. Of course, the UM episode shows no one with a camera, so I wonder what the truth was.

I think there's a reasonable explanation for what they witnessed - whether it was the meteors, the landing beacon beams at Bentwaters or the lighthouse (which the witnesses, excepting Colonel Halt, were apparently unfamiliar with) - but what happened will probably never be determined. I don't think they were lying in their original statements or impressions, but there have been some contradictions in statements and embellishments since then. Plus the Ministry of Defence keeping things low key at the time later stoked conspiracy theories.

Plus the Ministry of Defence keeping things low key at the time later stoked conspiracy theories.
This is one thing that often gets lost in UFO discussions, and is never really ever considered in any UFO segment that I have ever watched(on UM or any other paranormal show). In light of the declassification of military files related to the Roswell incident in the late 90s, it was revealed that the military actually did its utmost to help promote the concept of UFOs and alien spacecraft being tested on American military bases. Why so? Because that would help divert attention away from actual top secret weapons programs if people pursued wild goose chases. So when the military claimed it was a weather balloon, they said that because they WANTED people to speculate it was a UFO rather than a top secret military exercise.

Furthermore, with the Cold War, it was helpful to keep the impression that US military capabilities were stronger than they actually were to intimidate the Soviets. People often forget how interwoven the UFO craze was with the Cold War. It's helpful to keep this all in mind when re-watching the UFO segments.

Speaking of which, here's a video from the Smithsonian Channel about how the Bentwaters incident was connected to Cold War tensions:
https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/videos/did-the-cold-war-fuel-our-ufo-paranoia/40501

I think the guys out in the field did see something that night. Perhaps not of this Earth. Probably never going to get answers though.

This has always been one of my favorite UFO cases on UM. Again, after a copy disappeared from the site that shall not be named, I watched a few other documentaries including this one below (where Larry Warren makes claims of some rather nefarious activity on the part of the gov't)

https://youtu.be/dlfynjeAjHU

Logically, there probably isn't any connection between these two incidents, but the timing is one hell of a coincidence.

Respectfully snipped.
I too, was always intrigued by the timing of the two alleged sightings.

Besides the Unsolved Mysteries segment, the Bentwaters incident has been covered in many other media of course, but one of the best (as far as I am concerned) was the History Channel's UFO Files episode Brittan's Roswell . Tom Kane narrates and the entire episode is on the incident (I have often wondered if that episode was originally meant for inclusion in Conspiracy? but was not added in order to keep the series from being too UFO focused). Hard to find but a good watch.

As to the incident itself, something clearly happened there, and to dismiss it as the lighthouse or nothing of any interest whatsoever is essentially ignoring the accounts entirely.
Exactly what happened is of course another matter.

Aliens don't exist.Must be nice to be omniscient.

I've no idea what they saw and agree odds are low that it was aliens, but so far as anyone can tell, it cannot be explained away by normal means, so all possibilities should be considered. Clearly it was no known craft or phenomena, based on the descriptions.

The validity of this incident hinges upon whether or not you accept the testimony of USAF Sgt. James Penniston and USAF Airman John Burroughs.

These two men claim they approached a landed craft, took photographs (which were later confiscated), and even placed their hands on the warm surface of the ufo, before the craft ascended and took off.

John Burroughs suffered both heart and eye damage as an apparent result of being so near to the object. James Penniston did not suffer any physical ailments after his contact with the object. I guess it all depends if you believe their account of their alleged close encounter.

The validity of this incident hinges upon whether or not you accept the testimony of USAF Sgt. James Penniston and USAF Airman John Burroughs.

These two men claim they approached a landed craft, took photographs (which were later confiscated), and even placed their hands on the warm surface of the ufo, before the craft ascended and took off.

John Burroughs suffered both heart and eye damage as an apparent result of being so near to the object. James Penniston did not suffer any physical ailments after his contact with the object. I guess it all depends if you believe their account of their alleged close encounter.

today I was looking up another case and I came across the New Mexican newspaper and an article from 1950's from a Japanese air base hosting American Air Forces with similar UFO stories. I think we can believe the Airmen from the Bentwaters incident, but as to what they actually saw, who knows.

The validity of this incident hinges upon whether or not you accept the testimony of USAF Sgt. James Penniston and USAF Airman John Burroughs.

These two men claim they approached a landed craft, took photographs (which were later confiscated), and even placed their hands on the warm surface of the ufo, before the craft ascended and took off.

John Burroughs suffered both heart and eye damage as an apparent result of being so near to the object. James Penniston did not suffer any physical ailments after his contact with the object. I guess it all depends if you believe their account of their alleged close encounter.

I don't believe a word anybody involved with the case has said. Simply there is too much money involved with books, speaking tours, DVD's etc. Even with the best will-people trying to recall things decades later are clearly going to exaggerate & mix in bits of all the other stories that have been out there. Retrofitting is a well known phenomenon.

Yes, one man got massive doses of radiation poisoning from this incident while the other didn't get any-seems believable. Boroughs heart damage came 30 years later when he was diagnosed in 2011, one presumes so did his eye damage-nothing to do with obesity related health issues I guess?

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/7v42c4g4usjjok93a06fcb8gjn._SY600_.jpg

I've always found this story extra-intriguing when you account for the fact that the Cash-Landrum UFO incident literally occurred only one day after the last reported sighting in Rendlesham. I know this happened in England and the Cash-Landrum sighting occurred in Texas, but the latter is undoubtedly the most credible UFO story on UM since the witnesses all developed serious illnesses, so they definitely encountered something strange, even if it wasn't aliens. When I originally watched these segments back in the nineties, I was convinced an alien spacecraft had traveled all the way from England to the U.S. and the military was trying to track it down.

Logically, there probably isn't any connection between these two incidents, but the timing is one hell of a coincidence.

There was probably some TV show on the week before referencing aliens, so it created a lot of these types of "incidents"

I don't believe a word anybody involved with the case has said. Simply there is too much money involved with books, speaking tours, DVD's etc. Even with the best will-people trying to recall things decades later are clearly going to exaggerate & mix in bits of all the other stories that have been out there. Retrofitting is a well known phenomenon.

Yes, one man got massive doses of radiation poisoning from this incident while the other didn't get any-seems believable. Boroughs heart damage came 30 years later when he was diagnosed in 2011, one presumes so did his eye damage-nothing to do with obesity related health issues I guess?

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/7v42c4g4usjjok93a06fcb8gjn._SY600_.jpg

James T,

British researcher Jenny Randles initially believed that this was an E.T. encounter. However, I think that she now believes this was a terrestrial event.

Longtime UFO researcher Jacques Vallee, the role model for “Lacombe” in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” wrote in one of his books, that he believed that the Rendlesham Forest Incident was some sort of psychological war experiment conducted by the US military. Vallee wrote that the US military had supposedly used holograms at the failed US mission to rescue the US embassy personnel in Tehran during the Desert One mission. Apparently, the Iranian military reported seeing strange lights and images in the night sky, after a US helicopter and refueling plane had collided and exploded. Vallee thought that these same projected images were what the USAF personnel witnessed over those several nights outside of the airbase.

Former British Ministry of Defence official Nick Pope also wrote a book on “Great Britain’s Roswell.” In the book, Mr. Pope writes that former USAF Sgt. Jim Penniston believes that he and John Burroughs witnessed a craft piloted by time travelers. What’s next, inter-dimensional travelers like in the last Indiana Jones film?

It is interesting that the famous Dayton, Texas CE-II incident, where two women and a young boy were allegedly burned by a low- flying diamond-shaped object occurred about a week or so after the events in the UK. The emergency room physician, who initially treated Betty Cash, one of the witnesses, for her burn injuries, said that sometime later, former US servicemen who were also his patients, said that the Texas incident was another US military training incident gone awry.

I recently saw a program on the History Channel about a US military group that investigated the “Tic-Tac” UAP sightings by USN carrier pilots off the coasts of California, Virginia and also off the coast of Iran. The pilots don’t know what those photographed objects were. In addition, there was a segment about a violent UFO/UAP encounter off the coast of northern Sicily in 2004.

Apparently, houses were starting to burn and Italian authorities could find no prosaic explanation for the fires. There was talk of some sort of ray or light beam originating from beneath the sea. The Italian Navy began to investigate and a helicopter piloted by the Italian equivalent of US Navy SEALs was followed by a UFO/UAP and hit by some sort of ray or beam from the unknown object. The pilot safely made an emergency landing and the helicopter’s blades were found to be damaged by the strange light. A local resident captured both the helicopter and the UFO/UAP on film.

I had never heard of this incident before. The US government is supposed to release even more information on this puzzling phenomena. But, we’ve heard that promise before over the last seventy years. So, who knows?

As Mr. Spock was wont to say, “Live long and prosper.”

Yes, nothing Nick Pope says or prints surprises me-hard to think of anybody who has profited/ridden the ET hypothesis more than this MOD desk jockey, who filed cases away & never conducted any investigations in the field. The Cash/Lamdrum injuries were also highly dubious-with it being determined highly probable that Cash's injuries looked self inflicted to get a payout. Similar thing with Michalak at Falcon Lake.

Seriously, 30 years later the guy claims he has health problems caused by this incident? Nothing he has done in the meantime might of caused it, including becoming obese?

https://skepticalinquirer.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2014/03/p28.pdf

http://www.theironskeptic.com/articles/michalak/michalak.htm

I’ve heard Nick Pope described as being “The Professor Irwin Corey of Ufology.” Living in England, you might not be familiar with the late, lamented “Professor” Corey.

Irwin Corey was an American comedian, who dressed in an ill-fitting, black, 19th century style suit, with his hair always disheveled, and who would expound and expound about any subject under the sun ad nauseam, and just never get to the lousy (USA) or bloody (UK) point. Well, Nick Pope has always reminded me of “Professor” Corey, in that Mr. Pope drones on and on incessantly about alleged ufo sightings and controversies, but never quite gets to the point.

By the way, does anyone exactly know what Mr. Pope’s position with the Ministry of Defence was? What were his duties and responsibilities with the MOD? It sounds very impressive to say that you manned the “ufo desk” for the British government. But, what the heck did that job actually entail?

I’ve heard Nick Pope described as being “The Professor Irwin Corey of Ufology.” Living in England, you might not be familiar with the late, lamented “Professor” Corey.

Irwin Corey was an American comedian, who dressed in an ill-fitting, black, 19th century style suit, with his hair always disheveled, and who would expound and expound about any subject under the sun ad nauseam, and just never get to the lousy (USA) or bloody (UK) point. Well, Nick Pope has always reminded me of “Professor” Corey, in that Mr. Pope drones on and on incessantly about alleged ufo sightings and controversies, but never quite gets to the point.

By the way, does anyone exactly know what Mr. Pope’s position with the Ministry of Defence was? What were his duties and responsibilities with the MOD? It sounds very impressive to say that you manned the “ufo desk” for the British government. But, what the heck did that job actually entail?

Not much-certainly nothing like the claims NP has made for the last 25 odd years.

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2020/11/nick-pope-revisited.html

Thanks for the link concerning Nick Pope on Kevin Randle’s excellent blog, “A Different Perspective.” I enjoyed several of the comments, such as Nick Pope was the UK’s equivalent of or answer to Mexico’s Jaime Maussan. Or that Nick Pope envisions himself as the “real life Fox Mulder” from the greatly overhyped “The X Files.”

Incidentally, I give much credit to longtime Roswell Incident investigator Kevin Randle for publicly acknowledging that such noted civilian Roswell witnesses as Glenn Dennis, James Ragsdale and Frank Kauffman (Steve McKenzie) were probably providing “testimony” that turned out to be what we Americans politely refer to as a crock of “bovine excrement.”

One last thing, I highly recommend the late James Moseley’s irreverent take on ufology in his book, “Shockingly Close to the Truth.” In the book, Mr. Moseley, a semi-serious ufo investigator/irrepressible gadfly, reminisces about his dealings with such ufo notables of the past as Major Donald Keyhoe, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Captain Edward Ruppelt, “Professor” George Adamski and Stanton Friedman among many others. The acerbic Mr. Moseley once referred to the study of ufos as “U-fool-ogy.” The book provides a great insight into the often wacky zeitgeist of ufo research and is a fun read.