INCIDENT AT SANDON
Written by Roy Hale And Tony Golbourn
On Monday, 28th of October, at 7pm, on a clear evening, at the village of Sandon, which lies between the towns of Baldock and Royston (just off the A10 main Road) a quite spectacular event transpired. The following is how the events took place, using pseudonyms to protect the witnesses identification.On the evening in question, (Joan) and (Tom) were sitting watching T.V, when they both heard what they could only describe as a loud droning/humming sound, which appeared to go straight over the top of their house. (Just to add that their house is situated in the heart of the Hertfordshire countryside, with few neighbours, but abundant farmland.) On hearing this Joan decided to take a look outside to ascertain what the noise could have been or from where it was coming from Upon looking out at the fields far over to her right, approximately half a mile in the distance, Joan saw what she could only describe as a UFO.
On seeing this, Joan called to Tom to take a look at the object, he did so, but because of his sceptical nature, he granted that yes, it was strange, but he wasn't interested in the object and wanted to get back to the T.V. Joan not being undeterred by this response, continued to observe the object, which was, by now, static and hovering above the ground, approximately 100 ft, and was emitting a low hum. Joan described the object as being 60 to 70 feet in diameter but because of the intense light given off by the object, she could barely see its structure, which was a dome on its top, a disc shape in the middle, with a smaller dome underneath.
The object also had a row of brightly coloured lights, which rotated clockwise around the discs outer edge. The colours being emitted were a deep blue, orange, and yellow and an intense pure white. (Joan was very particular about the white light saying she had never seen a white quite like it.)
The events that took place next, are quite intriguing, but if World Wide reports are to be taken seriously' then one can only say that these are becoming more common place, as it may seem that this type of sighting is on the increase. After viewing the object for about half a minute, two Army helicopters suddenly appeared and began to circle the object at a distance. Joan noticed that the helicopters did not display any port/starboard lights. (Landing/aircraft recognition lights.) The object, whatever it was, must surely have almost certainly been detected on radar, sometime before it had arrived at its present location.
The nearest barracks being Basingbourne Army barracks' but if any tracking took place this was more than likely carried out by a larger Air base with tracking facilities.
Joan mentioned that whatever the object was, it dwarfed the two circling helicopters (see illustration.) It was when Joan mentioned this that we suddenly realized, what possibly we were dealing with. Our investigation then switched to phoning around various civilian airports / R.A.F air bases. Including R.A.F West Drayton and the Ministry of Defence. The following is a summary of the inquiries with the above establishments.
1.(Stanstead Airport) County, Essex. Tel (01279) 662520, Air Traffic Control.
We explained our reasons for phoning them. This was their response:" Its very interesting, what you're saying, but we can't help you here as we don't have any radar in the airport, only ground radar for airport runway use, but we can put you in touch with someone who might be able to help you."
2.R.A.F Wantingsham Tel: (0144) 9720631 Main reception
We again explained our reasons for calling, hoping for a better response.
"We're sorry, we don't cover that area, its out of our district, and it wouldn't be much interest to us here." Although his response was personally interested, it was an overall standard denial. By this time we was beginning to feel the strain. We then called RAF West Drayton as a last resort, knowing that there is an official sightings dept there, which is more than likely in contact with the Secretariat (Air Staff) 2a1 M.o.D. Whitehall. This was to be our most interesting avenue of response.3. R.A.F West Drayton Tel: (01895) 44 55 66 Main reception
We explained our reasons for the call, we felt for the last time. The response was:
"Reception? Hold the line for a minute. -Sorry we cannot connect you as the staff of the sighting desks has gone home. We can try to connect you tomorrow on a direct line to the people who deal with sightings. (Which turns out to be the number of the Secretariat 2a1 Whitehall I would like to add that we were told that there was a special desk for reports of UFO's at this base. Also, before we rang off, they took all the relevant information off of us on the sighting, passing him onto the M.o.D. the next day.4. (Miss K Philpott)Secretariat Air Staff 2a1 (UFO desk M.o.D. Whitehall Tel: (0207) 2182140 or Switchboard (0207) 2189000 Or FAX (0207) 218 2680
We came to the conclusion, that after so much ringing around, that this had to be the place to get answers. But we soon found her attitude was one of scepticism and denial, and also trying to make us look the fool. Hence the nick name (so we've heard) The Ice Queen. Miss Philpotts response was of an intimidating manner. She told us that" The witness might have seen an object with two helicopters, which wasn't a UFO but a -."At this point she abruptly stopped, quickly changing the conversation, turning it around, by saying: "What do you define as a UFO?" Tony answered her by saying he had witnessed a previous UFO at 3.30am which was an orange ball, which seemed to just hover outside his back window.
To this, Miss Philpott replied: "It was probably a reflection of a street light." (Tony has no streetlights in his back garden or near the back of his house). Miss Philpott then said: "Concerning your inquiry about the UFO, the RAF would not use helicopters but would use Tornado jets, because of the far superior speed for interception?
Referring to the location of the sighting,( I would like to note that British airspace covers 12 nautical miles beyond the U.Ks coastline, which includes NATO and the arctic.) Then she asked Tony if he would like her to investigate the sighting, for what it was worth, Tony said yes. She then added that Tony would receive a letter stating the conclusions she (the MOD) had drawn from what she had found out. The letter received is shown opposite, which we feel, is a standard pre typed dismissal of any sightings on that date (anywhere in the U.K.)
But what is interesting regarding the helicopters seen at this incident is that, she was unable to track them down to any part of the Military, but as you may see in the letter, she says that there is a helicopter base in Westerfield which comes under (conveniently) the Essex Constabulary!
Question - Are we to take it, that from this answer the police have been given use of Military helicopters? We don't think so! Still, what this letter does not do, is answer just whom, or where these helicopters came from. Do we therefore draw the conclusion that there is a special branch of the Essex Constabulary devoted to UFO investigations? (You've heard of the flying squad?) So we can but leave it up to you the reader to draw your own conclusions. As a note, we feel this is a definite case, but as usual we were given nothing but the run around, a sad fact, I'm sure many investigators would feel is all too common by the Military/Government, and should come to an end. The people acknowledge that there should be freedom of information.
So we ask any readers that feel strongly that this is not the case, especially within this subject, to contact their local MP to do something about it. Remember, it is we the public, who place these people in power in the first place.
The following is a summary on the incident.
On the evening of 28th October 1996, a cloudless evening, a very large object had entered British airspace. The UFO must have definitely been picked up and tracked via our Air Defence Radar Network System, to the location where it was spotted by Joan. Because of the sheer size of the UFO, the Military wasted no time in despatching two helicopters to investigate first hand the UFO they were tracking. By this time the UFO had descended to a low proximity, and had passed over Joan's house, and stopped, remaining in a hover, in the distant fields adjacent to the house. Upon the helicopters arrival, the UFO Fell silent whilst the helicopters circled at a safe distance' possibly gathering information for almost four minutes.
It was noted that the helicopters remained at a safe distance, showing no signs of aggression towards the UFO. (This may be standard policy that the military have adopted in dealing with this type of encounter.) It is known policy that while the military may take aggressive action against other nations invading U.K airspace, this is not necessarily the case when dealing with UFO's' simply because they may not know the nature of any retaliation from the UFO. After several minutes stand off, the UFO rose slightly, then flew off at an incredible rate of speed.
It could also be possible that the two helicopters circling the UFO did so to film/photograph the UFO for added intelligence on the subject. Is it possible that an Alien craft invaded British airspace for an unknown length of time? Was this incident of UK defence significance? Was this a threat to national security?
Then can be know exact answer to the above, but due to the nature of this sighting we can only assume a breach of our Airspace may mean just that. So we will leave it to you the reader to decide for yourselves.
Tony and Roy would like to thank Joan and Tom, for all their co-operation during this investigation.
You can contact Roy Hale by Direct E-mail:roy@thelosthaven.co.uk