London: Britain`s wartime Prime Minister
Sir Winston Churchill and American General Dwight Eisenhower
had agreed to cover up an encounter between a Royal Air Force
aircraft and a unidentified flying object (UFO) during World
War II, declassified documents have revealed.
According to the declassified Ministry of Defence
files, Churchill had allegedly ordered that the unexplained
incident over the east coast of England should be kept secret
for at least 50 years because it would provoke "mass panic".
The claim, recounted in declassified MoD files, was
made by a scientist who said that his grandfather was one of
Churchill`s, the `Daily Mail` reported.
Allegations of the cover-up emerged when the man, from
Leicester, wrote to the government in 1999 seeking to find out
more about the incident. He described how his grandfather, who
served with the RAF in the war, was present when Churchill and
Eisenhower discussed how to deal with the UFO encounter.
The man, who is not named in the files, said
Churchill was reported to have exclaimed: "This event should
be immediately classified since it would create mass panic
amongst the general population and destroy one`s belief in the
church."
The incident allegedly involved an RAF reconnaissance
plane returning from a mission in France or Germany towards
the end of the war.
It was over or near the English coastline when it
was suddenly intercepted by a strange metallic object which
matched the aircraft`s course and speed for a time before
accelerating away and disappearing.
The scientist recounted: "This event was discussed by
Mr Churchill and General Eisenhower, neither of whom knew what
had been observed. There was a general inability for either
side to match a plausible account to these observations, and
this caused a high degree of concern."
He added: "During the discussion with Mr Churchill,
a consultant (who worked in the Cumbria area during the war)
dismissed any possibility that the object had been a missile,
since a missile could not suddenly match its speed with a
slower aircraft and then accelerate again.
"He declared that the event was totally beyond
any imagined capabilities of the time. Another person at the
meeting raised the possibility of an unidentified flying
object, at which point Mr Churchill declared that the incident
should be immediately classified for at least 50 years and its
status reviewed by a future Prime Minister."
PTI
