TU-1993-900001 · Historic case

RAF Cosford incident: the MoD's 1993 sighting files (1993)

Over six hours on 30-31 March 1993 the MoD logged more than 30 reports of bright lights, including from RAF police and a Met Office observer. Radar replay found nothing; most reports were later attributed to a Russian rocket body re-entering.

Case number
TU-1993-900001
Date
31 March 1993
Location
RAF Cosford, Shropshire, and the West Midlands, England, United Kingdom
Coordinates
52.639° N, 2.306° W
Shape
formation
Colour
Unknown
Witnesses
30
Status
likely explained

Case summary

In the early hours of 31 March 1993, police and military bases across southern and western Britain logged more than 30 reports of bright lights in about six hours, peaking around 01:10-01:15 BST. An MoD police patrol at RAF Cosford described two bright white lights with luminous vapour trails and telephoned RAF Shawbury to warn they were heading that way. The Met Office observer at Shawbury, Wayne Elliott, reported a separate sighting later. The MoD's UFO desk officer, Nick Pope, had the RAF replay radar tapes; nothing unusual was found and aircraft were ruled out.

Pope's minute concluded that an unidentified object of unknown origin appeared to have operated in the UK Air Defence Region without being detected on radar, which he called of considerable defence significance. In April 1993 the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff was briefed that the reports matched supposed characteristics of the "Aurora" spyplane; US inquiries came to nothing and Pope was told to drop it.

The bulk of the sightings were traced to the re-entry of the Tsyklon rocket body that launched Cosmos 2238, which crossed Ireland and south-west England at about 01:15 BST; RAF Fylingdales confirmed a Russian rocket decay around then. In 1994 Pope wrote that most of that night's sightings could be attributed to the event. David Clarke's re-examination timed Elliott's observation, logged at 01:40Z, over an hour after the main cluster; in 2005 Elliott accepted it was probably a police helicopter searchlight.

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