Flying Toblerones, mysterious illnesses and silky-white substances are among hundreds of close encounters described in previously top-secret files released by the Ministry of Defence yesterday.

More than 6,000 pages of material spanning from 1994 to 2000 holds hundreds of other-worldly experiences with unidentified flying objects and apparent aliens across Britain.

Aircraft of all shapes and sizes have been witnessed flying over a wide range of locations - including Chelsea Football Club and the former Home Secretary Michael Howard's home in Kent.

One man told police he was physically sick and developed a "skin condition" after an eerie "tube of light" enveloped his car in Ebbw Vale, in Wales, at 10.40 p.m. on January 27, 1997.

The man, who worked at a funeral director, was sent to the doctor after his alleged brush with the unknown.

This is just one of hundreds of bizarre reports received by the police, military and government, suggesting that the truth might be out there after all.

This fifth instalment released under a three-year project between the MoD and The National Archives consists of 24 files of sightings, letters and Parliamentary Questions.

The records feature papers relating to the famous Rendlesham Forest sightings, often dubbed as Britain's Roswell. Sightseeing included: A man arrived at his Birmingham home at 4 a.m. on March 20, 1997, to discover an illuminated blue triangle hovering over his garden. The craft shot off leaving behind a "silky-white" substance on the tree-tops, which he collected in a jam-jar: A UFO sighted by Boston and Skegness police, in Lincolnshire, was captured on film. The police reported the sighting to the coastguard, who in turn alerted ships in North Sea - where a crew saw more UFOs.

Simultaneously, an unidentified blip was picked up on radar over Boston; a request submitted to former Prime Minister John Major from a councillor for an inquiry into 600 alleged sightings in Bonnybridge, Scotland, known as the Bonnybridge Triangle; an object travelling at more than 1,000 knots was tracked by a senior air traffic controller from the control tower at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, in Ayrshire, in February 1999; a West Lothian electrician spotted a "Toblerone-shaped" UFO hovering over a field. A sketch of the craft is included in the report; and a letter from senior MoD official Ralph Noyes in which he describes seeing a film of UFOs captured by RAF fighter pilots in 1956. Mr Noyes claims the footage was shown at a secret underground screening arranged for Air Defence staff at the MoD Main Building in 1970. Experts believe the records highlight how shapes of reported UFOs have changed over the last half-century.

This could be explained by representations of UFOs in popular culture - such as TV shows like The X-Files.

Many reports in this latest file describe aircraft as big, black and triangular in shape with lights along the edges, whereas the predominant form in the 1940s to 1950s was saucer or disc-shaped.

David Clarke, author of The UFO Files and senior lecturer in journalism from Sheffield Hallam University, said: "In the 1950s the next big leap in technology was thought to be a round craft that took off vertically and it's intriguing to note that this is the same period when people began to report seeing 'flying saucers' in the sky.

"In the period the latest file release covers, triangular-shaped US stealth bombers and Aurora spy planes featured heavily on TV, such as The X Files between 1993-2002, and films, such as Independence Day released in 1996 and the shape of reported UFOs corresponds.

"It's impossible to prove a direct link between what people are reading and watching and what they report as UFOs but one interpretation could be that the latest advances in technology may be influencing what people see in the sky."

Testimonies

• Churchill's curiosity at UFO phenomena

Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill expressed curiosity in "flying saucers" and requested a briefing from his ministers, according to a memo just released.

In the note, Mr Churchill briefly writes: "What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth? Let me have a report at your convenience." The response to his memo, explained that following an intelligence study conducted in 1951 the "flying saucers" could be explained by "one or other" of the following four causes: Known astronomical or meteorological phenomena; mistaken identification of conventional aircraft, balloons, birds etc; optical illusions and psychological delusions; and deliberate hoaxes.

• Pilots reported near-miss over Pennines

A "near miss" between a Boeing 737 airliner approaching Manchester Airport and a UFO was investigated by the Civil Aviation Authority.

The pilots of British Airways flight 5061 reported the incident as they flew over the Pennines on route from Milan on January 6, 1995.

Captain Roger Wills and co-pilot First Officer Mark Stuart both saw a lit object fly down the right-hand side of the aircraft at a high speed from the opposite direction, a CAA report revealed.

The men were able to track the object through the right-hand windscreen and side window, having it in sight for about two seconds.

Manchester Air Traffic Control recorded no known traffic in the vicinity on radar.

In a letter dated April 1996, an unidentified MoD official said: "With regards to the air miss reported by the British Airways pilots approaching Manchester Airport on January 6 1995, I can confirm that as a matter of routine the MoD was notified about the pilots' report by the Civil Aviation Authority shortly after the incident occurred.

• Man "fell ill after UFO encounter"

An unexplained skin condition and mysterious white material found on treetops are just some of the more "unusual" features in the latest UFO files.

Alongside countless "light in the sky" sightings, are a few episodes in which eyewitnesses claim some form of physical effect from their experience - or even contact with an alien being.

In one account, a man in Ebbw Vale, south Wales, on a clear and dry night, at 10.40pm on January 27 1997 claimed to see a UFO as he was driving his car.

In his report to Ebbw Vale police the following day, the man, from Newport, Gwent, said his car was surrounded for five minutes by a "tube of light" which swept towards him from the north east.

During this time both his radio and mobile phone stopped working. The incident then takes an even more bizarre turn, when the man reports feeling ill following his brush with the unknown.

The report said: "He felt and was indeed sick later on. He is still feeling ill today (28/1/97) and has developed a skin condition. He was advised to see doctor."

• UFO "seen over Michael Howard's home"

The Ministry of Defence received reports of a large triangular UFO hovering in the skies above former home secretary Michael Howard's home.

Eyewitnesses in Burmarsh and New Romney saw the "humming" object, the size of two passenger planes, near Mr Howard's home on March 8 1997, when he was serving as home secretary for the Conservative government.

Sophie Wadleigh, 25, from Hythe, reported the sighting to the Folkestone Herald.

She told the newspaper: "It was so peculiar, it all felt really odd and I heard this humming noise. "As I looked across the field I saw a large triangular shaped flying craft hovering about 300 metres off the ground."

Ji Lane, 23 and Christopher Lee, 27, also witnessed the incident. Mr Lane said: "It was crazy - I was getting a drink in the kitchen when I saw these strange lights in the sky just over the field across the road from our house."

Further newspaper cuttings reveal Chris Rolfe, coordinator of group UFO Monitoring East Kent, warned at the time the UFO could have been looking for Mr Howard.

UFOMEK compiled its own report on the sighting and sent it to the Prime Minister, Home Office and Ministry of Defence.

An eyewitness account in the UFOMEK report said: "It was just a huge triangle thing, which was a lot bigger than an aeroplane or anything like that.

"It had lights all around the outside, and this disc attached to the back, and a big light on the front. I pulled up to a stop and as I did it shot off."

• Rotating coloured lights seen in sky over sea

Police officers and a ship's crew witnessed rotating multi-coloured lights in the sky near the east coast of England.

The corroborated sightings were documented in a detailed RAF investigation.

Police officers in Boston and Skegness, in Lincolnshire, saw the UFOs above the North Sea on October 5, 1996 and contacted the coastguards, who in turn alerted ships in the area.

The lights were also observed by the crew of a ship in The Wash, the estuary on the north-west margin of East Anglia.

Simultaneously, RAF air defence radars at RAF Neatishead in Norfolk detected an unidentified blip over Boston.

But the RAF report concluded that the radar imagery was caused by St Botolph's church spire in Boston.

It read: "The church spire is known in aviation circles as the 'Boston Stump' and appears occasionally on some radars."

This led to an extensive investigation by RAF air defence staff who impounded radar tapes from a number of airports around the UK.

But no additional evidence was found which could corroborate the Prestwick incident, the report concluded.

In another file, a report reveals four members of the crew of a fishing trawler in the North Sea spotted a flat, shiny, round object hovering 19 miles north-east of Fraserburgh on August 18 1997. They tracked the mysterious UFO on their surface radar for several seconds before it vanished.

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