What happened
At about 3 a.m. on December 26, 1980, a U.S. Air Force patrol from RAF Woodbridge noticed lights descending into nearby Rendlesham Forest. Airmen sent to investigate, including Sergeant Jim Penniston and John Burroughs, described a glowing object that moved among the trees and flew away. Where it had supposedly stood, three depressions in the ground and broken branches were found. On the night of December 27–28, the base’s deputy commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt, led a group into the forest, recording his observations on a dictaphone; he watched a pulsing red light and bright points in the sky, and a Geiger counter reportedly showed elevated radiation. Halt described the events in a memo to the British Ministry of Defence, which was made public in 1983.
Witnesses
U.S. airmen from RAF Woodbridge and RAF Bentwaters, including Jim Penniston, John Burroughs, and Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt.
Explanations and hypotheses
The British Ministry of Defence concluded that the event had no defense significance. Astronomer Ian Ridpath and other skeptics showed that the pulsing light matched the rhythm of the Orford Ness lighthouse, visible from the forest, and that the first lights may have been caused by a bright fireball seen over England that night. The depressions were attributed to animals, and the radiation readings were judged to be within normal levels. Some witnesses embellished their accounts over the years, which further complicates any assessment.
Disputed A likely explanation exists, but some of the facts are still disputed.
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