THERE IS NO 'COVER-UP'!
Interestingly, the "Quest" programme makers did give Nick Pope (former MOD spokesperson on UFOs) perhaps 10-15 seconds of airtime - if that - to offer his denial of any 'cover-up' of a UFO conspiracy especially in the context of some lobbying of Westminster by the Scottish town of Bonnybridge's Councillor Billy Buchanan concerning events in the "Falkirk Triangle" (see Bonnybridge and other online articles for the 'Falkirk Triangle' for background). For what it's worth, I agree with Nick Pope that it is unlikely, given my own knowledge of how Government operates, that there is any 'cover-up'. Our Government simply wouldn't be very good at it if nothing else - hence the expression "Cock-up before Conspiracy" as coined by Sir Bernard Ingham (apologies to those overseas in advance if this expression is a bit lost in translation!).
BLACK PROJECTS
However, whilst I'm aware that this plays firmly into the hands of many conspiracy theorists, there is some merit in the theory concerning military, industrial or technological 'black projects' (which I will explore in another post) and which may have resulted in testing of advanced craft in our airspace - without any mainstream knowledge of our Government or even that of our allies in the U.S.
BLUE ON BLUE
Such a theory could only be proven by hard evidence of something akin to a 'blue on blue' incident between a conventional military vehicle and a black project vehicle. To those unfamiliar with the term 'blue on blue', I first encountered its use by colleagues of mine working for the Police and Home Office, to refer to two separate agency operations inadvertently targeting the same criminal activity. Consequently, the Home Office regularly has to cross-check their field enforcement activity in advance with the Police and other enforcers to avoid this very scenario. This term and the scenarios it can be attributed to have even more serious connotations when applied to military activity, as it is normally used in the context of 'friendly fire' incidents.
So - imagine a patrolling military plane or helicopter (could be UK, could be US) that encounters a craft in UK airspace which is also tracked on radar but which does not conform to any known civil or military aircraft design and does not respond to any requests for identification. Add the unknown craft's ability to manoeuvre in ways which are beyond that of known civil or military technology and you have the beginnings of an intriguing UFO case. The key word in this paragraph is 'known'.
The object may well be designated as a UFO but may subsequently prove to be a black project vehicle that is yet to be revealed to mainstream civil or military experts and which - therefore - remains 'unknown'. This is what happened on a number of occasions with early sightings of the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit - also known as the "Stealth Bomber" and the F-117 Nighthawk (pics below with Spirit left and Nighthawk right).
Often these projects only become 'known' many years or decades after their inception and are so restricted in terms of security, that a larger part of the military community in the country of origin of such a project won't know it exists. BUT it is worth keeping in mind that black projects at least, do exist.
Such encounters as described above, could perhaps be regarded as a 'blue on blue' (or perhaps 'blue on black'?) but only after subsequent confirmation that a given 'BOGEY' was in fact a 'FRIENDLY'. With this in mind, one begins to get an idea of how even military reports of strange craft in the sky - let alone civilian reports - could be open to interpretation.
THE ET HYPOTHESIS?
Now whilst a proportion of UFO sightings could fit the above scenario, an increasing number of experienced civilian and military aviation professionals are reporting craft that behave in a way that could be said to be hundreds of years more advanced than conventional or mainstream aircraft - and not just more advanced by decades. This is when the 'extraterrestrial hypothesis' - in its broadest sense - comes into play.
I hope to cite a couple of classic cases that - in my view - fit this hypothesis in later posts.
