The Real X-Files by Nick Pope – Live online lecture on 8th March 2011

Nick Pope will begin the lecture by giving an overview of the British government’s involvement with the UFO phenomenon, which dates back to 1950, when the Ministry of Defense established a small committee to examine the phenomenon, known as the Flying Saucer Working Party. He will explain government policy on this issue and detail the way in which investigations were carried out. Nick Pope will then discuss a number of cases in detail, focusing on incidents that remain unexplained and on cases where the witnesses were military personnel. This will include discussion of the Rendlesham Forest incident, the UK’s most interesting and compelling UFO case. This took place in 1980 and the 30th anniversary has attracted considerable media and public interest. He will also discuss a number of incidents where there have been near-misses between UFOs and commercial aircraft. He believes this is a serious issue that is not receiving the public attention it deserves, largely because of the perceived stigma of reporting UFO incidents, which leads to many pilots failing to report incidents that should be of concern to airlines.