back to article Cardiff 'copter coppers give chase to UFO

The pilot of a police helicopter was forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision with a UFO as the aircraft was returning to the Ministry of Defence base of St Athan, near Cardiff. The three airmen described the unidentified flying object as "saucer-shaped", and proceeded to pursue, getting as far as the North Devon …

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  1. E

    You have to pay for public documents?

    WTF? WRT national archives release UFO docs: your national archives wants 3.5 pounds for a computer file copy of a document produced using tax payers money? This in the corporate world would be called double dipping.

  2. Andy
    Linux

    Flight recorder anyone ?

    I would like to get a hold of the flight recorder of that police chopper to see if an event really happened or if they made it up. Too many things fishy in this story. The coppers chopper is loaded with several thousand pounds worth of video, infrared, surveillance kit. How in the world did they not get any video of it if while chasing it. What radio contact did they make immediately after seeing it? If Alien species were coming to this planet they would have to be so far more advanced than we are that we would be insignificant to them. Just like how mice is to us when we clear out a forest to setup a new housing community. And if our planet was dying and we found another planet that could support us and it had creatures there that were less advanced than us they would suffer the same fate as the creatures that are less advanced than us suffer right here on earth. If Aliens came here we would suffer that fate. The rules of nature applies to interplanetary situations just like the do to intercontinental situations.

  3. Webster Phreaky
    IT Angle

    More Fodder For The Art Bell Liars Club Radio Show....

    Isn't it AMAZING Fox, that the morons in the UFO's NEVER are bright enough to pop in at the White House, Buckingham Palace or House of Louts, The KREMLIM!, Beijing, Toronto eh?; but instead pick leadership spots for Joy Riding like Cardiff and the Beer Swigging 'copter Bobbies, or "bum-fu_k" New Mexico where the local AAF base only tested Helium balloons with radar reflectors? (jesus, they could have gone to a SAC base at least!).

    And isn't it "GREEN" of them Ay-liens to always pickup after themselves after a little picnic visit or CRASH! What the hell do they fly anyway from 20 light years away and Warp 50 that they wait to crash here, .... a Fiat UFO??? Fix It Again Tony the alien!!

    The ONLY Morons that are stupider that those morons that believe in the Physics based IMPOSSIBILITY of Extra Terrestrial Space Travel - hence Aliens and UFOs - fantasy, are the morons that believe in the god and religion business. (equally with any substance or physical proof .... and it IS a business)

  4. heystoopid
    Thumb Up

    Hmmm

    Hmmm , the last I heard the Welsh moggies have yet to field either a decent football or rugby team in years from down Cardiff way as they were always the pretenders and back pocket liners from way back when Big Julius from Rome came saw the place then went back home for the better weather and ever since that day could not run the last mile !

    So blame it on the the local fuzz smoking the home grown Ganja , a very prolific weed that is readily available at for the picking at any nearby Welsh Common !

    Man , that must be some weed these Bow Street Runners are smoking , that is for sure !

  5. Ivan Headache

    Surely the most logical explanation is that it was a secret military test flight?

    Not much chance of that.

    No budget and no secrets. (Apart form those on the train/tube/roundabout/park-bench/bedside table etc.)

  6. Carol Yates

    Those were the days...

    Got to be time travellers on a jaunt back to the 21st century...what's notable about this date, or rather what will be notable?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The chances of anything coming from Mars

    were a million to one they said.

    But, still they came.

    Probably to buy a lottery ticket in this week's rollover.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    space is really big

    I'm pretty sure there is intelligent life out there in the universe, and in significant numbers. Much more intelligent than me for sure. One thing I did grasp during my education was an appreciation of the vast scale of the universe. If you can get a good idea of how far apart things are in space you'd realise the probability of any aliens finding our earth within the relatively short (in galactic terms) lifespan of our planet is incredibly low. Too low to have any chance of happening.

  9. MarkMcA
    IT Angle

    And I thought Reg readers were so sophisticated...

    Far too many people venting juvenile opinions about a subject they have never researched and (surprise, surprise) therefore know sod all about.

    There are over 4000 radar-confirmed, pilot-reported UFO sightings - and that's just the ones in the public domain. That's 'real' UFOs, as in the type that remain unidentified because they defy all conventional explanations - not f*cking chinese lanterns.

    (PS. 'Insurmountable interstellar distances' is a totally ignorant argument. Our solar system is <5 billion years old, the Milky Way is 10 billion years old. Metaphorically, ET could have walked here - and probably has.)

  10. Tom

    Oh dear

    Sit people in a box with curved plastic windows and the sunlight shines on your watch face - looks like a huge UFO and a small movement of your hands has it flying at speed to Devon.

    UFO's are really boring - though it is fun watching the gullible panic at a photo of someones chandellier reflected off a window.

    They should be coming for you any moment now - but in white suits!

  11. amanfromMars Silver badge

    An Alien Space with XXXX.Alted Rules Already, from Long Age.

    "No budget and no secrets. " ..... Stealth at ITs very Best, Ivan Headache, protecting Massive Investment Potential in Galileo SkyNet Clouds...... Phish Husbandry in CyberSpace.

    It is a Special Application of ProgramMIng Space ....... Vorsprung durch AITechnik.

    Although whether Led and Controlled by, let us Imagine, the MOD, is something which they may coy about commenting on. That would be AIdDiffidence .... and Anathema to Progress.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    JudyK

    I'm sure that the Register takes UFOs perfectly seriously. It's the tabloids that it doesn't take seriously... ;-)

  13. Andre
    Alien

    alien invasion?

    hmm.. could be some sort of UAV test, but this would seem unlikely due to the size. Also I doubt the military would intentionally endanger a civilian aircraft in this way.

    Possibility exists that it could be someone's model aircraft project gone awry, perhaps something based around a helium blimp. I did recall reading somewhere that someone had patented a new type of electrically powered plasma "saucer" so maybe this is a scaled up version capable of free flight.

    -A

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Disappointed

    I'm really disappointed with The Reg on this one. Quite apart from missing the Torchwood angle, some of the responses here are purile and verging on racist. Comments on such things as sheep and sporting achievement (someone missed Cardiff in the FA Cup final and Wales winning the Grand Slam then) do nothing for the image of El Reg..

    A police helicopter having to take avoiding action from an (apparently) ground launched object is serious. When it happens at a site next to a major regional airport and a BA maintenance facility (both a couple of minutes flight time away) it should be a major concern. What if it'd been an Airbus with 200 people on board that was taking avoiding action?

    Yes the UFO angle will always (rightly or wrongly) invite ridicule, but where there is a serious story surely it should be explored.

  15. The Mysterious Panda
    Paris Hilton

    So the police pursued it...

    And what exactly did they plan to do if it pulled over?

    "Do you have any idea how fast you were going, sir?"

    "Driving licence please. Are you insured to fly this?"

    I'd love to see the newspaper headlines the next day.

    "First Contact! Aliens Land in Cardiff! 3 penalty points and a fine for speeding space visitors"

    "Aliens say: 'We want to bring you the cure for cancer and a solution for world peace from our home planet, but we've had our licences suspended for 12 months. Bloody magistrates."

    Paris, because she's clearly not from the same planet as the rest of us...

  16. Quantum
    Black Helicopters

    Well Said, and I'm American...

    By Anonymous Coward

    Posted Saturday 21st June 2008 09:35 GMT

    "The fact that the UFO was heading straight for the helicopter would lead me to believe it was some secret weapon built by the USA, seeing as it had locked onto the nearest friendly target."

    LOL

    (And WTH does this symbol mean?)

  17. amanfromMars Silver badge
    Pirate

    Post Modern Felines ....... 42 Love and Live For. ..... 4FlowurPower2 in Deed.

    "And if our planet was dying and we found another planet that could support us and it had creatures there that were less advanced than us they would suffer the same fate as the creatures that are less advanced than us suffer right here on earth. If Aliens came here we would suffer that fate." .... By Andy Posted Saturday 21st June 2008 18:21 GMT

    Not if they thought you SMART enough to Learn and Live By their Secrets. They may wish then to dDeliver Seventh Heavens' Perfumed Gardens ...... Eve's Semantic Playgrounds with the StealthE Control of Communications.

    Denying IT doesn't make IT go away, you know. It only leads to you being Biffed and MIffed.

    cc the Taoiseach [Tao is each is sp00ky eh.]

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    MR

    Of, course, after perceving they were far from the area they should be flying, a UFO would be the best excuse to their officers. and also imagine the publicity: "they are the guys who have seen the Allien."

  19. C
    Paris Hilton

    RE: Hmmmm

    "The fact that the UFO was heading straight for the helicopter would lead me to believe it was some secret weapon built by the USA, seeing as it had locked onto the nearest friendly target."

    Best comment .. ever!

    I'm an American .. a fact I don't like admitting, I know we're the biggest meanest joke on the planet. But I also know that friendly fire is the most accurate .. sigh.

    PH cuz' she could do a better job running this country ... yeah, that kind of 'job' too.

  20. Chris G

    UFOs?

    Aliens? Welsh coppers? They are all a pain in the arse!

  21. Tom

    Baa english limies

    Just an english sheep-shagger getting lost flying back to Yorkshire to see his wife, baa limies.

  22. Pierre
    Black Helicopters

    Breaking news

    We still don't know what was said or done in the copter DURING the events, but we got our hands on the records of the conversation between the plods right AFTER the "chase".

    "-Mike, taking these underage cheerleaders for a quick ride in the blue was REALLY the best idea you ever had. We scored big time.

    -Right-o Ryan, but now put your brains to work, we have 10 minutes to think of a good excuse for the boss.

    - ...

    - ...

    -I can't think of anything, they really emptied my... brains.

    -Same here. Let's blame it on a flying saucer.

    -Good idea, it's gonna be a real laugh. Can't wait to tell the blokes!"

    That's where the recording we have stops. We're afraid that no transcript of the conversations during the "chase" will ever be available. Extreme pr0n law, all that...

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why

    is there no video of this incident? All that money spent on a helicopter able to spot the thermal signature of a fleeing felon in the dead of night with pinpoint accuracy, yet no video tape evidence of a buzzing by a UFO.

    Hmmmm ... suspicious indeed!

  24. Stuart Duel

    Seriously massive

    The universe is infinitely large. Astronomers increasingly have come to the conclusion that not only are Earth like planets out there, that they are almost certainly very common.

    But then we are the centre of the universe and the Sun and planets orbit us, the Earth is flat, man will never fly, the moon is unreachable and nothing could or would fly light years to visit this pretty blue marble hanging in space on the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy - total fancy.

    I think we alone have proven the impossible is possible and the improbable is likely. Our limited understanding of life, the universe and everything has grown in leaps and bounds and yet this knowledge is still infinitesimally small. Anything we take for granted to day - microwave ovens, mobile phones, microchips, space station, sky scrapers half a kilometre high, super-sonic aircraft - take it back 300, 200 or even 100 years and you'd be locked away for life in a loony bin or burnt at the stake for being a witch/heretic. Amazing how quickly things change. Less than a blink of an eye in geological time.

    People who discount the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe with societies and technology millions of years more advanced than ours are the ones who are grasping at straws. Where will we be in 1 million years? (Assuming we don't blow ourselves off the face of the planet.)

    Probability is well and truly on the side of a populated, intelligent universe.

    Why would aliens visit Earth? Why do we climb a mountain - because we can! And I'm sure messing with people's heads is not a trait solely confined to this planet.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Keep your tentacles where I can see them, please...

    Mrs. Alien: "I told him to ask for directions, but nooooooooo..."

  26. Charles Manning

    UFOs are impossible

    Further to what David Gosnell said,

    UFOs are impossible.

    As soon as a UFO is identified as a UFO then it is no longer unidentified, so is no longer a UFO.

    Therefor all UFOs all disappear in a puff of logic.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    If it was Aliens

    that have the technology to conquer inter-stellar space travel, they wouldn't have to the technology to warn them they were about to hit a helicopter?

    Some things that bother me about this article:

    - no mention of how big the pilots thought the vehicle was. Was it bigger or smaller than the heli?

    - what shape was it?

    - was there any jet or vapour trails (or indeed any indication of means of propulsion)

    - how fast did it travel (min and max speed observed if the speed varied)

    - why didn't they manage to get any pictures, video, infrared footage in a heli bristling with such technology?

    I have no reason to doubt the pilots word when they say they had to take evasive action to avoid a collision (a very serious matter indeed), however there is nothing in this article that would make me think the vehicle/object was of alien origin. My first reaction would be think it was some kind of ground based attack rather than something of alien origin. If I was the authorities I would be investigating it as a near miss or possible attack rather than a alien UFO sighting.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ AC "When are you people goigng to get serious?"

    "The least you can do is do the subject justice, with the same serious approach that you use to evaluate any other subject."

    New here? This *is* the same serious approach used to evaluate any other subject. El Reg has a heavy SysAdmin bias. If the words cynicism and schadenfreude didn't already exist, they would be invented here just so we could then pretend not to know what they mean.

  29. Matthew Newstead
    Black Helicopters

    Obviously....

    This was a heddlu-copter !

  30. Sir Runcible Spoon
    IT Angle

    @AC

    "The fact that the UFO was heading straight for the helicopter would lead me to believe it was some secret weapon built by the USA, seeing as it had locked onto the nearest friendly target."

    don't forget the fact that it also missed. Lends weight to this particular argument imho.

  31. David Purveur
    Stop

    Alien Hype

    Guys, compare and contrast the report from the BBC here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7465041.stm. In this report there is no chase, no evasive action to avoid a collision and presumably in the eyes of El Reg editors no story!! Who hyped this one up eh???

  32. Eddie Edwards
    Alien

    Never mind UFOs

    I live in the country and I keep seeing unidentified plants.

    I've researched this (unlike you other guys) and apparently this happens all the time. Since 1990 there are at least 10,000 recorded incidents of people seeing plants which they were unable to identify. Not a piece of grass on the car's wing mirror reflecting in the sunlight - actual plants, growing in the ground.

    Now maybe *some* of these can be explained as just plants the people had "never heard of" but even if that explains 99% of the sightings, there's still the awkward 1% which can't - statistically - be explained this way.

    It's obvious to anyone with half a brain that at least *some* species of Unidentified Plants must have an extraterrestrial origin. But people's minds are too closed to appreciate this obvious fact.

    It's also a FACT that the government tries to bury these unknown plants. Ever seen a farmer drive a tractor through a field with funny-looking spikes on the back? Do you know those guys are paid by the government to do that?

  33. Secretgeek
    Alien

    @ MarkMcA

    "Metaphorically, ET could have walked here - and probably has."

    Hee hee.

    So your argument is that ET probably has metaphorically walked here.

    Walked here, metaphorically.

    Hmmm....well putting aside your assumptions that ET has legs, is able to survive in a vacuum, has a lifespan of a couple of billion years, has a decent enough navigation system in his little ET pocket to find his way here, can actually find a particularly good reason to be arsed to walk(!) to a poxy backwater planet in this spiral arm of the galaxy (when there are so many other big earths and gas giants a lot closer), that it is actually possible to walk in space, and isn't so utterly fucked off from walking all that way, only to find a planet where the highest local lifeform is about to make itself extinct and take the world with it, that it doesn't just wipe us all out on the spot, apart from those minor assumptions I can see absolutley no problem whatsoever with your comment. Oh, and just in case you decide to jump on me for taking your metaphor literally - you're suggesting that ET got here very very slowly. Just what exactly would be the point? Any alien worth his crackly moon dust would surely use a wormhole?

    I for one will welcome our 'desperately in need of a new set of Nikes' Gump-style decided-to-go-for-a-run overlord. (Deliberate singular - just the one ET? Was he the one with no mates?)

  34. ben

    What are the odds...

    of aliens zooming around our galaxy, or even humans evolving on a rock floating in space. Probably about the same.

    It seems impossible to most people with our current understanding, but even now the possibilities of what is capable in science and the physical universe is only just opening up to us. We're still a fossil fuel buring neanderthal species that had its industial revolution 200 years back and electronic revolution last generation.

    Why is it so unbelievable, and if these ufo's are around there's nothing you can do about it, the worst that can happen is you'll probably get probed where the sun don't shine.

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    They DIDNT give chase

    If you read the many other versions of this story, they didn't chase it at all as its felt that plod helicopters chasing after everything in the sky they can't readily identify would be a huge waste of their time.

  36. Fuion

    @amanfromMars

    "Denying IT doesn't make IT go away, you know. It only leads to you being Biffed and MIffed."

    ---> Clearly working together is the answer. I always use the toaster to get my bread up to speed. Without electricity this would most likely not be possible, and without funding - the electric bill laspses. Clearly butter with your toasted bread is a good thing. If my toaster burns my bread, i attempt to adjust it. In the case the toaster is defective, and shows hostile intent towards my bread - I stop using it. Getting shocked by your toaster is no fun, thus I have become picky when choosing such a device.

    ---> I also sometimes find when protocols have been in production use for long periods of time, and support critical networks - they are rarely audited properly. The protocol that is.

    ---> Black network attached boxes, securing the enterprise... or are they?

    ---> I was attempting to connect to my CDN, and i realized when my terminal froze - the software had piggybacked malicious codez. From big to little, and from mother to small. quite perPLEXing.

    Just a thought about something i read in an article somewhere. Who knows if such will help, it was an free ezine.

  37. TMISv2
    Black Helicopters

    Weevils

    K, was gonna say that they'd come from the space/time rift under Cardiff ;-)

  38. Martin
    Boffin

    @Webster Phreaky

    Interstellar travel is not a physics based impossibility, we already know that it would be possible to travel at close to the speed of light, but it may even be possible to travel faster than light speed. Their are theoretical particles which would be capable of faster than light travel for instance, not too mention the possibilities of folding space around you etc. I don't think you know enough about physics to attempt to use it as a stick to bash UFO lovers with somehow. Science-fiction has a peculiar predisposition to becoming science-fact.

    NB: I don't believe in aliens visiting us regularly, but I believe life may exist out their somewhere in some form.

  39. Lukin Brewer

    Sheep in Flying Saucers

    Does anyone remember the arcade game "The New Zealand Story"? One of the less common enemies was a flying saucer piloted by a sheep.

  40. smell fresher

    Laser pointer

    It's obvious what happened.

    Someone shone a laser pointer at the coppers in the chopper and they were chasing the spot of light burned onto their retinas.

  41. David Paul Morgan
    Alien

    Once Again, Douglas Adams had it right..?

    FORD PREFECT:

    Unfortunately I got stuck on the Earth for rather longer than I intended. I came for a week and was stranded for fifteen years.

    ARTHUR DENT:

    But how did you get there in the first place?!

    FORD PREFECT:

    Oh easy! I got a lift with a Teaser. You don’t know what a Teaser is, I - I’ll tell you. Teasers are usually rich kids with nothing to do. They cruise around looking for planets which haven’t made interstellar contact yet and buzz them.

    ARTHUR DENT:

    Ah. “Buzz them”?

    FORD PREFECT:

    Yeah. They find some isolated spot with very few people around, then land right by some poor unsuspecting soul, who no one’s ever going to believe, and then strut up and down in front of ‘em wearing silly antennae on their head and making “beep, beep” noises. Huh, rather childish really.

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Where are the pictures!

    I have seen Police Camera Action. These copters are loaded with the lates Digital AV Night vision equipment. So where are is the evidence!

  43. min

    i wonder..

    ...what them creationist folk will have to say if the american with the 'hellfire' suggestion had his way, and this (very obviously UFO, since no one knew what it was) thing got shot down and them ale-yuns wriggled out of the wreckage. another hoax perhaps?

    just remember that what we seem to understand about the physics of the universe is infantile...

    but then again, what WOULD the creationists say?? lol.

  44. Mike Hall

    Riiight...

    ... because if I was a super-intelligent extra-terrestial who has conquered the barriers of light and time to cross the universe seeking alien life - I'd make sure I took time out of my busy schedule to scare some Welsh coppers before flying home.

  45. Damon
    Joke

    Pilot Sir Robin...

    The not-so-brave-as-sir-lancelot, who nearly killed the Dragon of Angnor, who nearly fought the vicious Chicken of Bristol, who nearly became a terrestrial bug squashed on the windscreen of a flying flapjack and who personally wet himself at the Battle of Badon Hill.

  46. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    Cigar shaped object designed to collide with aircraft,...

    ,... its called a "missile". Buy a dictionary!

  47. Danny

    reply to min

    "...what them creationist folk will have to say if the american with the 'hellfire' suggestion had his way, and this (very obviously UFO, since no one knew what it was) thing got shot down and them ale-yuns wriggled out of the wreckage. another hoax perhaps?

    just remember that what we seem to understand about the physics of the universe is infantile...

    but then again, what WOULD the creationists say?? lol." - min

    Hmmmm, that's funny because I wonder what evolutionaries would say if we do not find life on Mars. We're spending billions of dollars looking for life there. Many scientists believe that Mars was once covered by water even though it is very dry now (compared to Earth). Yet, these same people balk at a global flood here on Earth even though a large percentage of the Earth's surface is covered by water, there are massive features carved by water all over the earth, and there are billions of dead things deposited by water found all over the Earth. Just wondering though.

  48. david wilson

    Evasive action?

    If a helicopter was hovering at only 500ft, and the object came 'at great speed', and at all significantly from below, it's surprising that there was much time to take any evasive action.

    It it easy to quickly 'swerve' a helicopter which is hovering?

  49. david wilson

    And this sighting took place

    In the middle of the night, when it's dark, and things are hard to see.

    How unusual.

    In the BBC report, it's odd that despite the comments from the police spokesperson

    >>"South Wales Police said the helicopter did not give chase"

    >>""The crew are very experienced and responded in a professional manner in relation to what they saw."

    the subsequent comments:

    >>""But it is certainly not advisable for police helicopters to go chasing what they think are UFOs," (MoD spokesperson)

    >>"Cardiff International Airport said air traffic control provided a service to the police helicopter to ensure it had appropriate air space, including allowing it space to return to RAF St Athan to refuel."

    *would* seem to have squared rather better with an original story that suggested the helicopter might have tried to follow the sighting.

    Unless the airport's statement amounts to nothing more than standard operating procedure bordering on the bleeding obvious ("We routinely help helicopters to go to where they need to refuel rather than dropping out of the sky"), it would appear to be referring to a specific incident of a helicopter going somewhere and then returning.

    If the police didn't try to follow it, and didn't get any footage of it, what does 'responding in a professional manner' involve, beyond asking someone on the ground what the thing you saw was, which you'd think almost anyone might have done?

    Why would the police even mention that the helicopter *didn't* give chase, rather than just saying what it did do, unless there was already the suggestion out there that it had done so, which the BBC article would rather seem to have fearlessly failed to go into.

    I'd wonder if the original BBC story had been that the helicopter had tried to do some following, but that had then been denied by the police and the article amended accordingly?

    However, if the helicopter had gone nowhere, I'd wonder about the provenance of the claimed MoD and airport comments?

  50. Alan Fisher
    Alien

    2012 is coming...

    bet we start getting more and more of these as time progresses us closer to 2012....from flying coppers I've known I think this was the only way for said flying folks to get them to pay attention!

    I say this, a lot of people accept other things as gospel (literally..haha I made a pune!) with less eyewitness accounts and written evidence so there is a fair to middling chance that these incidents are real no? I'm sorta skeptical until i actually see one but I do believe I will soonish

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