Suffolk forest yields UFO surprises

East Anglian Daily Times, U.K. - 4/9/2004

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IF you go down to Rendlesham Forest today, you could get more than a big surprise – according to a new list compiled by the country's leading UFO expert. Nick Pope, who ran the Ministry of Defence UFO desk for three years, has drawn up a list of the top 40 places in Britain where you might come face to face with an extra-terrestrial.

IF you go down to Rendlesham Forest today, you could get more than a big surprise – according to a new list compiled by the country's leading UFO expert.

Nick Pope, who ran the Ministry of Defence UFO desk for three years, has drawn up a list of the top 40 places in Britain where you might come face to face with an extra-terrestrial.

And Rendlesham Forest, near Woodbridge, is in seventh position, while Clacton-on-Sea, in Essex, is ranked 20th.

The list, topped by Bonnybridge in Lanarkshire, is the result of months of research into reported UFO sightings and alien abductions across the country.

Rendlesham Forest has long been associated with mysterious sights and sounds, and UFO investigators believe its link with other worlds goes back hundreds of years.

But it shot to fame across the globe in 1980, when American service personnel and local civilians reported several sightings of UFOs at RAF Bentwaters.

The case, which inspired countless studies and documentaries, is also rumoured to have involved an actual crash landing – but no hard evidence has ever been uncovered.

Brenda Butler, a UFO expert who lives in Leiston, wrote one of the first books on the unexplained events of that night, called Sky Crash.

Commenting on the list yesterday, she said: "I would have thought that Rendlesham Forest should have been higher up – at least number two, if not number one.

"It is one of the country's very hotspots for alien activity – it has been since the 1600's and it still is today.

"I don't know of any actual abductions that have happened at Rendlesham Forest but there's been lots of missing time cases.

"Even now, we still got loads of what are called orbs and streakers down there. I definitely think that there's a doorway to other worlds there, along with a very high-energy field.

"I don't think that the list will attract more people to the Forest – we already get a lot that come down because of its reputation and what's been printed before"

Plans for a film about the famous 1980 incident in the Forest have been backed by the East of England Development Agency, after narrowly missing out in the Landmark East competition.