Threats, phone taps, hacking, blackmail and MIBS just what was "The Burmarsh Incident" all about ?

Although over 10 years old this UFO sighting caught my attention not only because it happened, ostensibly, on my doorstep but also because it involves what would appear to be a clear attempt of a cover up.

There are a lot of facets to this but let me start at the beginning.

The sighting took place in th Uk at a little place called Burmarsh in Kent on the 8th of March 1997.

Link to map of area

In the early still dark hours of the morning, Sarah Hall, a journalist with the Folkestone Herald, was driving home when her attention was caught by a large triangular object hovering over the village of Burmarsh.
Observing the object from about 300 yards, Sarah described it :

“It was just this huge triangular thing, which was a lot bigger than an aeroplane but there was no way I could have mistaken it for an aeroplane or anything like that. It had lights all around the outside and this disc attached to the back and a big light on the front.”
As Sarah stopped her car the object “literally shot off”.

Sarah was somewhat dismayed, she thought:

“Oh God, what is this? This is really scary!"

Sarah continued:

“It stopped again, sort of another 500 yards away from me and it did that four times. It just shot further and further away but stopped four times, sort of moved for about five or six seconds, stopped for two seconds, then moved again for another five or six seconds and so on”.

Here is a sketch that Sarah Hall made of what she saw:



Two days later on the 10th of March 1997 Sarah Hall reported the sighting to UFOMEK (UFO Monitors East Kent).

Sarah also wrote an article describing her experiences which was duly published in the Folkestone Herald newspaper.



In what would seem a response to this article 5 days after Sarah's sighting the Folkestone Herald received an anonomous phone call.

The Michael Howard connection,( the then Home Secretary and future leader of the conservative party.)

The caller stated that 2 local firmen had seen the triangle over Michael Howards house near the time of Sarah's sighting, the story being that they had been called out to that location for reasons not stated,

Kent Fire Servces were not able to confirm this however.

At this point it may be an idea to introduce the 2 UFOMEK members who dealt with the case namely Chris Rolfe and Jerry Anderson.

According to Chris Rolfe there was another 8 witnesses to the craft but was not able to verify them because he received the news from a man in another UFO group, who died before he could discuss them with him.

They included sightings between 02:10 a.m. and 03:30 a.m. on the morning of 8th March, 1997 and came from surrounding villages and towns like Lydd, Burmarsh, Newchurch, Ashford, Smeeth and Aldington.

The Investigation

Chris and Jerry wrote to various agencies to try to figure out exactly what happened that day.

They contacted the Kent Constabulary requesting any information pertaining to the Burmarsh Incident.

Chief Inspector Mike Abbott of Kent Police referred the request for information to RAF Biggin Hill who, in turn, forwarded it on to the Ministry of Defence.

On July 3rd, Chris received a letter from Kerry Philpott (Head of Secretariat Air Staff 2al) confirming that she had received Chris’ correspondence.



The Home Office also confirmed receipt of enquiry.



The MOD denied that any events took place, although, on June 30th, a freelance reporter contacted the MOD enquiring about the Burmarsh Incident and the MOD denied any knowledge despite the fact that they were in possession of Chris Rolfe’s documentation.


Sir John Grudgeon, Chairman of the Kent Police Authority, did reply to a letter from Chris stating that he had received a letter from the Deputy Chief Constable of Kent reporting that a “minor security” incident had taken place. The incident did not involve an “aeroplane”.



The plot thickens

These are Jerry Andersons words:

"On the 26th February, 1998, I visited Watersones Bookshop in Canterbury, to listen to Timothy Good talk about (and publicise), his latest book Alien Base.

After the talk, I was chatting to Tim about the Burmarsh case, when a gentleman approached me and asked if I was one of the investigators in the case. I told him that I was. He then told me that he is a neighbour of Mr. Howard, and that around early March 1997 he and his wife had been woken in the early hours by a commotion coming from the general direction of the MP's residence.
He claimed that there were many people running around shouting.
He believed them to be the armed security force that is in place there. In the sky above was a helicopter, making an awful noise, a searchlight scanning the area.
I asked him where the searchlights were illuminating, he replied that they were scanning the sky above and level to the helicopter"

"When we quizzed the MoD regarding a security alert on the morning in question, they replied that there was NO security breach of any kind.
The Police, however, acknowledged that there WAS a breach of security, but it had been resolved!!! Please.... we at least expected the same answer from both parties!"

The Letter

On the 17th August 1998, UFOMEK received correspondence at its Folkestone office. The letter in question was purported to be from one Wing Commander A.W.Ward of the Royal Air Force. Here are the contents of that letter:

Chris Rolfe,

As a scheduled first hand warning, you are no longer permitted to continue investigations into the supposed triangular shaped object that was seen over Burmarsh, Kent.

The report of this unidentified craft by Sarah Hall on the 10th March 1997 (received by researchers at UFOMEK) was made at haste. She had actually seen a Rapid Response Military Aircraft, but as to new developments, I am not permitted to release details of its structure. The disc-like shape Sarah saw, attached to the rear of the aircraft, was a long distance radar. But yet again, due to new developments, I can only be vague about its description and function.

May I state, therefore, this is not official denial.

Your co-operation in this matter is vital for the security of military intelligence. You should now, therefore, proceed to leave this mistake to Sarah Hall to realise and to forget. Other reports have come through from Dymchurch, of a similar proposed UFO. These reports were acknowledged by us, and the relevant people were told the situation.

From our obvious co-operation, we would appreciate yours. This matter, as we both know, is causing emotional stress to certain individuals, and should only strengthen the need to pass this case by as solved.

Once again, this is a conditional warning.


Yours sincerely,
A.W.Ward
Wing Commander - Field Force Commander



Efforts were made to trace Wing Commander A.W. Ward but no trace was found.

That same day, UFOMEK wrote a letter to the Head of Secretariat Air Staff 2, Mrs. Mollie Field, enclosing a copy of the above communication.
We stressed that we believed this threatening letter to be a forgery and that an investigation should be undertaken to find the culprit.

continued..............

[edit on 9-4-2008 by sherpa]

[edit on 10-4-2008 by sherpa]

However, if the letter was indeed genuine, then they should be aware that someone is imparting official information regarding the brief technical details. Exactly a week later, on the 24th August 1998, we received a reply from Gaynor South at the same office. Obviously Miss Field didn't consider the document important enough to reply personally.

The letter suggested we treat the letter as unsolicited mail, and that if we felt threatened we should call our local police!!

UFOMEK then had a stroke of luck. Chris visited his local second hand bookshop and was approached by the proprietor, who knew Chris slightly. He said that he had a book that Chris might be interested in. It was the Royal Air Force List, which is literally that....a list.....but not any old list. Its lists were full of the names of Royal Air Force Officers covering the year 1991. Chris turned to the W's, and there he was.....A.W.Ward, Squadron Leader. We had now established that the elusive Ward was a real person at least.

We contacted the RAF personnel Management Centre at RAF Innsworth, using the telephone number in the RAF List. All they could tell us was that yes, there was a Wing Commander Ward, serving in the Administration Branch....somewhere.

Eventually, we established contact with the Wing Commander, who had very little to say about the matter other than denying that he had been the author of the '...reasonable hoax.'

So, if it wasn't from the WingCo., who was it from? One thing is for sure: if it is a hoax, it is from someone who has at least corresponded with A.W.Ward, as the signature is almost identical to the original.



During this period, UFOMEK came into the possession of some remarkable security camera footage from

Gravesend, Kent. It shows a large, what we believe to be, triangular craft moving very slowly over the Thames on the 17/6/98, at 22.20hrs.

Independent analysts and experts in aircraft recognition have viewed the footage. All have been amazed at the footage.
The video experts have said that it is a solid object, and that there is a vapour trail, albeit feint, behind the object.
Its size does not correspond with any known aircraft currently known to the general populace.We believe that this could be the same type of craft as witnessed at Burmarsh over a year before.

After this, events became even stranger.

It was around this time that I had been having trouble with my BT answerphone system. Evidently someone had been trying to access my pin number that is used to remotely replay any messages left on the system. Being a multi digit number, all attempts had been thwarted, as the standard BT warning message told me. This required me to change my pin number anyway. After the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth time of doing this, my sense of humour began to diminish.

Around this time Jerry had to leave home one day at about 10.00am to do some errand, this is what happened again in his words.

When I returned home at about 12.00am, my wife informed me that she had opened the door to a man in a suit, carrying a clipboard. He asked for '...Mr. J.B.Anderson...', (my full initials, only used on my bank and car documents), and was told that I was not in. she asked him to state his business. He hesitated slightly, and then informed her that he was from the TV Licensing Dept., and did we have a license.
She said we did, and showed him the document. He looked at it, then walked off to a small white van parked by the gate.

Getting in the passenger side, the van then drove off.

I made enquiries with the TV Licsecing Dept., and was informed that they definitely had no one in my area that day, and in fact hadn't for some time. I put the telephone down, picked it up again, and phoned the police.

Surely, the authorities wouldn't be interested in keeping tabs on a small local UFO research group, that is a ridiculously paranoid suggestion.......or so we thought.

On the 9/2/99, I received a large manila envelope in the post. My name and address was stencilled on the front in red biro, and it had been posted in Canterbury on the 6/2/99. On opening, it contained a white cassette tape. No writing, markings, nothing. When I played it, you could have knocked me down with a feather. The contents was a recorded telephone conversation between Chris and myself that had taken place in January 1998, and concerned the Burmarsh sighting and MP Michael Howard! The tape lasted for around 20 minutes, and was clearly recorded from a third source as Chris' voice and mine were as if the conversation was intercepted somewhere along the line.

I alerted Chris, in case he should receive a similar package. I also alerted British Telecom to the fact that my system had been compromised, and after speaking to several departments, I was eventually connected to the investigation dept. I relayed my story, and they said that they would investigate.

The very next day, at 09.15, a BT Field Investigator arrived. After checking his credentials via telephone, he came in and went about his work.

After a whole day between me, the exchange, and different junction boxes, his conclusions were that there was no physical 'tap' on the line. However, he did advise me to change my number.

The Investigator was due to go and check Chris' line two days later, which he did. On the morning he arrived, Chris had also received a tape with the same conversation on it.

The BT Investigator made thorough checks on Chris' system, and again found no evidence of a 'tap'.

Whoever is responsible for this breach of privacy, conducted it from my end of the line, as my voice was the clearest and loudest on the tape, whilst Chris' was faint.

Independent tests have shown that my telephone line is 'losing' several volts. This could be attributed to an electrical fault or a diversion of current. Shouldn't the Investigator from BT have picked this up?
The independent investigator brought in by me has stated that he believes that the conversation was recorded remotely from near my address, using a laser directional microphone.
His analysis of this is based on background noise on the tape.
There is a beat on the tape that slows down gradually. This, apparently, is very likely to be the radial pulse from the 'listeners' thumb.
In other words, the sound of the blood coursing through the artery in his/her thumb has been picked up by the sensitive listening equipment!

Oh, by the way, the main witness in the case, Sarah Hall, also received a tape of the conversation on the 12/2/99.

Why on Earth would someone record my telephone conversation with Chris and then send it to us a year later?

It was in February this year that a collegue of mine showed me the list of sightings reported to the MoD during 1997. This list simply comprises of date, and location of sighting, nothing else.

I couldn't help but notice that the Burmarsh sighting of the 8/3/97, had been omitted from the list!
The only sighting on that date, according to the list, was from Hythe, Kent, a few miles from Burmarsh.

UFOMEK wrote to the MoD (Air Staff), and asked why this was so. Their explanation was that the inclusion of the date and location stated, was regarding a newspaper cutting sent in by a member of the public, and that they had NOT received any reported sighting direct about what was alleged to have occurred! Rubbish!! We have proof of many letters and reports we sent the MoD regarding the sighting in and around the Burmarsh area!

We now believe that the object described at Burmarsh and shown in the Gravesend footage are related, and probably relate to the testing or use of an advanced experimental vehicle.

continued......









[edit on 9-4-2008 by sherpa]

We and our families have been threatened by person or persons unknown, we have been ignored and fobbed off by the MoD and other authoritative bodies. Indeed, Mollie Field, head of Secretariat Air Staff 2, sent us a reply to one of our enquiries regarding the Burmarsh sighting.
It simply said, 'I have no further comment to make on the matter'. Mrs. Field is a public servant. We want answers, and we want them now.
It is our right as British citizens. How dare officialdom treat us like this. After all, who pays for all this?

www.thewhyfiles.net...

www.farshores.org...

[edit on 9-4-2008 by sherpa]

Of course this whole affair begs many questions.

Why the disparity between the MOD and police regarding the security breach ?

Why did the MOD deny any knowledge of the sighting despite being in possesion of Chris Rolfes documentation ?

Was the letter from wing commander A.W. Ward a hoax and if so who and why would someone go to such lengths to forge it ?

Why was the the telephone conversation being monitered how long had that been going on and why was it that one sample conversation was sent to the 2 investigators and Sarah Hall ?

If this was a rapid response aircraft as stated in the RAF letter was it reacting to the security breach or was it the cause ?

I was personally interested in speaking to the investigators about this case and have sent emails to 2 addresses and left a message on a mobile number but as yet have had no reply.

So Chris Rolfe or Jerry Anderson if your out there I would love it if you got in touch.

flagged.

Good read, being from the UK its nice to hear about interesting reports that have happened over here.

Thanks for the flag aziel.

Yes this is definately one of the more interesting UK cases the letter from the RAF, the alledged involvment of Michael Howard the strange recording of telephone conversations being sent to the 2 investigators and the witness was this really a terrestrial craft or something alien ?

reply to post by sherpa


Wonderful post, sir.

Although... If the government and military were going to test a top-secret, highly advanced craft, then why not do it inside a giant hangar or out in the middle of nowhere so the average Joe (or Jane) can't see it? Surely if you were test-driving such technology over an area where people might see it, I guess you have to expect that eventually someone will see it, and so you (the government/military) are then forced into a panicked attempt to cover up the very thing that it was quite inevitable you were going to have to panickedly attempt to cover up in the first place?

While we may have back-engineered some of this stuff, I do think I'm more inclined to believe that these advanced craft belong to (and are quite possibly manned by) beings of extraterrestrial intelligence. To be honest, I think the more powerful and influential governments of the world (the US and UK in particular) are scared to death of our curious, interstellar visitors - quite simply because they have NO control over the situation. My advice would be... get used to it and get over it! We're not the only civilization in this universe (probably!), so come on, just get it over with and publicly disclose the bloody fact. Humanity will be better for it!

Thanks Brad.T,

Although... If the government and military were going to test a top-secret, highly advanced craft, then why not do it inside a giant hangar or out in the middle of nowhere so the average Joe (or Jane) can't see it?

Exactly, and that is the same conclusion drawn by the NIDS study of the triangle phenomena.

Some of the characteristics of the reports of Flying Triangles that are inconsistent with deployment of a
covert DoD aircraft include:

(1) Locations and sightings near cities and on Interstate highways (see Map 4).

(2) Low altitude in plain sight of eyewitnesses.

(3) Flying at extremely low speed or hovering in plain sight of eyewitnesses.

(4) The aircraft sometimes fly with easily noticeable bright lights. Some aircraft have blinding white lights.
Others have “bright disco lights”, usually flashing combinations of red, green or blue.

www.nidsci.org...

I can't stop musing if there is any connection with abductions and these craft.
If I could find a map of abductions than it would interesting to overlay it on the maps currently available for triangle sightings like the one below.

sure as heck looks like the american tr-3b. No wonder the MIB were breathing down her neck. damage control and all that. Why though are they testing this stuff in the UK instead of someplace more secure like Guam. Oh well.....maybe the craft is fully operational and they are deploying it from the UK cause they are cool with our agenda and will keep a lid on this sort of stuff and are using the craft to operate in areas closs to UK like Russia, china, the middle east.

Originally posted by BASSPLYR
sure as heck looks like the american tr-3b. No wonder the MIB were breathing down her neck. damage control and all that. Why though are they testing this stuff in the UK instead of someplace more secure like Guam. Oh well.....maybe the craft is fully operational and they are deploying it from the UK cause they are cool with our agenda and will keep a lid on this sort of stuff and are using the craft to operate in areas closs to UK like Russia, china, the middle east.

Well there is a rumour that they have a secret base in Ireland this report comes from there and is on this thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...




However I think there is a possibility that there are two sources for these craft terrestrial and extraterrestrial because how else could there be such conflicting behaviour patterns.

Sad that no one else seems interested in this. It's such an intriguing story, too.

Originally posted by Brad.T
Sad that no one else seems interested in this. It's such an intriguing story, too.

I think it is just a little to much reading for most people.

Maybe thats why the important stuff slides out of view so often

Highly Intriguing Read Sherpa! Please update us with any new info you provide. I have not heard of this case before so many thanks for bringing it to my attention!

A Star & Flag for all your hard work in compiling this case into a highly digestible format!

IRM

reply to post by InfaRedMan

Please update us with any new info you provide

You can rely on that, however I really have tried everything I know to contact the original investigators before I posted.

It seems that the older sightings are the most difficult to get to the root of although I suppose that goes without saying.

Another spectacular thread Sherpa...I am astonished and excited and intrigued! I commend you on your thorough narrative and research into this awesome case! Starred and flagged of course....

It's astonishing and disheartening to me that there are sightings like these with so much proof, documentation and correspondence between agencies with so many witnesses and people researching that never EVER make it into the news or documentaries. Luckily there's ATS!!!!

Thanks for digging this up and displaying it for all of us on ATS and I applaud you for contacting the individuals involved to try to get an update or further information! I am giddy with anticipation

Edited to add this P.S.

By the way, since the investigator received that sinister threatening letter I hope you don't find out that something sinister happened to him or anyone else involved in this incident

[edit on 12-4-2008 by LateApexer313]

By the way, since the investigator received that sinister threatening letter I hope you don't find out that something sinister happened to him or anyone else involved in this incident

I have found evidence to the effect that both Jerry Anderson and Chris Rolfe were around several years after this case.

In fact the most recent indication is for Chris Rolfe who seems to have been around no more than a year ago and still involved with UFOMEK.

Jerry Anderson I have not found anything for quite as recent, all I do no is he is no longer the Area Co-ordinator but may still be active in the UFO field.

As a footnote and to keep my promise I will add these titbits.

After a telephone conversation with Chris Rolfe I found out that Jerry Anderson is alive and kicking but literally burnt himself out as a UFO investigator and no longer has any interest in the subject.

I also asked Chris if I could have a copy of the audio interview he conducted with Sarah Hall, I was hoping to gauge her emotional state whilst she recounted the event, and he said it was available on the net somewhere but I could not trace it and as he had rung me and I did not have his telephone number I could not get back to him he did leave an email address on the comments section of my profile but when I tried this it just bounced back.

So I guess that is all there is to be told.

S & F for sure!

Regarding the triangle UFO sighting map...i suppose the density of sightings pretty much equal population density? More people = more eyes peeking up in the sky. Would be interresting to know if the abduction cases follow the same equal relation. Although...abductees are easily judged as loonies so i suppose an abductee map would be more influenced by local social structures..