Boscombe Down incident
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 26 September 1994 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic) |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 121 |
| Year | 1994 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1994 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 2 |
The Boscombe Down incident was a reported accident to an unidentified aircraft at RAF Boscombe Down, the UK's main military aircraft test site in Wiltshire, on the evening of 26 September 1994. Aviation enthusiasts said a strange jet was damaged on the runway and later flown out by a U.S. transport plane; the British and U.S. governments denied that any such incident took place.[1][2]
The event
According to witnesses, an aircraft aborted its take-off on Runway 23 after a malfunction, possibly a nose-wheel collapse, and was quickly covered with a frame and tarpaulins, surrounded by emergency vehicles and taken to a hangar, where it stayed for about two days. Special forces were reportedly present, and an Agusta A109 helicopter and a Chinook arrived.[1]
Glimpses and the C-5
On 28 September, when another aircraft was moved from the same hangar, witnesses briefly saw the mystery jet, describing a charcoal-grey, fighter-sized aircraft with inward-canted twin tails, chines along the nose and a forward-hinged canopy — features resembling stealth designs. A U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy, reportedly diverted from Ramstein in Germany, arrived the same day and left carrying a tarpaulin-covered object, reportedly for Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.[1]
Investigation
The British magazine Air Forces Monthly published a cover story in March 1997 by Ren Hoek and Marco van der Welk after a two-year investigation, arguing that the aircraft was an unconfirmed stealth reconnaissance aircraft they called ASTRA. Other theories have included the rumoured "Aurora" spy plane, a TR-3A stealth reconnaissance craft, a special-operations transport, a foreign aircraft under evaluation or a joint U.S.–UK project.[1]
Official response
In December 1994 Defence Minister Nicholas Soames told Parliament that there had been no crash at Boscombe Down and that the only flying that night was by two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters on an exercise. Freedom of Information requests by The War Zone produced no records, and the U.S. Air Force Safety Center said it had no information. The incident remains one of military aviation's lasting mysteries, though most observers believe it involved a classified aircraft rather than anything unearthly.[1][2]
In the testimony
The testimony cites: Majic Eyes Only, p213.
On the Timeline
- Frederick Benthal's Roswell photographs claim (1 September 1994) — Army photographer Frederick Benthal says he photographed the Roswell crash and bodies.
- Laurance Rockefeller's two UFO projects (10 December 1994) — Vallée says Laurance Rockefeller funded two UAP projects.
See every 1994 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
Further reading
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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