Claim: 1990 Calvine UFO

[ParanoidSkeptic2]

Around the 4th of August, in 1990, two men supposedly took 6 photographs of a diamond shaped UFO in the sky accompanied by Harriers. This was first brought up by Nick Pope in his 1996 book Open Skies, Closed Minds. The story somewhat blew up in 2009 when it was released by the National Archive, no photos accompanied it but a photocopy of the trace was with it


Nick Pope teamed up with an artist to do a representation based on the photocopy and Pope's memory, this it what was produced. According to Pope, the rendition is "very accurate"


The photos are apparently hidden away and were meant to be released in 2021 but apparently the ministry extended the time it will take for the photos to be released for another 50 years, leading many believers to say that this adds credibility to the claim

A 30-year rule meant it was due to be declassified on January 1 — but the Ministry of Defence has now blocked release until 2072 without explanation.

Photographs were taken by two Perthshire hikers who watched the “diamond-shaped metallic craft” for ten minutes before it shot up vertically out of sight.

They also claimed to see military jets fly a series of low-level passes.

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I'll also attach the actual report from the archives here


Source

The dimensions of the aircraft vary from source to source, some say it was 75 feet, some say 80 feet and some say 100 feet in diameter. Pope has really hyped this up as one of the most astonishing photos he ever saw.

There are a few problems with this story, the photos were apparently taken at 9pm in Scotland but Pope has said that the photo was seen in broad daylight, which is odd as the sunset was at 9:17 pm.

The claim is that the photograph was taken at 9pm. However, when I looked up the time of sunset, the sun actually set at 9:17pm that night in Perthshire. Would there have been sufficient light to take the photograph as it has been described? The photograph described by Nick Pope is not typical of something taken around sunset in Scotland. The reconstruction (below) looks more like a typical afternoon photograph. And another question: would two walkers have wanted to be up there knowing they had to come back down in the dark? I considered the possibility of a tourist getting caught out, but sunset in London that day was at 8:44pm so anyone from further south would have expected itt o get dark sooner.

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Also, no scale of the photo has been established, the diamond has just been referred to as big .

As relates to the unidentified object in the original photo it is hard to tell from the sketch version, but there is no scale so we don't know if it is a small object close to the camera or a large one further away. Because we are comparing it to the Harrier and we know how big it is then the object seem to be very large, but it might not be.

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America denied that it was their Aircraft but a few people on the ministry didn't believe them, some people on the ministry asserted that it can't be Russian or American.

Of course, many assume extra-terrestrial and not much skeptical investigation was done into it (aside from the blog source) so it's hailed as an inexplicable proof of aliens. What could be a more likely explanation? I don't know why, but this reminds me a bit of the tic-tac UFO story

 

[deirdre]

I dont recall photocopies being that bad in 1990. I dont know who David Clark is (and dont want to spend time or money digging through the National Archives to verify but: )

Article:

In July 1996, prompted by Pope’s account, Don Valley MP Martin Redmond, tabled a parliamentary question on the Calvine photograph. In reply, MoD said: “A number of negatives associated with the sighting were examined by staff responsible for air defence matters. Since it was judged they contained nothing of defence significance the negatives were not retained and we have no record of any photographs having been taken from them.” (Hansard, written answers, 23 July 1996).

Source: http://drdavidclarke.blogspot.com/2009/03/calvine-photos.html

 

[ParanoidSkeptic2]

I dont recall photocopies being that bad in 1990. I dont know who David Clark is (and dont want to spend time or money digging through the National Archives to verify but: )

Article: In July 1996, prompted by Pope’s account, Don Valley MP Martin Redmond, tabled a parliamentary question on the Calvine photograph. In reply, MoD said: “A number of negatives associated with the sighting were examined by staff responsible for air defence matters. Since it was judged they contained nothing of defence significance the negatives were not retained and we have no record of any photographs having been taken from them.” (Hansard, written answers, 23 July 1996).

Hmm, could it be just Nick Pope hyping something that isn't there?

Interestingly, the thing about the extra 50 years, the only reference I can find are red top tabloids which are less than reliable.

 

[deirdre]

and what's with this little spinny thing on the back. it looks like a bath toy or a blimp. Do aliens use blimp technology?

 

[ParanoidSkeptic2]

and what's with this little spinny thing on the back. it looks like a bath toy or a blimp. Do aliens use blimp technology?

I'm surprised that actually everywhere I looked, not once has the possibility of a blimp been even brought up

 

[deirdre]

here is the file the photocopy pic (image 36), but it seems to be associated with a different ufo sighting. i'm on page 66 now and not seeing any Calvine connection.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10232694
June 1991-March 1992


(the report you link is in a completely different file of releases.. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10232693
Jan 1990-June 1991
page 156-158)


is Nick Pope misremembering the file?


From photo file:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10232694
June 1991-March 1992
this is image 30: (is about American Black Mantas)






image 35:


image 36: