RAF Woodbridge, England
1981 Jan · RAF Woodbridge, England · 1 sources
Witness and Senior Airman Wendal Palmer observed a cigar-shaped object initially appearing like a satellite moving up and down from about 30 degrees off the horizon to about fifty yards altitude. It went behind clouds. Base brass were called and arrived with cameras but the object did not reappear. Approximately one hour after brass departed, the object returned low and slow from the direction of a light beacon (East), moving toward the base over Rendlesham Forest, passing overhead at approximately 1000 ft altitude. The object then drifted slowly upward into the stars until indistinguishable from them. The object was dark in color with red, green, and pale blue lights on the underside. The deputy base commander came with his wife and son, who had a Nikon camera; the wife reportedly said 'Oh boy I hope we get to see one this time.'
- Shape
- Cigar
- Nature
- Unidentified aerial craft
- Sound
- None
- Weather
- Clear, mostly partly cloudy
- Site
- RAF Woodbridge near RAF Bentwaters, Rendlesham Forest area
- Size
- approximately 91 meters (300 feet)
- Duration
- 65 min
- Time of day
- Night
- Local time
- 2000 hrs
- Theme
- cigar_cylinder
The unmodified record(s) the master event was assembled from.
NIDS-DOCNIDS-DOC:c0163dee:126 fields
- city
- RAF Woodbridge
- date
- 1981-01-01
- site
- RAF Woodbridge near RAF Bentwaters, Rendlesham Forest area
- shape
- Cigar
- sound
- None
- country
- England
- weather
- Clear, mostly partly cloudy
- date_raw
- 1981 Jan
- incident
- Witness and Senior Airman Wendal Palmer observed a cigar-shaped object initially appearing like a satellite moving up and down from about 30 degrees off the horizon to about fifty yards altitude. It went behind clouds. Base brass were called and arrived with cameras but the object did not reappear. Approximately one hour after brass departed, the object returned low and slow from the direction of a light beacon (East), moving toward the base over Rendlesham Forest, passing overhead at approximately 1000 ft altitude. The object then drifted slowly upward into the stars until indistinguishable from them. The object was dark in color with red, green, and pale blue lights on the underside. The deputy base commander came with his wife and son, who had a Nikon camera; the wife reportedly said 'Oh boy I hope we get to see one this time.'
- time_local
- 2000 hrs
- trajectory
- West to East then reverse East to West; initially oscillating up and down; final trajectory slow upward drift into stars
- case_source
- NIDS
- size_meters
- approximately 91 meters (300 feet)
- time_of_day
- Night
- source_quote
- At first we saw it as a satellite in the sky but it was going up and down from about 30 degrees off the horizon up to about fifty yards... An hour after they left we saw it come back this time low and slow from the direction of a light beacon (East) and some toward the base over the Rendelsham forest. It was over our heads.
- catalog_entry
- NIDS-DOC:c0163dee:1
- location_text
- England RAF Woodbridge near RAF Bentwaters
- witness_count
- 2
- photo_or_video
- Deputy base commander's wife had a Nikon camera; no confirmed photos obtained as object did not reappear during brass visit
- source_doc_sha
- c0163dee4d85077ea3a880fc340dc95790da36604ec2d289671cc0d8a95c4c95
- light_emissions
- Underside red, green, and pale blue lights; pale blue most prominent
- duration_minutes
- 65
- witness_reactions
- Witness states the event affected him profoundly; he subsequently became a mercenary for seven years, describing himself as emotionally detached and brutal in combat, representing a complete personality reversal from his original intention to be a nurse
- witness_occupation
- Military (IA — Inspector General/Internal Affairs role implied); Senior Airman
- nature_of_phenomenon
- Unidentified aerial craft
- vallee_classification
- MA
- NIDS-DOCNIDS-DOC