Case file · Declassified record
The Halt memo ('Unexplained Lights')
A memo of 13 January 1981 from the deputy base commander at RAF Bentwaters to the UK Ministry of Defence, describing lights and a 'glowing object' in Rendlesham Forest.
1981 CE · 52.09, 1.45 · status: official
The account
Lt Col Charles Halt described a metallic-looking object with coloured lights seen by a security patrol, ground marks and higher-than-normal radiation readings, and lights that he and others watched on a later night. It was released under the US Freedom of Information Act in 1983. Halt misdated the first night as 27 December.
The sceptical view
Investigators attribute the lights to a bright fireball, the Orford Ness lighthouse and bright stars, and say the radiation readings were within normal background.
Connections in the atlas
- The Halt memo ("Unexplained Lights")
- ? What happened in Rendlesham Forest?
- UK MoD 'UFO desk' & DI55 (closed 2009)
- Rendlesham Forest