Case file · Official inquiry
The Wash incident
Early on 5 October 1996 a police officer at Boston saw a rotating multicoloured object over The Wash; civil radar at Claxby showed a return, and the RAF and MoD looked into it.
1996 CE · 52.95, 0.25 · status: explained
The account
The case reached staff at RAF Kinloss and the military headquarters at Northwood.
The sceptical view
The radar return was later partly explained as an echo of St Botolph's church tower ('Boston Stump'), and the visual sightings as stars or planets.