The evidence that UFOs are real was laid out to hundreds of believers – and a few sceptics – at a huge meeting of minds in Holmfirth.
Experts in matters out-of-this-world – including the man who first claimed proof that the famous Roswell Incident was an alien spacecraft – gathered for the third international UFO Truth Magazine conference at the Civic Hall.
Guests travelled from as far as Norway to hear speakers from Brazil, New Zealand, Canada and the UK reveal the latest research and analysis of close encounters and extra-terrestrial incidents.
They heard about flying objects hitting more than 18,000mph as they were caught on military radar, UFOs turning at 90 degrees while flying at thousands of miles-per-hour chased by fighter jets, mutilated animal corpses being found with no trace of blood loss and crop circles that could not have been set up by hoaxers.
Many of the hundreds of UFO enthusiasts were there to hear from the world’s most famous UFO expert – Stanton Friedman – who made his name in the 1970s re-investigating the so-called Roswell Incident.
The incident in the USA in 1947 caught the attention of the world amid claims a flying saucer had crashed. Mr Friedman’s research 23 years later dismissed a government explanation that it was a weather balloon crash, instead concluding it was a genuine flying saucer.
Special guest speaker David Cayton, a former RAF photographer and UFO researcher, told the audience of a time three separate militaries had attempted to intercept an unidentified flying object over Cyprus during the Cold War.
But they failed after it did a 90 degree turn, rose to 60,000ft and then vanished, escaping the attentions of Britain’s Hawker Hunter jets.
Conference organiser and MC, retired detective Gary Heseltine, 55, said UFO believers were tired of being ridiculed despite compulsive evidence of extra-terrestrial activity.
He told the crowd of more than 200 guests: “The press are not doing you a fair turn. It’s time to lift the blinkers a bit and look at the very best evidence.
“If you do that you will have overwhelming evidence that ET is here and has been for many years.”
Referring to Mr Cayton’s evidence from 1958, he said: “This is a military case; military radar; object moving at incredible speed with a right angle turn.
“Ability to jump many thousands of feet at the blink of an eye.
“We cannot do this.
“These kinds of cases exist.”
Take a look below at some examples of UFOs (or not) captured on film.
Mr Cayton said he had seen crop circles in the 1980s that could not have been man-made as the crops had not been flattened by impact but by heat.
But he admitted most since then were hoaxes.
“MI5 were paying people to muddy the waters,” he claimed.
Mr Heseltine, who lives in Scholes, told the audience there was a “deliberate policy” to downplay or debunk any unexplainable activity.
EXTRA: The day a 200ft UFO was spotted at Emley Moor mast - by police
Mr Heseltine’s rise as a ufologist began after he set up a database of UFO sightings involving the police while he was still a detective.
It holds more than 500 incidents dating back to 1901, including a potential sighting at Emley Moor Mast in 1986.
He launched the UFO Truth magazine in 2013 and is now thought of as one of the country’s top experts.
