Recently, Mr. Pope did an interview on Fox News , which inspired some of the questions below. I want to thank Mr. Pope for sharing his time and knowledge with us. I hope you enjoy the interview.
The Ministry of Defence Years
Mr. Booth: Mr. Pope, during the years that you ran the British Government's UFO Project, did you ever believe that there was information that was being withheld from you?
Mr. Pope: I never once felt that information was being withheld from me. In relation to UFOs I had a combination of a high security clearance and the need to know. I worked closely with the Defense Intelligence Staff and on occasion was briefed by them on matters which I was not able to share with my line managers and my head of Division.
Some people have suggested that my investigations were a cover and that the significant UFO cases went elsewhere. This is not correct. While most of our investigations related to sightings from members of the public, we also received the reports from police officers, airline pilots and air force pilots.
Mr. Booth: In earlier interviews, you have stated that there remain about 10% of UFO sightings that cannot be identified by conventional objects. Do you believe that the governments of the world have any top-secret projects that could account for some of the 10%?
Mr. Pope: In relation to my official UFO investigations, the figures broke down as follows:
80% - Misidentifications of conventional objects/phenomena, plus a very small number of hoaxes.
15% - Insufficient information to make a definitive assessment.
5% - Unidentified.
Many governments possess aircraft and drones (both experimental and operational) the existence of which is not yet public knowledge. Due to the classified nature of these 'black projects' there's little more I can say about this.
However, I don't believe many UFO sightings are attributable to secret prototypes, because such things are generally test flown in the restricted airspace of remote military test and training ranges, not in places where they'll be seen by the public.
The Lost UFO Photograph
Mr. Booth: In a recent interview on Fox News, you are quoted as saying that there is a photograph of a UFO that has British officials worried. Can you elaborate on the photo, and has it been released publicly?
Mr. Pope: The photograph you mention was taken in Scotland in 1990. Details were released recently by the National Archives in the UK, as part of the ongoing program to release the Ministry of Defense's UFO files.
Because I worked at the MoD and am now working with the National Archives on the file release (in a consultancy role) I was asked to comment on this on FOX News and in other media interviews.
This was a sensitive issue, as it involved the Defense Intelligence Staff and other agencies, and because the MoD now claims to have lost the photographs.
It was also sensitive because defense ministers were briefed on the images at the time. The images were taken in daylight and showed a metallic, diamond-shaped craft about 200 feet above the ground, with military aircraft in the background, apparently shadowing it.
The Defense Intelligence Staff briefed me on the conclusions of the scientific/technical analysis of the photographs, which were as follows:
a. The images were genuine and not fakes.
b. The object was apparently metallic and about 25 meters in diameter.
c. The object was of unknown origin.
d. The object had no wings and may have had an unusual/exotic propulsion system that was of immense interest to us.
Information about this was the number one priority in our investigation/analysis.
