THE Ministry Of Defence has finally revealed the mystery behind supposed UFO sightings 20 years ago.

A report into the May 88 "Stafford UFO Flap" features in documents made available for the first time this week by the National Archives.

Rather than UFOs, the two triangular objects spotted in the skies above Uttoxeter on Monday, May 16, 1988, were, according to the MoD, two aircraft on a refuelling exercise.

Enid Turner, then of George Elliott Close, Uttoxeter, claims in the National Archives documentation: "The objects appeared over the garden hedge, very low, silent and slow-moving with a lot of very bright lights.

"It might have been a glider but I would have heard the wind and I heard nothing."

The MoD report also notes Mrs Turner's comment that several other people in Uttoxeter had also seen the dazzling display, but were "too afraid to come forward".

Strange clusters of orange and red lights around the same time of the evening were reported in Wolverhampton and Penkridge, where they "flitted about the sky, disappearing and then reappearing".

A witness in Stafford, police statistical officer Eileen Ballard, said: "I was in the RAF myself for four years and if these were planes, they must have developed something pretty fantastic that defies all the laws of flying."

With 13 people in nine different locations reporting the sighting, the case was taken up by the then MP for Stafford Bill Cash, who made representations to the MoD.

On July 1, 1988, he advised his constituents he was to file a detailed report with the Under-Secretary For Defence, Roger Freeman.

When Mr Freeman explained that the sightings were due to an increase in aircraft waiting to land at Birmingham airport, Mr Cash retorted: "The question is how could it be civil aircraft?

"There are some cranks in the world but these were reliable people who actually saw things."

A more convincing reason was given by one witness driving from Stafford to Burton with his wife. who described the night as "one of the clearest I can ever remember. The atmosphere sparkled, there was no mist and visibility was unlimited".

The couple had just crossed Blithfield Reservoir when they saw "two lights moving slowly from left to right".

The husband said: "We were completely baffled until the lights were immediately overhead. I suddenly realised I was watching two VC10s, an aircraft used for aerial refuelling for the RAF."

However, Mrs Turner argued: "I don't believe they were VC10s, no way.

"I would know a VC10 if I saw it. I often go to air displays, and they definitely weren't that.

"They were too low, slow and quiet for VC10s."

But the MoD soon became convinced that this episode was, in fact, a not-so- close encounter.

After further follow-up with RAF Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire – which revealed two aircraft were airborne at the time – the investigation resolved: "The conclusion to these sightings is classified as Known (Positive Identified Flying Objects): refuelling exercise using two VC10s from RAF Brize Norton."