"Strange"

[aljude]

Rummaging thru my old files I came across this little gem and thought I should share this with you, it make interesting reading....

The story of Lightning F.6 [XS894], which took off from RAF Binbrook, Lincs on Sep 8, 1970 to intercept a radar “contact” over the North Sea. The Lightning was scrambled but was not a QRA, [Quick Reaction Alert] aircraft.
The Pilot was an American, Capt William Schafner of the United States Air Force, a Vietnam veteran and on his second tour of duty on Lightnings. He had been at Binbrook for some time and was therefore experienced on the aircraft.

“FIRST CONTACT”

At 20:17 on 8th September 1970, in an isolated hut on Saxa Vord, on one of the Shetland Islands, the radar operator was watching the “Iceland Gap”. The Cold War was at its height and Russain long-range aircraft regularly made trips across the North Sea to test NATO reactions. The first contact was a blip over the North Sea halfway between the Shetlands and Alesund in Norway.
The contact was monitored for several minutes at a steady speed of 630 mph at 37,000 ft, on a southwesterly heading. It turned 30 degrees onto due south, increasing speed to 900 mph and climbing to 44,000 ft.
At this time two QRA aircraft were scrambled from Leuchars, near Dundee, on the east coast of Scotland, these were Lightnings and were soon heading out over the sea. A Victor K1A tanker was also airbourne for refuelling. So far this was all routine and the contact was assumed to be a Bear of Badger “recce” flight.
The radar operators then saw something that they found difficult to believe, the contact then turned onto 180 degrees and within seconds had disappeared from their screens, the speed was calculated to be around 17,400 mph

The Lightnings refuelled from the Victor and set up a Combat Air Patrol [CAP]. During the next hour the contact re-appeared several times but each time the Lightnings were vectored north, the contact turned and disappeared again. By this time two USAF F-4 Phantoms were scrambles form Keflavik in Iceland. They had more sophisticated radar and could pick up the contact themselves, but they also had trouble getting anywhere near the contact.
By now NATO Commanders were becoming alarmed and the alert reached the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System [BMEWS] at Fylingdales near Whitby, Yorkshire and a second BMEWS in Greenland, the Information was relayed to the American Air Defence Command [NORAD] at Cheyenne Mountain and the U.S. Detection and Tracking Centre in Colorado Springs.

Meanwhile the cat and mouse game over the North Sea was still going on. At 21:05 the contact vanished off all radar screens. The Phantoms set up a CAP to the east of Iceland and the Lightnings returned to Leuchars.
At 21:39 the contact returned, decelerating to 1,300 mph at 18,000 ft heading southwest from Skegerrak off the Northern tip of Denmark.
More Lightnings were scrambled from Leuchars, refuelling from the Victor and set a CAP on a 50 miles east-west front, 200 miles northeast of Aberdeen. As a precaution 2 more Lightnings were scrambled from RAF Coltishall in Norfolk with another tanker to form a CAP 170 miles east of Great Yarmouth.

While all this was going on, Fylingdales, which was in contact with NORAD at Cheyenne Mountain, noted that the Strategic Air Command [SAC] at Omaha, Nebraska, had ordered its B-52 Bombers into the air. This order must have come from a very high level, possibly the White House.
NORAD was informed by the Pentagon that a very experienced USAF pilot was on an exchange visit to Binbrook, rapid enquiries found that he was “flight available” and at 21:45 a high level request came from NORAD to Strike Command at High Wycombe for Capt Schafner to join the CAP.

By this time four Lightning F.6’s, two Phantom F-4E’s and three Victor K.1A’s were airbourne and to be joined by a Shackleton MR.3 from Kinloss, ordered to patrol on a north south heading at 3,000 ft, 10 miles out from the east coast.
Binbrook QRA Lightnings were held in reserve, but Capt Schafner was allowed to fly.

SCRAMBLE

Capt Schafner was sitting in the crew room of No5 Squadron, still in his flying suit, having been on a training flight earlier. When the call came he was helped into the rest of his flying gear by other 5 Sqn pilots and he ran onto the flight line where 2 Lightnings were almost ready for flight.
XS894 was being topped up with fuel and was already connected to the power starter.

Schafner climbed in and started the engines, waving aside the ground crew who expected to help him with pre-flight checks. Capt Schafner ordered refuelling to stop and failed to sign the regulation form stating that he was happy with the aircraft.

One of the ground crew was Brian Mann of Grimsby whom was driving the fuel bowser. He said, “the aircraft engines suddenly started and my windscreen was almost pushed in. I panicked and disconnected the fuel lines and got out of the way.” Mr Mann remembers Capt Schafner disregarding the marshaller, a pilots eyes and ears on the ground, and swung the a/c around. His actions were unorthodox to say the least.

At 22:06 XS894 engaged full afterburner and shortly afterwards lifted from Binbrook runway 03 and headed out over the North Sea.
The contact was being tracked by Staxton Wold near Scarborough. It was flying parallel to the east coast 90 miles off Whitby at 530 mph at 6,100 ft – ideal course for an intercept from Binbrook.

What follows is drawn from what has been told is the official transcript of the conversation between Capt Schafner [callsign Foxtrot 94] and Staxton Wold.

Schafner: “I have visual contact, repeat visual contact, over.”

Staxton Wold: "Can you identify aircraft type?"

Schafner: "Negative, nothing recognisable, no clear outlines. There is. . . . . . bluish light. Hell that’s bright. . . . very bright".

Staxton Wold: "Are your instruments functioning 94, check compass? over".

Schafner: "Affirmative, GCI. I’m alongside it now, maybe 600 ft off my. . . . . . It’s a conical shape. Jeeze, that’s bright, it hurts to look at it for more than a few seconds".

Staxton Wold: "How close are you now?".

Schafner: "About 400 feet. He’s still in my three o`clock. Hey wait. . . . . . . . There’s something else. It’s like a large soccer ball. . . . . . It’s like it’s made of glass".

Staxton Wold: "Is it part of the object or indipendent? over".

Schafner: "It…no, it’s separate from the main body. . . . . . the conical shape. . . . . . it’s at the back end, the sharp end of the shape. It’s like bobbing up and down and going from side to side slowly. It may be a power source. There’s no sign of ballistics".

Staxton Wold: "Is there any sign of occupation? over".

Schafner: "Negative, nothing".

Staxton Wold: "Can you assess the rate?".

Schafner: "Contact in gentle decent. Am going with it. . . . . . 50 no about 70 ft. . . . . . it’s levelled out again".

Staxton Wold: "Is the ball object still with it? Over".

Schafner: "Affirmative. It’s not actually connected…maybe a magnetic attraction to the conical shape, it’s turning… coming straight for me…shit…am taking evasive action… a few… I can hardl"…

Staxton Wold: "94? . . . . . . Come in 94. . . . . . Foxtrot 94,. . . . . . are you receiving ? over. . . . . .Come in 94. Over"


TOO CLOSE AN ENCOUNTER

Just as the controller lost contact with Capt Schafner, the radar operator watched in disbelief. The two blips on his screen, one representing the Lightning and the other his quarry, slowly merged into one. It decelerated from
over 500 mph and became stationary at 6,000 ft 140 miles off Alnwick.

It was suggested that the 2 Lightnings off Scotland should be sent to investigate, but this was over-ruled by the
senior flight controller, who continued to try to regain contact with Foxtror 94.

Two and a half minutes after it stopped, the blip started to move again, accelerating to 600 mph and climbing to 9,000 ft heading south towards Staxton.
Shortly afterwards the blip separated into two, one maintaining it’s southerly heading, somewhat erratically at between 600 and 630 mph and descending slowly, the other turning through 180 degrees and heading north at 20,400 mph

The Shackleton was ordered south to hold station around Flamborough Head. Then Staxton Wold regained contact with Capt Schafner.

Schafner: "GCI. . . . . . are you receiving? Over".

Staxton Wold: "Affirmative 94, Loud and clear. What is your condition? Over".

Schafner: "Not too good. I can’t think what happened. . . . . . I feel kinda dizzy. . . . . .I can see shooting stars".

Staxton Wold: "Can you see your instruments? Over".

Schafner: "Affirmative, but, er. . . . . . the compass is u/s"…

Staxton Wold: "Foxtrot 94, turn 043 degrees. Over".

Schafner: "Er. . . . all directional instruments are out, repeat u/s. Over""

Staxton Wold: "Roger 94, execute right turn, estimate quarter turn. Over".

Schafner: "Turning now".

Staxton Wold: "Come further 94. . . . . . That’s good. Is your altimeter functioning? Over".

Schafner: "Affirmative, GCI".

Staxton Wold: "Decend to 3,500 ft, Over".

Schafner: "Roger, GCI".

Staxton Wold: "What’s your fuel state 94? Over".

Schafner: "About 30%, GCI".

Staxton Wold: "That’s what we calculated. Can you tell us what happened 94? Over".

Schafner: "I don’t know. It came in close. . . . . . I shut my eyes. . . . . . I figure I must’ve blacked out for a few seconds".

Staxton Wold: "OK 94, Standby".

[At this stage the Shackleton arrived over Flamborough Head and began circling before XS894 was vectored into the area by Staxton controllers.]

Schafner: "Can you bring me in, GCI, Over".

Staxton Wold: "Er. . . . . . Hold station 94, Over".

Several minutes then elapsed as the 2 a/c are left circling over Flamborough Head. Strike Command HQ at High Wycombe then instructed Staxton Wold to request Capt Schafner to ditch his Lightning off Flamborough.

Although he had plenty of fuel to reach nearby RAF Leconfield or his home base, it appears the reason for High Wycombe’s decision was fear that the a/c had become contaminated during it’s mystery interception over the sea.
It may well be that the fear was radiation contamination although some weeks later, when the wreckage was examined at Binbrook, no trace of any contamination other that salt water was found.

Staxton Wold: "Foxtrot 94. Can you ditch the a/c? over".

Schafner: "She’s handling fine. I can bring her in. Over".

Staxton Wold: "Negative 94. I repeat, can you ditch the a/c? Over".

Schafner: "Yeah. . . . . . I guess".

Staxton Wold: "Standby 94. Over. . . . . Oscar 77. Over".

Shackleton: "77, Over".

Staxton Wold: "94 is ditching. Can you maintain a wide circuit? Over".

Shackleton: "Affirmative GCI. Over".

Staxton Wold: "Thanks 77. Standby. . . . . . 94, execute ditching procedure at your discretion. Over".

Schafner: "Descending now, GCI. Over".

[Between six and seven minutes elapse]

Shackleton: "He’s down, GCI. Hell of a splash. . . . . . He’s down in one piece though. Over".

Staxton Wold: "Can you see the pilot yet? Over".

Shackleton: "Negative. We’re going around again, pulling a tight one".

[Two minutes later]

Shackleton: "The canopy’s up. . . . . . She’s floating OK. . . . . . we can’t see the pilot. We need a chopper out here, GCI. No, no sign of the pilot. Where the hell is he".

Staxton Wold: "You sure he’s not in the water 77, check your SABRE receptions. Over" [SABRE = search and rescue beacon carried by all RAF aircrew]

Shackleton: "No SABRE yet. No flares either. Hang on. We’re going round again".

[Another two minutes elapse]

Shackleton: "GCI, Over"

Staxton Wold: "Receiving you 77. Over"

Shackleton: "This is odd, GCI. She’s sinking fast but. . . . . . the canopy’s closed up again. Over".

Staxton Wold: "Can you confirm pilot clear of aircraft? Over".

Shackleton: "He’s not in it, we can confirm that. He must be in the water somewhere".

Staxton Wold: "Any distress signals or flares yet? Over".

Shackleton: "Negative, GCI, Going round again. Over".

[Another 90 seconds]

Shackleton: "She’s sunk, GCI. There’s a slight wake where she was. Still no sign of the pilot, I say again, GCI, we need a chopper here fast. Over".

Staxton Wold: "A Whirlwind’s on it’s way from Leconfield. Are you positive you saw no sign of the pilot? Over".

Shackleton: "Nothing, GCI, The first pass we assumed he was unstrapping. He must have got out as we went round for a second pass. . . . . . but why shut the canopy? Over".

Staxton Wold: "That’s what we were thinking. Maintain patrol 77, he must be there somewhere. Over".

Shackleton: "Roger, GCI, Over".

Shortly afterwards the Whirlwind arrived on the scene and began a systematic search of the ditching area. The lifeboats from Bridlington, Flamborough and Filey joined in as the weather began to deteriorate. The search continued well into the next day but there were no transmissions from the pilots beacon or the one on the a/c. The official reports say that no distress flares were seen.

However the following day the Grimsby Evening Telegraph reported flares had been seen about 10 miles off shore and the Grimsby trawler Ross Kestrel, passing through the area, had gone to investigate, although more flares were seen, she found nothing.

The MoD report said, “I don’t think he got out of the plane…no wreckage has been found”. Three weeks later the a/c was found with the ejector seat still inside, giving rise to the speculation that the body of the pilot was still in the wreckage.
LASTLY

On October 7th, the Grimsby Evening Telegraph reported that divers from HMS Keddington had inspected the wreckage and said that Capt Schafner’s body was still in the cockpit. When the a/c was recovered there was no sign of his body.

Air crashes in the North Sea in those days were relatively common and much of the wreckage found it’s way into Grimsby where Evening Telegraph photographers were on hand to record the event. But not so with XS894.
It was also common practice for the wreckage to be taken to the MoD’s Crash Investigation Branch at Farnborough, where detailed examinations were carried out in an attempt to find the cause of accidents. But this didn’t happen with XS894

Instead the remains of the a/c, which was in remarkably condition, was taken straight to Binbrook where it was placed behind what it appeared to be a series of shutters in the corner of a hanger.
A team from Farnborough arrived on the day in the belief that they were about to start a detailed examination which in turn would lead to the preparation of a report for an eventual inquiry into the loss of Lightning XS894.
But they were in for a surprise.

They were astonished to find many of the cockpit instruments missing. These included the E2B compass, voltmeter, standby direction indicator, standby inverter indicator and the complete auxiliary warning panel from the starboard side of the cockpit, below the voltmeter. This was a serious breach of regulations and although the crash team were promised that the instruments would be returned they never were.

The investigation team inspected the ejector seat but found it to “be wrong?” and suspicion fell among the team that the seat was not the original. They were assured by the OC 5 Sqn that it was the original seat but some of them were not convinced.

Brian McConnell, a former sergeant at Binbrook stated that the cartridge on the seat failed to fire because of faulty installation. However this was at odds with the eye-witness account of the Shackleton crew who say the canopy raised. Had any attempt been made to eject, the canopy would have been blown off.
It also conflicts with the Staxton Wold order to ditch rather than return to base or divert to Leconfield, just a few minutes flying time for a Lightning. Plus the statement by Capt Schafner that the a/c was handling fine and sufficient fuel remained on board.

During the few hours the investigators were allowed access to the wreckage, they found themselves constantly supervised by five “civilians”, two of them Americans. At the end of the day the team were told curtly that nothing useful had been discovered and their job was over.
The following day they were called into the main office at Farnborough and told in no uncertain terms that they were not to discuss any aspect of the ditching of XS894, even with their own families.
The reason was simple – National security.

That’s where the mystery ends with the exception of one thing.
On the night of the 8th, a couple and their daughter were walking their dog along the coastal path at Alnmouth Bay, Northumberland – almost opposite the point over the North Sea where Capt Schafner made his interception, when they saw and heard something strange.

“We had been walking for maybe 10 minutes when we heard a very high pitched humming noise”, they later said in a statement to MoD personnel. “The dog kept cocking her head to one side and growling. It seemed impossible to tell from which direction the noise was coming, it seemed to be everywhere. It lasted for maybe 10-15 seconds.”

“About five minutes later the eastern sky lit up rather like sheet lightning, only it took about 10 seconds to die down again. Over the following 3 minutes this happened many times but the lightning was only visibly for a second or two at a time. It appeared similar to the Northern Lights. The whole spectacle was completely silent”.

“After 2-3 minutes there was another flare up of the ‘sheet lightning’ which lasted for about the same time as the first. This was followed by that awful, shrill sensation, only this time it was worse. You could actually feel your ears ringing.
The family called in at the local police station. Theirs was one of many similar reports that night to the police and the RAF at nearby Boulmer. The time and location fit in exactly with the events going on 60 miles south of Staxton Wold.

Thoughts / Comments?.....

Tony

[Rotten Ralph]

Yeh, I saw this story a few years back on one of those strange but true programes. Weird or what.
I was MOD security on the Royal Aircraft Establishment site years back, & the Air accident investigation site was part of our patrol area. We used to hate going round there during the night as on occasions you would hear strange sounds (& screaming) coming from the hangar and compound next door. The patrol dogs would go barmy. Ghosts or was it just my imagination?. I tend to be more on the sceptic side as far as ghosts & UFO`s etc are concerned, but hey I keep an open mind also. Who knows whats out there for sure?

[campbeme]

I love these stories anybody got anymore?

Mark

[MIKE JG]

The truth is out there...........

[garysted]

Hi,

The story of the loss of Capt (some accounts say Major) Schaffner is something I have had some personal involvement with, although it was a few years ago. It's a incident that has interested me for years, along with other accounts of UFO intercepts, in particular when the encounter has been deadly for the aircraft involved.

About 6/7 years ago I wrote a article for the Air-Scene UK website about these type of encounters, giving a brief overview of some of the more interesting UFO/aircraft encounters that are quite well known in the UFO community, including the Schaffner incident, which had not appeared on the net at that time. I got a few interesting emails forwarded to me about the article but was shocked a couple of years later on to get a email from one of Schaffner's three sons. He had stumbled across the article and was not aware of the UFO connection and was quite understandbly rather shocked himself. Over the next few days I recieved several emails from all three of his sons asking me where this story had come from, as they were informed that their father had died in a training accident. On their behalf I wrote to the Grimsby Evening Telegraph and Hull Daily Mail, the two papers local to Binbrook who had run the story back in 1970, and reprinted it in 1992. They forwarded me copies of the complete story, including accounts of other (non fatal) incidents at the time, and I was also able to obtain a copy of XS894's log book from a interested friend still serving in the RAF.

I passed on what information I could find to the brothers, but was well aware I was out of my depth to say the least, so they decided to follow this up directly with the MoD and to use some heavyweight USAF family connections as well, so after a couple of months I never heard any more from them.

I'd already been told by several people that the crash was a accident involving Schaffner in a interception of a Shackleton simulating a Soviet aircraft at low speed and low level - I'm sure many are familiar with the Lightning's handling qualities at low speed. So, about a year later, after pressure from the Schaffner family, and amidst some quite considerable media interest, the MoD released the actual transcripts from the interception, which I've linked below. These are completly different from the UFO version and back up the more conventional version of events very closely.

Which account is the accurate one? The UFO account has been traced back to ONE story told to Pat Otter (the local papers assistant editor in 1970), from a unknown informant, off the record. No other convincing supporting evidence has appeared to date, although several former RAF personnel involved in the airframes recovery and the subsequent investigation have stated that the claims over it's unusual nature are completely false. I have little doubt that many of the other unexplained and far better documented UFO/fighter encounters are true accounts, but in this case, I don't think the UFO aspect to the loss of Schaffner stands upto objective analysis.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/yorkslin ... tion.shtml

Gary

[aljude]

Two very different versions and both make interesting reading
The “story” that I posted was allegedly from an article that the Grimsby Evening Telegraph ran in the 70’s.
With two conflicting versions it does mean that we will, probably, never find out the true facts and it just leaves people with an open, or closed, mind!

Tony
[ARE we alone?]

[Greg]

This stuff has always intrigued me, especially since we've had strange stuff going on over Belgium as well. Not as spectacular as the one in the UK but still quite spooky...

On the night of 30/31 March 1990, unknown objects were tracked on radar. Following the incident the Belgian Air Force released a report detailing the events of that night.

At around 23:00 on 30 March the Master Controller for the Control and Reporting Center (CRC) at Glons received reports that three unusual lights had been seen moving towards Thorembais-Gembloux which lies to the south-east of Brussels. The lights were reported to be brighter than stars, changing color between red, green and yellow, and appeared to be fixed at the apexes of an equilateral triangle. At this point Glons CRC requested the Wavre gendarmerie send a patrol to confirm the sighting.

Approximately 10 minutes later a second set of lights was sighted moving towards the first triangle. By around 23:30 the Wavre gendarmerie had confirmed the initial sightings and Glons CRC had been able to observe the phenomenon on radar. During this time the second set of lights, after some erratic manoeuvres, had also formed themselves into a smaller triangle. After tracking the targets, and after receiving a second radar confirmation from the Traffic Control Centre at Semmerzake, Glons CRC gave the order to scramble two F-16 fighters from Beauvechain Air Base shortly before midnight. Throughout this time the phenomenon was still clearly visible from the ground, with witnesses describing the whole formation as maintaining their relative positions while moving slowly across the sky. Witnesses also reported two dimmer lights towards the municipality of Eghezee displaying similar erratic movements to the second set of lights.

Over the next hour the two scrambled F-16s attempted nine separate interceptions of the targets. On three occasions they managed to obtain a radar lock for a few seconds but each time the targets changed position and speed so rapidly that the lock was broken. During the first radar lock, the target accelerated from 150mph to over 1,100mph while changing altitude from 9,000ft to 5,000ft, then up to 11,000ft before descending to almost ground level – the first descent of more than 3,000 feet taking less than two seconds. Similar manoeuvres were observed during both subsequent radar locks. On no occasion were the F-16 pilots able to make visual contact with the targets and at no point, despite the speeds involved, was there any indication of a sonic boom.

During this time, ground witnesses broadly corroborate the information obtained by radar. They described seeing the smaller triangle completely disappear from sight at one point, while the larger triangle moved upwards very rapidly as the F-16s flew past. After 00:30 radar contact became much more sporadic and the final confirmed lock took place at 00:40. This final lock was once again broken by an acceleration from around 100mph to 700mph after which the radar of the F-16s and those at Glons and Semmerzake all lost contact. Following several further unconfirmed contacts the F-16s eventually returned to base shortly after 01:00.

The final details of the sighting were provided by the members of the Wavre gendarmerie who had been sent to confirm the original report. They describe four lights now being arranged in a square formation, all making short jerky movements, before gradually losing their luminosity and disappearing in four separate directions at around 01:30.

I think you can even find the video footage released by the Belgian Air Force on Youtube.

Greg