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THE CALVINE UFO (aka ‘The Calvine Sighting’, ‘The Calvine Photograph’, ‘The Pitlochry Thing’, ‘The Perthshire UFO’ and other similar terms) is the reported sighting of an unidentified and unknown diamond shaped craft along with a military jet aircraft above the small hamlet of Calvine, in Perthsire and Kinross close to the A9 road, 12.4 miles to the North West of Pitlochry in the county of Perthshire in August 1990 (See - List of UK UFO Sightings).
The sighting was originally reported to the Daily Record, a Glasgow based tabloid newspaper, by two young men who claimed that while walking on the hills above Calvine on the 4th August 1990, they witnessed a mysterious, unknown diamond shaped craft hovering above the hillside (REF). They told how they quicky sought shelter under some nearby trees from where they watched the craft and managed to take 6 photographs while it hovered silently above the moorland in front of them and was circled by a jet fighter before silently ascending vertically and disappearing from their view (REF). They told their story to the Daily Record and handed over their prints and original negatives. These were later passed on to the U.K. Ministry of Defence (REF). The original negatives and prints disappeared, the story was never published by the Daily Record and the identity of the witnesses remains unknown to this day (REF).
In the years since the 1990, reports of the sighting and rumors of the photograph slowly emerged, and the case gained increasing public interest. Information from MoD insiders along with fragmentary documents released by the MoD at The National Archives in 2009 (REF) provided further insight and attracted increasing public interest. This ultimately led to the discovery of an original photographic image of the diamond shaped craft by folklorist and journalist Dr. David Clarke (journalist) that was published in the British based tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail on Saturday the 13th August 2022 (REF) leading to worldwide interest with many claiming this to be the ‘Best Ever UFO Photograph’ (REF), the ‘Worlds Clearest UFO Photograph’ (REF) and ‘The UK’s Biggest Alien Mystery’ (REF).
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The existence of the Calvine photographs was first reported by former U.K. Ministry of Defence ‘UFO desk’ officer Nick Pope (journalist) on pages 176-77 of his 1996 book Open Skies, Closed Minds (REF). In the book Pope describes the incident as one of the most intriguing in the Ministry of Defence’s files (POPE REF). Pope joined Secretariat (Air Staff) know asSec(AS)2 (the MoD’s office which delt with UFO sightings and other airborne incidents popularly known as ‘the UFO desk’)in the summer of 1991 a year after the Calvine incident had been handled by his predecessor as desk officer, Owen Hartop, who has never spoken publicly about his involvement. Pope's brief account explains how two men out walking became aware of a low humming sound and turned to see a large diamond shaped object which hovered for about ten minutes before flying off vertically at great speed (POPE REF). During the sighting a jet, identified by the MoD as a Harrier, made several low-level passes as if the pilot had seen the object as well and was homing in for a better view (POPE REF). Pope explained that expert analysis undertaken by the MoD had concluded the photos were not fakes and the sighting was marked as object unexplained, case closed, no further action (POPE REF). He also explained that there had been a poster-sized version of one of the original the UFO photographs on his office wall for a number of years before it was removed by his head of section (POPE REF).
Despite Nick Pope’s short description of the Calvine sighting in Open Skies, Open Minds it attracted little public attention and remained largely unknown even within the UFO community until 2008 when the U.K. MoD’s ‘open government’ project saw the release of its archive of UFO reports and correspondence from the UK National Archives. The documents released included a number relating to the Calvine UFO including a briefing on the photographs by MoD Secretariat Air Staff, dated September 1990 (REF), and a handwritten summary of the incident by a Sec(AS)2 officer, believed to be Owen Hartop (REF).
PHOTOGRAPH – RELEASED PHOTOCOPIES
In addition to these documents, two poor quality photocopies of cropped versions of one of the original Calvine photographs showing the diamond shaped UFO and a passing jet were released by the National Archives in March 2009 in records assembled by DI55, a branch of the Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence (DSTI) within the DIS (REF) that dealt with missiles and air defence. Military officers from DI55 were responsible for the investigation of UFO reports that were forwarded by SecAS, the civilian branch of MoD that interacted with the public and Parliament. These files revealed the images were the subject of an investigation by DI55 and a RAF photo analyst agency (REF).
In 2015 the Calvine incident featured in the 6th Episode of Season One of the Channel 5 (British TV channel) documentary series ‘Conspiracy’ (REF). The episode entitled ‘Alien Cover Up’ (REF), featured interviews with journalist and UFO researcher Dr. David Clarke (journalist), of Sheffield Hallam University, who acted as the curator for a UK National Archives UFO project (REF). Nick Pope also appeared and worked with a graphic artist to create a reconstruction of the Calvine photograph drawing upon his memory of the image and the photocopies released by the UK National Archives in 2009 (REF). This image was subsequently republished in tabloid newspapers and online news feeds including The Sun (United Kingdom)(REF), and HuffPost (REF) amongst others.
In 2018 Dr. David Clarke began an investigation of the Calvine UFO with a desire to locate the missing images and the photographer/s (REF). He has explained that his renewed interest in the case was prompted by an interview with a Defence Intelligence Officer who claimed that the two witnesses had actually photographed a US black project platform that was still classified as Top Secret (REF). This un-named source explained that the platform was flown from RAF Machrihanish on the Kintyre peninsula and that it had been escorted by UK and US aircraft. This source also claimed that the photographs had been shared with US intelligence and had been ‘cleverly’ kept out of the public domain (REF).
Following this revelation Dr Clarke worked with a team of academic and independent researchers and interested members of the public including Matthew Illsley, Vinnie Adams, Giles Stevens and Andrew Robinson to uncover further details of the Calvine Sighting publishing regular updates on the investigation via his online blog during 2020 and 2021 (REF). Clarke’s investigation led him to retired RAF Press Officer Craig Lindsay who had been contacted for comment by the Daily Record (Scotland) after the witnesses had first told reporters of their sighting (REF – Daily Mail). Lindsey explained that The Daily Record had provided him with contact details for one for the witness and a print of one of the images. He then undertook a telephone interview with the witness and produced a short initial report which was faxed, along with the image to the MoD in London (REF). Across a number of interviews with Clarke, Lindsey revealed what one of the witnesses had told him and ultimately produced the original print, along with the envelope in which it had been sent to him by the Daily Record and the photocopies he had made of the print in order to fax it to the MoD in London, all of which he had safely kept in his possession for over 30 years (REF). This print was donated by Lindsey to Sheffield Hallam University Special Collections (REF) where it now resides.
PHOTOGRAPH LINDSEY AND PRINT (Photograph © 2022 Dr David Clarke)
As soon as Clarke returned from Scotland with the print, he handed it over to a photographic specialist who produced high resolution copies of the image, its envelope and the photocopies and undertook an analysis of these materials which resulted in a detailed report (REF). Using information from this report and the results of his team’s research Clarke then wrote an article finally revealing the Calvine UFO Photograph which was published in a double page spread in Daily Mail and the MailOnline on the 13th August 2022 (REF) with further details revealed via Clarke’s blog (REF).
Following its publication in the Daily Mail and the release to the public of the high-resolution digital copies of the original B/W images produced by Clarke's collegue, the Calvine UFO has quickly become one of the most talked about and controversial photographs in UFO history (REF).