The sightings range from incredible tales of little green men visiting the
  Wirral to corroborated accounts from policemen and pilots of Unidentified
  Flying Objects hovering above towns and cities.

All are recorded on official forms, held by air bases and police stations, and
  compiled by the Ministry of Defence between 1978 and 2002.

Disclosed for the first time is a report from three experienced air traffic
  controllers who attempted to "talk in" a UFO which landed on the
  runway before them. The incident occurred on April 19, 1984, at an East
  Anglian airfield which was operating two runways called 22 and 27.

In the control tower a senior air traffic controller (satco) was supervising
  his deputy and an assistant.

According to the report, the deputy was in contact with a light aircraft
  preparing to land on runway 22 when the satco noticed lights approaching the
  other runway.

The unidentified object came in at speed, made a touch and go on runway 27
  then departed at terrific speed in a near vertical climb, according to the
  files.

It was described as a "brilliant solid ball of light, bright silvery in
  colour". The file noted that "witnesses do not wish to be
  identified in case their professional integrity is questioned".

Others in the aviation industry also encountered unidentified flying objects,
  including a Sea King helicopter crew who tracked two objects on their radar
  for 40 miles, travelling at almost one nautical mile per second, in
  September 1985.

Four months later two constables in Woking police station, Surrey, saw a white
  light with a tail above the town centre which then "descended into the
  Horshall area".

They reported it to their inspector, who recorded it as a "genuine report"
  but noted that the officers were slightly embarrassed because Horshall
  Common features in the works of the science fiction writer HG Wells.

They were not alone. In June 1984, three officers at Edgware station in north
  London had been called to a garden after a sighting in Stanmore.

On their arrival the uniformed officers found a "flashing light 45
  degrees up in the sky" with a "dome on top and underneath"
  which they watched through binoculars.

"We observed the object for one hour. During this period of time the
  object moved erratically from side to side, up and down and to and fro, not
  venturing far from its original position," wrote the officers, who also
  sketched a cartoon-like image of the spacecraft.

But a couple in the Wirral claimed to have had an encounter of an altogether
  closer kind.

The husband reported visiting bases in Cheshire of green aliens, including one
  called Elgar who was killed by another race in 1984.

His wife saw their craft crash over Wallasey Town Hall but the official
  response was recorded as a terse "no reply".

The documents are contained in eight files that have been released under the
  Freedom of Information Act.

Over the next four years more than 150 files will be made available at the
  National Archive in Kew, south-west London.

Nick Pope, who worked for the MoD for 21 years and was responsible for
  investigating the sightings, said: "Most of the UFO sightings here are
  probably misidentifications of aircraft lights and meteors, but some are
  more difficult to explain."

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