The UK Saucer Invasion of 1967

 

Twenty years after Kenneth Arnold's 1947 sighting of a flock of flying saucers in the USA, the UK seemed to be the site of a mass UFO landing.

Monday, September 4, 1967: Police, military and the MoD's intelligence branch joined the effort to recover six mysterious discs located across southern England. The event created a sensation and was widely carried in the media in the UK and beyond.

British Pathé TV's channel on YouTube presents a one-minute news story: "Unidentified Flying Objects (1967)."

From the USA, the Associated Press' coverage in the Youngstown Vindicator, Sept. 5, 1967 revealed that it was an elaborate partnership hoax by a group of college science students:

From John Keeling's 1967 Flying Saucer Hoax: How Big Are Little Green Men? Facebook page.

There's far more to the story and John Keeling is working on a book detailing the definitive chronicle of this saucer scare Until then, see Keeling's article about this incident:

The Great British Flying Saucer Hoax of 1967 

The UFO Anniversary and the Giant New York Convention of 1967

John Keel, Gray Barker and Jim Moseley

On the 20th anniversary of the historic Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting of June 22, 1947, there was an epic event to mark the occasion, the 1967 New York UFO Convention presented by Saucer News,
James W. Moseley and the Congress of Scientific Ufologists.

Some changes to the final programming were made by the time of the event. Kenneth Arnold himself decided not to attend, as did Ray Palmer. Other guests were added to the roster, most notably actor Roy Thinnes, star of the hit ABC television series, The Invaders, a show about a crusading flying saucer witness.

Donald Keyhoe and his National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon, disapproved of the convention including Contactees, and NICAP published an article in their journal, The UFO Investigator, before the event, condemning it.

The UFO Investigator, May-June 1967 (PDF)

Despite the condemnation from NICAP, the convention went on to be a hit, reportedly the largest indoor UFO convention at the time.

John Keel, lecturing to a packed house.

NICAP did get in a word after the show, though in the forma of a newspaper article by the director of their Connecticut faction.

George W. Earley (circa 2007)

George W. Earley at the time was president of NICAP-CONN, the Connecticut Affiliate of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon, and employed as Aerospace Administrative Engineer at United Aircraft. He wrote an unfavorable review of the NYC saucer convention for the Hartford Courant, July 9, 1967:

"Hippies, Old Ladies, Over 30 Types Orbit in Flying Saucer Circles."

Hartford Courant, July 9, 1967

When James Moseley, congress chairman and publisher of "Saucer News," opened the Saturday session, a surprise guest was discovered in the audience Dr. Edward U. Condon.

A hard-nosed approach to saucer spotting was taken by James Randi, a radio - television personality who has been a UFO buff for many years. The amateur astronomer snapped: "I'm getting damned tired of sitting on a cold car bumper at 4 a.m. waiting for Venus to rise so some fool can tell me it is a flying saucer."

"You people," he said "have got to stop believing everything you are told. There are liars and frauds among us right now, but in among all the trash and nonsense perpetrated in the name of ufology, I think there is a small grain of truth."

The Fall 1967 issue of Moseley's Saucer News carried photographs from the convention, may of them contributed by George W. Earley himself.

For more on the historic 1967 convention, see the article by Rick Hilberg,
"Jim Moseley's Giant UFO Show" at
https://www.jimmoseley.com/jims-greatest-hits/

and

Saucer News NYC Convention Memories a photo essay by Karl Machtanz