For nearly 30 years UFO enthusiasts have been poring over a high-profile incident dubbed Britain's 'Roswell'. But now a lorry driver has come forward to claim it was he who was responsible for the infamous UFO sighting near Woodbridge, Suffolk, in December 1980.
Peter Turtill, 66, said witnesses who reported to have seen strange lights were actually watching a truck filled with burning fertiliser. Mr Turtill said he had been amazed at the way news of the explosive drama had snowballed over the years - triggering dozens of books, documentaries, outlandish stories and bizarre theories.
US Air Force personnel claimed a UFO had landed in Rendlesham Forest, leaving traces including inexplicable markings on the ground and acute radiation. Lurid descriptions given by officers at the base have fuelled decades of fevered speculation and claims, with the area around the site said to be a portal or gateway for aliens visiting earth.
But Mr Turtill, of Ipswich, said: 'It really is a load of nonsense.There was no real fuss at the time and it was only later people started saying it was aliens and this story spiralled.'
He had been on his way home after collecting a lorry he had lent to a friend when it broke down near the airbase.
'To my horror it was loaded with stolen fertiliser so we towed it off the road into the forest and set light to it to destroy the evidence of the crime,' said Mr Turtill. The truck had an aluminium body and the fertiliser and metal made some very unusual coloured flames which flared among the trees. Some of the airmen from the base thought it was a multi-coloured cross from out of space, and with the truck tyres popping they were getting a bit edgy. They had guns and we didn't want to get in their way so we towed the burning vehicle onto the road. I admit it probably looked spectacular rolling through the forest but it was hardly a spaceship.'
Mr Turtill said the wagon's burned-out chassis stood in the forest for 20 years until it was finally removed. But Rendlesham UFO investigator Brenda Butler said: 'I don't get what he is saying. There have been so many witnesses who have come forward. He would have to come up with an awful lot of proof to call them liars. Why has he waited 29 years to come forward?'
Peter Turtill, 66, said witnesses who reported to have seen strange lights were actually watching a truck filled with burning fertiliser. Mr Turtill said he had been amazed at the way news of the explosive drama had snowballed over the years - triggering dozens of books, documentaries, outlandish stories and bizarre theories.US Air Force personnel claimed a UFO had landed in Rendlesham Forest, leaving traces including inexplicable markings on the ground and acute radiation. Lurid descriptions given by officers at the base have fuelled decades of fevered speculation and claims, with the area around the site said to be a portal or gateway for aliens visiting earth.
But Mr Turtill, of Ipswich, said: 'It really is a load of nonsense.There was no real fuss at the time and it was only later people started saying it was aliens and this story spiralled.'
He had been on his way home after collecting a lorry he had lent to a friend when it broke down near the airbase.
'To my horror it was loaded with stolen fertiliser so we towed it off the road into the forest and set light to it to destroy the evidence of the crime,' said Mr Turtill. The truck had an aluminium body and the fertiliser and metal made some very unusual coloured flames which flared among the trees. Some of the airmen from the base thought it was a multi-coloured cross from out of space, and with the truck tyres popping they were getting a bit edgy. They had guns and we didn't want to get in their way so we towed the burning vehicle onto the road. I admit it probably looked spectacular rolling through the forest but it was hardly a spaceship.'
Mr Turtill said the wagon's burned-out chassis stood in the forest for 20 years until it was finally removed. But Rendlesham UFO investigator Brenda Butler said: 'I don't get what he is saying. There have been so many witnesses who have come forward. He would have to come up with an awful lot of proof to call them liars. Why has he waited 29 years to come forward?'
