Secret Papers on UFO Sightings

The minister in charge of domestic law enforcement and passports in Britain is used to close scrutiny. But the government figured it was worth an extra look when six witnesses swore they saw a UFO hovering over his house.

That was one of more 1,600 "unexplained aerial sightings" reported in the U.K. from 1994 to 2000 and described in more than 6,000 pages of formerly secret papers released today by the British Ministry of Defense. 

The 1997 incident was taken seriously enough that the Royal Air Force began an immediate investigation of what witnesses, including two firefighters, reported as a large, triangular "humming" object seen over a house owned by then-Home Secretary Michael Howard.

The object was described as being much bigger than a plane, with lights around the outside and a disc on the back, fitting a classic description of UFOs reported around the world.