1967: US Government Urged to Abandon UFO Studies

Condon's team tackled the study in an altogether odd manner. They only studied about 60 cases in depth, and completely ignored key physical evidence such as the multiple car stop cases at Levelland in 1957.

From the start, Condon's attitude was made embarrassingly clear. On January 25th he told a meeting of the American Chemical Society that he was inclined to urge the government to give up the study of UFOs, but added with a smile that he was not supposed to reach that conclusion until he had finished the job he was being paid to do.

However, scientists in the team were impressed by some of the evidence - and assessed strong cases such as the McMinnville photographs, Lakenheath radar chase and the Washington invasion as being unexplained. Bemused by Condon and Low's negative attitude despite such material, they then discovered the "trick memo" lurking in the files. However they refrained from making it public through wanting to complete the project. These scientists did share their discovery of its existence with several peers outside the project, including Allen Hynek, who agreed not to publish the news.

In late October the biggest wave of UFO activity ever to hit Britain saw police cars chasing UFOs along Devon lanes and a wide range of encounters. An important car stop at Sopley in Hampshire on November 6th involved both the car's engines as well as its lights failing as an egg-shaped UFO hovered above a crossroads. A diesel powered truck at the same junction lost only battery energy, causing its lights to fail but its engine to tick over. Much scientific data emerged and the car and truck driver were interrogated by the Ministry of Defence the very next morning. The truck was taken to an army compound for further study.

After the wave there was a debate in Parliament. The Ministry of Defence claimed they were destroying UFO records at 5 year intervals as part of a routine clear out. They were ordered to retain them. Evidence concerning this great wave should be made public via the "30 year rule" in 1997.

The Colorado coordinator Robert Low visited Britain at the project's expense, but did no active investigation into any of these cases. Instead, he visited Loch Ness, justifying his decision on the grounds that UFOs did not exist - so it was important to discover how people were investigating another non-existent mystery - the Loch Ness Monster.

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