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Apparently keen to throw the tabloids a bone, the Ministry of Defence has released thousands of pages of documents relating to UFO sightings between 1981 and 1996.

The so-called British X-files total 4,000 pages of statements and handwritten accounts from fighter pilots, police officers, school kids and music fans at Glastonbury festival, and while some are clearly bonkers others make for interesting reading.

We've collected some of the highlights in our list below. Some of these stories have been picked up by the national media, others haven't. If you're a real UFO fan then be our guest to go through the files yourself -- you can download them all from the National Archives.

We warn you though -- you could easily spend the rest of your life going through this stuff. It might be more productive to just sit out in a field with a torch, some sherbert and a bottle of whiskey and wait for the bright lights and noises to come to you.

Check out the files after the jump.

Britain's Roswell a 'banana skin'

The BBC has focused on a UFO incident that occured in 1980, known as 'Britain's Roswell'. Two US airmen at Rendlesham, Suffolk, claimed they had seen lights flying around in the sky, and their tale was taken so seriously that a former armed forces chief was inspired to warn Michael Hesseltine that the incident could be a 'banana skin' for the government. Sadly in 2003 it emerged that a pair of US officials had shone their car lights as a prank, causing the illusion of the UFO. There's that classic American sense of humour again.

Lemonhead aliens attempt abduction

The Sun picked up this story of two "youths" who reported a confrontation with a four-storey high flying saucer in April 1995. The lemon-shaped craft turned up in a field in Staffordshire, and apparently told the boys "we want you, come with us". Instead the men ran to the police and tried to tell them what happened. As you can see in the police report, they were not met with a very enthusiastic response, and the next day the police returned to the scene and found a farmer who said he hadn't seen anything. But then farmers always say that.



Cemetery Sighting

In an incident not widely reported (we read about it in the National Archives files DEFE 24/1976) a man in Cheshire was walking home over a cemetery when he saw a beam of light projected on the ground and heard a wailing noise in the background. Suddenly there was a cloud of smoke and he ran away into the night. The next day police found a still-smouldering hole burned in a railway sleeper... Check out the clip from the police report, below.



'600 Sightings in one year'

This headline has been reported by the Daily Mail, among others, and relates to the fact that in 1996 more than 600 alien and UFO sightings were made in the UK -- almost six times the number from the year before. By 1998 the rate of sightings had dropped back down to 193 per year. The Mail's 'UFO expert' suggests this may have something to do with the popularity of the Will Smith movie Independence Day, which was released that year. Then again so was Twister, and we don't remember an unusual number of tornado reports flooding into the Met office.

Aliens at Glastonbury

Back in June 1994 two female festival fans at Glastonbury reported seeing a UFO over the jazz stage. You can read their report in full at the National Archives (DEFE 1960). Luckily the two women specified on their report than they were "stone cold sober" otherwise we'd have difficulty not mocking them for this. Oh wait, they also submitted the below drawing. Let the mocking recommence.



London sightings benefit Ford

Not all the sightings are unexplained. Back in 1993 dozens of UFOs were reported over London. People were terrified, bunkers were built, guns loaded (not really) -- but then the lights turned out to be those of a Virgin airship that had been hired to advertise the new Ford Mondeo. (See DEFE 24/.1969 for sketches and details).

Cosford incident, March 1993

In the file DEFE 24/2086 you can read about dozens of sightings made in the same period, some from police and military witnesses, of bright lights in the sky in March 1993. The MoD's UFO desk (yes, there really is a UFO desk) asked the RAF for their radar records, but there was nothing unusual to be found. It later emerged the sightings were probably causes by the Russian satellite Cosmos 2238 returning to Earth.

Most recent sighting?

Metro focused on the 'lemonheads' story (above) but also reports on this picture taken at a family barbecue over the weekend. It purports to show a UFO of some sort, though all the woman who took it can offer is that it was 'either very fast, I was lucky or it was invisible'. Brilliant. Thanks.

Aircraft near-misses

There are several stories in the files of near-misses with aircraft. Among the best include a tale of how in 1995 a 'lit object' passed close to a plane approaching Manchester (file DEFE 24/1961), and how a crew flying to Tokyo from Moscow saw a huge object entering the Earth's atmosphere in 1994 (DEFE 24/1960).

Are there UFOs in your area? The MoD file has a convenient region-by-region section -- check it out at the National Archive page. If you go through them and find a good story feel free to let us know in the comments.