Little Rissington UFO incident

The Little Rissington UFO incident was an encounter in October 1952 between a Gloster Meteor and three unidentified saucer-shaped objects over Gloucestershire.

He attended Cheltenham College, and later moved to Brancaster in Norfolk in the late 1970s, after he married Janet, the daughter of screenwriter Ian Dalrymple.

On 21 October 1952 in the afternoon, Flt Lt (later Air Commodore) Michael Swiney and Lieutenant David Crofts, a Royal Navy pilot, took off from RAF Little Rissington in a Gloster Meteor VII (T.7), powered by two Rolls-Royce Derwent engines, on a training flight.

Flt Lt Swiney reported the sighting of the three saucer objects to his Ground Control at RAF Sopley, and abruptly cancelled the training flight.

After the flying operations for the day had completed at around 1300 hrs, a T-shaped object was seen by multiple individuals hovering at 50 feet above the centre of the airfield.

After being brought back to the Squadron HQ, the object was examined and determined to be multiple flexible helium containers (balloons), approximately 2 metres in length, and of unknown origin.