On 6 September 1980, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC hosted a UFO debate.

 

 

 

During December 1980, an article entitled “The New Mental Battlefield” by Lt. Col. John Alexander was published in Military Review.

 

 

 

 

On 29 November 1980, Police Constable (“PC”) Alan Godfrey, stationed in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, allegedly had a close encounter and interacts with a human-like figure called “Joseph”, some robots and a dog early in the morning (near the end of his night shift).

This incident is Case 56 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article,  since it was referred to in 51 of the books covered by that article.

This incident has also featured in a list of cases produced jointly by British ufologists Dave Clarke and Andy Roberts for the Fortean Times in 2007 as part of a survey of various researchers of the ten cases from 1947 onwards that interested them the most.

 

 

Charles Halt and others were involved in a sighting in Rendlesham Forest during the night of 27-28th December 1980.

There had been a separate incident in Rendlesham Forest involving Burroughs, Penniston and Cabansag early in the morning on 26th December 1980.

This incident is Case 18 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article,  since it was referred to in 89 of the books covered by that article.

This incident came first in an online poll conducted in March/April 2006 by Paul Kimball of “the UFO case with the ‘best evidence’ ever”.

This incident featured as the third best incident in a documentary produced by Paul Kimball entitled “Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Cases”, purportedly based on the results of a survey conducted by Paul Kimball in 2005/2006 of “a select group of the world’s leading UFO researchers”.

This incident featured in a document (“the Rockefeller Briefing Document”) endorsed by Dr Mark Rodeghier (President of CUFOS), Richard Hall (Chairman of FUFOR) and Walter Andrus (President of MUFON) as containing “the best available evidence for the existence of UFOs”.

As part of a survey by the Fortean Times in 2007 of various researchers of the ten cases from 1947 onwards that interested them the most, British ufologist Nick Pope described this incident as “probably the world’s most significant UFO case”.

As part of the same survey by the Fortean Times in 2007 of the ten cases from 1947 onwards that interested them the most, this incident featured in lists of cases produced by:

• Stanton Friedman
• jointly by British ufologists Dave Clarke and Andy Roberts
• British ufologist Jenny Randles
• British ufologist Gary Heseltine