CALVINE UFO REVISITED
The latest revelations about 'The Pitlochry Thing'
The mysterious #CalvineUFO photographs are in the news again – with the latest on my investigations published by the Daily Mail on 7 June.
My new story opens with the narrative of former chef Richard Grieve who claims he worked alongside the two young men who saw and photographed the diamond-shaped mystery object north of Pitlochry one night in August 1990.
Byt despite an intensive two-year investigation since I released the only surviving original print of the now world-famous Calvine UFO, no one has come forward to claim ownership of the iconic image
Since 2022 I have been working with colleagues to trace Kevin Russell, who is the apparent copyright holder. His name was written on the reverse of the print by photographers at the Daily Record newspaper in Glasgow, just before it was sent to the RAF for comment.
But despite tracing some 140 Kevin Russells of the correct age, both in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK and abroad, none have admitted they are the photographer.
Richard Grieve first came forward in July 2022 when he contacted a colleague, Philip Mantle. He said: ‘the two people who took the photograph were chefs at Fishers Hotel in Pitlochry…I know this to be true as I worked in the hotel at the same time’.
I believe this is significant because the link between the photographer and a hotel in the town was not confirmed publicly until I published Craig Lindsay’s account of the Calvine incident in the Daily Mail on 13 August 2022.
In that story former RAF Press Officer Lindsay revealed how, after he received the print from the Daily Record, he called a number he was given by the newspaper to speak with the witnesses. The number was answered by a receptionist at a hotel in Pitlochry. Craig believed this was the Atholl Palace on the outskirts of the Perthshire town. The receptionist called for a person who was working on a temporary basis in the kitchens. This man provided the account of how he and a friend saw and photographed the diamond-shaped UFO, circled by military jets
But Lindsay disposed of his notebooks ten years ago and cannot remember if the man he spoke with was Kevin Russell.
Grieve, now 55, says he worked alongside two men, one a breakfast chef and the other a vegetable chef, for ten months. He says neither were called Kevin but he cannot explain how that name became linked with the story.
He recalls the two friends delivered their photos to the newspaper in Glasgow soon after their experience in August 1990. Shortly after that Fishers received a visit by three men who arrived by car one stormy evening, not long before his 21st birthday. Two men, who said they were from the Royal Navy, questioned the two chefs about the photographs.
Afterwards Grieve says the pair were visibly shaken and not long after this both left their jobs at the hotel. He has had no contact with them since the end of that year and is keen to find what happened to them.
He made the link between these events and the Calvine UFO legend when he read some of the sensational stories published in the tabloids since 2015, after the story re-emerged on TV and social media.
In other developments, our ongoing investigation of the mystery has now produced proof that the Calvine photograph is one of the original six images analysed by the Ministry of Defence in 1990.
My Sheffield Hallam colleague, photography specialist lecturer Andrew Robinson, has carried out a detailed computer analysis of the image donated to the university library Special Collections by Craig Lindsay in 2022. You can read his fully updated 34 page report and the conclusions reached from his analysis of the photograph and its context at the link here.
He is confident this is the same image as the one that Craig photocopied and sent by fax to the Sec(AS) UFO desk in 1990 (these and the envelope in which they were preserved form part of the donation by Craig). Andrew also confirmed this image is the same as the ‘vu-foil’ photocopies released by The National Archives in 2009 (TNA DEFE 31/180/1).
This graphic above prepared by Andrew Robinson compares the original Calvine image [left] with the photocopy faxed from RAF Pitreavie to MoD Sec(AS) in 1990 [centre] and the photocopy of the Calvine sighting released by The National Archives in March 2009 [right]. Red boxes highlight identifying features found on all three images. When the images are overlain, both the unidentified object and the Harrier jet lineup exactly on all three images, proving that the original print provided by Craig Lindsay is a genuine copy of the image analysed by MoD and RAF in 1990.
Andrew concludes: ‘The print donated by Craig is without doubt a copy of the genuine and original Calvine photograph. All my analysis suggests that this is a genuine photograph of a scene in front of camera, and that if any construction or manipulation has taken place, this has occurred in front of the camera rather than in post-production. However, there are no visible signs of any such construction.
Since I released the Calvine image into the public domain via the Daily Mail in 2022, and simultaneously on my blog, the internet has been buzzing with potential theories and explanations. In summary most of these suggest the photo is the product of a hoax or prank. Some of the most popular include:
· The UFO is the top of a mountain peaking out of the Scottish mist photographed by someone standing at Struan Point near Calvine, the location we identified as being the most likely. However, as the location is only a best guess (and there are other possible locations in the area) this falls at the first hurdle.
· The image does not show an object in a cloudy sky but is an upside-down photograph of a loch or pond, with the UFO an island or rock that protrudes from the still water. The jet aircraft is either a bird or a person in a rowing boat. This theory is truly in the eye of the beholder. An excellent 3D computer analysis of the Calvine image by @ThomasH_Synth, available on YouTube, skeptically examines the pond reflection theory. The Danish researcher concludes it is technically possible but less likely than it being a real photograph of an object in the sky, as described in the original account
· The UFO is an object suspended close to the camera on a thin wire from one of the over-hanging trees, possibly a five-pointed Christmas tree ornament identified by Belgian skeptic Wim van Utrecht. The Harrier is a model suspended on a fishing rod, manoeuvred around the model by one of the pranksters. Ingenious but if true this would not be the first UFO image faked by suspending small object from a thin wire.
The proponents of these theories are all convinced they have ‘solved’ the mystery. But they cannot all have solved it as the theories are mutually contradictory: the UFO cannot be both a reflection of a rock and a dangling ornament.
Photographic analyst Andrew Robinson says that ‘many of these suggestions are simply implausible. Even those that might be plausible create more problems than they solve. The simplest explanation, that we are seeing a photograph of a real object in the sky, is by far the most convincing’.
But what kind of ‘real object’ could it be?
Skeptic Mick West has suggested the UFO could be something quite ordinary such as a hovering kite or perhaps a balloon or airship. But this and the other theories do not satisfactorily explain the presence in at least four of the six images of the jet aircraft identified as a Harrier. Analysis of the original six colour images by MoD specialists ‘established that the jet aircraft is a Harrier…and also identified a barely visible second aircraft, again probably a Harrier’ (TNA DEFE 24/1940/1). The source of these aircraft remains a mystery as according to the MoD briefing none were operating in Scotland at the time and date. But I was informed by a former defence intelligence official that further inquiries revealed the two jets were US and UK aircraft that were ‘escorting the object’.
Craig and I agree there are only two options. Either the photographs are a very clever hoax perpetrated by persons unknown. Or the photographer captured on film some kind of military technology they should not have seen. If the latter is true then what was it?
Several RAF and MoD personnel have contacted us to say they saw the photograph/s during the 1990s or were involved in the analysis of the images. Their impression was the image was undoubtedly genuine and it showed either the F117A Stealth fighter or a secret prototype operated by the US or UK.
One said: 'I took the photo into our intelligence section and showed the picture to the RAF intelligence officer who was based there at the time...he looked at the picture and asked if he could keep it for a couple of days. A few days later I was called into the office with him and one of my bosses and was told to forget that I had seen the picture’.
The F117A Nighthawk operated from the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada from 1981 and was developed from two prototypes. But it was not until 1988 that the first grainy photograph of the ‘black’ project aircraft was released to the media. Documents released at the National Archives reveal that Ronald Reagan offered Margaret Thatcher’s government the chance to acquire Stealth technology in 1986. But although the offer was declined it later emerged that RAF pilots had secretly trained to fly the F117A
Between 1989 when the last SR-71 Blackbirds departed from RAF Mildenhall, and 1992 when the first F117A landed at the Suffolk airbase, officially there no visits to UK soil by US ‘black’ programs. But during those three years rumours concerning alleged secret testing of Stealthy aircraft from RAF Machrihanish in Scotland were published in aviation magazines and the national media. Stories about the so-called Aurora spyplane prompted questions in Parliament.
In 1991 and 92 the UK government denied any US black project aircraft was based in the UK or that permission had been given to the US to fly in UK airspace, but behind the scenes ministers were briefed that MoD desk officers ‘would not be surprised’ if such a project existed.
This image (below) compares the silhouettes of the Hopeless Diamond [top – produced as a wooden test model by the Lockheed Skunk Works 1975-76], with Have Blue [middle – a 60% scale demonstrator aircraft based on the Hopeless Diamond built and flown by Skunk Works 1977-79] with the diamond shaped Calvine UFO [below] photographed over Scotland in 1990 (not to scale)
The Lockheed F117A Stealth Fighter adopted many of Have Blue’s experimental features. It saw active service with the USAF in Panama 1989, Desert Shield and Desert Storm (Iraq 1990-91) and Yugoslavia in 1999. Some of the prototype designs, including the Hopeless Diamond, clearly resemble the craft photographed in Scotland.
Earlier this year the US Government admitted that it has developed, tested and flown prototype aircraft that resemble alien craft – some of which have been seen and reported as UFOs. The Department of Defence’s All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), that has a mission from Congress to resolve unexplained UFOs or what the Pentagon now called UAP, released the first volume of its historical investigation in February. The report traces military technology linked to UFOs back to the end of WW2 and the famous Roswell incident of 1947. It says that all the evidence points to ‘misidentified authentic highly sensitive national security programs’.
The declassified version also refers to a sighting in the 1990s when an unnamed military witness saw a UFO ‘exhibiting a peculiar flight pattern’ near a US military facility. ‘The seemingly strange characteristics reported by the interviewee match closely with the platform’s characteristics, which was being tested at a military facility in the time frame the interviewee was there,’ the report says. ‘This program is not related in any way to the exploitation of off-world technology’.
AARO’s investigators discovered this UFO was part of a Special Access Program at a security level above Top Secret. Knowledge of its existence was restricted on a ‘need to know’ basis to a very small number of individuals. The Pentagon said ‘some of these systems had a “saucer” or triangle-shaped appearance and were capable of hovering aloft’.
Was the Calvine UFO one of them?
Excellent research and write up!