We had been advised that new information about letters alleged to have been sent by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to UFO researcher Russ Kellett was about to be released. Kellett has apparently received a recent communication from the MCA confirming that "they" have the "original" letters on file at H. M. Coastguard at Holyhead. However, Kellett recently stated that he is not about to divulge the content of said communication with someone who goes by the name of "Lin." Additionally, Kellett recently stated that he has recorded a conversation with H. M. Coastguard at Holyhead. The conversation allegedly confirmed that "they" are in possession of the "original" letters sent out to Kellett in 2000. The date of this recorded conversation is unknown at this time. However, as Kellett apparently did not inform H. M. Coastguard at Holyhead of his intention to record said conversation, he is legally unable to release the contents of the recording to the public. It seems that Holyhead CG and the MCA have confirmed that they have a "copy" on file, but that only suggests that H.M. Coastguard Holyhead and the MCA believe that the "original" typed in 2000 was authored by someone employed in H.M Coastguard Holyhead and that the contents of said letter were true facts. Apparently the MCA and H.M. Coastguard do not keep records longer than 20 years, so it's surprising that in 2000 someone could provide information from an event purported to have been planned for 23rd January 1974. As far as we are concerned, because the "original" letter bears no resemblance to authentic letters sent out by H.M. Coastguard or the MCA, this issue is not yet resolved. Additionally, the letter of 2nd April 2000 is the only "evidence" produced thus far to back up the story about "Photoflash"

In his investigations into the Berwyn Mountains UFO event of 23rd January 1974, UFO researcher Russ Kellett obtained a letter alleged to be from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency informing him that military exercises had occurred on that date and had involved a number of warships, aircraft and use of photoflash bombs. The whole event is described in Steven Lumley's book "The Berwyn Mountains Incident Revealed" which was published in April 2014. Steven Lumley and Russ Kellett were interviewed in the Coast To Coast AM broadcast of 10th/11th August 2014, hosted by Dave Schrader. In that broadcast, Kellett described how he obtained the information from the Coastguard: Kellett starts off the explanation with the words: "Because of the story what I've been given..." So we are told, straight away, that Kellett's investigations are based on a story from another person, or persons unknown!

So is the story of the alleged Photoflash exercises/operations of 23rd January 1974 just another in the long string of tales told to Kellett by his friend "J.W. Conway" and which Kellett has taken on board as it were? Of course, we are told that J.W. only knew of the details of Photoflash and such because of his unexpected meeting with "the Five Professional Men" who just happened to turn up at his house and tell him their tale/s. (This whole convoluted story was explained in the Mystery Video of 2006 recorded and produced by Winston Keech.) We at Xpose UFO Truth get a strong feeling that "the Five Professional Men" never existed, and that J. W. Conway might well have been a CON-man working for some agency hell-bent on spewing disinformation to confuse and obscure the facts of what really happened on the night of 23rd January 1974. And the letter? Maybe "J. W. Conway" had some hand in that too.

Scott Felton purchased the Kindle Edition of the book and found that the MCA letter was displayed in the eBook. A screenshot was taken of the page in the eBook and we took a closer look at this image to see how it compared with the versions previously mentioned. As can be seen here, there is no sender information or file reference as has been noted in genuine MCA letters. The signature at the bottom of the letter has been obscured by a folded over piece of paper. There is a rectangular sticker or similar over where the addressee's name would normally be displayed. The screenshot of the letter image has had both contrast and brightness adjusted and a sharpen filter applied. NOTE: I have added the copyright of ©Russ Kellett and ©Steven Lumley to the adjusted screenshot. NOTE: We believe this to be fair use of the image (screenshot of) as part of the investigation into the validity of the alleged MCA letter and the story of the whole Photoflash scenario that allegedly caused a UFO to eventually crash-land next to the B4401 near Llandderfel on the night of 23rd January 1974.

Click on above image to see full-sized version

Scott Felton had this to say about the "letter" My thoughts on the letter are these: Virtually everything Russ Kellett ever stated about this bizarre claim of alternative UFOs crashing near the Berwyns, having been forced out of the sea by a military task force, flotilla or whatever, was given to him by JW (John Williams.) Russ Kellett was given a story and supporting documents at the start of a trail laid especially for him. As he followed it, he found more 'clues' that lent credibility to the original outlandish claim. He was told the story and given an old road map and various other bits and pieces. He seized it with gusto and that was the plan. Kellett being the guy he is, a grabber, hoards UFO info' and shares little or nothing. The document is 14 years old but has rarely been seen though seemingly this very image of it above has been circulated and appeared here and there. Along the way, Kellett was, I believe, encouraged to contact a specific coastguard station and enquire about UFOs/anything unusual in the Irish Sea on the 23rd of Jan' '74 - the day of the Berwyn UFO event. I have reason to believe his letter of enquiry went to Holyhead coastguard base on Anglesey though without the complete letter it is hard to say. My theory is that Kellett's letter of enquiry was expected and therefore easy to intercept. It was either intercepted at destination or en route. Either way, I believe it was intercepted. A reply was then engineered (the image above), quietly mentioning the Photoflash operation in the Irish Sea. Upon receiving the reply Russ then put two and two together and linked an imaginary military event with a real UFO event but a variant of it. The letter above is clearly fake but Russ took it to heart. It was important for him to receive a reply on official headed paper for authenticity, but whoever concocted that needed to alter it enough so that if it came back to bite them in the future, the MCA would quite correctly claim it was a fake and they'd been duped. They walk away scot free. Of course, the MCA itself were never involved in faking it, but possibly someone within MCA was. No matter what the outcome here, MCA walks away clean. There are various coastguard stations around the Irish Sea or were at that time. If one reads it carefully, the first line states 'UFO and other sightings,' so when Kellett wrote his letter of enquiry, he knew nothing of Photoflash. Now then, I know Russ to be very keen (if misguided) and I find it hard to believe he did not check this out with other coastguard stations at the time for corroboration purposes - something or someone put him off. In line 6 we read 'coastguards' (plural.) That means quite clearly that other coastguards allegedly knew also of this military operation. Note also, no mention of ships. JW introduced Kellett to the flotilla idea. The plural 'coastguards' involves two issues here: 1) It stated 'coastguards' deliberately to convince Russ others knew so he had no need to contact them or, 2) it was a mistake using the plural and Russ was in another way deterred from further enquiry elsewhere. Either way, Russ was put off enquiring at other coastguard stations around the Irish Sea. The last thing the scum behind this disinfo' campaign wanted was for another coastguard station to debunk it at the time by claiming there was no Photoflash operation. If it was all real, one would expect Russ to have a similar letter confirming the Photoflash event from each point of enquiry, and I imagine the Irish Navy would have had info' on it too as they were the Irish coastguard at the time I understand. As Russ never co-operates with anyone, being the grabber and hoarder he is, the finer detail is missing in this whole incident, but even Russ would have spotted the difference in letterheads etc if he'd received multiple answers from multiple coastguards! And the letter itself, what is really needed for comparison is a genuine letter from April 2000 with MCA letterhead. If different, that would prove beyond doubt that MCA did not produce that letter. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Images of MCA stationery from 2002 show how a normal letter from the MCA would be formatted. The example shows that sender's details and file references are provided in official MCA communications. Also, earlier format of the MCA stationery displayed the 2 emblems at the bottom right of the paper unlike the more recent format where the emblems are displayed bottom left.)

Scott Felton added: As I above stated, whoever did produce it needed to alter it enough to be found a fake if challenged (as it is now) but for it to look convincing enough to pass off as genuine to the recipient. The typeface is completely wrong. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Even though the appearance of the actual MCA paper used had changed over the years, one thing that did not change was the way the letters were, and still are, formatted. The sender's information is located upper right of the page, and most examples - not all - show the recipient's information on the left of the page. Sometimes that is absent. Also, in most cases, under the sender's details, one or two references are included to identify the enquiry. Click on the image to see the full sized version)

Scott Felton continued: Coastguard types are quite intelligent people and one would expect literacy and accuracy, but there is 'you' instead of 'your' in line 1 and the whole is worthy of three paragraphs at least, the last line certainly. The version above (referring to the 13th July 2014 version posted on an internet forum) has been scanned at least twice before release. There is clear evidence of a sticky label being previously used to cover up some detail which I expect possibly Russ wanted hidden. Other detail has been erased as one tampers with a scanned document or image to alter it. It is also possibly a copy of multiple copies and a third party later altered the area botton to centre left. No matter what, this image is fake and if it is a copy of the letter as received by Russ, then he was duped and has clung to an event for almost 15 years that simply never happened. I published tidal data (see A Berwyn UFO Myth Debunked) which suggests that the event could not have happened at the time and place (Puffin Island) claimed and that alone undermined the entire claim. Of course Russ has devoted much time, effort and money and has alienated himself with the locals of Llandrillo and Llandderfel with this claim, so he is not going to accept this easily. He has clung to it and has frequently suggested it would be a Hollywood blockbuster (perhaps a further reason to believe in it?) The truth is, he has seemingly been used as a conduit to feed disinfo' into the UFO community and particularly to further muddy the waters surrounding the Berwyn UFO incident. Of course Russ can always insist the tide was in and clearly deep enough for his naval battle to have taken place. We are at war with the aliens, according to him.

In the Coast To Coast AM broadcast of 10th/11th August 2014, Steven Lumley explained the unofficial nature of the letter sent to Russ Kellett - allegedly from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency." Dave Schrader mentioned that he had been in receipt of 20+ emails from people regarding the authenticity of the letter. Kellett laughed mockingly, then said: "No Comment!" and "Let's stick to facts shall we?"

On the 25th August 2014, Kellett had Steven Lumley as a guest on his D. J. Flame internet radio show. During the show Kellett explained in great detail how he came into possession of various letters allegedly from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, although he said "Maritime and Coastguards Association!"

The investigation into the "The Letter" is not closed yet, and more will be published as new information comes to light. We do know that Kellett was in receipt of at least two letters, allegedly from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Both letters employ the same italic font. There is no evidence to show that there were any sender's details or file references present in either letters as would be normal in official communications. As clearly seen in genuine letters from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, there are certain protocols in place for letter writing using the agency's headed stationery. The letter, claimed by Russ Kellett to have been sent by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, does not follow those protocols. On that letter, despite claims that personal information had been covered up to protect privacy, we believe that there never was a sender's address at the top right of the page. The fact that Kellett has a number letters in his possession and that they appear to have been sent by the MCA is not disputed. We all know he has some letters. What we want to know is who actually authored those letters! We remain extremely sceptical (skeptical) of the authorship of the letter/s that are claimed to have been sent by the MCA. Our thanks to a former Chief Engineer of the Search and Rescue fleet who provided the example of Maritime and Coastguard Agency stationery from 2002.