There seems to be no depth debunkers won't go to in order to play down whatever it was on the slopes of Cader Berwyn on the evening of January 23rd 1974. That something strange perched on the mountain slope that night is not in dispute. Whether it was a vehicle of extra terrestrial origin is open to debate. I've come to understand how debunkers will work to undermine certain events but not others. Others which on the face of it are just as valid. That in itself alerts me to the probability that those cases attracting the most attention from these subversives actually have some substance to them. It has always struck me as strange how so much effort is put into attacking certain cases when, if one listens to these assailants, aliens don't exist. If little green men don't exist, then why not let those who believe in ET revel in their ignorance?
On the 12th of February 1982, just a mere eight years after the Berwyn UFO event, tragedy struck in the Berwyn range when a small military plane crashed into Cader Berwyn about a half mile from the summit. The lone pilot perished in the accident. When I first learned of this crash involving the death of the US serviceman who was piloting the aircraft I was struck by how the man's death and the crash were exploited to further try and rubbish the Berwyn UFO event a few years earlier. I regarded such action as quite sickening. No normal human being would do such a thing. Yet this fatal accident was shamelessly used to try and character assassinate local people by claiming the passage of time made them confuse the military personnel presence in Feb' '82 with events in January '74.
Rumours persisted of a military presence on Cader Berwyn on the 23rd of January 1974 and, when the air crash occured eight years later, this provided an excuse for debunkers to accuse the locals of being confused, that they'd mixed up activity related to the military plane crash and falsely claimed military personnel were present when the Berwyn UFO landed. The fact that a man lost his life became irrelevant to those denying the UFO event.
I learned of the plane crash early on in my examination of the UFO case. Other than the exploitation aspect, the crash was not in any way linked to the UFO event. Debunkers, however, tried to unite the two events for the debunking reason I above mention. Arch skeptic and known debunker Andy Roberts has been almost rabid in his attempts to forge connections between the two events in order to rubbish anyone involved in witnessing the actual Object and peripheral activity - i.e. witnessing soldiers in 1974.
I've stated previously elsewhere that on rare occasions I do agree with Mr. Roberts and I can't disagree that, over time, memories do degrade. However, nothing degrades to the degree claimed by him. It is true that claims exist suggesting that, on the night of the Berwyn event, people were excluded from land, even the landowners themselves. Even witnesses to the Object - Mrs. Pat Evans and her daughters - were chased away at gun point etc.
This was all false. While Mrs. Evans stands accused of changing her story about meeting military personnel on her return journey home after viewing the Object, the notion that she et al were forcibly removed from the area is unfounded. All this was, in part, disinformation seeded into the public domain by debunkers and also promoted by over-zealous UFO enthusiasts who did nothing but repeat the claims of their friends and whatever was published on dubious websites. No one checked out anything and this played right into the hands of debunkers.
No one was excluded from any land on the night of the 23rd of January 1974.
On February 12th 1982 a Harrier on a training flight took off from RAF Wittering for a straightforward 45 minute flight in an anti-clockwise direction. The plane (XZ973) was piloted by John Macbeth, described as a student pilot. Some degree of contact was had between the lone pilot and base and he was advised to avoid the Berwyn range if poor weather was closing in. It is unclear if the pilot received that instruction or, if he did, if he ignored it or just made some error, but at 12.45 the plane was reported overdue and contact had been lost. He had also been briefed prior to the flight to avoid poor weather and even turn back if necessary. Following a search, the crashed plane was discovered the following day, the 13th. A recovery operation was initiated which took several more days, hampered a bit by snowy conditions.
Vehicular access to the actual crash site was virtually nil and that location was over two miles from the nearest proper road, that being the lane running to the hamlet of Pennant from Llandrillo. RAF personnel, despite the remote and pretty much inaccessible location on Cader Berwyn, threw up a cordon around the crash site. As I know the crash site itself and having visited it, I can assure readers that few other people have been anywhere near that location then and over the years to the present day.
I'd already learned of Andy Roberts' penchant for involving this tragic event in his anti-UFO stance but I wasn't satisfied so filed a Freedom of Information request to the MoD to glean some information about the crash. What I got was illuminating. Mr. Roberts had not only tried to metaphorically give the local memories a good kicking, but he brazenly lied about the nature of the plane itself.
Mr. Roberts took the title the 'Operation Conversion Unit' (OCU) - of which this particular Harrier was part - and he then claims the aircraft was carrying 'top secret hardware' to subliminally inflate in a reader's mind lots more personnel than was actually present during the recovery operation. This was done solely to undermine claims by locals of a military personnel compliment on Cader Berwyn eight years earlier.
Ref: Ministry of Defence Summary of Accident.
What is also interesting now is that the crash site is some two miles from the land searched on the 23rd and 24th of January '74 above Llandrillo and much nearer to the actual UFO landing site. Although he was willing to exploit the military plane crash, insodoing he has also undermined some of what he has also claimed about what happened above Llandrillo and what Mrs. Evans could or could not see from 5 miles away from her position on the B4391.
In the course of my research I discovered that a dwelling in Pennant hamlet directly below the crash site location named as Ty Nant was used by the RAF to billet the airmen involved in guarding the cordoned off area around the crash. I never met the owner of the property who rented out the outbuilding, but I did visit the property. I met with relatives who inherited Ty Nant and they very kindly gave me a tour of the property. In the house, they showed me a framed picture of a yellow rescue helicopter which the RAF had given to the owner for his cooperation during the recovery operation. The property has since been sold on again.
In his writings, Andy Roberts claimed that not only did the locals mix up their memories but this was enhanced due to the number of air crashes and recoveries in the Berwyn range. In one claim, he stated that a military air crash occurred in 1972 in the Berwyns and this too coloured the local people's perception. I challenged Mr. Roberts a long time ago on the Ufology In UK internet forum and periodically since, asking him to account for this fictitious crash, but he has remained silent and ignored the question. This he must do of course as he cannot undo the lie he has made. And it is a lie.
While Mr. Roberts has been happy to exploit the fatal military air crash in 1982, it is of concern that he has also published the claim that locals were further confused by an alleged air crash on the Berwyns in 1972. Other than the claim, he has never offered up a single detail of this alleged accident. He is fully aware of my accusations that this claim is knowingly false.
The military air crashes in North Wales are all well documented as indeed are civilian air crashes, so it struck me as odd, very early on in the 2000s, that the claim was short on detail and I concluded it was malicious. I obviously looked into this and, in 1972, four military aircraft were lost in North Wales, all near or just off the coast of west and north-west Wales.
None crashed anywhere near the Berwyns so logic suggested maybe there was a civilian crash. I knew of one such in 1968 on the eastern side of the Berwyns which would technically preclude any locals on the western flank being direct observers of any recovery and clean up. Four people died in that crash. However enquiry drew a blank. There was no record of a civilian air crash on the Berwyn range in 1972.
Andy Roberts has a track record of stretching matters and relying on obstruction of enquirers - or just plain ignorance by UFO enthusiasts not to enquire - to get away with his claims devoid of substance.
In October 1972, a civilian plane crashed into one of the sub-peaks of Wyddfa (Mt Snowdon). It seems Mr. Roberts may have taken this crash, or the idea of it, to create the claim of a plane crash on the Berwyns in 1972. At a later date, if pinned down, he could perhaps just say he was mistaken or got mixed up, but by then, years would have passed with this lie being taken as a truth.
Indeed, it would be difficult for Mr. Roberts to retract the claim as the whole point was to create a fiction of military personnel clearing up a military plane crash in 1972, just like they did for real ten years later. Also so he could increase numbers of military personnel in order to claim the locals got mixed up in their recollections.
This strategy has been used previously by Mr. Roberts. In one instance, he inflated the total of Institute of Geological Sciences (IGS) - now the British Geological Survey (BGS) - staff from four to six just to undermine the locals' claims and suspicions of 'men in suits'. These were staff involved in distributing questionnaires and questioning locals about their experiences of that 23rd of Jan' '74 night. They resided in the Plas Coch hotel in Bala during their stay.
Here are some details of the accident.
The private plane was flying from Southend-on-Sea in Essex to Valley in Anglesey on the 22nd of October 1972, piloted by a Mr. R. Powl. With him were four passengers. Pilot error was concluded in the accident report that, when passing over Eryri (Snowdonia), he descended through thick cloud and below the minimum safe flying altitude for that area. As a result, the plane flew straight into Crib Y Ddysgl, a ridge not far from the summit of Wyddfa. All on board perished. Despite the low cloud and almost zero visibility, campers and walkers were nearby when the plane hit the ridge.
The plane was a Piper PA 30-160 Twin Commanche G-AVFV.
I've said it before and I'll repeat it again here, Andy Roberts needs to explain why he invented and then introduced a non-existent air crash on the Berwyn range into the UFO story.
I made several FOI requests to the military and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and each confirmed all the air crashes in North Wales, not just those in relation to the Berwyns. No 1972 crash existed. In fact, in 1972, there were four crashes involving aircraft in North Wales and none of them were anywhere near the Berwyns. In 1972, one plane was lost near Llanbedr on the West coast. Two collided near Holyhead on Anglesey and a helicopter ditched in Holyhead Harbour. Just to be sure, the Civil Aviation Authority supplied me with the accident report of every civilian crash in North Wales. The last previous Berwyn incident was in 1968 when a pilot and three passengers perished. This civilian air crash was a private light aircraft which hit the Berwyns on the Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant flank in 1968 killing all four people on board. The 1972 crash was pure fiction.
Just for the record - as Mr. Roberts may read this as will his fellow debunking cronies - he needs to explain why he invented this crash. It wasn't a mistake as he knows he's been challenged over several years and he's still promoting this 1972 nonsense while disingenuous press and other media go along with it.
In that original FOI request, the MoD provided some good information. For instance I discovered that a total of £400 had been paid in compensation for inconvenience and damage to land shared between three landowners. This information regarding compensation was also included in a published accident summary. As the plane crashed on the open hill above fence lines, I assume it was common grazing used by three different farmers and, as it was a February, there would have been no sheep up on the hill. The land even today is used as rough grazing.
The pilot was recovered first. I assume he was pretty bashed up as the actual impact site is very small and the plane would have still had a considerable amount of fuel on board. I understand his body was initially taken to Maelor hospital in Wrexham. It seems there was a fire but no danger of such spreading as it was February and the vegetation is normally soaking wet. The impact site has only a few inches of soil above rock with the odd peat hag of a couple of feet thickness. Today, there is a plaque marking the spot.
The FOI request response also gave me an Ordnance Survey (OS) grid reference. Because the plane crash had no connection to the Berwyn UFO other than what Andy Roberts had created, I saw little need to visit the crash site. However, in 2024, having sat on that grid reference for some 12 years, I decided to visit the crash site. Due to duff info', this involved three visits and 24 miles of walking across the terrain. There were few paths where I needed to walk.
I had visited the location of the UFO on the first occasion and then walked across country to the area where I had the grid reference. As it happened, the heavens opened and I was then four walking miles from Llandrillo centre. By the time I'd reached the village having skirted the grid reference site, I was drenched.
At the next opportunity, with much better weather - and after a two and half hour walk - I arrived at the grid reference site armed with a metal detector. This expedition was to be a disappointment too.
According to the information supplied in the FOI request, the crash site was on a slope on one side of the stream running down a little valley; the watercourse named Nant Esgeiriau. It was part rough grass and bracken with damper patches of sedges. Over about a three hour period + tea breaks I roughly quartered the ground. I didn't need to search like I would if looking for artifacts in a ploughed field for example. Where I was, I'd bet as with most of the range, I was the only person to visit that particular spot in a century.
One of the things I like about detecting in such terrain is the soil is so shallow and the location so rarely visited that finds are few if at all so, if my detector was to bleep, I could be sure something of interest would be found. Certainly I was expecting multiple signals from scattered debris. The actual plane was recovered by helicopter and smaller bits of wreckage recovered by hand. but I knew there'd still be many bits left behind. In fact, for those who believe anywhere in the world that the authorities clean up UFO crash debris so there's not a trace, I say impossible. There'll always be something left behind. It seems some of the wreckage was moved to Corwen and some moved to vehicles near Llandrillo for onward transportation.
After an hour or so searching, I began to puzzle of the information supplied. I hadn't picked up a single item. Just complete silence from my metal detector. Also as I like to think I'm proficient in reading landscape, I became more concerned as I was operating on a steepish slope and in a quite tight valley. As I knew the plane was flying in an anti-clockwise direction, for it to crash into the hill anywhere there it could not be where I was operating. It had to have been on the other side of the stream.
I drew a blank and was somewhat annoyed. Had the MoD fobbed me off? I returned back to Llandrillo and home. At least on this second trip it was a dry and warm day.
Once home, I filed a fresh FOI asking for more details of the crash and site. Had I been fobbed off it would have been interesting to see if what I was told previously tallied with any new information.
When I received my reply, I must admit, I raised an eyebrow. For some reason this time, they couldn't supply a grid reference. I assumed they'd consulted my previous FOI from over a decade earlier and realised if they gave me the same one the info' would be false. If they gave me a revised grid reference then it would be obvious they'd supplied duff details previously. The best course would be to ignore my request for a grid reference. To be honest, I concluded that the original, if incorrect grid reference, was given in good faith but collated by someone who just couldn't be bothered and gave a grid reference for the general area rather than a specific 100 square yards. This put the crash site in a totally different location.
However, they did on this occasion supply a series of photographs of the crash site. Personnel were present in some and their faces were blacked out. They were to prove perfect for my needs. I was able to match up the background lines of heather and rock patches on Google Earth. Even after 40 years or so, the land up there is so poor, the vegetation outlines had hardly changed. I organised a third visit. Another reasonable day weatherwise.
It turned out I was correct about the line of flight into the hillside. The crash site was some 700 yards from where I was detecting and about 200 feet higher in altitude. Where it was made perfect sense for the flight path of the doomed aircraft.
It was a struggle to reach the impact site as it was uphill through dense heather. When I arrived at the spot there was a small windswept sitka spruce tree growing and beneath it I discovered a plaque dedicated to the airman.
At first I thought the tree might have been planted as a memorial too, but on closer examination of the crash site images supplied, I could make out the same tree, so it was already growing there when the plane crashed. It hadn't grown much though, even for a spruce, such is the infertile soil and exposure to the winds.
I set up my detector and within seconds got my first bleep. Then another and another and so on. For an area about 30 yards in diameter, the ground was littered with small bits of debris. The soil was pretty much absent but the bits of metal were covered by a few inches of vegetation which had covered them over the four decades that had passed so it was just a matter of pulling up handfuls of grass.
I spent about an hour there, doing a bit of detecting and just sitting surveying the ground and looking out into the sky seeing easily the flight line into oblivion. Of course the pilot was flying in poor weather and undoubtedly mist. Another 500 feet and he would have passed over the summit ridge line.
I was pleased I'd located the exact spot though it had cost me two days of my life which I wouldn't get back and, as I say, over three trips of 8 miles each. The only other time I clocked up so many miles was as a result of investigating the fantasies of self-styled UFO enthusiast Russ Kellett after he fabricated information relating to the Operation Photoflash hoax which he still clings to today while the guy who fed him the fake information from 1999 onwards, one John Williams, has vanished from public view. I'm not even sure that was his real name!
So, that is the connection between the Feb' '82 military plane crash and the perverted fusing of it with the UFO event in Jan' '74.