Previously secret Government documents containing details of UFOs spotted over Sussex can today be revealed by The Argus.

The real-life X Files relate to a period between 1986 and 1992 and are the latest to be released in a series of similar documents stretching back decades.

Among the disclosures are that on two separate occasions pilots and passengers reported seeing extremely unusual flying objects around Gatwick.

Although there were substantial Government investigations into both sightings, no one has been able to shed any light on them.

On the first occasion, on June 17, 1991, four passengers on board a Dan Air Boeing 737 saw a “wingless projectile” pass beneath the aircraft as it climbed from Gatwick headed for Hamburg.

Gatwick air traffic control was alerted but said it was “unaware”

of anything unusual at the time.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said a weather balloon was released in the area, but confirmed the description and timing did not match.

Then on July 15, 1991, the pilot of a Britannia Airways 737 reported seeing a “small black lozenge-shaped object” travelling at speed as the aircraft approached the airport.

An investigation found the object “did not seem to fit any recognisable piece of aviation equipment” and failed to reach a firm conclusion.

Another sighting, recorded by the MoD in the files, involves a man living in Patcham, Brighton, seeing a brightly lit UFO above his home in November 1992.

He described the object as being like a “squashed rugby ball”.

He said that through windows in the side of the UFO he saw two men wearing beige uniforms standing in front of machinery.

“When one of the ‘crew’ members spotted him the lights went out and the UFO moved out to sea.”

Dr David Clarke, a UFO expert and journalism lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, said the documents shed new light on relatively little-known sightings.

But he admitted that none prove the existence of extraterrestrial life.

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