RECENTLY released MOD files might attribute it to a meteor shower and an earthquake, but the debate about the so-called “Welsh Roswell” rages on.

A new book by Flintshire UFO-logist Andy Roberts explores the famous incident of January 23, 1974 in which some claim a UFO came down in the Berwyn Mountains.

Mr Roberts looks in detail at the event, including claims of secrets and cover-ups, before going on to “examine the facts to see what truth, if any, lies at the heart of the legend”.

The author has been interested in the unexplained since he was a child and has written extensively on strange phenomena.

Originally from Yorkshire, but now living in North Wales, Mr Roberts has spent more than a decade researching the incident near Llandrillo.

He said: “I’ve been looking at it since 1998. I did every bit of research for the book from a journalistic or historian point of view.

“There must be something that happened that night. It’s important not to go for the speculation and conspiracy theories but to look at the paper trail of what was
written at the time – only looking at the facts, if you like.”

During his research Mr Roberts spoke to people who remembered that night, including the “key witness” – a nurse who drove to the scene believing it to have
been an air crash.

He said: “She described a huge ball of light glowing red then yellow then white and back to red.”

What Mr Roberts concluded from the sum of his research seems to agree with the MOD files that were released earlier this month. .

Mr Roberts explained: “I found that people had made it into a UFO story but that it was a combination of a very significant earthquake, the likes of which Britain hadn’t
seen in a long time, and a particularly bright meteor shower.”

But he added: “In among all the rumour and mythology you have whatever it was the nurse saw on the mountainside that night. That remains unexplained.”

l  UFO Down? The Berwyn Mountain UFO Crash, published by Fortean Words, is available from booksellers including www.amazon. co.uk