They include a mum and six children who saw three aliens in Yorkshire, and an RAF officer who encountered mysterious objects on his radar system.

The former director of investigations of the British UFO Research Association and UK representative of MUFON – the world’s biggest UFO organisation – has chosen his top five, cases which have convinced him the truth really is out there.

His first unexplained case involved Wing Commander Alan Turner OBE, who was duty military supervisor at RAF Sopley in 1971.

Mr Turner described seeing objects on radar climbing at supersonic speeds from 3,000ft to 60,000ft, way beyond the capabilities of any aircraft at the time.

The objects appeared 20 nautical miles east of the Salisbury Plain Danger Area, in Wiltshire, in southern England.

A series of six or seven blips moved on a south-easterly track, each being separated by about six miles.

Mr Turner said they were at about 3,000ft, but climbed so rapidly they were at 60,000ft when they disappeared.

He said: “To climb to such a height in only forty miles was beyond the ability of any fighter aircraft at the time.”

The phenomenon was witnessed by four civil and six military controllers on duty at the time.

The three units used different radars at different frequencies.

Mr Turner said: “I am at a loss to explain what I, and many other people, saw. In those days aircraft could not climb at such a rate.”

Roy and Ralph Keane captured extremely rare photographs of a UFO in Melbourne, Australia, which have been studied by experts and determined genuine.

The dad and son took the picture in their back garden on September 19, 1995.

Mr Keane said the object was photographed, it hovered then dipped and moved to the left very suddenly.

The pictures were analysed by photographic expert Winston Keech.

His report said: “Using extreme gamma adjustments and edge detection algorithms, no supporting wires or other linear edge features were found – so the object is not suspended by wire.

“This does appear to be a solid reflective object that is unsupported in mid air.”

In November 1985, Josephine Howard was walking to her car outside her home in Darwen, Lancs., when she saw two round red lights in the sky.

The lights, which were about the size of car headlights, were on the front of a diamond-shaped object about 200 to 300ft in the air.

There were no beams coming from the lights and as they came overhead there was no noise.

“It was very large and seemed to be very heavy-looking.

“I kept wondering how something so big and heavy looking could move so slowly and not make a noise.”

The object was “huge” and had round-headed studs underneath, she said.

At the point where it was almost out of sight, it seemed to tilt upwards and shoot off at a great speed and was gone.

The object had been in sight for about eight minutes – a very long time for a UFO sighting.

The strangest case Mr Mantle ever encountered happened on January 24, 1992, in Mezobbereny, in Hungary.

A 50-year-old woman was at home with her husband when a “dull black egg-shaped object about 120cm in height” shot across her kitchen, making a “rippling” movement.

A loud snorting sound was heard.

The upper part of the object became a blue-grey colour, with a vibrating orange vertical stripe.

Next to this stripe stood a “wonderful-looking woman”, who looked directly at the witness.

She followed the strange being into an adjoining room, but when she entered the room the woman had gone.

A few days later, she felt very tired and went to bed at 6.30pm.

Out of nowhere, she heard a woman’s voice, which asked her to lift up her arm.

She raised her arm and felt a severe pain in her elbow joint.

In the garden stood a cabin-like object.

She count see anyone in the object, but she felt a “presence” – as if someone was there unseen.

The woman lost consciousness. When she came round, she was back in bed, fully clothed but with a sharp pain in her abdomen.

A few days later, a number of large red marks appeared on the upper part of her abdomen and the lower part of her breasts.

Neither her nor her doctor could find a cause for the strange marks, which didn’t hurt or irritate her.

Mr Mantle’s number one unexplained case involved UFO craft landing and aliens appearing, witnessed by an entire family.

A woman named Mrs Westerman was at home in Normanton, West Yorkshire, in 1979 when her eight-year-old daughter came in, saying an “aeroplane” had landed in a nearby field.

Mrs Westerman and her six children went out to find a large dull-grey object, “shaped like a Mexican sombrero”.

Around the object stood three very tall “men”, all of whom appeared to be dressed in metallic silver suits, which creased as they moved.

The children and Mrs Westerman made their way over the field towards the object and stopped at a fence.

The men walked to the rear of the object and it rose vertically, stopped in mid-air, and then shot off at an angle at high speed.

Mrs Westermen and all six children gave the same account to Mr Mantle when he interviewed them.

Mr Mantle will speak at a major UFO conference organised by Outer Limits Magazine in Hull next month.

Source: Daily Star