I concur with LOMCEVAK.
Ref the towed decoy, I was the ATC Sup for that particular recovery and Wilts Police were very understanding. We had two patrol cars on the Amesbury to Salisbury road ready to close it within about 10 mins of making the request for assistance. No one knew how low the decoy would be at recovery speeds so the closure was a precaution. This happened in day time.
Other "events" that aid the conspiritors.
Late one night a car crashed on the Allington Track to the east of the airfied. Fire section were first on scene and helped extricate two minor casualties from a car - which just hapened to be a black Opel Manta - comms on storno helped fuel the conspiracy.
Unmarked CIA aircraft, was actually an Italian one that was over for a period of AAR trials. I know because I was tasked to give the crews the local airspace briefing with L**** F** who was their dedicated Sqn host . Sadly he lost his life a few years later in a tragic accident at Edwards AFB.
SAS/SBS helos were regular transit / stop off visitors so nothing unusual there.
*C-5 visitor was special at that time but came in to pick up two sea king cabs if memory serves me right (again).
In the top hangar I also believe there was an early Typhoon cockpit front end which was either for crew demo or may have been used down at the ejection bay test bed just behind the tower. Nothing existed aft of the canopy hinge so when viewed it did look like a stubby nosed bit of kit with an odd opening canopy. LOMCEVAK's explanation sounds more likely though as he worked that side of the airfield. To us ATCO's it was bandit country up there...unless Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were involved then we did pop over for drinks LOL
Night time tyre burst of note at that time was, if memory serves me right, a Harrier out of either Farnborough or Dunsfold (could have been a Blackbox c/s) and the theorists love anything with black in the name. The runway was BLACK for sometime that night and that info was passed to LonMil who passed the info over the airwaves to our aircraft that were still out and about that night. I wasn't in tower that night but did the airfield inspection as Local Controller at 6.30 am the following day. No sign of any green blood on the runway but some nice fresh rubber skid marks.
Also, at one point, can't remember the date, but I was part of the FOD plod after the BAC 1-11 landed and scraped aluminium u/c doors down most of the length of the runway.
The original article was in the telegraph (that we saw) a copy of which was glued into the ATC Sups Log book and referenced ALL the inconsequential events which, put together to have happend on one night saw ...
An alien-tech flying machine, codename Black Manta, crashing at a Top Secret (UK Area 51-esque) Base, Two injured occupants were whisked away by CIA operatives in an unregistered 737 under the watchful eye of the SAS, whilst SBS guarded the wreckage which was under tarpaulin from their bivvy of an upturned rubber dingy - until a C-5 came in to remove it back to Nevada.
*another funny story about the C5 and how to scare the s%$£ out of a fellow controller, but I'll save that for another day :-)
IAT at Boscombe was 1992.
Last edited by SATCOS WHIPPING BOY; 8th Apr 2021 at 20:51.