Lakenheath-Bentwaters Incident - The Account of Freddie Wimbledon and A Further Civilian Witness

The Account of Freddie Wimbledon and A Further Civilian Witness

No more information emerged on the case until the late 1970s, when an article in the Daily Express, and a subsequent piece by astronomer Ian Ridpath in the Sunday Times, produced further witnesses. Flight Lieutenant Freddie Wimbledon wrote to the Sunday Times on 19 March 1978 contesting Ridpath's statement that the incident had effectively been explained by Klass.

Wimbledon had been the radar controller on duty at RAF Neatishead at the time of the sightings. While his account of events agreed with that of Perkins in some details, including the description of the aircraft being apparently chased by the object, he stated that it had in fact been his team who directed the two Venoms to the interception and that the US personnel at Lakenheath would have been merely 'listening in'. Wimbledon disagreed with Klass' analysis, remembering the incident as involving a solid radar return tracked from three sets on the ground and one in the intercepting aircraft.

The same 1978 press interest in the case also elicited a letter from a John Killock to the Daily Express in which he claimed to have seen, in August 1956, both a single, rapidly traveling white light at Ely, along with a Venom, and subsequently an odd group of amber lights.