The Llanilar Recovery: New Information on this 40 year old Mystery.
Late one January night, during the winter of 1983, an event happened in the skies above Llanilar, a small village four miles southwest of Aberystwyth, North Wales. Whatever "it" was remains to be seen, but something seems to have broken apart in mid-air, scattering debris over roughly half an acre of the Welsh countryside and damaging the tops of trees in the process.
According to an article published in the Sunday Express on the 23rd of January 1983, farmer Irwel Evans was stunned to discover strange metallic debris covering all four fields of his property one afternoon, around the 9th of January. He was certain that it hadn’t been there the day before and fearing a plane crash, he contacted the local police who, in turn, contacted RAF Valley, Search and Rescue at Anglesey. Later that day, the MoD turned up with uniformed RAF and plain clothed officers, a swift cleanup ensued, but neither authority could offer an explanation. There was no record of any lost or damaged aircraft, and the story would have ended there, were it not for the hard work of intrepid UFO investigators.
January, 1983.
Rhyl based UFO investigator, and co- founder of Welsh Federation of Independent Ufologists, Gary M Rowe, was alerted to the story via his subscription to a newspaper clipping service, when the article above arrived on his doorstep one morning. He immediately noted the similarly to the Roswell story - where rancher Mac Brazel discovered strange wreckage covering several acres in July of 1947 - and set about searching his phone book for a Mr Irwell Evans in Llanilar. Before long, the two were chatting on the telephone and after a brief discussion the farmer agreed to a site visit from Mr Rowe and his team.
Ultimately, within around three weeks from the incident, a team of four investigators visited the farm in Llanilar, and set about searching the fields for any debris missed by the MoD. After a few hours of searching, the team were feeling disapointed, and regrouped to decide their next move. Glancing around, Mr Rowe took note of the small copse of trees at the edge of the field. He recalled the description of damaged trees in the newspaper article and immediately decided to focus his search there.
Before long the group's fortunes changed and they discovered, not just one, but several, relatively large, pieces of material. Metal sheets, green on one side and grey on the other, with a honeycomb pattern embedded in what looked like some kind of resin. They also found metallic foil formed into a honeycomb pattern, which presumably made up the core of the sandwich panel material. All of this was identical to the wreckage described in the Sunday Express article. In a very real sense, Mr Gary Rowe and his team of dedicated investigators had 'struck gold' and secured large samples of the mysterious debris for further analysis. (1)
Early February, 1983.
Gary was able to visit the site again sometime in early February but did not recover any more wreckage. In a strange twist to the story, he relates how just prior to a third visit, he received a call from the farmer, who informed him that the forestry commission were in the process of removing trees from the small Copse. Somewhat perplexed, Gary called the Forestry Commission offices and asked, "What was going on?" Apparently, he was told the trees were being removed due to "wind damage. " When he asked if this was normal practice, the response was "no, but that’s what we’ve been told to say" or something similar. (2)
The Keyring samples.
In a recent telephone conversation, Mr Rowe told me that after retrieving the materials, he began to feel concerned that the authorities would "pay him a visit" and demand that he hand over the recovered debris. After some thought, he decided to distribute small samples to several of his friends and colleagues in the UFO research community across the UK. He told me that cutting the metal sheets required a set of "one meter long shears," as when he tried with a shorter pair, they "couldn’t do the job." Next, he visited a local shop, bought a box full of keyrings, and began the process of creating the iconic keyring samples, around 100 of which are now scattered across the UK and overseas.
Ultimately Gary’s fear proved accurate when he apparently received a visit from government officials requesting the he "hand over the materials". When Gary told them he had sent dozens of samples around the UK, they left empty handed.
2008: Europe’s Roswell: UFO Crash in Aberystwyth.
Over the next couple of decades, the story received little attention, other than in the conference halls of the UFO community. This changed in 2008 with a documentary by historian and researcher Mark Olly, entitled Europe’s Roswell: UFO Crash in Aberystwyth. (3) The film does a good job at telling the story and includes very clear and close up, footage of some of the large pieces of metal in the possession of Mr Rowe. Despite the film’s release the mystery continued and in 2023 Phillip Mantle’s Flying Disc Press published a book by Mark Olly - Europe’s Roswell: 40 Years Since Impact - which is essential reading for anybody interested in this case.
2025 - Llanilar samples for sale.
My own interest in this case was rekindled when I read a post on Facebook on the 23rd of May, 2025, from Philip Mantle, which included the following:
"FROM GARY M ROWE - Due to membership interest and after a recent sort out I discovered that I still had a few small samples of the 1983 Welsh crashed UFO debris and related material which I am offering for sale AT COST only to fellow members ...." (4)
For the minimal price of £20 Mr Rowe was offering a keyring with a sample, Newsclipping, certificate of authenticity, set of glossy photos of the debris, and additional background information. Within a few hours of reading the message above, I sent messages to both Philip Mantle and Gary Rowe. After a few days of back and forth messages, the sample was on its way, and I set about researching the case.
(In response to many negative comments aimed at Mr Rowe on social media, I would point out that the time to set the sample into the keyring, print the relevant information, compile and post the package. More than justified the "at cost" price requested by Mr Rowe. Mine was just £15 as the glossy photos were all gone.)
Newspaper trail.
My first task was to read any available articles on the case and watch Mark Olly's documentary, which is currently free to watch on youtube:
https://youtu.be/uv7Ljz2sttg?si=QY8pKiCBTUEpXw1k
Following this I logged into my account at the British Newspaper Archive and payed £20 for 40 page views. The aim here was to locate the original article from the Sunday Express and confirm the date. Before long, I had the relevant article and confirmed that the hand written date on the original newsclipping was accurate, the 23rd of January, 1983. Although, I did note that the article’s formating was slightly different, suggesting and alternate version was published, possibly for the Welsh region. (5)
My next step was to search for coverage of the Llanilar incident in local media. Using multiple keyword searches, combined with various filters, I was unable to find any local coverage of this event. Most likely, Mr. Eymr Hughes, secretary of the Cardiganshire Farmers Union, who was quoted in the article, contacted the Sunday Express directly, and they exclusively covered the story. The possibility remains that the relevant newspaper has yet to be uploaded, or the search function at the BNA failed, which I had seen before. It’s worth noting that I did find a couple of regional articles referencing an "Irwel Evans" and "Llanilar," but these were unrelated to the mysterious debris.
Despite several hours of searching, over a number of days, I only found three relevant newspaper articles. The second was published by the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail on the 24th January. This article was titled "The day a meteorite fell in Middlesbrough" and only references the Llanilar story in passing towards the end, without adding any new information.
The third article I found on this topic was only short, but included some new and surprising information.
Enter the United States Air Force.
On the 12th of February, 1983 the Liverpool Daily Post (Welsh Edition) featured the following headline "US Jet Wreckage Mystery is Solved".
The short article was tucked away on page 13 of the paper and included the following critical information:
"The U.S. Air Force has solved the mystery of air-craft wreckage found at Llanilar near Aberystwyth. A U.S. Air Force spokesman said debris found on a farm was part of the tail of an F.11 fighter. "’It seems to have broken off," he said. "It is a rare occurrence, and it was not a particularly serious incident." The spokesman added that the pilot, based at Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, did not realise he had lost part of his aircraft till he returned to the base. ..."
As far as I can tell, I am the first researcher to discover this official US Air Force explanation for the Llanilar case, Gary Rowe was certainly unaware when I shared it with him. I began to dig in and explore the new information further.
Chasing 'Tails’.
In 1983 RAF Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire was home to four USAF Squadrons under the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing (20th TFW). The 55th, 77th and 79th Tactical Fighter Squadrons each held approximately 24 General Dynamics F-111E Aardvark fighter/bomber aircraft, for a total of 72 airframes. The newly established 42nd Electronic Combat Squadron was also at the base, but their aircraft didn't arrive until February, 1984. (6)
These F-111 aircraft were at the forefront of our defence strategy at the time and they were capable of delivering nuclear weapons. A fact not unoticed by nuclear demonstrators from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), who established a protest camp outside the base. This culminated in a confrontation with over 4000 protestors and 752 arrests in November of 1983. (7)
The Grumman F-11 Tiger was retired in 1969 (8) and was never active at RAF Upper Heyford so it seems that the paper made a mistake there, probably a typo, and the aircraft in question was most likely an F-111E. Not only were they nuclear capable, they also carried a new Terain Following Radar system, which took control of the aircraft from the pilot and may have some bearing on this investigation later. (9)
I carried out a search for any records for F-111E crashes in the UK in 1983 and drew a blank. There were crashes in 1978 and 1984 but nothing for 1983. Next I found contact details for Upper Heyford Heritage centre (the base was closed in 1994) and in an attempt to confirm or refute this possible explanation, I sent them an email asking for any information on a damaged F-111 in the relevant timeframe.
After a few days, and a second email, I received the following response:
"So far, we haven’t managed to pin down this event based on the rather sensationalist reporting of the 'F-11’. If it had crashed, there would be no problem in identifying it.
I am widening the search and contacting Veterans who might know more."
This was encouraging, and later that same day, I found another message waiting in my inbox:
"This is believed to have been F-111E 68-0005, 55th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 20th Tactical Fighter Wing. Right stabilizer (horizontal tailplane). Pilot noticed little difference other than a need to alter the trim and the aircraft landed back safely at RAF Upper Heyford."
Wow! So, not only was Upper Heyford confirming the USAF explanation, they also provided the aircraft serial number, squadron, details of the incident, and sent two images of the airframe circa 1983.
I asked if any paperwork was available to confirm the incident but only recieved the following short response:
"You could try:
https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports
https://www.aviationarchaeology.com/dbSearchAF55.asp "
I searched both sites, but unfortunately found no references to the specific incident described by the USAF and confirmed by RAF Upper Heyford Heritage Centre.
The next logical step was to compare the materials recovered at Llanilar with those used in the construction of the F-111 Aardvark.
A Closer Look at the Material.
By coincidence, my own sample arrived on the same day that I’d scheduled a chat on the phone with Gary Rowe. I was excited to finally get my hands on an actual piece of the wreckage and eagerly opened the parcel. Inside, I found several pieces of printed paper, including a certificate of authenticity and a keyring. Inside the clear plastic keyring was the sample itself, carefully attached to a paper lable with bluetack and bearing the legend, "Debris From the Welsh UFO crash." On the reverse, "The Truth Was Out There."
I tentatively removed the sample for its keyring case and began a close examination. The small piece of metal was dark green on one side and grey on the other with a fine, raised honeycomb pattern. There was no doubt that this was the same material discovered by the farmer, then retreived by the MoD and later by Gary’s team back in 1983.
The sample is roughly rectangular and measures 5.6mm x 8.5mm and is 1.2mm thick. It weighs 0.12g, and the honeycomb cell sections are around 3.1mm apart, or 1/8th of an inch. I carried out a few basic tests:
- Was it magnetic? No.
- Any signs of rust? No, probably aluminium. - - Did it fluoresce under black light? No.
- Was it radioactive? Normal background at 0.13 - 0.15 Usv/h.
- Under magnification, I noticed a rough pattern behind the honeycomb and apparent fibres protruding from the edges. (See bottom edge of photo above.)
- I noted the green paint and managed to extract a possible Ral.
During our conversation, Gary explained that he had friends "well placed in the aerospace industry," and they agreed to conduct a detailed analysis of the debris. Unfortunately, they did not provide a written report but instead relayed the information over the phone. Essentially, they told him that the metal was a high-quality aluminium alloy, "similar to Duralamin," an early trade name for an aluminium alloy. It was not clear if they tested the resin, but they reported it as unidentified . Finally, they stated that the green paint was "unlikely to be used on an aircraft" as it was "not aerodynamic.” We will take a brief look at three separate laboratory analyses later. For now let’s turn our attention back to the F-111E Aardvark.
I continued to 'dig in' and discovered that General Dynamics built the F-111 in 1968. At that time, it was a revolutionary aircraft and one of the first to use a swing-wing system. As a supersonic fighter-bomber, it used some new and advanced construction techniques. I discovered that the F-111 made extensive use of bonded honeycomb sandwich panels throughout, including the fuselage, wings, and most importantly, the horizontal stabilizers. (10)
These honeycomb sandwich panels were manufactured using two large panels with an aluminium honeycomb core, bonded together with epoxy resin, and pressed under high temperatures. Honeycomb cell sizes were either 1/8th or 1/4 of an inch, 3.1 or 6.2mm. (Recall that in our sample, the honeycomb cells measured 3.1mm diameter.) The result, particularly in the case of the horizontal stabilizer, was a single piece, convex structure without any bolts, joints, or rivets. In fact, on the F-111, the two horizontal stabilizers were capable of rotating independently and were part of the control system. As such, they were attached via a single metal post, which might have been relevant here, particularly if UH 68-0005 lost its right-hand horizontal stabilizer over the sleepy town of Llanilar that night in early January 1983. (11)
The Debris Fields.
In the original newspaper report, we learned that the debris had covered "four fields" of the farmers' property, and something appeared to have clipped the tops of trees and uprooted others in the small copse. Gary Rowe confirmed during his site visit that it "appeared as though something had cut a path about 25ft wide through the top of the trees." Interestingly, with wings swept back, the F-111 was 32ft wide (12), this is very close to Gary’s visual estimate. Could it be that the F-111’s Terain Following Radar system misjudged here and hit the trees causing the loss and destruction of the entire right-hand horizontal stabilizer? I think this is a possibility we have to consider.
One of the mysteries in this case was the large amount of wreckage discovered at the time. I managed to locate the property at Llanilar on Google maps. It’s still owned by the Evans family today. See the image below. Using the measuring tool, I estimated the dimensions of the four fields at 400m x 500m (1312 x 1640 ft), giving us 2000 m2 (21,527 square ft) or just under half an acre. (Farming properties in Wales tend to be much smaller than their US counterparts.)
I was able to find accurate dimensions for the F-111 horizontal stabilizer, giving us a square meterage of 8.4 m2 (90' 2"). This is actually pretty large, especially if we allow for partial, or complete delamination of the three layers, giving us a potential 25.2 m2 or 271 square feet of wreckage scattered across four fields and through the small copse of trees. (3x 8.4 m2, two outer sheets and core). This would permit larger sections over 6ft, as described, and smaller pieces could easily number well over 500 if some were smaller than 1 ft square.
Next, there is the question of the green paint or coating, which is visible on many sections of debris. According to my research, F-111E UH 68-0005 was painted with the Southeast Asian Camouflage (SEA) pattern in 1983. (13) This involved four US Federal Standard colours:
- Grey FS 36622/RAL 8047 (underside).
- Tan FS 30219/RAl 8008.
- Medium Green FS 34102/RAL 6011.
- Dark Green FS 34079/RAL 6025.
(Note: These do not directly map to Ral, but I have included the equivalents here.)
Looking at the images supplied by Upper Heyford, this particular aircraft had its horizontal stabilizers painted mostly in the green colours. Visualy, this is a close match for the recovered debris. Furthermore, taking a screenshot of a larger piece from Mark Olly’s documentary, I asked ChatGPT to extract the colour and received the following:
"That paint chip is almost certainly FS 34102 Medium Green, used on the F‑111E in the SEA camouflage scheme."
My own sample appears to show the darker FS34079 colour. It should be noted that aircraft were frequently repainted by maintenance crews using brushes or spray cans, and this may explain the "non aerodynamic" comment from Gary’s original analysis. It is quite possible that a small sample from a roughly painted section produced this result.
Without direct access to lab equipment, expertise or funding, I turned to the next best thing. Previously published studies, including those contained in the appendix to Europe’s Roswell.
Laboratory analysis.
Prior to the publication of the book in 2023, Mark Olly and Phillip Mantle had sent samples of the Llanilar debris to Phenomena Research Australia (PRA) and 'MUFON Of Missouri’ Laboratory for detailed analyses .
I will cover these analyses in brief here and encourage readers to read the full reports available in the book.
Phenomena Research Australia used scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX) in their test and determined the metal to be alluminium foam. This is unusual and not consistent with materials used on the F-111E. They also identified an American made Cyanamid FM 123 epoxy film adhesive, which is used in aerospace sandwich panel applications. Another point of interest was a "spider latch/mesh" embedded within the resin. (14)
‘MUFON Of Missouri’ Laboratory used an XRF gun (X-ray Fluorescence) for their analysis. (15)
The results came back as follows:
Ti (Titanium) 0.34
Mn (Manganese) 0.09
Fe (Iron) 4.62
Ni (Nickel) 0.02
Cu (Copper) 0.32
Zr (Zirconium) 0.01
La (Lanthanum) 94.60
Intriguingly, this combination is similar to the elements used in aerospace alloys, with the exception of the large amount of iron and the majority being lanthanum and not aluminium. Lanthanum is a relatively fragile rare earth metal, not likely to be used in aerospace panel materials.
Three different aerospace industry standard alluminium alloys were used to construct the F-111; 2024, 7075 and 7079. Their elemental makeup is as follows: Aluminum (Al), Copper (Cu), Manganese (Mn) and Magnesium (Mg)
They may also contain small amounts of (Si) Silicon, (Fe)Iron, (Cr)chromium, (Zn)Zinc, and (Ti)Titanium. (16)
Throughout the process of researching and writing this article I had kept in touch with Philip Mantle. He had already independently made the decision to send some of his samples to a colleague in Greece for analysis. He kindly shared the report with me.
The material was taken to the National Centre for Scientific Research (Demokritos), where a scanning electron microscope was used. They detected an alluminium alloy similar to those above with alluminium, copper, magnesium, iron, and titanium. They also noted fibres within the resin, which had a "hooked" nature and were "organic."
During my research, I discovered that the bonding material used on the F-111 sandwich panels apparently included asbestos, resulting in many scrap F-111 fuselage being simply buried, as it was too expensive to separate the metals. (17) It could be that the "mesh" or fibres observer during the analysis were actually asbestos, which is known for its hooked structure. Although asbestos is not organic.
Another factor that might have some bearing on these irregular lab results is the fact that the F-111 sandwich panels were prone to structural issues caused by water ingress. These were repaired by routing out damaged sections, replacing the honeycomb core, filling edges with potting compounds, plating, and painting over. It might be possible that some of the more unusual materials identified in lab tests, such as alluminium foam and lanthanum, are from sections of the horizontal stabilizer that had been repaired previously. (18)
Final thoughts.
After assessing all of the information above, I think we have to consider the possibility that, perhaps for the very first time, the USAF may actually have been telling us the truth about a UFO event! Even if nobody noticed for 42 years. That said, mysteries remain, and there are a number of areas that might reveal new information if investigated further.
Why would the MoD instruct the Forestry Commission to remove trees and even soil from the small copse? The only scenario that seems to fit would be the removal of dangerous chemicals or even nuclear material. However, it is my understanding that the F-111’s did not ever fly with live nuclear weapons. There was no sign of chemical spill, and my own testing revealed normal background radiation.
Another avenue of further research involves tracking down maintenance paperwork for UH 68-0005, perhaps via FOIA to the USAF. This may be difficult however as the airframe was retired in 1993 and scrapped in 2012.
The final point of interest is the MoD presence during this incident. It is highly likely that the MoD deployed one of their Foreign Technology Recovery and Exploitation teams to the site a Llanilar, fearing a Soviet reconnaissance vehicle, or something even more exotic. Identifying the organisations and individuals present that day might prove to be illuminating.
In closing, I encourage other researchers to do their own work to either confirm or refute the information I have provided here. I would also encourage anyone with any information relevant to this case to contact myself, Gary Rowe, Mark Olly, or Phillip Mantle. Any information would be greatfully received, particularly from individuals who were directly involved in the incident.
Notes and references.
1. Discoveries of the Hidden Hand. Gary M Rowe. https://amzn.eu/d/hoN63PL
2. Interview with Gary Rowe, SUFON. https://youtu.be/KvMEwP23d5c?si=LhA6M9tIzhWyx5-K
3. Europe's Roswell: https://youtu.be/uv7Ljz2sttg?si=BhE_calvn7OuB3X3
4. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BL4Xu6APH/
5. British Newspaper Archive https://share.google/e5yYznFhBwRL2mQRZ
6. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Upper_Heyford
7. https://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/articles/2008/05/30/heyford_demo_feature.shtml
8. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_F-11_Tiger
9. Terrain-following radar - Wikipedia https://share.google/5NzF9DZDBrJlXc5qu
12. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-111_Aardvark
13. https://ak-interactive.com/product/us-air-force-south-east-asia-sea-scheme-2/
14. Europe's Roswell: 40 years since Impact. Pg 81.
15. Europe's Roswell: 40 years since Impact. Pg 88.
17. https://theaviationgeekclub.com/heres-why-australia-buried-23-f-111s-after-the-aircrafts-retirement/
18. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA369418.pdf bonded panel repairs
Acknowledgements.
Special thanks to Gary Rowe for providing me with a sample, his time, and many decades of hard work related to this story. Thanks also to Phillip Mantle for assistance and for providing valuable research material.
