The Tape - NEVER BEFORE SEEN | Rugeley, Staffordshire (December 2000) Analysis
Written by UAP Files - Jimmy
In late 2024, I was contacted by a man named Richard Fawcett, who explained that he had seen something very unusual back in December 2000 over Rugeley. He had reported his case to both the police and the Royal Air Force and had an old VHS tape that had been sitting in a cupboard for 25 years—never before seen. Never digitised. Never uploaded to the internet. Not just one sighting, but multiple, spanning three days, all captured on his Sony CCD-TRV15E Camcorder.
Richard offered me the footage, saying he had been following my YouTube channel, UAP FILES Podcast, and liked the work I was doing.
At the time, I had just begun recording for a major project documenting UFOlogy and Disclosure in the UK—a series of interviews with politicians, scientists, actors, pilots, and witnesses, with a very European, specifically British, focus. I immediately saw that Richard’s story and footage could be an important part of this documentary. So, I set out on a journey to collect, digitize, enhance, and analyze this footage as thoroughly as possible, ruling out conventional explanations.
After meeting Richard and filming his account with my friend and co-host Tom Vernon (Tom Vernon UAP), and with the technical expertise of Peter Osborne (Truth In Focus UFO), we successfully digitized the footage. Twenty-five years was long enough. I decided it was time to share this footage with the world, presenting it in the best quality possible.
The Case
The first night of footage was captured on December 15, 2000, at 18:05 hrs from the rear garden of 80 Main Road, Brereton, Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK. The filming was over the A460 near a wooded area. This timing is confirmed by official reports Richard filed with the police and the RAF. Although Richard initially recalled it as a summer sighting, the official report—a rare entry in the archives—recorded the precise date, time, and location of the sighting, matching the details seen in the footage, including color changes and positioning, where Richard was living and in the direction of where he filmed. Very close to the time stamp on his Handicap, though like many at the time, very few people set the exact time and date every time they started recording, a frustrating feature with many older handycams without a built-in battery for data memory like the time/date. When you switch it off, or the battery dies, that’s it, the whole camera is dead.
This documentation helped us rule out common skeptical claims such as, "It’s just the Moon" or "He doesn’t understand digital zoom."
Using freely available programs and AI tools, we confirmed that the Moon’s position at that time was in the southwest—nowhere near where Richard was filming of northwest. Other planets visible that night (Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars) were either below the horizon or too low to match the trajectory of the object. Additionally, these celestial bodies wouldn’t have remained in the same position for multiple hours, unlike what Richard recorded. His footage spans from 18:05 to 23:30 hrs and continues over three consecutive nights, which we will explore in future videos.
Ruling Out Conventional Explanations
Aircraft
There were no reports of air traffic in the area at the time. The police and RAF confirmed to Richard that they were unaware of any aircraft that could explain the sighting. This is significant because the sighting was officially recorded in government archives, suggesting it was taken seriously. Of course there is the possibility that the Royal Air Force were testing something secret, so wouldn’t have been honest with Richard at the time (as he himself commented on), though the neighbouring RAF base, RAF Stafford, didn’t even have a runway. They are not known for testing in any declassified files and are primarily a logistics and support base for helicopters and refuelling.
Drones
In the year 2000, consumer drones as we know them today did not exist. The drones available were primarily military-grade UAVs or used for specialised industrial purposes. Consumer drones only became widely accessible in the mid-to-late 2000s, making it highly unlikely that Richard saw a drone capable of remaining in the air for multiple hours. Even by today’s standards, that length of linger-time is unusual, the batteries simply didn’t last that long.
Balloons and Lanterns
Hot air balloons and Chinese lanterns existed in 2000, but their ability to remain stationary for hours is highly unlikely, especially given the documented weather conditions. The average wind speed in Rugeley that night was approximately 19.1 mph (30.8 km/h), which would have caused any untethered object to drift significantly over time. Additionally, lanterns and balloons typically emit a flickering glow from a fire source, whereas the object in the footage displayed consistent and varied color changes.
Military Activity
Nearby military bases included:
RAF Shawbury (35 miles away) – a helicopter training base.
RAF Cosford (25 miles away) – primarily a training facility.
RAF Stafford (8 miles away) – a logistics and supply base with no known history of testing experimental aircraft.
The RAF had no records of activity that night and explicitly informed Richard at the time that it was not one of their operations. While it is possible they would deny testing classified technology, the characteristics of the object—visible for hours, extremely bright, and captured clearly on a consumer-grade Handycam—make this explanation unlikely.
Satellites
In 2000, the number of satellites in orbit was far smaller than today. The International Space Station (ISS) was one of the few visible at the time, but its trajectory would not allow it to remain stationary above Rugeley for hours. The ISS orbits the Earth at approximately 27,000 km/h, completing a full orbit every 90 minutes. An object lingering above the tree line for an extended period simply does not match known satellite behaviour.
Conclusion: A True UFO
After eliminating known possibilities—aircraft, celestial objects, drones, balloons, military activity, and satellites—we are left with an object that defies conventional explanation. The footage shows a spherical, colour-changing object with a prolonged presence in the sky, displaying characteristics that do not align with any known man-made or natural phenomena and over three days…
This remains, by definition, a true UFO (or UAP, as we are now expected to call them).
To watch the footage and hear Richard’s on-camera account, check out our short documentary film here:
Nice investigation, I live within walking distance of this location and have been involved in the ufo (uap?) subject at the sharp end for many years and as you may have concluded, Rugeley and the Cannock Chase is no stranger to ufo activity.
Happy if you want to get in touch
There are many lies here in the field of UFO, but the truth can be established by special methods of Open-source intelligence (TEXT MINING). After studying all the materials about UFOs, it becomes quite obvious that since the late 40s of the twentieth century, a secret project has been developing in the United States for the development and production of aircraft, where the lifting force is created using high-frequency vibration. It all started with James Pitts' "Sky Car" vibrating orthotopter umbrella, then the umbrella was closed with a dome and devices appeared according to the scheme of conventional electromagnetic vibrating speakers (membrane + inductance) - fragments of the membrane were found by a farmer in Roswell. Then they created piezoelectric thrusters, or with small dischargers on the surface (they glowed all over the body due to ionization of the air), and now they are planes with plasma propulsion panels (so they are angular - that is, with flat surfaces). Thousands of discharge cells are densely packed into motor panels - they shoot streams of plasma (railgun architecture - coaxial electrodes). The ionized air of the spark discharge is accelerated in the railgun chamber by the Lorentz force to enormous speeds - a kind of ramjet engine is obtained. Just imagine! - tens of thousands of small ramjet engines assembled in panels and launching plasma synchronously at a huge frequency (hundreds of kilohertz). Plasma jets form toroidal air vortices - this air cushion creates lift and acceleration. See, for example, the MARAUDER (Magnetically Accelerated Ring to Achieve Ultra-high Directed Energy and Radiation) project. My article "UFOs are made in the USA" and the books "UFO Hunt" and "UFO Elimination" describe all this in detail. The technology is quite mundane - it is known in great detail thanks to information leaks. For example, air ionization in the coaxial elements of a railgun is created using radiation (radioactive polonium is introduced into the metal). Devices of this type were used throughout the 50s-60s-70s-80s for secret missions (they took off, as a rule, from special submarines). With the fall of the USSR, their use by the United States was practically curtailed (in the novel "Little Green Men" by Christopher Buckley, speechwriter Bush Sr., a scene is described where the US president decides to curtail the "flying saucer" project). The winding down of the project can be recorded by the drop in magnesium consumption in the United States, since such fuel was used in fuel cells (magnesium strips were burned in forced galvanic batteries), this is 2007-2008. However, later the development of the technology continued in the Russian Federation and China (the technology was restored by reverse engineering methods for downed devices). Secrecy, however, was maintained and there was no civilian use because the technology was not suitable for it - harmful microwave radiation from pulsed plasma thrusters (harm to pilots and impact on electrical appliances inside and along the flight line). The payload is small (but one nuclear charge is enough). There is no radio communication - unmanned vehicles can fly and maneuver only in accordance with the program. Previously, there was a narrow application profile - rare spy missions (so that pilots do not get a lot of radiation). Reconnaissance aircraft of this type were often observed at military bases, missile launch sites and airfields. They were even seen by peaceful geologists in the taiga, where clearings for seismic exploration were laid - UFOs flew there to check whether military construction was underway (I myself heard stories about this))). I think that soon this technology will be declassified, and cargo airships with flickering round plasma panels on the surface of the hull will appear in the Arctic sky.