On Tuesday the Leader broke the story about speculation the destruction of a local wind turbine was caused by UFOs. Since then the story has gone global – leading to a number of theories on what could have caused the damage.

We spoke to Nick Pope, who worked on the Ministry of Defence's 'UFO desk' in the 1990s.

Now a renowned author and TV personality on the subject, Mr Pope told us: "This case is particularly exciting as we usually just get eyewitness reports or a few grainy images of lights in the sky, but here we can physically see the effects, which gives us a tremendous opportunity to do forensic analysis of the turbine blades."

With this physical analysis, Mr Pope suggested the Conisholme case could have the potential to finally provide answers to the worldwide UFO mystery.

A spokesperson for Ecotricity, which runs the wind farm at Conisholme, Louth said the wind turbines have equipment which registers things like unusual vibrations that can be examined as part of their investigation into what happened. Today they have confirmed that the 'missing' blade has been found on the ground at the site.

Mr Pope said: "This of course, raises another question – are the right people doing the investigation into this? I think the police should be involved and cordon off the site and launch a detailed search and sweep of the area. They could bring in metal detectors to search for debris from the blades.

Best-selling UFO author Timothy Good told us he believes there may be an element of hostility involved: "I am aware of many disturbing cases involving harassment of terrestrial aircraft by UFOs - and this damage to the wind turbine does seem purposeful."

The Conisholme case is one of several UFO stories broken by the Leader in the last six months. In August last year we received numerous reports from local residents who claimed to have seen strange orange lights over the area. Then in October we were visited by a man called Eric Goring from Brinkhill who said he has been witnessing triangular alien craft regularly near his home. Only just last month, we reported on a mysterious explosion and aircraft activity seen over the skies of Mablethorpe.

Nick Pope said: "Looking at the geography of the Louth area, taking in the coast, it is always possible some people could be seeing secret Russian reconnaissance aircraft, perhaps even unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The Russians could have a new secret craft which they are using to probe at our defences so I think we should be looking into this, and the MOD should be involved."

On Louth becoming a hotspot for UFO activity, Mr Pope explained: "Areas of the country can suddenly become hotspots although there is no logical reason for this. Often it is because people don't report what they have seen for fear of ridicule and disbelief, but once somebody gets the ball rolling and the media pick up on it, this makes other people less afraid to come forward."

He added: "My view is something big must have hit the wind turbine to cause that damage and it appears in this case that the UFO witnesses are very respectable, and clearly not people who are making this up."

* Did you see the tentacle UFO? contact gemma.gadd@jpress.co.uk