News 2008

[ Updated: 27/07/2008 ]

27 July - Another Week, More Fire Lanterns...

Over the past weeks we have had numerous sightings and reports that appear to be more fire lantern flights.

18 July - Ashford, Kent

"I wanted to bring to your attention something witnessed by myself and my wife at our home near Ashford Kent. We live in a rural area,  in a secluded spot, there is no light pollution to be seen at night, thus making where we are located an ideal spot for observing the night sky.

At 23:10  I was looking at the planet Jupiter through my 15x70 magnification binoculars, a few short moments later I was joined by my wife who also wished to view Jupiter as it was a very still night with a clear sky, perfect for viewing. At 23:20 both our attentions were drawn to a large, very bright glowing orange light heading in a Northerly direction from the South. The object was travelling at some speed when it suddenly stopped, for a second or two in our clear view. My wife continued looking at this through the binoculars, describing it at as being like a large flame coloured ball. There was no sound at all to be heard or any flashing lights, thus ruling out aircraft of any sort."

20 July - Market Drayton, Shropshire

"I counted 14 orange coloured lights floating one behind the other across the sky and then turning towards the Loggerheads direction. We thought at first it might be somebody sending Chinese lanterns up or something similar; although they were a solid light, not a flickering one!

It wasn't until I read in the newspaper about there having been other sightings recently over Tern Hill Barracks, which is possibly about a mile as the crow flies that I began to think it was similar to other sightings in this area! Now I am more positive it was something more than party lights."

26 July - Ashburton, Devon

"[We saw] 20 UFO's, sighted over Ashburton at approx 10pm. [They were] large balls of orange light approx at about 15,000ft, and [and performed] aerial aerobatics. There were 4 witnesses."

27 July - Abingdon, Oxon

"We saw 7 amber lights in what I can only describe as a chain (they looked like fairy lights), in the sky behind the Rose Revived pub.  There were quite a few other cars on the road and I wonder if anyone else saw them. 

The lights were relatively low and moving quite sedately, and appeared to be the same distance away, at varying heights but in quite a close formation .  As we progressed down the hill some of the lights disappeared and by the time we got to the bottom and pulled into the pub car park there were only 4 left.  Getting out of the car, there was no noise (we did think they may have been helicopters but it was a very still night so I'm sure we would have heard something) and as we watched two more of them disappeared, and then a few minutes later they were all gone."

27 July - Woodley, Berks

3 independent sightings and reports:

• "At about 10.30pm, I was in my garden and saw a very bright orange light travelling from the west in a south east direction. behind it came several more - all going in the same direction in a long line. All bright orange with no noise and no navigation lights. I am used to planes, being near the flight path to and from Heathrow and have never seen this colour on any plane. In all, I counted 12 in the space of about 10 minutes. My boyfriend suggests it was reflected light in the atmosphere from sunspots. Its a very clear night and I was intrigued - explanation someone please? "

• "We must have seen over twenty of these and we managed to get some good video footage. My adrenaline was through the roof. I was so interested to read the other recent reports of people seeing what must have been the same thing. The globes all moved at the same speed and came from one horizon and disappeared over the opposite horizon within 30 seconds. "

• "We have just watched in amazement as around 10.20pm at least 20 may be 30 bright orange lights silently but purposely drifted across the sky from left to right, NW to SE. Our guesses as to what they were included hot-air balloons, hang-gliders and microlites, but they seemed just a bit too fast and too high up for any of these.  The first five were in a V formation and then the lights of one of the back pair went out and we could not see it at all no matter how hard we strained our eyes. The rest came gliding into view a few at a time, all in the same flight path, and disappeared from view when they had gone past, all in about the same place, as if they had gone into a cloud, but we could still see the stars twinkling brightly as there were no clouds."

June - The Fire Lanterns Return...

15 June 2008 - From 'TD' in Minety, Wiltshire

13 June - Carterton, Oxfordshire

From 'H':

"We were travelling along the road from Burford to Carterton just after 8.00pm, and witnessed a silver/blue metallic object in the sky that appeared completely motionless and not suspended or supported by any means. The object appeared to be of circular shape, and was viewed in bright daylight on clear, sunny day. The object appeared over farmland between Burford and Carterton (which is approx 4-5 miles away from RAF Brize Norton). My husband and I have been trying to work out if it could have been an aircraft, however none that we could think of would be able to stay so static or would be the right kind of shape...and we're also puzzled as to why, if it were an RAF aircraft, it should be in that location and quite so low."

The proximity of RAF Brize Norton may be relevant, but the normal AT for Brize are the very obvious RAF VC-10, KC-3 and C-17 transport and tanker aircraft, it is difficult o see how these could be discerned as a motionless object.  Enquiries with RAF Brize Norton are ongoing.

8 June - Lancashire

A very curious sighting from 'R':

"On Sunday 8th June at ~ 5.40 pm whilst enjoying the fine Lancashire sunshine in our garden, my wife and I observed a strange floating object around 30-35 K feet ( ~  compared  to overhead jet  altitudes); which through binoculars appeared to be 2 sail like structures which merged together and became eventually a saucer like shape ( inverted cup on saucer).  This did not move much ... I kid you not. Also at a much  greater distance were 4 spherical objects and these seemed to be stationary, with no obvious movement.  Perhaps these objects  could have been  stationary satellites, but  they disappeared after 10 mins  or so as did the closer saucer shaped object.  Amazing but we definitely saw something inexplicable so wonder if anyone else saw these strange things in the clear blue sky on Sunday. "

Certainly a curious sighting, for which there is no simple or logical single explanation.  There are the NOSS satellites which can be flown in formations, but these certainly cannot 'hover' in orbit, and its almost certain these would not be visible in bright daylight.

7 June - Location Unknown..

What appears to be a fire lantern event, but sadly no location provided by the witnesses:

"On Saturday 7th June at round 11pm me and 3 other friends witnessed what I'm convinced were hot air balloons...  however as has been pointed out can you fly hot air balloons at night and if so why cant I find details of the event on the internet?

The strangest thing that had me googling for "hot air balloon disaster" was that one of the glowing red objects suddenly flared up and appeared to be dropping flames for a few seconds before disappearing. Everyone around me including several passing cars asking what they were agreed that they were too far away and yet still very bright to be fire lanterns and that they must be at least the size of a small aircraft and all objects were travelling in a straight line very slowly which again suggests they were wind blown.

Everything suggests they were Chinese lanterns and yet around 6 other witnesses agreed they were too big and must be hot air balloons... was there a disaster that night?"

We tend to agree with 'HC' that this was a flight of fire lanterns, the witnesses may well have seen the paper/plastic balloon catch fire and fall to the ground - merely highlighting a safety hazard of this type of lantern.

1 June - Reading, Berkshire

A very curious sighting and report from 'J':

"I would like to report seeing ‘something’ over Reading Town Centre last night.

At approx between 12:45 – 01:00 I was standing in my back garden smoking when I heard a low sounding droning noise, after hearing it for a good 10 sec I saw an aircraft travelling from a North West to South East direction. When I saw it approaching I presumed I was seeing fixed navigation lights – the first was the nose of the aircraft and two either side which again I presumed were from the wings and I didn’t think any more of it, until it passed over my head which was when I noticed there was no tail light that I normally see on passenger aircraft. The object I was looking at had 4 lights adjacent to each other spanning the width of the object, the two lights at the extreme left and right where fixed and the two light between them were blinking intermittently.

Unfortunately I could see absolutely no outline of the object, it was totally black against a cloudy sky but the formation of the lights on the object gave a perfect triangular shape much like a Black Manta used by the USAF, I started thinking about the direction of travel which was unusual as I don’t see that many aircraft travelling in that direction and it was very low in the sky which made it more odd that I could not see even the faintest outline of fuselage. I am sceptical that I saw a UFO as the lights were no bigger than standard navigation lights on passenger jets, but it was the formation of the lights and the deeper droning noise that came from it that got me thinking."

Late May - The ISS Causes Sightings

In the last week of May we received two separate reports - from Hemel Hempstead (on the 22nd) and the West Country (on the 30th) of a bright white light traversing the sky.  In both cases we have been able to confirm that the ISS was making a pass over the sky.

There was also a report from Wakefield (on the 31st) of similar lights, but neither the ISS nor the visiting Shuttle would have been visible over Wakefield at the time.

24 May - The Camera Lies?

While photographing the sunset, and afterglow, on 24 May, Brian James managed to capture another anomaly.

In common with the vast majority of such anomaly images, nothing was seen by the naked eye at the time the shutter was tripped, however a resultant review of the images revealed a bright return.

Its seems unlikely this was a bolide or meteor, as these should have been noticed by eye..

An aircraft should have been obvious in the sky, as Brian was observing that area continually for many minutes.

There were many insects flying as Brian was photographing at the time of the image, and it seems more than likely this was/is simply an insect reflecting the camera flash.  That said, the apparent 'trail' behind (or in front of?) the 'object' is certainly curious, and Brian has never caught this effect from a known mundane object before in 15 years of looking to capture anomalies.

Insect, bolide, aircraft or UFO...

17 May - Sheffield, Yorks

From "A" - former RAF, and an experienced glider pilot, amateur astronomer and observer:

"At around 22:27 to 22:31 BST, my wife and I observed around 12 to 14 aerial objects flying on an East-to West track, over a 4 minute period, just on the western outskirts of Sheffield. They flew directly over the Fulwood district of Sheffield, heading out over the Derbyshire border. The objects were a quite bright orange-red colour and almost circular in shape. They exhibited none of the standard nav-light strobes which would be displayed by either civil or military aircraft, but the lights did have a slight flicker in appearance. All the craft looked identical in appearance.

We had set out from home to go to the pub for the last half hour; on the way we picked up a friend and he stood and watched the scene with us for about the last two minutes.

All the craft were travelling on the same course. The height was impossible to estimate. There was no noise. Three or four successive waves of the craft came over. The first batch was of three lights in line. Then came a batch of four, in two pairs. Then several more close together, and finally another three in line. All travelling on the same heading.

It did occur to me that they were travelling in a direction which may have been following the prevailing wind at the time. I am a former glider pilot, and I know that there is a tendency for the prevailing direction to be unusual in the UK at this time of year. I have observed that the wind has been from the east for the past week or two. During May each year our normal prevailing westerlies turn round, and throughout the day today we have had a gentle easterly. So this may give a clue that these objects may have been wind-blown balloons. But the formation characteristics of the group was quite unusual.  I know these objects were not normal aircraft, there is absolutely no way these were civilian craft.

I am aware that there are scammers “UFO balloons” which exist, and the only thing that I can think is that this is what they were. If this is the case then someone or some group may have released them somewhere to the east of Sheffield, in order to create a stir. If this is the case then it must have been no mean task to organise and co-ordinate such a release and probably needed several conspirators to effect it. Could such an event been arranged? If so, where was the likely release site?

We have been in further correspondence with A.  Having completed some detailed research on the internet, A observes:

"Oddly enough, I tracked back on the flight vector of last night's balloons to see where they may have been released from. Calling up Google Earth, I could identify one particular building which fell directly on the flight path. It is a building used by one of the largest Chinese fireworks importers in the UK, near the city centre about 3 miles to the east of us.

One interesting facet of last night was that during our observations we saw what was probably a police helicopter approaching on a path which could have intersected with the balloons. Before it got close, we saw the copter turn sharply to the north, probably to avoid them. I wouldn't mind betting that the pilot had come across them before and recognised them as a hazard to avoid.

Sounds like a multiple hazard activity to me. Possible risk of fire damage, debris and such-like dropping from the air when the flight terminates."

A is quite correct that these balloons are a hazard on various levels.  From our understanding of (current) regulations, as these balloons are less than 2m in size they are not classified as vehicles that fall under CAA rules and regulations.

When this type of fire balloon was first imported and retailed in the 1980s some fire services did manage to limit (and I believe ban) the sale and use of such balloons - I wonder what has happened to these local regulations now?

16 May  - MoD Release X-Files...

The media have made much of the MoD acknowledging that UFOs exist, courtesy of the May 2008 disclosures of 'MoD UFO Files' via the National Archives - the files covering "a wide range of UFO-related documents covering the years 1978–2002."

Of course the release of files isn't something new, but access has been made easier by the FoIA.

A review of the disclosed files >>>

National Archives website >>>

4 May - Thames Valley Flap?

The first May Bank Holiday weekend produced a mini-flap of UFO reports from an area between Reading, Maidenhead and Marlow.

From "S" at Purley, near Reading:

"We would be interested to know if there is a logical explanation for what we have just seen, we live in Purley on Thames. At approximately 10.00pm BST (about 40 minutes ago) we witnessed a very unusual sight.

Travelling from East(ish) to West(ish) we saw at least 10 orange lights travelling quite slowly and completely silently with no navigation lights or strobes. There appeared to be two groups - one widely and randomly spaced and the other at times in a straight vertical line formation. They were above cloud level.  There were quite a few other people who had noticed and stopped their cars to look."

"These objects were quite large and at a height of approximately 9,000 to 12,000 ft.  The cloud base was very high and these were above the cloud base. Also, these things were flying in perfect formation some of the time (a dead straight vertical line of five evenly spaced and an arrowhead of five)."

S supplied some photos taken on a compact digicam, however the ISO and shutter speed resulted in grainy/noisy images with inadvertent false movement of the lights - so analysis is difficult.

From "V" in Reading:

"at 22.00hrs on Sunday I filmed 9 flying orange lights over Reading, Berkshire, the footage last about 6 mins of the flying lights in 2 formations.

The 1st [group of] 4 flew over the hill in a straight line then formed into a square formation. The 2nd [group] again came over the hill in the same straight line then formed a triangle formation with one in the centre. The last light came over the hill in the same flight path but was by it self.

They all vanished in the same point in the sky. They made no sound and moved to fast to be a hot air balloon.

From "DJ" in Marlow:

"At approx 10.00pm last night (Sunday) I was out with my dog, and I was looking at the sky to the South.  In the distance I could see a number of yellow/orange lights slowly moving across the sky.  I've never seen anything like this before, and they appeared to move randomly into various formations.

Did anyone else see these?"

From "SK" in Tilehurst, Reading:

"On Sunday night at 9.55pm my wife and I spotted 7 lights in the formation of 'the Plough', we both said, 'there bright tonight', but then we both realised that they were all moving in the same direction, they moved until we could not see them any more, then 3 more came in a triangle formation, again they moved all together until they disappeared.

Lastly a big light came and hovered for about 45 seconds, then disappeared.

It was a very very clear night, there were about 12 witnesses in my road in Tilehurst, the lights were of a orange colour, when I got my binos, it looked like a ball of fire. They were towards Pangbourne way.

It was all very weird."

From "K" in Maidenhead:

"Sometime after 10.15 last night I was out in my garden looking at the stars, it was a good clear sky. I was amazed to see groups of orange-ish lights in the sky. [There were] three groups of lights each with 4 or 5 orange lights, which seemed to keep moving about in the group.

I watched these for around 10 minutes, they moved slowly across the sky then started disappearing one by one - sort of flickering before winking out."

Here we have 5 separate reports from an area of some 12-15 miles within a relatively short timeframe. There seems little doubt that these UFOs were again the dreaded fire balloons.  That said, not all of the reports are totally corroborative, and the Maidenhead event was in the wrong direction - although the description and the 'flickering out' strongly suggest lanterns. 

The larger, hovering light seen at Tilehurst also doesn't fit the pattern of balloons, although we should consider that laser/light shows may have been in use at some outdoor event (or indeed events) where lanterns were also being launched - this was the Bank Holiday weekend with some exceptionally fine weather for spring.

4 May - St. Austell, Cornwall

From "NR", who was with a work colleague:

"I would like to report a sighting of 13 orange/blue balls of lights over St Austell.

It was 00.15 on the 4th of May.  Me and my work mate was driving back to our depot at Par and seen the lights in the sky that moved across the sky - some moved very fast, and circled others. [I've] never seen any thing like it before - both of us were shocked of what we seen.

I got a few pic on the phone camera but not very good."

Again, this is highly suggestive of a launch/flight of fire lanterns - perhaps the orange/blue isn't usual, but such balloons have been marketed/retailed with coloured plastic envelopes (normally for daylight use) for at least 12-18 months.

David Gilliam of the Cornwall UFO Group confirmed they had a very similar sighting/report from St Austell for the same time, at this stage it is not clear if CUFOG's report is from the same witnesses or whether there is an independent report.

1 May - M56, near Cheadle, Cheshire

"At 2335hrs, I was driving from Cheadle to Northwich, Cheshire and on the M56 motorway travelling in a southwesterly direction a couple of miles from junction 9. 

I looked up into the starry night and saw a fast moving what seemed to be like a star. It was travelling in a northwesterly direction away to my right, say towards Liverpool. After a few seconds it seemed to break up like that of a firework rocket, which it was certainly not, and the colour of the sparks/flames were a vivid bright green.

Now there were no cars behind me and none in front, was I the only one to see it? Was it a meteorite burning out I wonder? I did contact Jodrell Bank but had no reply.

I would be interested to hear of anyone else that saw it."

While we have yet to learn of other reports, this was possibly a sighting of a meteor breaking up.

1 May - Nuneaton, Warks

From witness "SD":

"It’s 21.43pm, Thursday, May 1st 2008. I was just watching House on TV when l heard a loud rumbling sound that didn’t resemble a helicopter, plan or jet (which we sometimes get flying overhead). Instead it sounded deeper in tone. Anyway, l listened as the sound travelled overhead. It was such an unusual sound that l looked out of the window. I saw two red flashing lights which appeared to be in alignment, one on the left with the other on the right. However, the gap between these to lights was extremely broad, so broad in fact that there was little chance that the two lights belonged to the same craft.

I thought l was seeing some kind of strange reflection so l went outside. There were in fact two lights. The noise was still quite noticeable, more of a hum now. I went inside and grabbed my video camera. I managed to just about get a bit of one light but the church was blocking the other.

I’m not in the habit of reporting things like this. I just thought I’d jot this down, in case it made some sense to someone and in the hope that someone might be able to shed some light on what flew over our village in the direction of  Twycross."

It is interesting that it was an unusual sound that initially alerted SD to something unusual; this suggests something not within the normal range of sounds/frequencies at the location. UFO events with both lights/objects and sounds are unusual in recent times.

23 April - Stoke Newington, London

A report by "ID":

"[Last night I saw] a single dot of light (size of a typical small star in the night sky).  Moving at high speed in absolutely fixed direction, North, north east. Altitude? certainly high, but I can't estimate it.

There was not a sound! Speed would suggest a very, very fast jet, but without sound - surely there would be some suggestion. There were at least 4 airliners on various approaches to Heathrow visible on their typical paths, they must have seen it too.  This object had possible military or commercial clearance to pass London at more than 500mph!  It was like following a high speed missile and to give an idea of the speed: turn your head fully to the right and then turn it fully to the left within 1.5 seconds! The airliners were moving like snails in comparison.

The light was not as bright as an airliner or bright star.  Direction wise, it may have been heading in the direction of Norwich (Lakenheath or Mildenhall perhaps?)  The lack of sound at high speed however, is either great stealth or soundless technology beyond our comprehension.

I haven't ever seen anything like it before and I have seen shooting stars that are much brighter and faster and they burn out.  This was too deliberate, this was something on a mission. "

Despite the suggestions of the witness, this seems likely to be a meteor grazing the atmosphere.

13 April - Beeston, Notts

From the witness: "KH":

"When myself and my husband were walking home last night, having just been out for a meal in Beeston, my husband pointed out a really strange light in the sky. I have attached a picture which was taken between 10.30pm and 11pm.

We are quite used to seeing aircraft fly over as we live not far away from East Midlands Airport but this particular bright orange light was completely different to anything we had seen before. There was no noise and it seemed to, at first, move really slowly and looked to be heading North before shooting off at quite a speed in the Southerly direction.

This was then very quickly followed by another one which followed an identical path before finally a third light appeared.  Please could you just have a look at this picture and let me know if you have any idea if there are aircraft similar to this flying around the Nottinghamshire area. There were no other bright orange lights which followed these three sightings."

Various aspects of this event and report suggest fire lanterns; however the photo (which we cannot reproduce under copyright) taken with a cameraphone depicts a remarkably bright light/object - fire lanterns are normally surprisingly difficult to image.

5 April - Felixstowe, Suffolk

A report from "AF":

Tonight between 11:30pm and midnight in Maybush Lane Felixstowe.

My girlfriend and I were walking and saw 5 “sky lanterns???” in the sky heading towards the sea from inland. They were travelling unusually slow and had, what looked like, flames at the front of the object. I couldn’t tell if they were low flying or massive. They appeared in 5 minute increments. They flew across our path for approx 10 too 15 seconds before dissipating."

We are not aware of other reports from the area, but the description is very suggestive of yet another fire balloon/lantern event.

2 April - M6, Near, Rugby, Warks

Two witnesses driving towards London:

"I was driving with my colleague on Wednesday 2nd April 2008 on the morning towards London.

We were near junction 1 M6 at 5.30a.m when we seen approaching us two small bright lights, which looked like an oncoming car apart from it was in the sky.

The motorway was not busy but there were approximately ten vehicles around us. It then hovered over us with no sound, there were no under markings, no warning lights just this vehicle type object above us, all the vehicles slowed down, I pulled over on the hard shoulder immediately but the vehicle was gone, my passenger who was looking out of his window all the time could not ascertain what it was."

March - Lancaster

A number of sightings by one family, across a period of a few days in mid-March:

"The first sighting was when I was driving back from Manchester airport with my son, it was about 12.30 in the morning as I was driving through Galgate Road I saw some orange lights moving quickly up ahead of me, they were about 20-30 ft in the air and moving crossways over the road as if a car was crossing a bridge up ahead.

As I drove on the lights moved round to the side of the car to the right and I could see a matt black triangle looking about 2 feet in diameter with 2 orange lights down each side moving swiftly between the houses about 20 ft in the air it then vanished out of sight. The whole incident took about 10 seconds and was totally silent.
I live very high up in Lancaster and have a panoramic view out of my bathroom window, I was watching the sunset on the evening the 16th and I saw 2 things, one looked like a comet but it was moving slowly and did not have a tail it moved behind a cloud and vanished, I called my daughter upstairs who watched it with me.

About 10 minutes later I saw what looked like a slim black rod moving at a 45 degree angle which then vanished behind a cloud.  My daughter witnessed this event as well."

The first sighting is curious, as it appears to have involved the smallest 'black triangle' UFO I can recall.  Given its size and proximity to houses, we cannot rule out the possibility it was some sort fo radio-controlled model.

13 January - Stokeham, Notts

From witness "NB":

"I was driving from Treswell towards Stokeham in north Notts and noticed an object in the sky. I would describe it as a horizontal, very slim, pencil shaped, chromium coloured and tapered at the edges.  The object faded quickly and I strained to see if an aircraft could be seen. I could not see anything. As it was a very sunny day I assumed it was a reflection from an aircraft fuselage.

Only a few seconds later I turned a corner approximately at right angles to my previous direction of travel.  I continued to look out of the driver side window (now wound down) in the direction of the objects last position. This I did for about 30 seconds or so.

Realising I had better concentrate on driving I looked forward in the direction of travel only to see another very brief glimpse of the object appearing distant about 15 degrees to my right. Once again it had faded quickly. The distance covered in the short time between sightings appeared substantial.

I thought this time about the possibility of it being sun reflecting on lenticular cloud (as an ex glider pilot I have spent a lot of time looking at clouds) but dismissed this because of the rapid fading of the object.

As we live in proximity to both Robin Hood (Nottingham) airport, RAF Waddington and RAF Scampton I would not want to jump to conclusions about the nature of the sighting, but if any other reports of similar sightings are reported I would be interested in comparing notes."

We are unaware of any other reports from the area at the time.

January - Guildford, Surrey

A sighting near Guildford, from the witness:

"I was driving west bound on the A31 when I noticed a bright reddish globe of light floating above the nearby fields on my right hand side, across the road toward the direction of Aldershot (north from my position).

[At] first I thought it was the back of a low jet fighter plane backburner, but the size and colour of the reddish hue was more similar to a flare than a plane especially the bright pink/reddish colour, it had a bright center like a star but pink in colour and a reddish exterior with no smoke, sound or the normal burning flicker of a flare, it also kept motionless in the well lit sky (it was around 18:03), floating at the same vertical height for around 1 minute after spotting it.

As I was driving at around 60 miles per hour it was impossible to tell the exact distance between me and the light and whether it was completely motionless, but I would estimate it was standing there at a distance of around half to one mile from where I was.

After around one minute of watching it, I tried to stop the car to have a better look, as I also have a good camera on my phone, but there were no place to stop. I decided to do a U turn to watch the light from the closer other side of the road, and when I realized it had already disappeared with no trace. It is impossible to tell if it diminished or flew away as there were trees in between when I realized it completely disappeared."

1 January - Stockport, Cheshire

A report and enquiry that came from Miles Skinner of the Stockport Express newspaper; from the original witness:

"Last night me and my wife attended a new years party along with my daughters, at midnight we did the usual, and all went outside.

While we were outside someone noticed a light in the dark sky moving over Stockport very fast with a orange glow; hen another behind it - maybe a mile apart; then two more - all travelling at the same speed with the same distance between each one. Then they seem to disappear into the night sky.

These were not planes, helicopters, fireworks, flares or anything like I have seen before, but they were witnessed by around 15 people who were all stood outside (including my wife and daughters.) "

Given the number of fire lantern reports around the Festive and New Year period, we were fairly certain this was another flight of fire lanterns from a party somewhere close. Mike was able to confirm that a group did come forward and acknowledge that they had released a number of fire lanterns from their New Year's Eve party.

1 January - Broadstone, Dorset

Our first UFO report of the New Year:

" Following a 'quiet night in' for the New Year’s Eve, we stepped outside onto our patio shortly after midnight to take in a firework display coming from a property some 750 yards away. It was pleasantly mild compared to recent nights.

As we were about to re-enter the house, my wife pointed up skyward pointing to two objects moving from South to North West. Her initial question was "Were they satellites?" To this I answered categorically no having witnessed countless satellites from here and elsewhere.

In continuing to observe the objects, I went through a series of thoughts. Were they airborne residue from a firework (an obvious possibility given it was now 10minutes after midnight) - no; I quickly placed their height above the cloud base (estimated 1500 to 2000 feet). Were they the navigation lights of a commercial aircraft - no; they were offset, i.e. one was significantly ahead of the other. Were they two aircraft, possibly military, in a formation - a possibility I can’t rule out.

However, in the short time we were able to observe them though the break in the cloud, I noted the following characteristics of the light source. Firstly, they were a diffused red/pink. This might be explained by the possible diffusion/reflection off a navigation light over an aircraft’s superstructure. Secondly, they had a distinct appearance and motion totally uncharacteristic of aircraft navigation lights.  They were visible to us for a period of no more than twenty seconds before they were obscured by cloud. During that time, my wife (a very rational and calm person), continued to ask me what we were seeing. My only explanation I could offer was that I had witnessed something similar in the late 1970s."

As has been so common of late, certain aspects of the reported lights suggest a possibility of fire lanterns, there is little doubt their use at/from parties on the night in question is increasing.

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