It all began, seemingly, on the 7th September - a Saturday - with a mother and adult son walking back from their local fish 'n chip shop at Lordshill, at 9.40pm.  Both known to me, and, indeed, both related to SUFOG member Davina.  A light in the sky caught their eyes - an aircraft, they both thought.  But, it was hovering, and it was 'disc shaped'.  Further, it carried bright lights, two at the front and one at the rear, all white but surrounded by a blue haze.  As they both watched in some amazement, it shot off towards Eastleigh at a speed described by the 20 year old lad as something he had NEVER ever seen an aircraft go at!  In complete silence too.  Reported to me within minutes by Davina as she was urged to go out and look at it by her relatives – but too late.. I was able to speak to the couple within 30 minutes - they were still stunned, and, not uniquely - they both said it had 'changed their lives' from having an open mind on UFO's to total belief.

The incident led me to get a request in our Echo newspaper a few days later for any other sightings of the object.  Inside a few days a flurry of reports landed on my desk or via the 'phone.  A Bishopstoke lady wrote to report a very fast moving object, 'spherical and glowing a bright copper' heading towards Winchester around 8.15pm on the same night of the 7th Sept . 'Too fast' for a shooting star, she wrote, and her husband also caught a glimpse of it as it 'swept upwards' anyway!  The lady attached a sketch.

On the very same night a Totton lady observed from an open window at 'around midnight' a bright 'double disc', or more like two slim cigar shapes' as she amended, in the sky, carrying white lights.  It hovered for THIRTY MINUTES before it, or they (?), .took off 'like a shot from a gun' and 'too quiet for an aircraft'.  She also mentioned a sighting she had in 1976 over Whiteparish, a village on the Romsey to Salisbury road main road.  Stunning to say the least.  A 'huge' greyish object that hovered over the lady and a girlfriend who were pushing respective babies in pushchairs as they left a barn on the farm they were at.  Late in the evening, they saw that it had a "dome" on top, and having a 'glazed' look rather like modern bathroon tiles as she described it, they were 'terrified' and took to their heels, looking back as they did so to see it had vanished.

Interesting… I recall 1976 being one of those years, followed by ‘77 and '78 being years that saw many reports of similar craft in the media. I had several myself in '77 and '78 over my Southampton home.  Still on September the 7th, a Bitterne Park lady wrote to report watched a 'very large bright light' move across the sky around 10.45pm and vanish behind houses. Told her husband who subsequently saw my letter in the Echo newspaper and told her - hence the letter.  No speed given and NOT an aircraft type of light.  Bitterne Park is right on the flight path to Southampton Airport and aircraft frequently fly low over that area. FOUR sightings on the same night!

It didn’t stop there!  The very next day a Romsey (few miles north of Southampton) lady opened her window around 9.35pm the better to observe a long oval object - carrying three white lights at the front and one at the rear.  Going at the speed of a “small plane” and “quite high”, it vanished towards Southampton.

We move to Tuesday the l0th September at approx 9.30pm at the Bitterne Park to Woodmill area of Southampton along Riverside Walk - a spot I’ve walked many a time, overhung by weeping willow trees and bushy and with an open path alongside the River Itchen.  A rather distraught lady ~phoned me on Sunday the l5th and began to tell me of her daughter and boyfriend walking home when they were “enveloped” by a glowing white light, not bright, and found they couldn’t move.  And, they said. “it hurt”!  The daughter came in as her mother was talking to me and added the rest of the story.  They both felt “detached” from each other, she said - unaware of each other’s presence.  The light went, they regained normality of a disturbing kind - the boyfriend was terrified.  I spoke to him a few days later and he was still in fear of that particular spot.  Seemingly the incident took seconds, but, as their mother confirmed, got home an hour late.  I questioned further, and on a second phone call I made found the mother had a "paranormal”. history going back to when her daughter was quite small.  Indeed the girl was found (I am meeting them all as I write, soon) outside her home in a nightdress with “blood” on it and had to be talked out of something she explained as “meeting a man” before she would go back to bed.  The girl’s boyfriend flatly refuses to go near the spot EVER as he later related to me… I did my best to reassure him.  More later.

ALSO on that dramatic Tuesday of the l0th September, a lady who is a professional hypnotherapist and a member of our SUFOG organization, had already reported (BEFORE that Echo article) to our founder Steve Gerrard that a bright light hanging in the sky over Southampton around l0.30pm had been observed by her for some thirty minutes.  Lights on it changed - red, green. And white.  Very high.  She eventually left it still hovering and went to bed!  Yes! OK, so she reported to me she had the best night’s sleep she’d had for yonks, not being at all well and indeed off work for some six months ordered by her GP.  Plus she felt “wonderful” next morning.

There you go.  Seven sightings around the same or near area inside a few days...only two MIGHT be astronomical.  Further checking and an Air Traffic Control answer awaited.  Out there must have been other unreported incidents.  Add to which my own weird paranormal ufo orientated  incidents…"coincidences"?  Notably one which led, within minutes, in sight of a witness, to that alleged "missing time" phone call!  Plus, only a week before SUFOG's Steve Gerrard and Steve Rider spoke at the Leeds "biggie"!

PS; latest on that alleged missing time incident I have spoken twice to the "victims" and the girl’s mother.  While the girl and mother will talk about it the boyfriend is 'too embarrassed' to do so as yet. One can only guess what his experience did if it really happened.  Otherwise he is 'fine’ the girl says.  I will keep trying but not too much!

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