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UFO Reports from the UK
UFOs over Oxfordshire
[ Updated:
27/07/2008 ]
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27 July
2008 - Abingdon
Another
fire lantern event?
"We were in
car heading from Abingdon to Witney, and just as we were coming down
Kingston Hill around 11.30pm, 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. Anyone in the Standlake/Northmoor/Newbridge
area must have been able to see them too.
Perhaps the
'disappearing' of the lights was due to them changing direction and
I wonder if they were heading towards the airfield at Abingdon - if
anyone has any information that would explain this we would really
like to hear about it. We couldn't come up with any logical
explanation ."
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4 July
2008 - Abingdon
Another
orange light over Abingdon:
On the 4th
July 2008 at 10.20pm we noticed an unusual light. It was
travelling north to south over Abingdon, and was a bright orange
light travelling at speed but with no sound, this caught our
attention. We could not explain it as a plane due to no beacon
lights nor sound."
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28 June
2008 - Abingdon
A report
of what may appear to be a fire lantern, but aspects of the
observation suggest otherwise:
"This past
Saturday night 28th June 2008 I was sitting in the garden around
10.30pm. Just before that time I had heard the police search
helicopter flying south of our house.
Initially, I
saw an orange ball reflection in one of the house window. I
assumed it was a street light and thought nothing of it. 10mins
later walking back into the house I saw two amber balls of flame
flying around 2-3,000 feet coming from the south - ie, the Didcot
area. I estimate they were about 1 mile apart in the sky, there was
no noise; at a much higher level I saw aircraft lights. The two
lights then took the same path by doing a curved 90degree to the
east turn. I estimate they were travelling at about 200mph max. I
watched them fly out of sight. They did not come to ground or
change elevation.
I am not
sure if they were missiles being tested by the military or UFO's -
but it was strange."
By
coincidence, researcher Brian James was outside stargazing south of
Didcot at the time, and was looking northwards. Brian didn't
notice anything unusual from his location, so the lights seen over
Abingdon may have 'launched' from the Didcot area. The witness
was/is sure the speed estimate of 200mph is accurate, so windborne
object seem unlikely.
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13 June
2008 - Carterton
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.
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29 March 2007 - Bampton
At around
10.30pm "JG's" wife called him to his kitchen, as she was observing
a bright light away in the distance, estimated ot be 4-5 miles away. JG didn't have a camera available, but did have some 7x50 binocs;
through these he could see the light or object was a rather obtuse
triangular or conical shape with the longest side upwards; the
object seemed to be comprised of many different lights making up the
whole.
The object was
in view for some 20 minutes before it went out or vanished.
It is worth
noting that Bampton is close to RAF Brize Norton, home to many
different aircraft types, but notably C-17's, Tristar's, VC10's and
VC-10K tankers. That said, it is hard to see how an aircraft in circuit could
have appeared like this object in one position for 20 minutes.
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11 March 2007
- Benson
Although
unusual, this type of report of a UFO 'hearing' as opposed to
sighting is not unique:
"At approx 01.50
whilst in bed I awoke for some reason. Whilst lying in bed I became
aware of a sound that seemed to be outside the house. I can describe
it accurately as a low pitched slow rhythmic buzzing sound, the
sound you'd expect some electric device to make. Over a few minutes
it began to get louder, and seemed to be coming closer.
At this point I opened the curtains and looked out of the window. I
could not see anything, but the night was very clear with no or
almost no cloud cover, I could make out the constellations quite
clearly. I moved to the other side of the house and checked out of
another window, again all was still and unmoving just as one would
expect.
Returning to the bedroom my wife was awoken by my movements and upon
waking could confirm she too could hear the noise. Now I opened the
window and the sound definitely got louder and clearer emanating
definitely from outside. Again I checked the sky and surrounding
area, and could not see anything. I closed the window and returned
to bed listening to the sound. It still remained the same speed of
pulsing and gradually over the course of twenty minutes till
(definitely) 02.10 disappeared from my range of hearing.
I should point out at this time that I live near RAF Benson in
Oxfordshire and am quite used to Helicopter craft [Merlin and Puma]
making night manoeuvres around the district. I can categorically
confirm that this was not a helicopter, nor a plane and moving
(which I assume by the Doppler shift in sound as it passed) very
slowly.
At this time the event remains unexplained, yet has intrigued me so
much that today I will endeavour to contact the RAF at Benson to
confirm any night manoeuvres and contact the local press to see if
anyone else witnessed anything."
In reply to our response to the report, it was interesting to see
how the witnesses perception to the subject had changed: "I've asked neighbours and they report hearing nothing out of
the unusual and I must admit to being laughed at a few times. I now
understand something of the stigma these reports get from people, I
can't imagine how someone with 'real' evidence would feel! I've seen things in the skies over the years, things I cannot
identify for certain, but whose most likely explanation is mundane,
but this event has played on my mind permanently since. If only I
had some visual evidence! If there was a movie scene of a giant
spacecraft slowly moving across a town, the sound effect I
experienced would be perfect!"
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3 March 2007 -
Oxford & Witney
The
night of Saturday 3 March saw remarkably good sky conditions across
the country for a very favourable total Lunar eclipse; I watched
(and photographed) the event from beginning to end.
On Sunday 4 March we received a phone
call from a lady in central Oxford, who during the eclipse at around
11.00pm had seen 4 bright amber lights flying low over central
Oxford coming in from the east; these lights were so low that the
light beams could be seen in some low mist; the witness and her
husband were convinced an aircraft was crashing. However,
these lights made no sound at all, despite their proximity to the
ground; and as they got closer, the witness could see no structure
or fuselage between the lights. The 4 lights then split into 2
pairs, one pair veered to the north, and the other to the south. The witness, who was shocked by what she had seen, went inside and
phone her daughter who lives in the north of Oxford; the daughter
looked out from her home and also saw 4 low bright lights coming in
from the east. These lights clearly were not the same as seen
by the original witness some minutes earlier.
On the Monday we then received a report
from Witney, where a witness and his family had seen a low-flying
amber light coming from the south at around 10.00pm; again the
witnesses had believed a low-flying plane may have been crashing;
this light then veered to the east. This witness had also
phoned family who lived north of Witney, who had also seen the same
or similar light.
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15 May 2005 - Sibford Gower
A recent UFO report from 'LA':
"At around midnight on the 15th of May 2005; I saw a round glowing ball of
yellow light on the crest of a small hill/field, on the northern boundary of
Sibford Gower. At first it looked like someone standing with a torch, but it did
not have any 'shake'. It then slowly grew in size till it was three times as big
as previously; before moving upwards into the sky. It then stayed static in the
sky; where three long spikes grew out (2 from the bottom at 5 o'clock & 7
o'clock and 1 from the top), its light seemed to be reflecting off them. From
being static, high in the sky; this object then moved off horizontally in the
direction of north. It was noticeable that there was no noise from the object.
An arc of light came from the object when it entered a cloud, like a search
light. Five minutes later a large military plane flew over with search lights
also."
The beams seen from the light (and subsequently from the aircraft) while
spectacular, may have been nothing more than the normal beam from a light being
reflected amongst moisture particles in misty cloud - a common enough sight at
night. However, this does not itself detract from the sighting, and actual light
or object that was observed by the witness.
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20 February 2005 - Carterton
"I had just left my house to walk the dog and whilst looking North West I saw
what at first looked like a bright green flare. That is how bright the light
was, but it appeared to be a long way off in the distance and travelled
horizontally and low across the bright blue horizon very quickly and with some
acceleration with a short trail behind it. I am 43 years old and as far as I am
aware, sane, with 23 years experience as an ex RAF aircraft engineer, ex FAA
private pilot and CAA licensed engineer with over 5000 hours of flying
experience and I have never seen anything like what I saw this morning. I heard
no sound from the 'object' and stood looking in awe at the sky after it
disappeared waiting for a loud bang or something, but nothing. The sighting
lasted probably no more than 2 seconds."
This sighting was one of several that morning, it was later confirmed as
a bolide skimming the atmosphere.
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20 February 2005 -
Benson
"At 0955 am my girlfriend saw a bright blue ‘shooting star’ travelling from very quickly in
a northerly direction. Object appeared large (was not a pinpoint) and left a
trail/steak behind as it flew (but not a smoke trail.)"
This sighting was one of several that morning, it was later confirmed as
a bolide skimming the atmosphere.
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22 December 2003 - Wheatley
"The car had been playing up so we ( myself and a
friend) had pulled off the motor way and we where on a dark small country road,
parked up, awaiting recovery. We commented about how clear the sky was, (only a
few high level clouds) and how bright the stars appeared with out light
pollution.
At approx 0245hrs just as the tow truck arrived, I
noticed in the sky at approx 4000 feet 3 yellowy white lights in a triangle
formation, two horizontal with the third at the top of the apex, (similar to the
centre picture on the article about UFO's over Portugal though I /we had never
seen this picture till tonight).
These group of lights remained stationary for over
45 mins, in relation to us even allowing for the rotation of the earth against
the stars, e.g. the stars moved but the lights stay still in relation to them
and us. As the tow truck took us away, my friend pointed the lights out to
the driver, who also commented that they where not moving. We passed nearly
under them and lost sight of them as we moved into trees and they were behind
us.
Although it was late or early, we where both wide
awake, as was the driver of the recovery vehicle, and had not been drinking. I
have spent 12 years in the Royal Air Force and have seen many aircraft, both
strike and transport, from most NATO countries flying at night, so i can
honestly state it was not a fixed or rotary winged aircraft, nor was it a lost
weather balloon!! "
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17 July 2003 - Blewbury
Three nights of sightings by Brian James, from 15-17
July.
On the three successive nights, between 10.30 and
10.35pm, Brian observed a bright satellite (or different satellites) moving
across the sky from SE-NW, an unusual orbit in itself, as 'westerly' orbits are
unusual and difficult, taking a lot of energy to launch against the Earth's
rotation. The satellite's were first picked up about 30 degrees above the
SE horizon, and moved steadily almost dead overhead, then towards the NW
horizon, where they 'went out' about 30 degrees above the horizon. Of
course 'eclipsing' satellites are perfectly normal, and are very common when
satellites are heading to the east as they move into the shadow of the Earth.
This makes little sense in these cases though, as at this time of the year the
sun is only about 15 degrees below the NW horizon anyway at that time of night,
so there is no large body to come between the sun's illumination and the space
object!
Brian was able to observe this satellite on the
first night with his 15x80 astro-binocs, and saw just how quick this bright
satellite vanished - going from around 0 magnitude to fainter than 10th
magnitude (the limiting magnitude of the binocs) in a fraction of a second.
Given that it was originally around 0 mag, it was not as bright as the ISS, but
still quite bright, which suggests close to an equivalent size, or at the very
least for it to have some sort of large reflector which bounces a lot of light
back to the Earth - as the Iridium satellites do. However, Iridium's flare
quickly and in a small part of the sky, and certainly do not transit some 120
degrees of sky before vanishing. If the same principle as the Iridium's
was at work here, then these orbiting vehicles must be remarkably small, yet
have excessively large reflective surfaces - a bit of a paradox!
Perhaps not surprisingly, the data at heavens-above.com
had no known orbiting objects which correlated with the 'satellites' Brian
observed. Its true that heavens-above cannot hope to cover all orbital
data for military and other 'spy' satellites, but just what is orbiting up there
that change its luminosity that quickly, and almost become camouflaged against
the glare of the sun only around 45 degrees away?
Definitely a case of "keep watching the
skies"...
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16 January 2003 - Blewbury
A chance sighting by APRA Co-ordinator Brian
James from his home.
 Brian
went to the (closed and locked) French windows that open into his back garden at
7.30pm - to check whether the sky was clear for stargazing later. He noted a
relatively low airliner flying west (out of Heathrow), with very obvious
navigation lights. His attention was grabbed by another light to the
northwest - it looked like a big/bright satellite, much like the ISS or the
shuttle going over. However, the speed of this object was much faster than
either the ISS or shuttle, and was on a very unusual trajectory, heading S-N,
but heading down to around the NNW. Brian always keeps a pair of 10x50
binocs by the door, and with the door closed and locked, had to use them while
looking through the window glass. The object looked quite large at 10x
magnification, and the most curious aspect was a pulsating/flickering orange/red
section at the 'back' of an otherwise white object/light. It certainly
wasn't possible to refer to this as a flame, but it looked like a flame in many
respects.
Brian immediately went online to check the
various websites for data on any rocket or satellite re-entries, but nothing
matched the place or time.
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10 November 2002 - Southmoor
A very well
observed report from the witness:
"I
let my dog outside into the back garden and stood just outside the patio doors.
I looked up at the night sky and noticed the stars where out. Suddenly a flash
of light appeared in the direction I was looking at. It was brilliant white
light and lasted as long as if you would say the word Hello. The size (not the
shape) of it was half a full moon. The shape was oval but more slightly
stretched with a thin short tail. It was static...did not move in any direction.
I did not see any object related to the light or hear any sound associated with
it. How far away it was is difficult to say because it lasted so briefly and
caught me by surprise.
I watched the sky for another
ten minutes or so and saw nothing in the area.
After thoughts. Even though the
light was a brilliant white, it did not have the same effect of brightness on my
eyes as you would get when you look at a camera flash.
Something else interesting. I
noticed my dog stood still and looked in the same direction for a period of time
perhaps a half a minute. I do not know if he saw the light or perhaps heard
something."
Our initial
thoughts speculated that this might have been a sighting of an Iridium flare
seen at its maximum visibility, but after running checks we were able to confirm
that there were no Iridium's that matched the location, date or
time. The observation doesn't describe an obvious meteor with its
associated long trail (although the date does coincide with remnants of the
Taurid meteor shower), and the size of the object also tends to rule out an
obvious meteor. However, it is not impossible that a meteor was seen
coming into the atmosphere 'head-on' - which does lead to a light that increases
in size in a very short period of time.
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2 November 2000 - Didcot
While
out stargazing, with an exceptionally clear sky, the witness (CK), he had his
attention grabbed by Jupiter 'going out' at the edge of his vision. He
turned to look directly at that part of the sky, and noted a densely-black
triangle passing over to his east, going on a north south course.
Sometimes it is hard to envisage how a black object
can be seen as black against a 'black' night sky, but of course with general
light pollution, as well as light from the moon and stars do result in a less
than totally dark sky background. This FT almost seemed to be absorbing
surrounding light, it was that dense, with a defined edge. It was quickly
flying south, with no sound whatsoever, but of course with the strong winds
blowing, the night was not 'quiet', so noise from the FT may have not been
discernible. There was no light source at all on the FT. The FT was
lost to sight in less than 10 seconds.
It
was after the FT had passed from sight that CK noted that the hairs on the back
of his neck were stood up, which is not usual when he sees something strange.
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25
Jul 1999 - Oxford
The
witness was out in garden, helping with his children to 'camp out' at
night. The whole family were to witness a star-like object almost
overhead. Mr JP went inside to get his recently purchased camcorder,
and attempted to get some footage. The object was seen moving S-N
quite slowly, and was videoed for some 5 minutes.
The case made the local newspaper the Oxford
Mail, who exaggerated the video footage, with mention of a UFO
"pulsing like a firework" On phoning Mr JP, another
local UFO group had already viewed the footage, and were said to be
"stumped", as were two reporters from NewsQuest of Oxford.
After a couple of minutes chat with Mr JP, it became clear that the
'pulsing firework effect' was only seen in the video footage. He did
not know if he was using auto, or manual focus (so it was very likely autofocus), and the 'corder was set to its maximum digital zoom of 32x.
It is clear that the 'pulsing' effect is simply down to the
camcorder's
autofocus trying to lock focus on a small object, and consequently hunting
across its focus range (A very common UFO 'mis-videofication')
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May 1999 -
Banbury
A
case brought to the attention of Kate Taylor (BUFORA & APRA
Investigator) The witness(s) were a family in the northwestern part of
Banbury. They reported seeing numerous lights (which they were adamant did
not behave like aircraft), seen in various formations to the south of the town
of Banbury. The witnesses, for some reason, chose to associate the lights
with RAF Barford St John, about 7km to the south, and they set off by car to see
what was happening. Although they could find no obvious signs of flying,
they noted that the base was involved in "Project Alpha", as this was
on the signs at the base gate.
Kate and Brian James made a trip to
the area to check out some of the details. Barford St John is indeed an
'RAF' station, but its runways are now disused. It is actually a USAF base
(as denoted by the American flags flying alongside the RAF flag inside), and it
is a satellite station of RAF (USAF) Croughton. Both are officially a
satellite of RAF (USAF) Mildenhall. RAF Barford St John is designated
as Croughton's "Operation Location Alpha". Both are so-called 'C4' station
(standing for Command, Control, Communications & Computers), and C4 is
sometimes referred to as the "fifth dimension of warfare". What
relevance was the base to the sightings? In our estimation none, other
than coincidental.
In
following weeks the family reported that the UFOs "were back".
Kate was able to confirm that the various training flights from CSE Aviation at
Oxford (Kidlington) airport had resumed after a summer's night-flying embargo.
There seems little doubt that the witnesses were simply watching the training
aircraft flying round in their circuits, at Kidlington, some 15km south of their
vantage point.
Unfortunately the witnesses do not seem ready to accept the
logical explanation to their sighting(s), which is of course their prerogative.
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23 Feb 1999 -
Oxfordshire
On
Tuesday 23rd February, an advertising airship was over the Oxford area.
Almost dayglo orange in colour, with logos for 'Walkers Max’ crisps.
It then flew over the area again in the evening, fully illuminated, so was
still bright orange. It flew from Oxford to Abingdon, then passed
over my house at 1950Z (When I got some reference video footage), and was
heading for Reading when it was lost to sight from where I was. I
speculate it would then have been going to its likely base at Farnborough.
We immediately faxed The Lightship Company, to inquire as to exact flightpaths/plans, and are awaiting a response.
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