UFO Reports from the UK 

UFOs over Surrey

[ Updated: 18/05/2008 ]


January 2007 - Nr. Guildford

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."


11 January 2004 - Chertsey, Surrey

"I've just seen something in the sky tonight which I can't really explain. I'm a 49 year old man in good health and with good eyesight, and sober. I'm also an ex-RAF SNCO with around 23 years experience of working on mainly fighter type aircraft, so I know that what I saw tonight were not aircraft, or at least did not behave like any aircraft I've ever known or heard about. I live in Chertsey in Surrey almost under the Heathrow departure paths. At about 19:15 tonight, a clear bright night with the stars clearly visible, I was in my garden when I saw two reddish lights slightly fainter than the stars, moving very fast from right to left ( SSE-NNW ) in parallel and in a leader/wingman type formation, with the western light/object leading. At first I thought they were 'shooting stars', but they stayed the same intensity the whole time they were in sight, about 4-5 seconds. There was no noise from their direction and just before they faded, the leader turned instantly left about 45 degrees or more. I've thought about birds or bats, but no two birds or bats I've ever seen fly that fast completely parallel for that long. I don't know what else they can be, so I'm passing this on in the hope that somebody else can either corroborate this or tell me I'm not daft, and there is a plausible explanation."

2 August 2003 - Motspur Park, Surrey

Another sphere report from "LF":

Following browsing the web I have just read the report given by Ian in Liverpool and can confirm a similar experience the previous day.

Around 1700 hours I was in my fathers garden in Motspur Park, where he pointed out to me a silver dot in the sky. It was a very sunny day with hardly a cloud, however this object appeared to be of some distance (in comparison to planes making decent to Heathrow). We watched it for around four minutes, occasionally losing its position due to its small size. It was then joined by another object which visually appeared the same. We did not see this object join the original and appeared to be sitting adjacent.

After at most two minutes the first object shot off and eventually disappeared closely followed, with about a two second delay by the other object.

Being both level headed we were quite unsettled by what we saw. We contacted London Metro by e-mail but have not had a response. This seems to be a very similar viewing as Ian.

Any comments or enlightenment?

27 July 2003 - Camberley, Surrey

'SC' went online just after 11.00pm on Sunday 27 July, to relate a sighting he and his wife had a few minutes earlier:

My wife and I have just seen (11 pm) a large bright white light heading in an erratic manner from west to east over our house. We live in Camberley Surrey and are on a normal air traffic path for Heathrow so we know it was not a plane. It made no noise and had no port or starboard lights and was at a lower level than aircraft that passed over head a couple of minutes later which head from East 150 degrees on a compass bearing. The sighting lasted for about 5 minutes and it seemed to fly in a staccato manner from side to side like an exaggerated wobble or hop, unlike normal aircraft which glide smoothly along. The night sky is very clear and bright no clouds very good visibility tonight. I just thought I would let you know in case any one else sees it and got a better view as I would like to know what it was. 

Instinctively, the description suggested this may have been a pass of the ISS, which might have been seen to ‘wobble’ by the ‘illusion’ of autokinesis.  A quick check at heavens-above.com confirmed that the ISS did make a near overhead pass over Camberley between 10.45 and 10.50pm.  It was also noted that the Sunday night had been very clear, with an exceptional air clarity following heavy rain that had passed through the country earlier in the day, so the air had been ‘washed’ of all assorted muck and pollutants; and the change to a polar airstream further increased the clarity of the air, so any aerial object would have appeared much brighter than for a while. 

The witness is experienced in tracking ‘targets’, being a keen clay shooter, and during the sighting SC was trying to make sure that he wasn’t being deceived by autokinesis, which he knew all about.  SC was convinced that autokinesis wasn’t the cause of the movement of the light/object he and his wife had seen.  SC also was aware of satellites, and was convinced the light they’d seen was much bigger, brighter and lower. 

As it happened, this was the first night of a week of favourable passes by the ISS, so SC agreed to look at a known pass of the ISS so he could compare it to the object he’d seen on the Sunday.  While the ISS pass of Wednesday 30th July wasn’t quite so high as three days earlier, SC now realized that this was the object he’d seen on the Sunday, but his time as it was slightly dimmer, it didn’t create the illusion of wobbling movement by autokinesis.   

While its disappointing that a sighting proves to have a known/mundane explanation, we would like to thank SC for his part in the investigation, and eventual solving of this particular sighting.  This sighting just illustrates how known man-made objects can be misinterpreted, due to an unfamiliarity of observing the ISS, and peculiarities of atmospheric seeing conditions on any one night due to changing weather patterns.



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