The publisher of this work, the Leicestershire UFO Research Society, is a non-profit making organisation, funded totally by donation, and all monies received thereby are directly used towards its voluntary investigation and research work conducted within the U.K. regional counties of Leicestershire and North Warwickshire.

All opinions expressed and/or recorded within this Log are not necessarily those of the Leicestershire Unidentified Flying Object Research Society or its members .

ALL MATERIALS OTHER THAN THOSE OF THE AUTHORS AND THEIR ASSOCIATES CONTAINED HEREIN, ARE BELIEVED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. - MATERIALS FOR WHICH COPYRIGHT IS ASSERTED HOWEVER, WILL BE REMOVED IMMEDIATELY UPON NOTIFICATION.

51/79/30. July 29^th., 1979. Hollycroft, Hinckley, Leicestershire - Report By G. Hall.

51/79/48. November 2^nd., 1979. Wykin Village, Hinckley, Leicestershire Report By G. Hall.

51/80/31/36. November 26^th., 1980. South Leicestershire - Report By C. Potter.

77/80/30. November 26^th., 1980. Kingfisher Avenue, Nuneaton, Warwickshire - Report By M. Brown/K. McClure.

51/82/01. February 26^th., 1982. Desford, Leicestershire - Report By S. Wilson.

51/84/01. July 6^th., 1984. Transco Offices, Hinckley, Leicestershire - Report By G. Hall/C. Potter.

77/89/01. April 1989. The Old Fosse, North Warwickshire - Report By G. Hall.

51/94/11. October 24^th., 1994. Forest Farm, Kirkby Muxloe, Leicestershire - Report By G. Hall.

51/94/12. October 28^th., 1994. Queens Park, Hinckley, Leicestershire - Report By G. Hall.

1979 Cont’d.

“I was sitting at home watching T.V. In my top window I saw a large light that was going on and off. I fetched my two children who were scared. The object seem to be moving, it was very large. I went outside and didn’t hear any engine noise. I watched for a few minutes and then the lights seemed to go off and the object disappeared”.

“On 23^rd., October 1978, prior to putting my car in the garage, I was talking to a neighbour and we both saw an object in the sky. It had a number of bright lights which dimmed, then became brighter. The object was moving slow and seemed lower than an aircraft”.

“The object approached from the south-west. It looked like a star to begin with and gradually got brighter and larger as it approached us. It was approximately 4 to 6 inches in diameter at arm’s length with 3 lights, the middle one being like a searchlight with a powerful beam. It moved slowly and took almost half a hour to pass overhead. As it moved over and headed towards Castle Donnington, we lost sight of it as the lights faded out of view. There was no noise at all. Our Alsatian dog was whining and barking furiously as the object passed over”.

“It was about 6.30pm. We were called outside by our friend and we looked up into the sky. We thought it was a plane but as we looked it was sort of round and had three beams of light. First they were on white then turned to red. It was about one and a half inches long at arm’s length and was going very slowly, then, as it reached the front of the house it was going faster - it seemed to be coming from Tamworth and heading for Castle Donnington”.

“I was feeding my livestock down the garden when I noticed three bright lights in the sky. After about 2 minutes I returned into the house and when I came back out again I saw three lights in a triangle shape to only two lights and a red, and green, (or blue). I then watched it disappear all of a sudden”.

“As we looked at the object it appeared as one lighted mass, its movements were as if it was hovering or pulsating upwards at first, then coming down. It then remained static for a few minutes. The object began to move towards us slowly gradually accelerating. There was however, no noise at all from the craft”.

“I saw bright white lights, one either side of the object and two smaller lights that could have been red. It was night time but I definitely got the impression of a large triangle”

“Being ex-RAF I would have said that the object was a Vulcan Bomber flying south to north on the flight path used by East Midlands airport. However, the object was stationery in sight for approximately three minutes. Imagine a Vulcan bomber with bright lights on each wing tip and two very bright landing lights in the centre. It then moved towards us and overhead gather speed. When overhead I could see what looked like a red navigation light in the centre and another white light where the tailplane would be. THERE WAS NO NOISE !(emphasis by witness). I rushed to the front of our bungalow, (taking a few seconds), but it had completely vanished”.

Statement 12 (B). Mr. R. M. June, 1981.

“Firstly, I am ex RAF and still an active member of the Duxford Aviation Society restoring aircraft.

The night in question I was looking out of my kitchen window after dark when I saw these three lights.,(I add at this point that we are the flight path for East Midlands airport) that I thought was another aircraft coming over. However, a short time after I noticed the lights were still there, so I went straight outside. At first I thought it to be a VULCAN AIRCRAFT (emphasis by witness) and realised that the lights were stationary. (No shape was visible but I could imagine it to be a Vulcan). I must have watched for two minutes and then rushed to get my binoculars out of the car which was close to hand. Before I had time to focus, the lights suddenly moved forwards at speed in a northerly direction without noise. The houses then hid it from view.

I assure you that there was NO NOISE (emphasis by witness) and a Harrier Jet could not clear the distance from HOVER TO SPEED (emphasis by witness) in the time and without noise. I often think of this and keep looking out but cannot find a single solution”.

“I saw three bright lights in a line. It came down Whitestone Way and went towards Atherstone. About 10 minutes later a plane passed over”.

“I saw three lights in the shape of a saucer. It hovered then began to move, not very fast but you could follow it. As it faded the light on top seemed to be underneath it”.

“We first saw white lights in the sky from the south-east, we then went to investigate and stood in the garden for about three minutes. It came towards us and we could see that it was something that we hadn’t seen before. It then stopped still in the sky for about fifteen seconds. There was no noise from any engines at all. We could see the white light at the front, and four green lights around it. We could see it very clearly because it was not very high, and it was a clear night. It disappeared at about 7.45 p.m., heading slowly north-west”.

“I was driving from Blaby to Countesthorpe along Winchester Road, at approximately 6.40 p.m., on Monday, 23^rd., 1978. As I passed the entrance to Countesthorpe College, I saw directly in front of me in the sky at approximately 20 degrees to the horizontal, a white cigar-shaped light. I kept this in view and then turned left into Station Road, Countesthorpe. (This is a ninety-degree turn). I then kept this light in view and it appeared to be travelling in the same direction as me. I turned again and the light was now visible directly through my windscreen and appeared as three spotlights in a Delta shape at approximately 50-60 degrees to the horizon. I stopped my van and got out. The lights had disappeared and there was no sound of aircraft of any type. The night was clear”.

“My Daughter called me out to see this UFO. She and a friend had watched it come from in the distance (south) as a bright stationary light. When I saw it, it was moving from right to left. The appearance was three lights in Delta formation with one of the lights leading the other two. I could make out no solid shape but had the impression of a Delta-shaped object. In my foreground was a sodium streetlamp, the object passed in front. I looked away, then at some time it must have turned 180 degrees, because when I looked again they were moving to my right. I then clearly saw the three lights turn through 180 degrees to go left, (approximately north again). After a few moments they were enveloped by cloud”.

“The object moved south-north overhead. There were three bright lights at the front.. When it had passed overhead, the white lights disappeared and a green/blue light was visible underneath. It was completely silent and moved at about the speed of a low flying aircraft”.

“The object moved south to north overhead. There were three bright lights at the front. When it had passed overhead the white lights disappeared and a green/blue light was visible underneath. It was completely silent and moved about the speed of a low flying aircraft”.

“I went to the back door and saw a very bright light in the sky. It was low down and in the south towards Burbage village. At first, I thought it was a bright star. I fetched my Husband and Daughter to have a look and we realised that it was slowly moving towards us. There was no sound, so it was not as there was no light visible from the back. We could not see its shape, either due to the light, or because it blended in with the night sky”

“We saw what we first thought to be an aircraft but later when we got out of the van, we realised that it couldn’t be because it was moving too slow. We saw three big, very bright lights, with the outer two much bigger than the centre one. The lights moved very slowly across the sky making no sound that we could hear. This, and the slowness of speed, made us think that it was very high up, yet the lights were too big and seemed near. We watched it for about ten minutes and then it disappeared behind a cloud”.

“I was riding my bicycle down Ash Road, towards Cedar Road, when I saw a horizontal line of three white lights in the sky over Elmsthorpe. The lights were bright

and quite close together. There was no area of darkness between the lights. The centre one was very slightly raised. The lights were either stationary, or moving very slowly. There was no sound”.

“My Son and I were walking down a public footpath when my Son said ‘look Dad, a flying saucer’. I looked up and said ‘I think you’re right Son’. We stopped and watched it for quite a while, trying to figure out what it was. It was silent until we walked by a high walk which stopped the breeze, and we heard a low thunder-like sound”.

“I was hanging my washing out, it was just getting dark, when I saw the three bright lights in the sky. It was Delta - shaped. I called my next door neighbour, but there was no reply”.

“On the date and time in question I was sitting watching TV when my Wife called me outside and pointed to an object in the sky to the right of the rear of our house coming from approximately the direction of Lutterworth. It was a very large object just above the low cloud with very large bright lights approximately four in a row. It was making no noise at all. We followed the object coming towards us. I fetched my binoculars and by this time the object had passed overhead, still noiseless. Through the binoculars the object had four lights underneath and one red light in the centre, with a thin long light at the front of the object, just in font of the red one I followed it until it had gone into low cloud”.

“I was about to draw the curtains and I noticed what I thought to be a very bright star rising over the house opposite. As it appeared to be rising very quickly I called my Husband to come and look. We then went outside. As the light came closer, we saw that there were three bright lights in a horizontal line, they were white.

“I left the school around 6.45 p.m., on Monday, 23^rd., October, 1978. I walked towards our house which is in the grounds, my two grandchildren came to meet me. As we walked up the side of the house, in front of us in the sky was a reddish-orange light. We watched it for a few minutes then I called my Husband and Sons out of the house to look at it. We watched it for about five minutes, then I went across to the school to ask the Deputy Headmaster, (who gives lessons in astronomy), I thought that if it was a star he would be able to explain it. He was talking to the headmaster and I asked him if he would come outside and have a look. When we got outside and looked towards where the light had been, it had gone. On looking down the field due south, we could see three bright lights coming towards us. My youngest Son came over to us asked Mr. Goodman what it was. He didn’t know. It then came nearer to us and it looked to me, head on, very much the shape of a Vulcan bomber, or a half circle. As it went right over us, it looked to have a dull, red light underneath it. We thought it was a plane, but as it went over, there was no sound whatsoever, also, there were no navigation lights on it. As we turned around to look at it, but it was completely black at the back and we could see nothing. It was travelling south to north but not on a flight path. After we got back in the house we rang UAPROL at Leicester to report it. After talking about it and saying that it looked from the front very much like a V. Bomber, I rang up Bitteswell where the V. Bomber that comes over is stationed, and asked them if it had been up in the last hour and a half and they said no, if it had, we definitely would have heard it”.

Statement 27 (B) Mrs. E. June, 1981.

“When the object was seen, it was stationary, and was like a star but was an orange - red colour. This first drew my attention to it.

(condensed), “As we walked up the side of the house, in front of us in the sky was a reddish-orange light. I went to fetch the school Headmaster. When we looked towards where the light had been, it had gone. Then, on looking down the field due south, we could see three bright lights coming towards us”.

“On Monday, 23^rd., October, 1978, at approximately 7. 07 p.m., my Son Mark, aged 8 years, ran into the house with three friends, to tell me he had just seen a UFO. I must admit to taking little notice at the time, however, I noticed a report of a sighting in the Tuesday edition of the Nuneaton Evening Tribune, and that evening, I questioned Mark further. Whilst I was talking to him, two of his friends, Lee and Paul ‘B’, called for him to play outside. My Wife asked them in, and before they, or Mark, had time to discuss the matter together, we separated them and asked them to draw what they had seen in the sky on the previous evening. That same evening, I asked John ‘M’, to make a drawing to also make a drawing, and this he did, in his own home, and without having seen the other children or their drawings. I appreciate that the said drawings may include some imagination, but what struck me was the similarity, particularly as Mark made two drawings, which co-ordinated with both Lee and Paul’s on the one hand, and John’s on the other”.

“I was sitting at home when I noticed a bright light. First I thought it was a firework, but it got brighter and nearer. I then went outside and as it got nearer I could see that it wasn’t one bright light, but two lights similar to two powerful car headlights. Because of

the intensity of the lights I was unable to make out any clear shape. It wasn’t making any noise at all. After watching it for about a minute or so I then went in home and thought nothing more about it until I read the Hinckley Times on Friday”.

“I saw an object which I first thought was a large aircraft, because it had three lights on and my first thought was that it had landing lights on, then I realised that the centre light would cover the whole of the cockpit. The other two lights were set back, and at this point I had stopped my car and got out.

I realised that the object was stationary, so I stood and watched. There was no sound. Suddenly, it started to move in my direction very slowly, and I stood and waited until it was above me and I felt that there were windows of some sort around it. At this point I felt afraid, so I got back into my car and drove away”.

“Whilst travelling towards Newbold Vernon, in my car, I noticed a bright star-like object low in the sky. It soon became apparent that it was moving towards me. As it came overhead, I could see that it was a large, triangular shape, with enormous powerful lights at its three extremities. It appeared to move quite slowly, and there was a pinkish glow underneath the object which lit up and outlined the shape quite definitely”.

“I saw two bright lights in the sky at about 6.45 p.m. It hovered in the sky then moved slowly changing colours as it went. From white to red, to green, and then sped away”.

“I was sitting in our car in the drive at home when my Wife came out from the house and pointed to the sky. I looked upwards and saw three bright lights, the centre one slightly larger than the outer ones, all in line abreast and on the same level. As they went over, a small red light was seen under the middle, very dim and distant. The bright ones lost size as they went by, but the red was visible until it disappeared into the distance”.

“We left J’s house to go to his car, when a bright object was sighted in the sky coming towards Ashby from Measham. Upon watching for a minute, there were three discernable lights which threw forwards a strong beam. Shortly afterwards, after approximately one minute, the main lights went out and left three very small lights which were visible, one green and one white. Then we heard the slight sound of an engine and just got into the car and drove off”.

“As we were walking our dogs in a field, the object appeared from our left, apparently from Croft over the M69 motorway, travelling from our left to right. It appeared to be at the height a private plane would fly, but was cruising along very slowly, almost hovering, with three main headlights on the front. As the object was directly overhead, no definite shape could really be seen, no lights underneath, and absolutely no noise. As the object travelled over the village, and headed towards Desford, it appeared to vanish”.

“Initial sighting at 6.46 p.m., from Haunchwood Road, junction of Westbury Road, at angle 12 degrees south of east declination 15 degrees.

Three bright lights in a triangle form with point light leading with a deduced heading 5-10 degrees east of north. No discernable shape surrounding the lights. Last seen as lights fading at an angle 10 degrees declination at 10 degrees east of north. Estimated height 3-4,000 feet. Weather conditions were fairly clear and still with light cloud. For a short period lights disappeared behind low cloud. (15-20 seconds). Observation made by myself and six scouts. Not thought to be aircraft as no navigation lights showing or seen and were specifically looked for. Also no recognisable sounds were heard”.

“I was taking my bean sticks down in the garden even though it was dark. I saw this bright light coming from the south travelling northwards. I thought it was a plane flying very low because of its bright light, also the light was not winking as they do at night. By the time it had nearly reached over head there was no sound at all, although I still thought it was a plane.. When I looked again, expecting it to be overhead, it had disappeared completely, it was then that I thought it must be something different from a plane. If the light had carried on instead of disappearing, I probably would not have thought anything of it”.

Master H;

“I was sitting down looking out of the window and I saw a triangular object flying at great speed. It had three lights (white), and a bit of red. No sound“.

Mister H;

“I saw no central illumination, just three lights in a ‘V‘.

“I was playing with my friend outside his house in Peterfield Road, when we saw an object in the sky circling over the area of Meadow Lane. The object was yellow in appearance, with three red lights on top. The lights appeared to be separate from the object as if they were mounted on brackets. The lights were almost as nearby streetlamps. From the side, the object was wider at the top than the bottom, and seemed to have a wide flange around the bottom. I am not sure, but there may have been a red stripe around the body about a third of the way up. We watched the object circling for about a minute, and then it flew off towards the south-east at high speed until it disappeared into the distance. The object made a soft, humming sound”.

“I was about to get into my car which was parked outside my house, when I noticed three very bright lights in the sky. I was not sure whether it was a plane or a UFO. But certain things came to my attention which were; that the lights were in a triangular formation, much brighter than anything I have seen in the sky before. I also noticed that there was no sound at all from the object. The object was travelling at roughly the same altitude and speed as an average aircraft which would be landing at Castle Donnington airport, which is approximately 10 - 15 miles away. But this craft was not on the same flight path”.

“I left my house en-route for evening classes in Leicester. Having crossed the A447 Hinckley-Ibstock Road, on the B582, when I observed from the offside front window of my car, an unusual configuration of lights travelling roughly north. By the time I arrived at the junction, the object had passed out of sight over the roof of my car. Having turned right onto the B582, I glanced back over my right shoulder, but saw nothing of the object. During my sighting, I eased off the accelerator in order to detect noise from a probable low flying aircraft which I thought could have been on a flight path to East Midlands airport, but detected nothing. I opened my side window but wind noise could have masked any other noise. This event made me curious, but I am sceptical of UFOs. The configuration observed was six moving white lights in a double vee formation. I considered it to be a Vulcan bomber in size”.

“As I went out of home to go to the doctors, I looked up across the brickworks, and saw a very bright group of lights in the sky coming towards me. It was travelling very slowly. It was vee-shaped, with very bright rows of lights on the side, they shone very brightly on the side facing me. I could not hear the engines going or any noise at all. All the lights were pointing forwards”.

“While out walking in Bretby Park, I saw an object in the sky coming from the south, which had three bright white lights. At first it seemed to hover, and then it moved off at speed, going north towards Derby, and the white lights appeared to change to red”.

“I was out walking the dog down Hurst Road at approximately 7.00 p.m., when I noticed a cluster of 3 - 4 lights in the sky in a south, south-west direction. The lights were quite bright in an irregular pattern, and appeared to move in a limited area in various directions. There was no noise associated with it. As I walked along Southfield Road, the lights were hidden behind factory buildings”.

“We were outside our house on the A5, when we noticed a big, faint, star-like object in the distance. My Wife remarked that it appeared to be coming towards us. As it approached, it seemed to be made up of three very bright lights. Then, as it reached us, almost overhead, the middle light was blotted out by the body of the object. The underneath appeared red with black criss-cross lines. As it moved away into the distance, only two lights were visible. Eventually, it faded away into the distance”.

“I saw three distinct very round brilliant lights, that seemed to be suspended in the air. I wound the car window down and looked again and the object had completely disappeared. There was no sound”.

“Living near the Leicester airport, there are always various aircraft around, also aircraft from East Midlands pass over and onto the flight path for Bitteswell. I first noticed an illumination in the sky. I didn’t take too much notice of the exact time. Some time after first noticing this light, I noticed that it had moved very slowly, it certainly wasn’t a fixed wing aircraft. I thought it must have been a helicopter doing some special flight, being on the main A6 road traffic was fairly heavy at this time and no sound of engines could be heard. It may have been a gas balloon for it was very slow, or even Goodyear type balloon. I would say it was flying at 1,500/2,000 feet. Looking out again some fifteen minutes later, It was in the north, north-west, and appeared to be travelling more north west onto a west direction”.

“The three witnesses involved were out on the street when they saw an object in the sky. At first they thought it was a plane but there was no sound, and its shape and lights were very different. The lights had a big beam of light at the front. They stood watching it, then it stopped over their heads. They got scared, and hid behind a car, then the object moved off. The object was Delta-shaped with a light in each corner”.

“We were walking home after playing football, when we saw something strange in the sky. The four of us looked up and we agreed that the object was not an aeroplane or helicopter. The object at that time was in the west and was moving slowly towards us, after a few minutes, it started to hover above the Wigston area. It hovered for about seven or eight minutes then moved off slowly. Then, about five minutes later, it shot off towards the stars at an unbelievable speed. It looked like two large lights which were white and joined by a glow”.

“At about 7 p.m., I was in the front bedroom of my house, when I saw through the window, an object which appeared as a mass of bright lights in the sky. I opened the window for a clearer view, and then I observed the object as three bright lights in a triangular formation, the centre light slightly above the other two. On top of the object, I saw a structure with the appearance of a curved arm, which appeared to be lit by one of the lights. Each light had the appearance of a bright electric light bulb. The lights did not flicker, and I estimate the overall size of the object as being similar to an average sized living room. When I first saw the object, it was south-east of my location heading slowly in a westerly direction from Hugglescote to Ravenstone. It appeared to hover for about a minute over Highfields Street, and then moved on towards Ravenstone. I ran downstairs and out into my back garden, but saw nothing more of the object. The object made no sound and I saw no lights of any other colour, other than mentioned. At the time of this sighting, it was dark, the weather was fine, but the sky was covered by cloud, and there was no wind”.

“We were on Kingsway North, when we heard a buzzing noise. We looked up into the sky and saw this red object. We watched this object for about ten minutes, and during this time, the object moved in a northerly direction, stopped, and then disappeared”.

“On Monday night, at approximately 8.05 p.m., I was walking on the left hand side of Beverly Avenue, going towards Glendon Street. I noticed between two houses in Glendon Street at about rooftop height. I saw three very bright objects like stars, the light of each intermingled with the adjacent one. As I neared Glendon Street, the object was obscured by a tall tree near to one of the houses. On returning, I re-checked as I came back down Beverly Avenue at about 8.15 p.m. By this time, the object had disappeared”.

“I was getting wood for Bonfire Night, and I sat down to rest and looked up through the trees for more wood, and saw six or seven lights together moving slowly across the sky. It was travelling east. When it went over the wood, I went and had a look at it. Then it stopped over a field next to the woods, but it was hovering, we could see the shape of it, but the object itself was dull. The lights were going round and round it, then all of a sudden, it shot off into the sky so fast that we couldn’t see it”.

“It was a cigar - shaped dark object with a strong orange light at the rear and a weaker light at the front. I heard a humming noise, and watched it through binoculars for about a minute”

“We were walking our dogs near to the Kenning Fuel Supplies Depot. Looking to our left at the skyline of the city centre, we saw a red light which moved and seemed to hover , disappearing behind tall buildings, and then re-appearing moving from left to right., then downwards out of sight, then reappearing and moving sideways again”.

“I went outside to open the drive gates to let my Husband in. He asked me not to go back inside but to look at an object in the sky which was straight ahead of us and not moving, we watched it for about 1 and a half to 2 minutes. I then noticed it slightly moving to the left, and gradually getting smaller and picking up speed, which wasn’t very fast. I then went to fetch a pair of binoculars, my Husband followed me, and we both watched it from the bedroom window, which we opened wide. It was gradually moving to our left and getting smaller all the time. It then disappeared behind some trees and buildings which were on our left. As it got further away, it wasn’t so red”.

“I was walking to the driveway of my house towards the main Leicester/Lutterworth road, when I noticed an unusually bright light in the sky. I thought at first that this was a planet, but on looking closer saw that the object appeared to be much larger than any of the planets that can be seen with the naked eye. I watched the object for about five minutes, it did not move at all. It was at an angle of thirty degrees from the horizon, and was an orange/red colour. The object was still visible when I left to fetch some binoculars, but when I returned ten minutes later, it had gone”.

“I saw a large, round white light moving very fast. I watched for about four seconds, before it went out like a light being switched off”.

The duration of this mass sighting was almost four hours. If the same object had caused all of these sightings, then one would expect a fairly even distribution of witnesses across this time span, (allowing for population density fluctuations).

The collated data however, shows that this is not the case and that 58 of the recorded incidents occurred in the time span 18:00 to 19:15 hours. A further examination shows that the predominant sighting time falls between 18:40, and 19:00 hours. This, in itself, may indicate that later reports were not of the same object that caused the earlier, (majority), sightings. The sightings which did occur later in the evening on this date, appear to come from two Leicester groupings. This does not seem to reflect a pattern concerning a single object’s flight path. If these later sighting reports were of one, main sighting stimulus, then that stimulus to provide such variation, must have changed its flight path at some point.

We also have the many different flight directions given by the witnesses with regard to the peak data. Due to this, speculation also arises concerning the possibility that the object may have ‘doubled back’ on its original flight path, or continuously altered its course. The problem being however, that if these changes did actually occur, not much of the sighting evidence provides us with the actual viewing of this procedure whilst the object was in view of the witnesses.

Another thing that does appear strange is, when viewing the timescale involved regarding the peak data, is the wide area from which the witnesses are drawn. The time factor suggests that witnesses separated by distances of up to 14 miles, I.e. Hinckley and Coalville, were seeing almost simultaneously what appears to be the same object.

Mr. E’s own feelings and actions during this period are here reproduced;

“When first seen, the object was very much like a bright star, and then after a minute or so, the object started to grow larger. As it came closer, when the object was approximately ¾ miles away, I used the 24mm. Zoom lens on my super 8 movie camera to enlarge the image. I then decided to film the object for what turned out to be approximately thirty seconds, at the full 24mm., (the camera was loaded with daylight film, (Kodak), and still had the daylight orange filter in place, which I had used the previous day, and forgotten that it was still in place, otherwise, I would have removed it. Looking at the object through the camera lens, I could just make out what looked like the leading edges of an aircraft’s wings, but they seemed much too thick. As the aircraft passed overhead, there was no sound at all, the object was very low, and would have been very easy to hear any engines. Also, when overhead, there was no sign of any navigation lights or cabin lighting”.

The programme centred around 617 Squadron, (of Dam - busters fame), based at Scampton. It covered the last few days of operational duties before the squadron was disbanded, and its crews sent for training on the Tornado aircraft which would eventually reconstitute the squadron.

During the programme, a crew was shown planning the last Vulcan flight from Scampton. Part of the conversation involved the squadron’s Commanding Officer, Flight Lieutenant Charles Bakewell, who made the following comments;

“We cannot fly above cities and towns, and must try to avoid civil air traffic zones. It is very difficult to plot a course that will allow us to fly in a straight line for more than ten miles”.

On Tuesday, January 24^th., 1978, just 10 months before the October 23^rd., ‘Silent Vulcan’ incident between 4.15 p.m. in the afternoon and 10 p.m. at night, more than forty people from all over the south-west area of Leicestershire, said that they had witnessed strange lighted UFOs moving slowly over the area. They described dark, triangular objects with steady blue, orange and red lights, that hovered, circled and rocked from side to side, and all in complete silence. The object’s lights were described further as extremely bright and ’glowing’.

In particular, three female witnesses saw something strange in the sky as they driving through the village of Elmsthorpe, near Burbage Common at 8 p.m. on that particular evening.

The three witnesses, who had travelled along Leicester Road from Hinckley and then turned into Elmsthorpe Lane, say that they saw two lighted objects which suddenly appeared and began to follow their car on both sides and at low altitude. When the driver of the vehicle stopped the car, one of the objects swooped out of the sky and hovered above as if watching them. “It was a very frightening experience and one we will never forget. We stopped the car to get a better view, but to our amazement, the object stopped too. The object moved off when we did. It was bright red and glowing around its perimeter, we were terrified” said one of the witnesses.

This particular series of observations took place on the evening of January 24^th., 1978, with all the reports apparently relating to the sighting of one, or perhaps two, objects circling over a small geographical area of the east Midlands.

All the reports were initially received by telephone , within 24-hours of the occurrence of the sightings. Full written reports were obtained from telephoning percipients as rapidly as possible thereafter.

As there was no media publicity concerning UFOs at the time, all the reports were treated as genuine statements of real observations.

Certain eyewitnesses requested anonymity. This has been preserved here, un-named percipients being designated simple capital letters, viz: ‘A’, ‘B’ etc.

By projecting all the sightings and times onto a map of the area the approximate locations of the object/s was determined. These locations were found to be the John Cleveland College, Hinckley, Sketchley Hill Estate, Burbage, (in particular - Brookside), Burbage Common, Burbage Woods, A47 Leicester Road, Elmesthorpe, Barwell, and Earl Shilton. (Line B1 Projected), also part of the M69 Motorway, Parts of Enderby, and Braunstone. South Leicester.

Height

Estimation of height/s could not be made due to lack of critical detail, but witnesses maintained that the object/s moved at a height lower than that of aircraft in normal flight. This is admittedly a loose statement, but it nevertheless conveys a general eyewitness impression very well, and indicates a consistency in eyewitness estimates of approximate height.

Descriptive variations are doubtless due to the angle and distance of each observer relative to the object/s sighted. The descriptions given are similar to the two earlier January sightings previously mentioned.

It is worth noting here that residents of the main sighting area are well used to aircraft and helicopter flights as it is directly under the main flight-path AMBER ONE, and in the proximity of Sapcote Beacon to Lichfield Beacon.

A survey of the area in question produced no evidence of static red lights (described in some of the cases) which could have been accidentally mistaken for the object/s.

Finally, it should be stressed that all witnesses felt certain that the object/s represented something ‘unusual’. This consistency of impression is regarded as being of some significance.

Tuesday, January 24^th., 1978. 16:15 Hours. Rowanberry Avenue, Leicester. SK 545 047.

An unusual aerial phenomena was observed above Leicester on the above date by a Mr. Kenneth C., 56 years. His statement is as follows:

“At approximately 16:15 hours on Tuesday, January 24^th., 1978, I rose from my armchair in my living room to see what the weather was like. I observed an object in the sky travelling at great speed in roughly a north-west, to south-east direction.

Whilst travelling along, the object changed shape from elliptical to almost round. It was bright silver in colour, this was not caused by reflected sunlight as the weather was overcast at the time, and the sky was a dull grey in colour. My window is six feet wide, and the object took approximately 8-10 seconds to travel from edge to edge. The object left an unusually shaped vapour trail, almost spiral in shape, and wider than that usually associated with aircraft. I called to my son who was in the kitchen at the time, but by the time he arrived in the living room the object had disappeared, but he clearly observed the unusual vapour trail”.

Tuesday, 24^th., January 1978, 18:35 Hours, Sketchley Hill Estate, Burbage. SP 433 933.

A flare-like object was seen over the Sketchley Hill Estate on the above date by a Mr. and Mrs. P. Mr. Packer’s statement is as follows:

On the evening of Tuesday, 24^th., January, 1978, My Wife and I were driving along the road when she pointed to something in the sky. We were in Higham Way, Sketchley Hill Estate, Burbage, it was around 6.35 p.m. This particular part of the estate is high up and it was a clear evening. My Wife’s attention was attracted to what looked like a flare, and was in the direction of Birmingham, making it roughly south-west. This flare, or UFO, was falling in an arc, but instead of burning out like a flare or shooting star would do, it remained the same size and brightness. The (white) object then stopped still in the sky for a few seconds, then it moved slowly away at right angles and disappeared. There wasn’t a sound from the object all the time we had it in view. I remember stopping the car engine to specifically listen for aircraft engine noise but heard nothing”.

“For me, the evening of October 23^rd., 1978, was a quiet one”

“The Sleek triangular shape of the late 1990’s Stealth aircraft, fits well with the 1978 ‘Silent Vulcan’ sightings”

“I realised that the object was stationary, so I stood and watched. There was no sound, I was very afraid”

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Includes: The Black Triangle Mystery
By Clyde Lewis
Since 1990 there have been over 4000 sightings of what is known as the "Flying Triangle" or "Silent Vulcan" Over Britain. In the early 90's there were a similar number over Belgium, France, Holland and Germany, with fighters being sent up to intercept this unknown craft.

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