Stonehenge Glyph
first discovered in 1995 by Beyond Boundaries
first discovered in 1995 by Beyond Boundaries
On 7 October 1996 I received a paged message from a friend and colleague, Mark Haywood, in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The message read as follows: Major sighting over The Wash, Norfolk. RAF and Coastguard involved.... Mark
I then telephoned Mark at work to follow up on the message
and to find out what he knew of the sighting and its source. After speaking
with Mark, and having been informed that the incident had occurred in
the vicinity of The Wash, I decided to make further enquiries with another
associate who lived in the general vicinity - David Dane, a well-known
Norfolk artist.
David gave me graphic details and told me there had been a variety of reports of strange aerial lights, which had been seen by a number of reliable witnesses in various parts of both Norfolk and Lincolnshire on 5 October, and that investigations had been launched by the Royal Air Force, the Civil Police, and David himself.
In the days that followed, several local newspapers (particularly The Eastern Daily Press) gave the incident widespread coverage and reported the claims of the various witnesses to the encounter. But what actually took place? To answer that question it is first necessary to examine a remarkable piece of evidence - a lengthy conversation between Coastguard; several police authorities; and a North sea tanker, the Conocoast. Recorded at Yarmouth Coastguard HQ, the conversation reads thus:
0314 Skegness police: “We can see a strange red and green rotating light in the sky directly south-east from Skegness. It looks strange as it is stationary and there is no aircraft sound in the area.”
0328 RAF Kinloss: “Northwood have a radar
contact bearing 221 degrees at 16 miles; it looks to be stationary and
there is no way of determining its height but it must be quite a size
to be visible from Skegness.”
0331 Kinloss: “Neatishead now confirm a couple of radar contacts in the area but no height; they seem to be stationary. There are definitely no military aircraft in the area and no notified civil flights should be there.”
0346 Conocoast tanker: “We have these lights on visual. Now they are flashing red, green and white. Cannot identify it as an aircraft as it looks stationary and is approximately one mile high.”
Yarmouth Coastguard: “Did you see from which direction it appeared?”
Conocoast: “No. It just appeared and is stationary.”
0353 Kinloss: “Neatishead say it could be caused by the weather.”
Coastguard: “I don’t think so as we have visual contact.’’
Kinloss: “Well, Neatishead and Northwood report that there is no transponder on this object and therefore no means of interrogation. It is obvious that whatever it is it does not want anyone to know that it is there. Also Neatishead report its position as directly over Boston.”
0408 Conocoast: “It is still stationary and flashing red, green, blue and white. It looks very high, north of us, and there is no engine noise.”
0417 Coastguard: “Skegness, can you get video footage as the RAF are very interested and may require it later.?”
0427 Kinloss: “Neatishead are keeping a log of what looks like clutter on the radar.?”
0445 Yarmouth Coastguard: “Conocoast, can you give us an update?”
Conocoast: “We can see two flashing lights green and red.?”
0501 Coastguard: “Give us both bearings of the two lights.?”
Conocoast: “There is one stationary light at 345 deg true and the other at 160 true; the lights are both visible with the naked eye and both exhibit the same characteristics flashing red, blue, green and white.”
0517 Boston police: “We can still see the light. It is towards the south-east and seems about 40 - 50 degrees in the sky. It is just a bright light to us.”
0521 Kinloss: “Neatishead are running a trace on this and cannot explain it. If they are helicopters they are fast approaching the end of their endurance as it is well over two hours since the first report let alone how long they were up there before they were actually sighted.”
0552 Conocoast: “We can still see the lights, and they are on their original bearings and flashing the same colours but they seem higher and dimmer.”
0703 Flight Lieutenant McFarlane, Neathishead: “We had a report from Northwood that a civil flight had also reported strange lights in the area. They fit exactly what was seen from the ground: multi-coloured, flashing stationary lights.”
0731 Flight Lieutenant George, Northwood: “This echo is still on our screens and we cannot explain this at all apart from it being a meteorological phenomenon but then again we have visual sightings also. The civilian flight that reported these lights as a flare was six miles away at the time. All very strange.”
1109 Neatishead: “The object still has not moved; London radar and Waddington can also see it.”
1920 Anglia radar: “There is nothing there now; we are of the opinion that it was the Boston Stump.”
There ends this invaluable piece of data, a copy of which was later reproduced in a number of newspapers, along with requests for other witnesses to come forward. In the hours and days which followed, considerable interest was shown in the entire affair by military authorities: The Ministry of Defence were said to be taking the matter seriously and all possibilities were to be investigated. “We are trying to prove that it does not represent any sort of security threat and that it was not an aggressive intrusion into our airspace. This is one of the bigger sightings recently and has caused quite a bit of interest,” said MOD spokesman Nigel Sergeant. Too right! It caused a considerable amount of interest - not least from yours truly! Both myself and David Dane are firmly of the opinion that, whilst the object tracked on radar does indeed appear to have been the Boston Stump (it is not uncommon for tall buildings to generate a radar return under certain conditions, and the Boston Stump - a large and ancient church tower - is a prime candidate to explain the radar return). The unexplained lights remain a mystery, primarily because they emanated from an entirely different location - approximately twenty miles out to sea at a height of around one mile!
Moreover, several crucial hours had passed by before it was determined that the radar return was spurious, therefore one might ask: “Why, in the early stages of the encounter, was no thought given to scrambling military aircraft to intercept and investigate the mysterious lights to ascertain if there was any connection with the then-unidentified radar traces?”
According to at least one source (a person connected with the BBC Weather Department) the most likely explanation for the origin of the lights was an electrical storm which had shown up on their weather radar.
Whilst the RAF were quite happy to accept this scenario, not everyone was in agreement. As Tony Dodd, director of investigations for Quest International, said: “Surely to God the RAF can tell the difference between a storm cloud and a mystery object in the sky. God help us if we ever get invaded.”
In addition to Tony Dodd’s comments, we have the testimony of the crew of the Conocoast tanker - David Hutchinson, Mark Robson and John Acock, who told me they had seen:
“Two distinct objects way out to sea consisting of multi-rotating lights, red, green, blue and white. They hovered for four to six hours directly overhead. You could hear no noise whatsoever, and when daylight came you could still see them; barely, but they could still be seen even though clouds came in and started to cover them.
Under no circumstances could these have been the Boston Stump; they were at least twenty miles away from land and at least one mile high in the air. The sky at the time they were noticed was perfectly clear and there was no electrical storm. They just appeared there. And we watched it for hours. There were no aircraft in the air; they were just still?”
This important testimony suggests that the explanation that the lights were due to the effects of an electrical storm, was incorrect. Furthermore, we have located a number of other potentially-important witnesses, and are at this moment about to reveal the results of these additional studies, which includes the intriguing testimony of a number of individuals, who at this point wish to remain anonymous, that the airspace over the Wash was closed during the weekend in question as a direct result of the aforementioned UFO activity. Whilst these claims have been categorically denied by a high-ranking RAF spokesman at the Ministry of Defence, such claims persist, and it is worth noting the comments of Labour MP Martin Redmond who has taken an interest in the case: “It’s incredible no aircraft were scrambled when a target was picked up so close to the coast. This raises questions on the way we police the UK Air Defence Region.”
Commenting on the UFO subject in general, Redmond added: “The answers I’ve been given lead me to think there is something more to this. The only thing I know for sure is this whole issue is shrouded in secrecy.”
I am in agreement with Martin Redmond, and additionally believe that the Ministry of defence and RAF are (a) drawing too many un-warranted conclusions before every aspect has been considered; and (b) given to producing parrot-fashion explanations.
As a concerned British citizen, I also have to ask: is there a possibility that the incident was connected with the activities of the U.S. military - who also use our airspace? Have inquiries been made at an official level to answer this questions?
Furthermore, during the course of this investigation I was astonished to learn that it is accepted RAF policy that only unidentified objects approaching British airspace, rather than those already in Britain’s airspace, are investigated to determine any potential security and defence threat. I consider it incredible naive that the RAF should ignore any unknown phenomena operating in our skies simply because it has not been tracked approaching the UK.
In view of the available evidence I can only conclude that during the early hours of 5 October 1996, Britain’s airspace (and possibly the defence of the realm) was compromised by unidentified aerial intruders, and that the RAF and MOD, fully aware of the possible ramifications, are content to dismiss the affair as nothing more than ‘unusual lights’. As I told Beth Rose-Waghorn of the Eastern Evening News, ‘(the military) either know what it was or it is something they are aware of - something they put there and did not want us to know about.’
Irene Bott has for many years been interested in a variety of aspects of the paranormal, and no least the UFO subject. As a youngster growing up in the Rugeley area of Staffordshire, England, Irene saw many things in the night sky from her bedroom window which defied a child’s logic, but she did not seek an explanation to any great extent.
Later in life, and after a memorable UFO encounter near Cannock Chase - a large forested area close to the town of Penkridge - involving numerous witnesses to a large, pulsating light which proceeded to increase in size as it manoeuvred unconventionally in the night sky of Staffordshire, she attended a lecture and slide show on the UFO and crop Circle mysteries.
With Irene’s interest in the UFO subject increasing, it was suggested by a friend that she should become more involved and form her own investigation and discussion group on both the UFO and Crop Circle issues.
As a result of this suggestion, in September 1995, Irene formed the Staffordshire UFO and Crop Circle Investigations and Discussion Group, which later became the Staffordshire UFO Group (SUFOC), and which Irene is President of.
Since that time the group has grown in size and gained strength of reputation and Irene is now a high profile figure within Britain’s UFO research community. Beyond Boundaries is proud to be professionally associated with Irene Bott and with this prestigious UFO research group in the UK. We plan to meet with the group again on our 1997 crop circles expedition to exchange pertinent research information - looking forward to seeing you and your group soon, Irene!
We have compiled a list of British UFO Organizations with addresses and phone numbers as part of our database that you Beyond Boundaries members can access by e-mail: jmurphy@onramp.net 1-800-259-8747 or just write to us!
Beyond Boundaries did a live broadcast from Wiltshire England on which Irene was an interesting guest. This broadcast can be heard from the Sightings archives.
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NOTICE: Articles and Reports on the Beyond Boundaries Archive web site were first published on the Internet or in the Newsletter from July 1996 through June 2000. Since these are reprints of the original stories, names, addresses, email addresses and web links may be out of date or may have been changed. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Beyond Boundaries, Inc., its advertisers, or associates.
