- Mystery Lights Were Meteor
Shower
-
- The mystery surrounding a series of lights
seen high in the sky over western areas [of the United Kingdom] was solved
today when officials said it was caused by a meteor shower descending to
earth. The sighting brought reports of UFOs and messages from space last
night [Friday, July 12]
-
- Coastguard stations and police from Scotland
to Cornwall were flooded with calls from concerned witnesses, many reporting
lights in the shapes of the letters "Z" and "Q" or
the number "2". Many calls were centred around the Isle of Man
where a large explosion in the sky was reported.
-
- Mystery deepended when a statement from
Liverpool Coast Guard about the lights said: "Coastguard and air traffic
control are satisfied this is not aircraft related, so we can only assume
whatever it is comes from out there."
-
- But shortly after midnight the mystery
was solved when an airline pilot who landed at East Midlands Airport reported
seeing a large meteorite entering the atmosphere when he was flying to
the UK from France. The meteorite began breaking up as it entered the atmosphere
and left a long trail in its wake. The pilot said he watched as winds formed
the trail into shapes resembling letters which had been reported on the
ground.
-
- A spokesman for Liverpool Coast Guard
said today [Saturday]: "It appears to be a meteor shower and two parts
may have hit each other. "We had over a hundred 999 calls here alone
with people reporting UFOs, coloured lights, meteors, comets and space
debris. "They were reported right across the northwest, but thankfully
nothing appeared to land anywhere."
-
- Bungy Williams, watch manager at Belfast
Coastguard said the "Z" shaped lightys were in the sky for 45
minutes. "I can say I've never seen anything like it before,"
he said. "It was a larger shape than the moon but as we were unable
to measure the distance it was impossible to judge its actual size. "I
made a drawing of the object which shortly before midnight began to fade."
-
- A report in the London Sunday Mirror
today quotes Williams as saying: "When we first saw the object, it
was not completely dark. Whatever it was, it appeared to be moving very
slowly westwards. It seemed larger than the moon and higher than the clouds."
-
- Teeside air traffic control tower, near
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, also reported a sighting. They also quote defence
officials at RAF Fylingdales in North Yorkshire, the MoD's front line early
warning station, as having had "no undue activity" reported on
radar. A Coastguard spokesman added: "It was a mystery at the time
- but it was not an alien craft."
-
- Compare these sightings with the reports
describing a brilliant meteor re-entry over western and central areas of
Britain reported by dozens of people on Thursday, June 11 this year. This
object lit up the sky with a dazzling flame-like trail over Worcestershire,
Herefordshire, and Shropshire before disappearing in a flash over North
Wales.
-
- On that night 268 calls were logged by
police and coastguard in a 90-minute period from 11.02pm - with repors
ranging from "a flying saucer and a blazing aircraft to the end of
the world" (Daily Mail, June 13).
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