Alien Spacecraft - Fact, Hoax or Imagination


This close encounter near a London airport suggests we are not alone. But the truth about what is actually out there is still up for debate.

The term UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) was created by the United States Air Force in 1952, but before that, these strange phenomena were known as "flying saucers" due to their disc-like shape. While some of the so-called "sightings" are attributable to hoaxes, a percentage are not. Up to thirty percent are truly UFOs since experts are unable to identify them as belonging to the known world. This is not the same as saying they are aliens from another world or planet – that fascinating question is still up for debate.

Now a new - and rather more convincing sighting - has been reported in one of the UK's more serious newspapers, i, sister-paper to The Independent. The claim is made by a regular BBC sports’ journalist.

Freaked Out by a Close Encounter

Mike Sewell works for Radio 5 Live and as he drove into work he encountered an amazing spectacle: He was about 15 or 20 miles from London’s Stansted Airport at 4.15 in the morning. “There was this big bright light in the sky descending towards the road. As it got closer, it then banked to the left, and as it banked to the left and went across the countryside, I could see underneath it,” said Mr. Sewell. He insisted it was not an airplane or a helicopter and it was shaped like a disc. “It had several lights flashing all around it.” Beneath the “craft” there were also two large, soft, white panel lights.

According to Mr. Sewell, the craft remained there for a few moments, but then, as he began to descend a dip in the narrow country lane, he lost sight of it.
A Potential Threat?

Back in 2007, the Brighton Argus, 10 October 2007, reported that the Ministry of Defence is required to investigate all cases of possible UFO sightings in case of unauthorized military or hostile activity. A spokesperson told the paper: “If required, sighting reports are examined with the assistance of the department’s air defence experts. Unless there is evidence of a potential threat, there is no attempt to identify the nature of each sighting reported.”

More recently, according to BBC news reports on 5 August 2010, the British Government released eighteen files, altogether containing 5000 words on sightings between 1995 and 2003. These files confirm that, several decades ago, Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill was aware of the UFO phenomena, but because he was afraid of causing general panic, had hushed up the whole thing.

Again, some incidents were considered to be hoaxes, but harder to explain were the accounts where UFOs were trapped by radar or reported by police officers and those of similar standing. One near-collision between an aircraft and a UFO in 1995 was eye-witnessed by both the pilot and first officer.

Labelled “Potty” for Reporting UFO Sighting

The BBC newsreader suggested that the popularity of the television drama The X-Files may have caused the rise in UFO sightings – and yet, rather than encouraging fantasies, it may simply have helped people feel more comfortable about discussing their experiences. Witnesses often express their anxiety that in sharing their experiences they might be labelled “potty.”

Radio journalist, Mike Sewell, who witnessed the Stansted incident, said that the VW driver in front of him must have also seen the phenomenon and he hoped the man would contact either the police or the radio station and corroborate his own evidence. “I was wide-awake and of sound mind,” he asserted.

One UFO eye-witness on the website www.lapisufo.com commented: “The annoying thing is people don’t understand the impact this has on you until you witness it yourself. You truly have to see it to believe it – but we can’t be all imagining the same thing.” One of a group of young men who saw brightly-lit UFOs near Eastbourne in Sussex while they were fishing on the pier, said: “All were moving at speed. But the lads didn’t want to tell anyone else – they said it would just get them laughed at.”

A more sober comment from another poster speculated that the aliens might be annoyed with what we are doing to our planet, and that we need to make big changes – and quick!

Mike Sewell of Radio 5 Live spoke to the BBC. To see the video recording this conversation please go to: Disc-shaped craft is spotted circling near Stansted.

Sources:

"BBC journalist "freaked out" after close encounter" by Chris Stevenson, i,(sister paper to The Independent) 6 August, 2011
Brighton Argus, 10 October 2007
BBC Television News, 6.00pm/10.00pm
www.lapisufo.com

Adapted from:

Paranormal Brighton and Hove, Janet Cameron, Amberley Publishing, 2009
Paranormal Eastbourne, Janet Cameron, Amberley Publishing, 2010

First published on http.janetcameron.Suite.101, 6 April, 2011.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fifteen Women Philosophers

Image
Follow the link to access my latest book, Fifteen Women Philosophers you should have learned about at school (but probably didn't)  http://www.amazon.com/Fifteen-Philosophers-should-learned-school-ebook/dp/B00MR8OSS8#reader_B00MR8OSS8 Review by Sarah Barton: In her book Ms Cameron gives us interesting insights into the lives of women philosphers of bygone eras who were only too aware of the injustices of living in a world dominated by men. Thinkers like de Gournay and Wollstonecraft were early feminists, demanding that women should have access to education and equality. Wollstonecraft even stated that if men were treated as demi-gods then the inequality would result in women becoming 'cunning, mean and selfish'. Ms Cameron combines a brief biography of each of her candidates with a summary and an analysis of the main thrusts of their arguments, making us wish for more so it is excellent that there is a useful bibliography at the end.  The work of some of these women
Read more

Jennifer Young - Role Model for Aspiring Romantic Thriller Writers

Image
Have you always seen yourself as a "writer" and created stories and non-fiction from an early age, or is there something that happened to inspire you to put pen to paper? Jennifer Young: I resisted the description “writer” for years and still do at one level. I have never seen myself as a writer but as someone who writes. You don’t call someone who breathes or eats a “breather” or an “eater”, and writing is just something I do. And yes — I’ve written, or thought about writing, for as long as I can remember. And that’s a loooong time! 2. You write both fiction and non-fiction, but which do you prefer?   Jennifer Young : Fiction. Don’t get me wrong — I love writing non-fiction (for those who might be interested, I’m a science writer and I specialise in Earth science) but fiction sets you free in a way that non-fiction doesn’t. My scientific background has taught me that you should check your facts, be accurate, go back to the source material. In fiction, a
Read more

Philosopher Louis de Jancourt - How to Become an Enlightened Writer

Image
Public Domain Wikimedia Commons Louis de Jaucourt, (1704-1779) was a great scholar of the Enlightenment, born in Paris, who studied theology in Geneva. He  influenced his readers by his intelligent use of language and metaphor, and by inviting their complicity through sound psychological processes. Overcoming the Loss of a Manuscript Today, we are lucky as there is a degree of safety in storing our work online. It might be plagiarised but it is unlikely to be lost. It wasn't so in times past. The saddest thing about this great man's life was that he worked for twenty years to produce a work of six volumes on Anatomy, but the ship carrying his manuscript sank on its way to Amsterdam, and his labours were entirely lost.  Yet, undeterred, he went on to contribute more articles to the Encyclopédie than any other writer, and he did this voluntarily. He was already wealthy so he was willing to participate without payment. He wasn't as well-known or
Read more