The Howden Moor Incident

An incident that has the plot of a classic sci-fi film, but the events of March 24th 1997 are very real to those involved and it is well-documented. Was it simply a coincidence of unrelated happenings, or a wider cover-up by authorities? It looks like we will never know, but it is a fascinating tale from the Sheffield area of the U.K.

The first call came in to police at 10.15pm on the night in question, soon followed by many more - reports ranging from a triangular-shaped U.F.O being chased by jets, loud booming noises and a low-flying aircraft heading towards the hills, either way there followed a bright flash and loud explosion.

The police, kind of surprisingly, took these calls very seriously, and a major search of the area was quickly mounted involving the police helicopter, mountain rescue and the fire service ,with the local hospitals being put on standby to receive multiple casualties from a crashed airplane. They contacted the R.A.F and were told no aircraft were missing and there had been no military craft flying in the area and an exclusion zone was put in place by the R.A.F over the search area so there would be no interference from other aircraft. The search covered approximately 40 square miles … nothing was found.

The next morning the police set up a special phone line to take calls from the public, it was soon inundated by reports, again of low-flying aircraft and military jets chasing something. Theories included an aerial drugs drop gone bad and even a ghost plane that is said to haunt the moors. Following a T.V documentary called ‘Mysteries’ which aired in October 1997, the police issued a statement which read:

“No explanation was ever found and we remain open-minded about what was behind the sightings.”

On March 28th 1998 the incident was brought up in - of all places - the House of Commons. Edinburgh seismology department confirmed that two sonic booms had been recorded that night at 21.52pm and 22.06pm, the R.A.F denied any supersonic aircraft being in the area at the time stating it was illegal to break the sound barrier over land in the U.K.

The fruitless search and subsequent investigations cost the U.K taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds which some have speculated was the reason the military denied all knowledge. Some believe there was a cover up and that a triangular craft was indeed being pursued by Tornado jets, one of which crashed in a reservoir - the R.A.F did set up a 10 mile exclusion zone around the reservoir which seems odd. It has also been reported that there were secret, low-flying military operations in the area at the time, and that a jet may have gone supersonic creating the sonic booms. Logically speaking it is unlikely that the R.A.F would conduct such maneuvers so very near to a major built-up area, but who knows.

The mystery remains, questions go unanswered, but whatever happened that night, it was seared into the memories of the witnesses. Extraterrestrial activity, a simple accident that inexplicably left no wreckage or a military cover-up? We’ll never know.

Photo by Albert Antony on Unsplash

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The New Jersey Turnpike UFO Sighting.

Just after midnight on the 14th July 2001, droves of motorists including off duty police officer Lt Daniel Tarrant pulled over their cars along the highway at the New Jersey Turnpike and stared in awe towards the sky. A set of orange and yellow lights was sitting in a V-formation over the Arthur Kill Waterway between Staten Island and New Jersey and it was observed for around 15 minutes.

When asked, Air Traffic Control denied any military maneuvers or space operations that could be the lights so many people saw, however the New York Strange Phenomena investigators apparently have FAA radar data that corroborated the event. Still unidentified.

SETI Founded 1984

On the 20th November 1984, the most famous institute (in my opinion) for exploring life in the universe was founded - incorporated as a 501(c)(3) California nonprofit organization - The S.E.T.I Institute which stands for the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. It was started by Thomas Pierson and Dr Jill Tarter along with their colleagues and it still going strong today employing many scientists and researchers with the mission to 'explore, understand and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe' and bring it to the general populace.

The SETI Institute has three main centres which cover it's work. The Carl Sagan Centre is primarily devoted to the study of life in the universe, The Centre for Education is focused on astrobiology, astronomy and space science aimed for students and teachers, and the Centre for Public Outreach produces the 'Big Picture Science' radio show, podcast and the 'SETI Talks' lecture series.

By employing the use of many scientific instruments around the globe including the Allen Telescope Array, the Very Large Telescopes in Chile as well as the space telescopes Hubble and Herschel have meant that SETI has been able to delve into the subject of life in the universe for many years and bring the research and result to life, there have been some rocky patches along the way with funding, criticism and skepticism of the work, but I for one will support the institute for as long as possible.

The Dechmont Woods Encounter.

On the 9th November, 1979, Robert Taylor, a Scottish forester parked his truck by the side of the road and walked with his dog up a forest track at Dechmont Law, West Lothian. Shortly after this he saw a flying dome shaped craft hovering above a clearing. He said the craft was a dark metallic sphere with small propellers around the rim and there was also a horrible odor in the area.

Smaller spheres like "sea mines" attempted to drag him to the craft at which point he lost consciousness. When he came to, the crafts were gone. He could not start his truck so walked back to his home. When he got there his wife recalled he was very disheveled and muddy, his clothing was torn and she called the police and a Doctor who treated his wounds. He took the police back to the site of the encounter, and they reported ladder-shaped marks on the ground. They recorded the incident as a criminal assault.

Robert Taylor's account is revered among ufologists and it became the only UFO sighting to be criminally investigated.

2006 O'Hare Airport UFO Incident

At approximately 4.15 in the afternoon on 7th November 2006, in broad daylight at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, a large number of witnesses both inside and outside airport grounds, including United Airlines pilots, mechanics and management reported a UFO hovering over gate C-17. They described a metallic, saucer-shaped craft between 6 and 24 feet in diameter which was totally silent. After several minutes it "shot through the clouds at high velocity" leaving a hole in it's wake which closed up shortly afterwards.

To have a sighting described in the same way, by so many witnesses, some of whom were very familiar with the airport and who were professionals in their field is astounding...even more incredible is that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 'declined to investigate' the incident as the UFO didn't show up on radar (even more reason to check it out in my opinion!) and explained it away as weather phenomenon.

NARCAP - The National Aviation Reporting Centre on Anomalous Phenomena published a 155 page report in the incident and called for a government inquiry on the basis that;
"Anytime an airborne object can hover for several minutes over a busy airport but not be registered on radar or be seen visually from the control tower, constitutes a potential threat to flight safety."

Levelland UFO sightings.

The Levelland UFO case is known as one of the most impressive simply due to the large number of witnesses to the same events, although of course it was discounted by the US Airforce and skeptics as 'ball lightening' among other things.

It began on November 2nd and 3rd 1957 at Levelland Texas when two farm workers called the police to report a UFO sighting. Pedro Saucedo and Joe Salaz said they had been driving west of Levelland and had seen a blue flash near the side of the road, their truck's engine died and they told of seeing a rocket shaped object rise up into the air and flew over them. Once it had passed, the truck started up again. This report was dismissed immediately, but then an hour later Jim Wheeler rang to report an egg-shaped object, brightly lit which was about 200 feet long, which was sitting on the road. Similarly his car engine had died and the craft flew off when he got out of his vehicle to approach it, once gone his car kicked back into life.

The accounts kept coming, including;
10.55pm a couple reported a bright light moving across the sky, their car lights and radio failed for a few seconds during the sighting.
Joze Alvarez reported his car dying when he came across a large object on the road, once it had gone the car was fine.
12.05am a student called to report his car struggling and eventually dying before he saw a large egg-shaped object in the road, it flew away and his car came back to life instantly.
12.15 Frank Williams called to report a sighting along with his car cutting out until the object had left.
12.45 Ronald Martin called.
1.15 James Long rang with his report stating the same as those beforehand.

By the end of the night, 15 people had reported incredibly similar accounts, the Sheriff and the Fire Chief also saw unexplainable things of a similar nature.

Apparently, according to ufologists, there were no electrical storms in the area that night as mentioned in Project Blue Book, and the airforce did not interview 9 of the witnesses.
Fascinating stuff!

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levelland_UFO_case
https://science.howstuffworks.com/space/aliens-ufos/levelland-ufo.htm

Newspaper snippet

I just came across a little snippet I cut out of a UK newspaper last year (I think) about people's top 10 favourite spooky phenomena, thinking about writing about them all in due course although a couple of them - the origins of Stonehenge especially - are so vast a topic that I wouldn't know where to start, so many opinions, conflicting arguments etc, but fascinating nonetheless. They run as follows:

10 - Hampton Court ghosts, Surrey
9 - Highgate vampire, north London
8 - Devil's footprints, Devon
7 - Rendlesham Forest UFO, Suffolk
6 - Agatha Christie's 'missing 11 days', Harrogate, Yorkshire
5 - Suicidal Dogs at Overtoun Bridge, West Dunbartonshire
4 - Enfield Haunting, north London
3 - Beast of Bodmin Moor, Cornwall
2 - Origins of Stonehenge, Wiltshire
1 - Loch Ness Monster, Scottish Highlands

Is your favourite there? 

Weekly round up of the strange - check this out.

Every weekend on the Myth or Maxim blog there is a post featuring the Myth or Maxim Chronicle which is a round up of the week's tweets, news and stories from around the world, it makes for really good reading with links back to the original poster's page.

This week featured a Paul Walker conspiracy, strange sounds from the skies and UFO stories and is well worth checking out...

Read it HERE along with other issues.

Fortean evening ahead.

Tonight is Fortean Times night in my house, it arrived yesterday, and I should have time to read it through later, always fascinating!