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Report Review

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Sighting Report Data - Investigation Report

Case Reference: 51/83/02 - Date: September 5^th., 1983.

Chief Investigator: Mr. Clive Potter. Assistance: Mrs. S. Potter, Mr. Steven Allan, Mr. Graham Hall, Mr. Gordon McDonagh, (Photographer).

Introduction

A number of very bright and unusual lights were observed by a male witness on the morning of Monday September 5^th., 1983. The witness had arisen from his bed in order to visit the bathroom, and had noticed the dazzling lights through the French windows of his living room.

The sole witness to the events of that morning, was a retired navigator, aged 67 years living in Woodgate Road, Hinckley, Leicestershire. He is married with children. His observations are that much more by his past occupation as an RAF navigator, flying path-finder mosquitoes during the last war. He was a competent navigator and was highly trained, and flew many missions. He was therefore able to accurately estimate distances and sizes, whilst he was also able to gauge the brightness of the witnessed lights, having experienced the effects of searchlights during the war.

The report had been telephoned in by the witness, to LUFOIN, Hinckley, in the second week of September at a time when an investigation meeting was in progress, attended by the author, Mr. Steven Allan and Mr. Graham Hall.

That evening, Mr. Allan visited the witness and a sighting report form was completed.

The author, meanwhile, made attempts to contact various bodies in order to ascertain information relevant to our enquiries.

Later that month the author visited the witness and conducted a two-hour interview whilst also making measurements from the witness sighting position.

Early in 1984, the author again visited the witness to check up on the report etc. and was accompanied by a free-lance photographer, Mr. Gordon McDonagh, and several exposures were taken of the sighting position, as well as the approximate site that the lights were seen.

The Event

It was roughly 2 a.m. on the morning of September 5^th., 1983, when the witness visited the bathroom at his home in Woodgate Road, Hinckley, Leicestershire.

In the witness’s own words;

“I noticed through the clear glazing of the French windows, four lights on the ground. They were in the field beyond Burbage Common and the corner of Burbage woods, with the Hinckley-Leicester railway line bounding it on the north side. These lights were of a bluish-white colour, and intense enough to throw a line of trees and the corner of the wood into relief. Rising from ground level to some 40/50 feet, clearing the tree tops was a fifth light of a green-yellow colour, about the size of a toy balloon held at arm’s length, its distance being some 1,000 yards away. This object, rose and sank to ground level very gently, as a child’s balloon might rise and fall. Although I am by no means certain, it appeared to be touching each ground light in turn, before rising up into the air. As it rose along above the height of the treetops, the light intensified and flickered on the wall opposite to the French window. When it finally reached the end light at ground level, everything went black. As the above was happening, there was a whitish-yellow glow some eighteen inches to two feet in diameter at some 1,200 yards distance showing through the cloud base at approximately 3,000 feet, and moving from SE-NW at a slow steady speed, somewhat at the pace of say, a Tiger Moth aircraft. I first noticed this over the corner of the woods, it moved in a NW direction towards Enderby and Leicester. I observed it for a few minutes.”

The first assumption made by the witness was that the lights had their source at the Croft Hill quarry, the lights being in the direction of that quarry. This thought however, was soon dismissed due to the relative closeness of the lights, close enough in fact, for the grass and details of shade on the ground to be quite visible, whilst the trees were in clear relief.

The “floating light”, was further described by the witness as looking like a “Bauble on a Christmas tree”, and stating further that it rose to about 30 feet above the tress, slowly drifted down again to ground level, only again, to rise up above the trees again. The lights that remained at ground level said the witness, were coloured sapphire blue and appeared very clear. When questioned further regarding the nature of lights, the witness replied that they were dissimilar to a searchlight beam and were, in fact, totally irradiating the vicinity.

The four lights on the ground, were spread evenly along the field in a line, and it was estimated by the witness, that the distance between them was about 10 yards. No definite shape or object was visible between the lights, although the light emitted from the sources, would have revealed such a thing.

Follow up investigations involved the author corresponding with local meteorologists on weather data, the East Midlands Electricity Board as regards helicopter activity also several airfields on air traffic.

Inquires were also made with the local unit of the Territorial Army concerning their activities on the date in question, and it was ascertained that the unit was away in Oxford at that time on special training exercises.

Solution

The local Natural History Society were contacted as regards the possible use of moth-traps in the Burbage Common area on the date in question.

The result of these inquiries was very positive in that although the date and exact location in question had not been recorded, it was confirmed that trapping sessions had indeed taken place at the time specified on several occasions within the Burbage Common complex both during the Summer and early Autumn 1983. The four portable ground traps used by the society appeared to match the description given by the witness, and the society chairman said that in his mind, his society was more than likely responsible for the September 5^th. Sightings.

It was further agreed that the “floating light” was quite possibly a retina image caused by looking directly at the main lights. The glowing mass of light seen above the clouds may also seem to have a normal astronomical explanation.

LUFOIN Has therefore evaluated this case as: (PE-8L-3C).

CASE CLOSED.

Above: A Robinson moth trap

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