The incident described below took place at Burbage, near Hinckley, one night during the first week of January 1970, possibly the 4^th, at the junction of Sketchley Lane and the main B4109 Road.

There was unfortunately only one witness, Mr. Robert B, who at the time resided in Priesthills Road, Hinckley, but has since married and left the area, and is now a respected member of the teaching profession. Mr. B was, at the time of the occurrence, an 18 year-old student, and very down to earth in his approach to life.

He told LUFOIN that he had, up to his sighting, read no books or articles on the subject. Investigators found him to be very sincere whilst relating his experience, and their repeated questioning only revealed the same answers which were given in a precise, intelligent manner.

LUFOIN investigators concluded therefore that Mr. B’s sighting was real, and one that has been remembered in great detail.

At the time of the incident, Mr. B was actively involved in the sport of running, this being his main hobby taking up most of his spare time. Most evenings were spent on training for certain events and this included practice runs around Hinckley and Burbage.

This particular evening, the witness left his house as usual at around 8.40 p.m., keeping to the usual circuit that involved a steady run up and along Sketchley Hill. The weather was quite good for the time of year, it was cold with ice on paths and roads, but the sky was clear with many stars visible.

Mr. B. reached the hill at approximately 8.55 p.m., and began the long run to the top. About half way, his attention was drawn to what he could only describe as a very large, bright white light that seemed to be hovering in the area of sky directly ahead of him (south). He was not unduly worried at the time, thinking that it was a brightly lit aircraft low in the sky approaching his position head on. The witness kept the light in view as he continued to run towards it, still assuming that as he got closer, a positive identification of the said aircraft would be forthcoming, and he would hear its engines.

The explanation did not occur however, there was no engine noise to be heard, even though Mr. B was quite close to the object. For the first time, he began to become a little nervous.

At approximately 9.00 p.m., as Mr. B. neared the brow of the hill, he saw that the light was actually surrounding what he described as an elongated disc-shaped object, about 30 feet long and 10 feet wide at the centre. The white glow was being given off by the main white, sharply defined disc, and appeared to be all around the object and ended abruptly a few feet from the main object.

The witness, still steadily running, was, by now, very frightened by the spectacle, although, apart from this, he felt no other physical effects.

The silent object, now to the left of the witness, was by now, directly above some evergreen trees that were, at that time abundant in the area. The witness then stopped running and watched, as the object became stationary, seemingly hovering just above the trees. The object at this point began to slowly descend, but stopped suddenly and began hovering again. At this point, Mr. B. saw what looked like white hot flames begin to issue from beneath the object that spread out until the bottom of them seemed to be touching the tree tops.

The object then started to silently descend again, finally landing amongst the trees, the flames from beneath the object, said Mr. B, could be seen below leaf and foliage level as the object neared the ground. Then, suddenly, there was darkness, the flames and the object were no longer to be seen, and even the bright light was no longer visible. The total time elapsed since the object was first seen until it vanished was estimated as 11 minutes by the witness. At the end of that period Mr. B believed that he had seen enough and decided to run away from the scene as fast as he could and remembers heading straight home. He didn’t even notice if any other witnesses were around, either in their vehicles, or on foot. All Mr. B. wanted was to get home as soon as possible. The sighting however, went unreported at that time. The witness told no one, not even his parents, what he had seen.

The incident was finally reported to investigators during August 1971, with the witness, still un nerved by the whole incident.