A FAMILY at Goadby who spot flying saucers have claimed their latest sighting near Market Harborough on New Years Day. Mr. Tony O’Shea and his 16-year-old daughter Tracy were out collecting logs in the afternoon when they saw what appeared to be an orange vapour trail moving across the sky. “My husband told me it was stationary at first then moved very fast and came back before disappearing completely.” said Mrs Eileen O‘Shea. She spotted her first UFO three years ago when she was out walking her dog. “Tracy, our daughter, actually saw a better outline than her father and says she saw a disc shape through the haze. Observer training - We have always kept an open mind on these things but we are now absolutely certain they do exist. My husband was in the Observer Corps and when he saw his first UFO the top brass came down and told him not to talk about it because it was top secret. With his observer training he would not have made a mistake this time either.” The O‘Sheas‘ live at the School house, Oadby, where, says Mrs. O‘Shea, the open countryside makes it ideal for spotting objects in the sky. “We have seen things before but have not bothered to report them because we know what we have seen and it does not matter what other people think. But this time it was so clear other people might have seen something too.” (51/78/01). (7).

UFO Enthusiasts are investigating reports from more than 17 people who saw a delta-shaped object circle Leicester and Hinckley last week. The object was spotted by five Leicester people as it flew low over the Braunstone area between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Tuesday January 24. Eyewitness Miss Joan Bott, of Cleveleys Avenue, Braunstone, said: “The object passed very low overhead, but made no noise”. The craft was lit by steady red, blue and yellow lights as it headed south towards Hinckley where it was sighted by more than 12 residents. “We have checked with RAF Waddington, and the Vulcan bombers and other aircraft had not been in the same area and it doubtful whether they would fly that low,” said head of Leicester’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Research Organisation, Mr. Trevor Thornton. (51/78/09-30). (7).

Hinckley UFO Society are investigating the report of a glowing triangular object seen hovering over Higham on Thursday evening. Three Nuneaton youths phoned the society after seeing the object hover over the village for several minutes before it shot off at great speed in the direction of Atherstone. The boys said that the UFO was blue and appeared to be shimmering as if giving off great heat, and they all agreed that when the object moved off its speed was greater than that of an ordinary aircraft. The boys were quite shaken by their experience, for although they had observed blue lights moving in the sky on previous occasions, this was the first solid object they had seen. (77/78/08). (8).

So UFOs have been sighted over the County and a local society is looking into it. No doubt this could be a good thing for the region provided that this body always conducts itself in a truly scientific manner, i.e. with open-minded thoroughness and level-headed thinking, with caution and care, with patience and persistence. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Ufologists generally know little of science, are guilty of shallow thinking, snap decisions, and of being caught up in a web of propaganda and hysteria. True! No-one today believes that we are the only intelligent beings in the Universe. True! There is a great deal of documented evidence concerning unexplained aerial phenomena, much of which has been reported by very careful, well-trained observers. True! It is only right and proper for some organisation to investigate any reports of unusual ‘sightings’. But why should the general public have to be continually brainwashed by the naïve views of ill-informed cranks? Why do we continually have to suffer all this ‘close encounters of the third kind’ nonsense? Why does the popular press not publish ‘down to Earth’ facts instead of kindling cheap sensationalism. Here are just a few relevant facts - The Earth is 4,700 million years old, and during that time, as many as four million stars, all with accompanying planets? Could have come within fifty light years, (300 million million miles) of the Solar System. Now, if we assume that 10 million superior civilisations have existed in our galaxy during the lifetime of the Earth, and that their average travel distance is 50 light years, a simple mathematical calculation will give us a possible maximum of 420 visits during that period. Less than one visit every 10 million years. That should at least put the problem into perspective. No doubt I shall now be accused of having a fixation - of believing that nothing beyond the laws known to man can exist, of refusing to accept any idea that does not fit in with my narrow concepts. O.K. then, try it the other way. Lets make some really wild assumptions. Assume that the extra-terrestrials are immortal. Assume endurable spacecraft with an infinite life span. Assume that fuel is unnecessary. Assume the capability of velocities up to the speed of light. Assume 10 million space faring civilisations in our galaxy alone, and that each launch from each civilisation makes one contact per journey. Now there are 100,000 stars in the galaxy, so . . How many launches per year would each civilisation have to make for just one UFO per year to be a genuine extra-terrestrial investigation? Answer:- 10,000 launches per year for each of the 10 million civilisations. Do you ufologists really believe that all this is possible? And please don’t comment that the Solar system may be an especially interesting place. If it is then we are rare specimens indeed, and the estimated 10 million civilisations is absurdly high (it is anyway). If there are, in fact, 10 million civilisations, one can only conclude that we are commonplace and therefore dull. Finally, I must comment on the damaging, and false, accusations levelled at scientists. Scientists, by profession, are totally committed to the ‘open-minded’ approach, their lives being dedicated to a search for truth. They analyse, study, and endeavour to solve the mysteries of the Universe. They never pretend that problems do not exist and will always be the first to admit that they do not know everything. To suggest otherwise only reveals the ignorance of the accuser. It is those ufologists with an unscientific and a dogmatic attitude that pretend that problems don’t exist, by the simple expedient of attributing they do not understand to ‘little green men’. Paradoxically enough it is those same ufologists (usually those who claim to have had a ‘close encounter of the third kind’, who are singularly unimaginative. It is they who reduce the glorious symbolism of the Bible to the nuts and bolts of a conventional spaceship. It is they who imagine that a galactic super-intelligence will travel thousands of light years and then find nothing better to do than to give some earth bound nutcase a joy ride in a flying saucer or frighten an innocent motorist by stalling his engine. Oh, No! Mr. Ufologist, it is you who wears the blinkers. Even your extraterrestrial is too Earth-like to be credible. Suppose Earth were to start all over again, and let the random factors of Evolution operate for a second time., I believe we would end up with nothing at all resembling our present form. How much less likely then, that organisms evolving 5000 million years, in a totally different environment, on another planet, orbiting round a faraway star, would look even remotely like a human being. (Goodman, Colin).

(Item 7): Leicester Mercury, June 5^th., 1978 - UFOs are identified… as Venus and Jupiter…

A close encounter of the real kind is still baffling researchers for the Hinckley UFO Society this week as they try to solve the mystery of the low flying UFO seen near Sapcote. The group were called into action when 12-year old Aston Flamville schoolgirl Elizabeth O’Niell reported a UFO hovering over fields on the outskirts of the village. The mysterious object, seen at 6pm on August 26, was described by Elizabeth as “round and silver, and completely noiseless.” She says it hovered over trees for about a minute then shot away at tremendous speed disappearing over trees in an adjoining field. (51/78/92). (10).

A recent report from an Aston Flamville schoolgirl has alerted investigators from Hinckley Aerial Phenomena Investigations. On Saturday 26^th.August, at about 6.p.m., 12-year old Elizabeth O’ Niell, with other friends, witnessed a strange object from a car as they were approaching Hobbs Hayes farm, near Sapcote. It appeared to be a hovering silver ball and after remaining stationary for about 10 seconds, it shot off towards the ground. None of the girls in the car could explain this sudden phenomenon. (51/78/92). (8).

An Unidentified Flying Object, orange coloured and shaped like the bottom of a teacup, was seen over Nuneaton last night. The object stayed in view for about 10 minutes before it faded away. It was seen by Mrs. Lily Taylor of Radnor Drive, Nuneaton, as she and her Husband Harry arrived home at about 9:20 p.m. “It was very big, and seemed to be over the Abbey Green side of town”, said Mr. Taylor. “It was round at the bottom, flat on top, and was a pinky-orange colour.” Elmdon Airport air traffic controllers say there were no aircraft operating in the area last evening. Mrs. Taylor’s sighting was also backed up by two other people who telephoned the Tribune offices last night. (10).

A Nuneaton astronomer was last night puzzled over a strange, moving light in the south, south-east sky. Mr. Ronald Hill, first thought that the bright yellow light was the planet Jupiter - which is due to appear in the night sky around this time of year. But as he and his Wife Brenda watched, the light began to look more like a boomerang shape, and then sped off to the west. “Jupiter should be up around now, and that is what I thought it was at first, said Mr. Hill - but it suddenly veered off, too fast to follow with a telescope”. Mr. Hill said it was in the wrong place to be Jupiter, or one of its moons. Other people have reported seeing the light at around the same time - 10.15 - last night. Birmingham Airport air traffic control say that there were no scheduled aircraft in the Nuneaton area at that time. (77/78/220). (10).

Regulars at the Clarendon Hotel, Leicester, wondered if their drinks were laced last night when they started seeing UFOs - But after licensee Mr. John Clarke reported he could see the object too, they took a second look, and there, in the sky over London Road towards the south, more than 20 regulars and a stone cold sober landlord, watched the mysterious lights. Mr. Clarke explained: “A customer came in shouting he could see something in the sky and then someone else said that they had seen it earlier, so we went to look”. They saw two white lights which seemed to have a shape to them. They were visible for several minutes around 8.30 p.m. There were theories that the lights could have been a helicopter, but most witnesses were un-convinced by this explanation. Mr. Clarke added: “Despite what anyone might say about a pub full of people seeing objects in the sky, I was perfectly sober because I don’t drink.” (7).

Mysterious lights in the sky were spotted by a Hinckley man on the evening of Sunday, 1^st., October. The man, a Mr. Hopewell, saw what he describes as a “huge white light” over the Richmond park area. He says he watched it for several minutes at around 10.00 p.m. Mr. Hopewell, a keen astronomer, also sceptical of UFOs, said: “The object was definitely something strange, it did not appear to resemble an aircraft light and made no sound whatsoever although it was very, very low. It was something that I could not identify.” (51/77/78/126-193, Appendix A, The October Lightshow, Case 2). (8).

Everyone’s talking about UFOs these days, but do they really exist? It’s so easy to be cynical, but so many sightings have been reported in the Nuneaton area during the past few months. And a Nuneaton woman claimed this week that she observed a visiter from outer space - just 150 yards away. Nancy Savage, of Camp Hill Road, says she was in bed when she saw a bright light passing her window. Estimate - “I’d never seen anything like it before so it certainly wasn’t an aeroplane. Besides, it was totally noiseless. I would estimate it to have drifted within 150 yards of my window. The object was very bright with a blue haze at the edge.” Ironically, Nancy - one of Nuneaton’s best-known photographers, had left her camera downstairs and could not take what could have been the world’s first picture of a UFO. In February this year, Nancy claimed she saw another UFO floating past her house. This was later confirmed in a national newspaper by a reader who saw the object near Chapel End. (77/78/211). (10).