UFO Over Norfolk?

File: UFO220

Just before midnight on Thursday 18th February, a strange sight appeared in the skies of Norfolk, seen and similarly described by a large number of responsible and reliable observers. It took the form of a very bright circular object some quarter of the lunar diameter moving from west to east, taking some three minutes to travel from horizon to horizon.

Peripheral to the main object were much smaller bright blue, red and green lights. There was no sound, no ionized trail, and from the accounts given it would have seemed to be at a height of at least 80 Km.

Helicopters, aircraft, balloons and the like can all be ruled out. MIR was on the opposite side of earth at that time, and no satellite passes would have been solar illuminated at that time at this latitude. The PROGRESS-M-15 sunlight reflecting mirror experiment was stated to have decayed over the Pacific at 0600 two days earlier.

Whilst the format, ionizing brilliance and colours would seem to suggest a multi-metal complex spacecraft re-entry, the duration, track and absence of a luminous trail would tend not to support this otherwise logical explanation.

If we have any observers of this phenomena out there, could they please report to me the time, azimuth and elevation of the first appearance, the azimuth and elevation at the highest point in their sky, and the time and bearing position when they lost it, discounting cloud cover. A report of any further detail(s) observed would be welcome. Such inputs may well assist in determining the height, path, etc. and a possible correlation leading to an understanding of the source.

By the way, in case you're thinking what I think your're thinking, only one of the present witnesses had touched a drop!

Thanks for your response and interest, Bill. By all means place it on your Clive Database. My additional responses up to now have mainly been back-up information confirming no more than that which I gave out in my bulletin.

It has now permitted a good tracking, so I have just today sent out a further bulletin to ALL @ GBR entitled 'UFO over Norfolk - Epilogue?' that may offer an explanation. It should reach you soon. You are more than welcome to use this too in any way you wish.

Title : 'UFO' over Norfolk - Epilogue?

You may recall my bulletin referring to the 'UFO' seen just before midnight on Thursday 18th February in the skies of Norfolk, a very bright circular object moving west to east, taking some three minutes to travel from horizon to horizon. The central brilliance and the small blue, red and green lights surrounding the object suggested a multi-metal spacecraft re- entry, but the long duration, parallel track and absence of a luminous trail noted at first failed to appear to support this logical explanation.

The collation of the evidence provided by other dispersed observers has since permitted an estimation of the track, height, speed and inclination, i.e. west to east, approximately 70 Km up, and a velocity of some 7 km/second at MIR's inclination. This makes it fairly certain that it would have been a large piece of space debris descended from MIR orbit to re- entry height at the edge of earth's atmosphere. What did not fit was the earth parallel path, the long duration, and the lack of a visible trail.

Having now talked this over with various experts, particularly John Branegan, GM4IHJ, it makes more sense. John pointed out that it could well have been the early incineration stage of one of the PROGRESS or SOYUZ launch vehicles sections. (It would not have been the PROGRESS-M-15 sunlight reflecting mirror attached experiment itself as this had been earlier stated to have decayed over the Pacific at 0600 two days previous).

Being of large surface area and of relatively low mass, it would not come in at a steep angle with a brief and sudden burn-up, but would have tended to skim atmosphere like a stone being skipped on a pond surface.

Sorry Folks. No Flying Saucers, no Little Green Men. Most disappointing!

Many thanks to those of you who sent in reports and expressed an interest in the outcome. Keep watching! ......