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Student spots UFO over Swindon

9:50am Wednesday 13th December 2006

comment Comments (36) Have your say »

By Anthony Osborne »

HE might be concentrating on his college work, but Chris Moran is also wondering if we really are alone in the universe.

On two occasions on Monday night the 17-year-old spotted strange lights in the skies over Swindon. It was at 8.55pm when he made his first sighting.

Chris said: "We were walking out the back of Cricklade Road near some open ground and out of the corner of my eye I saw it for just a few seconds.

"There was this oval-shaped object, quite bright, hanging in the sky. It was really odd.

"As I turned my head to look at it, it reacted like it had been seen, and it zoomed off."

Chris turned to his friends but they all insisted that they didn't see it.

But just over an hour later there could be no doubt in their minds.

"I was in town near Eastcott Hill and I saw it again, and this time so did the others," said Chris.

"It looked like it was just a few hundred feet up. All the guys saw it and so did one man who had come out of a pub.

"It was incredible, but I cannot begin to think what it was.

"It was oval again, a bit like a rugby ball, completely silent, and then travelled off so fast, it would have been impossible to estimate its speed. I cannot believe I have seen this object twice in one night. Other people must have seen it."

Chris is confident what he saw was not an aircraft, helicopter or an astronomical object such as a shooting star.

"It seemed far too fast for anything I have ever heard of and it was silent, there was no rumbling or anything," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defence said they had not received any reports about UFO sightings over Swindon on Monday evening.

She said: "The MoD examines any UFO sighting reports it receives solely to establish whether there is any evidence to suggest that UK airspace has been compromised by hostile or unauthorised air activity.

"Unless there is such evidence the MoD does not attempt to positively identify what was seen."

The MoD has no role or expertise regarding the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial life-forms and does not study such alleged phenomena.

"The MoD remains open-minded but to date we know of no evidence that substantiates the existence of these alleged phenomena."

l Did you see this strange phenomena over Swindon? If so call the Adver newsdesk on 01793 501806.

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Your Say YourSwindon

Michelle, says...
10:31am Wed 13 Dec 06

Last night - Tuesday at about 9pm i noticed some strange lights in the sky in the Toothill - West Swindon area, which came from the direction of the mannington roundabout side of Swindon. It was long lines like a strobe light that seconds later turned into an orb shape and rolled into a mist almost as if it was a cloud of smoke - my mum missed it the first time and then noticed it also but said she saw small circles of light moving as if they were floating. I am not sure what it was but i havent seen anything like it before. And am not aware of any strobe lighting shows or fairs in that area at the moment. Not likely to be a ufo im sure!

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Chris Moran, says...
10:54am Wed 13 Dec 06

I forget to tell you that last week I also saw Swindon beat Man Utd 5-0 and Tony Blair playing hop skotch in the toilets of my local pub.

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Mel, says...
11:01am Wed 13 Dec 06

The strobe lights I believe were coming from over by the outlet village, maybe a christmas party in steam or there abouts

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Tony, says...
11:09am Wed 13 Dec 06

Chris Moran wrote:
I forget to tell you that last week I also saw Swindon beat Man Utd 5-0 and Tony Blair playing hop skotch in the toilets of my local pub.

That is so funny......

Report this post »

Albert Harding, says...
11:22am Wed 13 Dec 06

I have witnessed a number of sighting over Swindon in the past few years, i have tryed to contact the adver regarding these sightings but they never get back to me so i wonder why they felt the need to publish this one? In the past 3 year I have on at least 5 or 6 occassions viewed lines of glowing green orb like shapes hovering above the rodbourne area of swindon, the objects appear for approx 10 minutes and one by one shoot upwards into the night sky. I have photo & video evidence of this. The last sighting was Sept of this year, where the objects where at a very low level i would say 50-60 foot from the ground above Mannington Rec & again the lights shot into the night sky one by one.This was witnessed by myself & my wife. I just wondered if anyone else had witnessed this or anything simular?

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Tony, says...
2:26pm Wed 13 Dec 06

Chris Moran - how apt....! school holiday already is it? or just got back from the pub?

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Snizzel, says...
2:28pm Wed 13 Dec 06

Albert, are your photos online anywhere?

Report this post »

Chris Moran, says...
2:39pm Wed 13 Dec 06

Censorship is not good.

You removed my post saying I had seen a 10ft Winnie The Pooh eating carrots on an allotment. Why?

Report this post »

Webteam, says...
2:48pm Wed 13 Dec 06

We received a complaint and we are obliged, if our readers find something offensive, to remove posts where necessary.

Report this post »

Darrell Murphy, says...
3:05pm Wed 13 Dec 06

And of course had the RAF seen the same thing as Mr Moran, they would, of course, have been falling over themselves to share with the public the radar traces and pilot chat that would have been generated as they chased the UFO out of our sovereign skys...or am I just an old cynic?

Report this post »

Liv, says...
3:09pm Wed 13 Dec 06

Yes please share Albert im sure there are many people interested in what you have seen. I am!

Report this post »

Albert Harding, says...
4:00pm Wed 13 Dec 06

In regards to people who would like to see the pictures and video clips of the objects I witnessed they are not on-line anywhere at present. Although i have just spoken to my son and he has said that he can get them posted on a site on the internet this weekend, as unfortunatly i havent a clue on how to do this! Once these are up I will again contact the adver to see if they are interested in this story.

Report this post »

Midge, says...
4:27pm Wed 13 Dec 06

They say there's no such thing, well you have to see it to believe it I suppose, but I'm not saying what I saw was from outer space.

It was 1981 the year for many sightings and speculations of UFO's.
After what I thought looked initially like a star, this thing turned into many colours then started to move across the sky, it stopped-went brilliant red and disappeared, Within seconds I saw a mushroom shaped balloon, that I estimated twice the height and the same width of my house. It turned on it's side and glided across the roof of my home, and as it went over the road just missing the other houses I could see the top of it and it was an ultra violet light that made it glow. The stem of it started to deflate and the noise was like one of those cheap black plastic bags. I went out looking for it and thought it would of come down in the next road, but it had disappeared. I also saw Police cars racing about. It was all in our local newspaper the next day, where people had seen sightings of different things, and this went on for a week or two.
Well we called the Bristol balloon club, but was told though they have a lot of shapes and sizes of balloons, they didnt have a mushroom shape. Years later I read that a mushroom shaped balloon was also sighted in China.

Well! roughly a couple of weeks after seeing the mushroom shape balloon, I saw three white lights in a row manoeuvring across the sky, no noise or nothing behind them. They were to far apart to be a plane or helicopter. When I first saw the lights they were far away in the sky and looked the size of tennis balls, but as they got closer they were the size of footballs. Then all of a sudden they rotated and shot off in different directions.

With the equipment that the RAF have you would think they would of picked up both sightings on radar. but they deny ever seeing it. huh!

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Chris, says...
4:57pm Wed 13 Dec 06

I've spotted these also, I saw them till at least 3am, i reckon it was a slight glimpse of the northern lights maybe.

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Chris, says...
5:02pm Wed 13 Dec 06

I once saw a young man help an old lady accross a busy road in Toothill. Clearly, I could only have been mistaken.

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John O\\\'Brien, says...
6:22pm Wed 13 Dec 06

Is there an RAF base near Swindon by any chance?

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Paukl Davies, says...
7:06pm Wed 13 Dec 06

I think Santa is having an early practice run

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mega, says...
7:14pm Wed 13 Dec 06

So, are we to believe that not one of those kids had a picture phone ?

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Trystan, says...
7:31pm Wed 13 Dec 06

Albert Harding wrote:
I have witnessed a number of sighting over Swindon in the past few years, i have tryed to contact the adver regarding these sightings but they never get back to me so i wonder why they felt the need to publish this one? In the past 3 year I have on at least 5 or 6 occassions viewed lines of glowing green orb like shapes hovering above the rodbourne area of swindon, the objects appear for approx 10 minutes and one by one shoot upwards into the night sky. I have photo & video evidence of this. The last sighting was Sept of this year, where the objects where at a very low level i would say 50-60 foot from the ground above Mannington Rec & again the lights shot into the night sky one by one.This was witnessed by myself & my wife. I just wondered if anyone else had witnessed this or anything simular?

Albert, as a general Fortean researcher based in Gloucestershire I'd be very keen to see your footage. Perhaps you could email me? scfr@scfr.co.uk

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terry tree trunk, says...
7:52pm Wed 13 Dec 06

MOD knows UFO's exist but will keep 'bottomfeeders' like us in the dark for as long as they can. everything you see on TV about NASA's little 'peaceful space journeys' is also a lie, NASA is military and defence for the earth, and they know alot more than they let on. hopefully 7 years time or so, our boring little world will be enlightened by us finding out theres something more magical going on, than just living to serve corporate machines, tucked up behind double glazing and paying money to exist in a concrete town full of crap shops. nite nite

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Rockyfox, says...
9:39pm Wed 13 Dec 06

Travelling along Wharf Road towards Mill Lane
last wednesday(6th dec), both my daughter and myself saw what we assumed to be a metorite,speeding at quite a low altitude going from south to north dissapearing over north West Swindon.The time would have been about 19:10

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DarkFairy, says...
12:58am Thu 14 Dec 06

this has defo got 2 b the funniest thing ive read in ages, well done to chris moran for makin me laugh this close to christmas!! i await the next installment lol

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Chris Moran, says...
8:29am Thu 14 Dec 06

We received a complaint and we are obliged, if our readers find something offensive, to remove posts where necessary.

Why is Winnie The Pooh offensive? Scaring people with UFO stories could be deemed offensive (I don't think it is) but I don't think you'd remove it.

Report this post »

DarkFairy, says...
4:03pm Thu 14 Dec 06

hope u dont mind but ive posted a link to this thread on my forum, http://www.darksidecruisers.co.uk its the sort of thing our members like to read

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DarkFairy, says...
4:05pm Thu 14 Dec 06

and to chris moran id like to say this, dude you're a genius!!!! and welcome on the darkside anytime!!!

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APRA, says...
6:48pm Thu 14 Dec 06

Any clubs with new laser o rlight displays? A check with the police witll confirm or deny licensed laser dipslays.

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sip that wine, says...
7:48pm Thu 14 Dec 06

i've heard that it was 3 swindon freemasons, testing a new BMW saucer that they got imported from the germans just after the war. they later crashed into a burger van on mannington round about, silly sausages

Report this post »

Errol, says...
9:12am Fri 15 Dec 06

Chris Moran wrote:
Censorship is not good. You removed my post saying I had seen a 10ft Winnie The Pooh eating carrots on an allotment. Why?

Because it was my allotment and the case of the missing carrots is now subject to a legal investigation.
Disney refused to comment or replace the carrots. Anyone with information should contact Chief Inspector Gadget at Toothill joke shop.

Report this post »

Paul, says...
12:47pm Sat 16 Dec 06

Not sure about UFO's but anyone clearly see the chemtrails in that picture on the website (2 white lines crossing?). UFO's ok, im more worried about what I see every day in the sky thats sprayed.

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MrT, says...
9:15pm Sat 16 Dec 06

Albert Harding wrote:
In regards to people who would like to see the pictures and video clips of the objects I witnessed they are not on-line anywhere at present. Although i have just spoken to my son and he has said that he can get them posted on a site on the internet this weekend, as unfortunatly i havent a clue on how to do this! Once these are up I will again contact the adver to see if they are interested in this story.

Id love to see your footage Albert Harding, give us a shout when its online.

Report this post »

miff, says...
8:49pm Wed 20 Dec 06

I first saw some lights kind of like beams around the freshbrook school area and it looked quite smokey but I coudn't see exactly where it came from. When I got home I saw the same lights coming from the lydiard park area, it was the same type of light and that area was generally lit up as if there were other lights on the ground. The beams were like those big beam lights that are used in events, they moved inwards and moved back outwards again, it happened every couple of minutes or so. I think that the lights were just from some event somewhere but they looked quite smokey too. These lights went on for about a week. The only weird thing is that the lights weren't a really defined beam of light like a spot light would be although it was a bit cloudy that day. My brother and mum also saw the lights. Did anyone else see exactly what I saw? I haven't seen anything like it before though.

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miff, says...
8:52pm Wed 20 Dec 06

I saw the lights at about 8:00pm on both occasions during the week.

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ROBERT E. MIGHTON, 593-857 719-900 281144 says...
7:35am Sun 4 Feb 07

KILL CHRIS THE MORON NOT WORTH MY BULLET PROBABLY DROWN IN HIS OWN BULL **** AND SHOULD!!!

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Barbara Walter, Connecticut says...
8:48pm Mon 23 Apr 07

Albert Harding wrote:
I have witnessed a number of sighting over Swindon in the past few years, i have tryed to contact the adver regarding these sightings but they never get back to me so i wonder why they felt the need to publish this one? In the past 3 year I have on at least 5 or 6 occassions viewed lines of glowing green orb like shapes hovering above the rodbourne area of swindon, the objects appear for approx 10 minutes and one by one shoot upwards into the night sky. I have photo & video evidence of this. The last sighting was Sept of this year, where the objects where at a very low level i would say 50-60 foot from the ground above Mannington Rec & again the lights shot into the night sky one by one.This was witnessed by myself & my wife. I just wondered if anyone else had witnessed this or anything simular?

I am 54 years old now,I live in Connecticut and have lived here for most of my life,when I was 14 years old I saw a UFO or if you want to call it a flying sauser it was about 40 to 50 feet above my head I was in my drive way and it was right above my head,medal looking,very large round shaped object with lights that went around a the bottom and made a loud,how do I DESCRIBE IT wizzing noise it had seemed that I had lost some time but I`m not sure it was about 3 in the morning I had left a school dance.

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Vigilance, Amsterdam says...
7:50pm Sun 27 Jan 08

Dear all.

I'd like to tell you of a situation that sounds very similar to the one mention. I'd just past my driving test (Back in 1995). My friends and I decided to drive up to Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire/Notti
nghamshire boarder. Belvoir Castle sits on top of a hill, and you can see Nottingham city at night from about 30 miles away....Anyway, we were all sitting on the bonnet appreciating the view when I looked behind me and saw a light traveling across the sky, horizontally and very slow. I watched it for about 30 seconds, before mentioning it to my friends. "What the hell is that" or something to that nature, they both looked round to see this, and when the did, it seemed to "react" to it, as if it had noticed us watching it, even though it was a fair distance behind us. In then preceded to do what I can only explain as a Z in the sky, before literally disappearing into space as an amazing speed. That one scene has convinced me and my friends that we are not alone!

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walker, Bristol says...
7:16am Mon 24 Mar 08

I was in Bristol on the night of 11th December 2006 at about 22:45 hrs when I noticed a strange light that moved across a sky line within 3 seconds. It was bright enough and low in altitude, probably 3km high. What was more puzzling apart from the 'ultra supersonic' speeds was the fact that there was no sonic boom; when normally i could here Helicopters flying above the altitude of the 'UFO' i SAW. I was sceptical at first about what i'd seen, I mean it was not my eyes playing tricks on me I would never have believed that i was ever gonna spot one of these objects. Althogh I do not know what it was refusing still to allow for the idea of the existence of other beings (aliens and the like); I'm more with the idea that somebody out there, yes here on earth has found a breakthrough invention that evades sonic boom and can travel many, many times supersonic speeds. I was just glad I saw one. People like me are very skeptical about what to call these things. But seriously though I ran upstairs as soon as I saw the ufo, I also happened to be on the phone when i saw it, and so my friend heard my exclamations. I called the police in all the excitement and they gave me a number to call which i did not call at all. I was a little scared because that story is strange even for me to tell people, it would sound more like an urban legend. I would like to know if anyone saw what i saw on this night because I believe that in an open sky in the city centre of Bristol may be a couple hundred people could have seen that light.

quote

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