NUFORC Sighting 51190

Occurred: 1997-05-15 16:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2006-07-02 02:01 Pacific
Duration: 5 mins
No of observers: 4

Location: Hove, Aldrington, Portslade-by-sea (UK/England), , United Kingdom

Shape: Sphere
Characteristics: Left a trail, Aircraft nearby

Driving west along sea road (A259) going back to Worthing from Brighton in late May 1997. Looking out to sea witnessed a metalic sphere 500 yards away hovering still about 300ft above sea level.

Me, the driver and two other passengers were spectulating on what the object might be. We quickly came to the conclusion that is was a helium balloon, probably from the fairground in Brighton. After 2 or 3 mins however it started to move around slowly in one direction, then in another direction. It would stop then move agaign. We started to get excited and wondered how many other people were seeing this strange event. It was a clear, sunny day so there must have been many.

Having read much UFO material myself I was convinced that this object was a craft of some kind, since it followed classic descriptions of previous witness accounts from around the world. However I suppose at this point we were not totally convinced.

After about 4-5 mins we saw an unmarked helicopter flying overhead, in what looked like an interception path to the object! My friend thought he saw police markings, but I didn't notice any. Just as the helicopter got to within about 200 yards of the object it shot off at a steep angle eastwards at an amazing speed that left a brief streak of light, almost as if it had turned into the light itself! At this the helicopter turned round and headed back inland.

We were all sober and not under the influence of any drugs. I felt Privileged to witness such an event, but also fairly frightened. I don't know why none of us reported it at the time, probably because we could barely believe what we had seen.






NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the event is approximate. PD


Posted 2006-07-16

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