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Wednesday 30 May 2012

HAUNTED SKIES UPDATE: 24th May 2012




8th November 1978



Sunday Mirror 27th August 1978


Quick Book Review Roswell Alien Autopsy by Philip Mantle - published by Roswell Books.   Recommended by the authors of Haunted Skies - it finally puts the record straight! Well done Phil. 



The scrapbook of daily life continues with an examination of what will be Volume 7 of Haunted Skies. This volume will cover the period 1978-1979; sadly, we will have to wait until the next Volume 8 (1980) which will probably cover only one year. Here is a peek into the future:

Volume 7 Haunted Skies (1978-1979)

Chapter One January - May 1978 includes: Landed UFO, Kendal; Strange ‘Being’, Rainford, Cheshire; UFO Landing, Doncaster; UFO over Gloucester; Police chase UFO; UFO over Mytchett, Surrey; UFOs over Essex; ‘Close Encounter’, Frodsham; UFO over Suffolk; ‘Flying Cigars’ over South Downs; Entity at Risley; ‘Close Encounter’, Dorset; A visit to Warminster; UFOs over Hampshire; UFOs over Staffordshire; Glowing ‘figure’, Bournemouth; UFO over Southampton; UFO Landing, Lowestoft; Triangular UFO over the Atlantic; ‘Flying Saucer’ landing, Wheeley, Essex.
Chapter Two June - August 1978 includes: ‘Z’ shaped UFO, North Yorkshire; UF0 over Wales; Strange Journey, Wiltshire; ‘Flying Disc’, Weybridge, Surrey; UFO over Chepstow Race Course; Abduction of Vehicle, Kent; UFO over Essex; Strange ‘Lights’ over Devon; ‘Close Encounter’ at Plumstead Common; ‘Flying Submarine’, Northumberland; UFO over Bexleyheath, Kent; UFO over North Yorkshire; ‘Close Encounter’, Broadhaven; Strange noises, Maiden Castle, Dorset.
Chapter Three September - December 1978 includes: UFO Landing, North Wales; UFO over Clacton Pier, Essex; UFO over Staffordshire;  Zagreb UFO; ‘H’ shaped UFO, London;  Triangular UFO, Essex; UFOs over Staffordshire; UFOs over Ilford, Essex; Triangular UFO over Stoke-on-Trent; UFO over Lowestoft; UFO over Anglesey;  ‘Flying Triangle’ over Dorset;  Encounter at Huntingdon; UFO over Portsdown Hill; Coastguard Sighting; ‘Flying Saucer’ over Lympstone; UFO over Northampton; UFOs over Plymouth; UFO over Shrewsbury; UFO over North Yorkshire; Gigantic UFOs seen, Kent.
Chapter Four January - June 1979 includes: UFO over Pontypridd, ‘Close Encounters’ Rowley Regis; UFO Display Harston Hill; UFO over Hampshire; Close Encounter South Yorkshire;  UFO over Bristol; UFO Landing, Leeds; UFO landing, North Yorkshire; UFO over Hertfordshire; UFO over Bacup, Lancashire; ertfordshireUFO over Shortclough reservoir; UFO over Ilford, Essex; UFO over Portsmouth; UFO landing Normanton, Yorkshire.
Chapter Five July - December 1979 includes: Police chase over London; Strange aircraft over Shropshire; UFO over Witham, Essex; Egg-shaped UFO over Suffolk; UFO display, Luton; UFO over Kidderminster; UFO over Coleshill; UFO over Surrey; ‘Close Encounter’, Manchester; ‘Close Encounter’, Peterborough; UFO over Staffordshire; UFO over Stoke-on-Trent; ‘Flying Saucer’ over Cheshire; Triangular UFO, Birmingham; UFO over Plymouth; ‘Close Encounter’, Lincolnshire; UFO over Cricklade; UFO over Ipswich; Fin tailed UFOs, Staffordshire; UFO over Mansfield, Nottinghamshire; UFO over Suffolk; ‘Close Encounter’, West Lothian; Alien figure seen, Suffolk; UFO Display over Norfolk; UFO over Worcester; ‘Flying Saucer’ captured on photos, Suffolk; ‘Flying Saucer’ over Suffolk; UFO over Watford; UFO over Rickmansworth; UFO Display over South Oxhey; UFO over Exmouth, Devon; UFO hoax, Cornwall.

All specific details of the above will be outlined in Volume 8, and cannot be divulged until this issue is available.

Unfortunately, I will not be going to the conference at Woodbridge on the 17th June, as - first of all - it is Father’s Day and I have deprived my family on too many occasion by putting UFO related interests first. Secondly, the 200-mile round trip would cost over £150 and journeys this length are  biting hard into our pockets!

Yesterday I went to see Bob Tibbitts at the Festival Pub in Coventry, and he gave me some early UFO magazines, which I will scan and upload for your attention in due course. Thanks go to Bob, who has always been a source of great advice and encouragement over the years.


Kevin Goodman emailed me with the following information:

Due to work commitments, the annual "Look to the skies and run away if you see something weird" skywatch at Cradle Hill in Warminster is planned for Saturday, 1st September. Sadly a major work commitment for the normal date stops me from being there! So, let's have a good 'un on the 1st! Be there folks or be square! Please message me if you wish to attend, as the Army can get a bit …. errrr…. "nervous" of a group of civvies on the hill... LOL.

Also spoke to Phil Hoyle from the Shropshire area today, who is an authority on animal mutilations and is the man to contact with regard to this subject.  Well done Phil carry on the great work mate, I am sending you Volume 4 soon so you can review it on your website.

We  are going down to Avebury on the Wednesday for Solstice and will be handing out some of our business cards  in the hope that people will buy the books, which will be available for sale at the Henge Book shop. Hopefully John and Esther will put the kettle on!

Completely off the subject, we thought we would add a photo of Dawn’s garden.  The work she has put in is reaping rewards and we reckon she is deserved of a photo.


And in closing, we would like to remind folks that we still are looking for any one that might want to assist us with illustrations. Please contact us if you are interested.

Daily Mirror 31.10.67.



Sunday 27 May 2012

GUEST BLOGGERS ROB AND HUNTER AYLING: Its a warm day for a cold war.

Growing up in the 80's in the fear of living in the nuclear shadow from Moscow, Regan on the news, another dead Russian President puppet, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Tube, nothing quite sums up the cold war technology race between the US and the USSR than the US Airforces' aeronautical triumph than the - Blackbird.

The first of the so called "Stealth" planes. It was / is a majestic beast of the skies or reality almost space it flew so high. The pilot and co-pilot were suited up like astronaut's afterall due to its operational altitude.

Each mission had to have the highest possible clearance, maybe even Presidential before been allowed to fly.

As many as 75 people worked on just one mission.

Due to the speeds it flew at the body of the plane would become so hot, caused by the friction from the air. When landed the Blackbird had to cool down which took at least 30 mins, before the pilots could even leave the aircraft. (Let's hope they didn't the loo).

Interesting enough the fuel was that volatile it could even spontaneously combust in air.

When the air was drawn into the jet engines it when the plane was travelling a supersonic speed it had to be slowed down to be used efficiently. That is why if you look at the engines they had the very distinctive cones on them to do just that.

What is amazing about this aircraft is that it is amazing, but it is also several decades old and semi declassified (it started its operations in 1968 and stopped in 1997). Given that I am even looking at the plane, let alone photographing it gives us some idea how obsolete the technology is.

So what replaced it ? The "flying wing", "stealth bomber", the fabled "Aurora" with only one civilian siting from an oil rig in the north sea over a decade ago.

Keep watching the skies !!!!!! The truth is on this blog or maybe not.



Rob and Hunter Ayling. 27 May 2012.

Daily Mirror 28.10.67


Thursday 24 May 2012

HAUNTED SKIES: Update 22nd May 2012


Evening Star, September 20th 2002

We are pleased to announce that Volume 5 was completed on the 19th May 2012, and look forward to seeing it for sale on Amazon in due course.  We had an awful journey back from Devon on Sunday the 20th,  which took us 7 hours as the A39 was once again closed for repair work. 

I spoke to good friend Don Ramkin, from London, who has observed not only apports of stones in Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, but also a plastic elephant! Fact is indeed stranger than fiction!   We wish his mother a speedy recovery after she slipped on the dog’s bed and badly gashed her leg, which needed hospital treatment.

It was sad to hear that my son Chris’s chickens died within days of each other; they were really quite a cute pair and loved chasing dogs and the odd sausage thrown from them at barbecue time.




It is great to hear that the Henge shop in Avebury will be stocking Haunted Skies. Thanks to John and Esther. I spoke to John today, and he is looking forward to receiving the books as he needs them for Solstice.  We will be going down to Avebury on that day so if anyone wants to meet up at the Red Lion we shall be there (outside) promoting the books.

We are also making plans to get down to Glastonbury, so if anyone can recommend the ‘right sort’ of bookshops that might be interested in stocking Haunted Skies please let us know.  

Thanks to everyone; I think that we now have enough photos of H.M Queen for Volume 6,  which I am really looking forward to doing as it covers the 1977 Welsh wave. 

If anyone has reports or sightings for the 1975, 1976 or 1977 period please let us know as it will soon be too late to include them.  If you have not got our telephone number, it is:  0121.445.0340 .  We will, of course, ring you straight back.

We are still hoping that someone can assist us with illustrations for the Haunted Skies series of books. If anyone can help please email us on johndawn1@sky.com





Our  new resident ‘Mickey’ mouse












A magnificent chap keeping a watchful eye on us at Sedgemoor Service Station ......








...... which reminds me that Men in Black is out on the 25th May in 3D!    Is this a new film?



And yes I do have the film of a UFO that appeared outside the house!  

Daily Mirror 27.7.67.

Saturday 19 May 2012

2007 - Incident at Machynlleth

At approximately 9.20pm on 27th April 2007, Colin Grethe from Dundee, Scotland, was driving back from London, along the A470 country road, a few miles from Machynlleth, on a dark unlit night, listening to the music on the radio. He noticed a group of bright lights to the side, a couple of feet above the road, and an orange light on either side of the road, which at first he took to be traffic lamps, placed onto the road - then realised this couldn’t be the case.

“On the outer side of the orange lights could be seen a number of bright white lights, with other bright white lights above and in the centre, below the level of the other lights. At first I was confused as to what it was - then I realised I could see what looked like something resembling the wingspan of an aeroplane, approximately fifty feet in total, its shape extending right across the road and a short length either side.

At each tip of the ‘wing’ were bright white lights, highlighting, in their illumination, a small vertical construction - a few feet in from each tip - between the white and the orange light. This seemed to give it the appearance of an old aircraft, yet the whole wingspan itself seemed made of a smooth shiny material. There was a bright white light at the centre, just below the wingspan, and also a glowing dome of white above the wingspan - similar in a way to a cockpit - in which I could see the top half? of two figures, or just two figures (bottom half concealed by ‘cockpit’) As it approached closer, descending lower, swaying from side to side, the wing going up and down, my immediate reaction was to wonder if it was an aircraft.

The white lights on the wings began rocking up and down, as if the aircraft was having difficulty in remaining straight and about to ditch onto the road before me. I thought to myself, it’s going to hit me - I was going to die. Those brief moments, as it came closer, seemed like an eternity, almost happening in slow motion. I checked my rear view mirror, but there was no vehicle behind me. There was no place for me to steer the car off the road, so I wondered whether my best option was to brake or just to keep on going, and hope to avoid a crash.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief as it silently passed overhead, but was puzzled not to see any tailfin. I glanced back and forth between my rear view mirror and wing mirror, anxious to see the shape pass fully over, but could see nothing. I quickly stopped the car and got out; looking back down the dark road I could neither see nor hear anything.

Trying to make sense of it all, I wondered if the aircraft had ditched into a field beyond where I could see in the darkness. So, I jumped back into the car and was about to dial 999 on my mobile phone, and report the incident to the Police, when I realised I did not know my exact location, and wouldn’t have been able to direct anyone to the site, so I quickly drove a few hundred yards down the road - until I came to a sign, on the edge of a village, called Cwm Llinau - and then I dialled 999, asked for the Police (recorded as 9.24pm) and reported what I had witnessed.

The 999 Police telephone operator was unable to identify my position as Cwm Llinau (was not on her map) so I rolled the car slowly forward, trying to find something giving the location, and within a couple of hundred feet, found a sign for a small caravan park and gave the Police Officer the name and area telephone code and number. The Police Officer told me she would despatch a police car out to the area and check with the RAF, to establish if there were any aircraft in the area.

She kept checking my location and asking details of the incident. Eventually, she came back to me and said that, although there had been a Hercules (a RAF military aircraft) in the area earlier on the evening, there was nothing scheduled there now. I offered to stay in the location to see the Police Officers, but she said it was not necessary. I sat in my car for a short time, to gather my composure. I thought there was going to be a certain crash, one which I may not have survived, and I could only sit and shake with fright, relief and disbelief. As I was driving home, I received a call from the Police. This time it was a different Officer, who checked all the details with me again and asked me to confirm my location (which was now on the border of Machynlleth). He told me no aircraft were reported to be in the area, and no other calls had been received reporting a crash.

The Police Officer told me one of his colleagues lived in that particular valley and they were contacting him. On arriving home in Aberystwyth, I found myself still shaking with fear, and took an hour to regain my composure. That night I contacted the Ministry of Defence (MOD) at RAF Cosford, Shropshire. They advised me there were no aircraft in the area at 9.20pm and they had not received any incident report, although they confirmed there had been a Hercules aircraft in the area, but it had been much earlier in the evening. They also pointed out it was extremely unlikely any aircraft had been flying low that evening, due to recent strong winds. I contacted Air Traffic Control, at Cardiff Airport, who confirmed no aeroplanes had travelled via the Machynlleth area from their airport, seeking to make some sense from it all. I contacted the airport in Welshpool. They, too, confirmed there were no aircraft in the area; indeed, their landing lights had been switched-off earlier in the evening, as they were not expecting any arrivals.

On the Saturday morning I contacted Caernarfon Airfield, in Gwynedd. Again, I was informed they had no knowledge of any aircraft being in that area at the given time, taking into consideration that no flights take-off from there after dark. Later on Saturday, I went to the Police Station to see if anything else had been reported. They seemed only concerned by the fact that no crash had occurred and so there were no injuries or fatalities. They told me the RAF had a Hercules aircraft in the area at the time I reported the incident, completely contradicting what I was told the night before, suggesting it was a Hercules I had seen. It seemed pointless to argue the point, so I left. The wingspan of a Hercules is 132ft 7ins; the aircraft I had seen was less than half that size, at approximately 50ft in total width. The cockpit on a Hercules lies beneath the wingspan, yet on the aircraft I had seen, the cockpit (or what I believe was a cockpit) was above the wingspan.

Although I cannot say what the aircraft was, I cannot claim, with any certainty, it was of alien nature. However, it remains ‘unidentified’ and was a ‘flying object’, so I have to refer to it as a UFO. What is worrying is that, despite a clear incident occurring, I have received no contact from the RAF. I can only assume their philosophy is that if it doesn’t show on radar, then it doesn’t exist - a somewhat worrying viewpoint in these modern times.”

In conversations with Colin we learnt of a previous incident, which took place in 1995/1996, when he and his colleague had experienced, while on the way home, after having attended a meeting at the Stockport Paranormal Group.
“This particular night we were travelling from Liverpool to Manchester, along the East Lancashire road, and were intending to purchase some fish and chips before 11.00pm, so kept looking at the time, knowing the place shut at 11.00pm. As we approached a set of traffic lights, which were on red, they changed to green and then straight back to red, out of sequence - then the car stalled. We didn’t get it started the fist time, but eventually managed to restart it. The next thing we knew was that it was 11.20pm. Neither of us could understand what had happened to the missing time.”

Plagued by the ‘Men in Black’ - Fact or fiction?

We came across an intriguing case, investigated by Tyne Tees resident – Mrs. Anne West - on behalf of Contact UK. She told of a number of interviews held with a local woman, from the Cumbria area, who claimed she had been ‘plagued’ by what appeared to be visits by the infamous ‘Men in Black’.

At the time, believed to be the mid to late 1970s, Mrs. ‘E’ (then in her early 20s) was separated from her husband, after having split up following the birth of her son, but had formed a friendship with two other girls, of similar age, who lived in a nearby block of flats. One evening, at about 10.30pm, the housewife was sat talking with the two girls, when they noticed a bright light in the sky, which dropped down and landed in a field belonging to a nearby school. Curious, they left the flat and made a search of the field but found nothing. As they made their way back home, Mrs. ‘E’ noticed a black piece of rock or coal, which she kicked with her foot, near to the outer coal house.

She bent down and picked it up, remarking on its unusual shape - like that of an eggshell, which had been cracked in half, showing small red lumps on it. She showed it to the other two girls and then decided, as it was so unusual, to ask her father (who was a coal miner) if he could tell her what it was. When her father arrived home, she showed it to him. He told her it wasn’t coal or coke, and suggested that it be taken to the Museum.

“From the moment I brought the ‘rock’ into the house, I had the distinct impression that I was being watched. At first I thought I was imagining it, but the feeling grew worse. I felt uneasy and didn’t like going home. I noticed more red lumps on the ‘coal’ or ‘rock’ and decided to place it into the outer coal house until I could send it off to the Museum.

It was at this stage that my friends and I began to notice we were being followed by what I can only describe as oriental looking men, dressed in black. On one occasion, while at College, we noticed two of them stood near the walls of the corridor watching us. Wondering what the hell was going on, we walked over to confront them. As we got closer, they walked away down the corridor. We gave chase, but they just disappeared.”

It appears that the attention of these ‘men’ was directed towards the two girls, rather than Mrs. ‘E’, who described to her of an incident which took place, while they were waiting for a bus to get to a local dance, when a black ‘old fashioned’ car pulled up next to them. In the front of the car were sat the same two men that had been in the College. They were then invited to get into the car.

One would no doubt feel that if you or I were in that position we would not have got into that vehicle, and probably ran away, but it is claimed that, due to ‘Dutch courage’ from drinking earlier, the girls chose to do the opposite. This is what they had to say:

“We got into the back seat and, after being asked where we were going, the car moved away. We thought it strange why we couldn’t hear any noise of the engine, or even the turn of the ignition key. We arrived at the dance hall and all four of us got out and went into the hall. One of us purchased four tickets for the other two men. When we went to speak to them, they were no longer there. We went to try and find them but there was no sign of them, so we went to the ticket desk and asked the woman if she remembered them coming into the hall. The woman confirmed we had bought four tickets but told us we had been on our own, which made us feel very nervous.”

The story does not end there. The two girls decided to carry on with the evening and, after drinking heavily, left in what was referred to as a drunken state to catch the last bus home. As they left the hall, to their surprise the car was waiting, parked outside. Once again we cannot understand, bearing in mind their emotive frightened and drunken state, that they would entertain being given a lift home. Even if they had believed these two ‘oriental’ men were just that, rather than anything bordering on the paranormal, why on earth would they have put themselves into danger?

However, they did get into the vehicle and remarked on the absences of engine noise, along with a strange slight odour. At some stage in the journey one of the girls asked to stop, as she felt sick. The car then pulled up outside a bus stop, and according to the two girls:

“We seemed to fall onto the floor and ended up rolling about in the curb, the car having disappeared.”

It was then said that the incident(s) involving the attention of the two suspicious men, frightened the two girls to such an extent that they stayed at home as much as they could, fearing what might happen further if they went out. The focus of the men’s attention was then switched to Mrs. ‘E’, who was out walking near the local post office, when:

“I was approached by these ‘men’. I was terrified. One of them spoke to me in a strange language. The dialogue seemed more like sums, or letters, than words. When the other man realised I couldn’t understand what was being said, he spoke to me saying, ‘Where is the beautiful lady?’ I didn’t know what he was talking about and ran into the post office, determined not to come out until they had gone.”

By this time Mrs. ‘E’ had sent the rock off to the coal museum, but was annoyed to discover that the recovery of the artefact - which was published in a local newspaper - had been attributed to a man who had found it, rather than her.

One evening, she noticed something crawling over the wall of the lounge. Whether there was a connection with everything else that had happened and what was going to happen is, of course, speculation.
“I got up to take a closer look and felt goose pimples all over my body. It was an insect, or looked like one. Its body was two inches long. It had many legs, no neck and stumpy head, which seemed to sink into its back. It was horrible. I took my slipper off and killed it, throwing it out in the bin.”

At this point in the proceedings, she was receiving a number of visits from the ‘Men in Black’ who were continually knocking on her door and asking for the ‘beautiful lady’. Once again, one wonders why she didn’t contact the Police and report this harassment, especially as we learnt, through her, that the two girls had been burgled. In addition to this, the girls claimed of being frightened after having seen a brilliant ruby red globe pass right through the wall of the house. This appears to have been the final straw for the two girls, who packed up and moved away to London.

“After the girls left, I was on my own and decided the only thing I could do was let the men in and allow them to search the flat for the ‘beautiful lady’. When they next tuned up, I allowed them in and they had a look around, but didn’t find anything. To my great relief, they left and didn’t bother me again.”

Over the next several months life went back to normal, and she began to settle into this new routine, but like many things in life, just when you thought things were normal, something happens to knock you out of that tranquil peace of mind. It began with the normality of a visit to the local park. By now her son was walking and holding onto the back of the pushchair. As the couple watched some children playing on the swings, separated by a wire fence, Mrs. ‘E’ noticed:

“…what looked like a rather large lady, walking towards us; at first I didn’t pay much attention, but then felt uneasy after smelling a strange odour in the air. The hairs on my arm began to stand up. I looked and saw that ‘she’ wasn’t walking, but actually gliding along the path. I was terrified and pulled my son close to me to protect him. Suddenly, everything seemed to standstill, as if time had stopped. Everything was moving very slowly. I turned to look at the woman, but she was now different. Her body was all afire and her hair flames. Her face was like that of a skull. The eyes were blazing red sockets.”

{At this stage Mrs. ‘E’ broke down and the interview had to be stopped for almost an hour, to allow her to recover her composure}

“As the monstrosity came closer, the odour became stronger. It smelt like sulphur and ammonia. I could hardly breathe. I thought I was going to die. I began to pray. I was so frightened and clutched my son close to me. It was almost touching me. The heat was stifling and impossible to breathe. I could feel myself passing out. Suddenly a brilliant white light seemed to cover me, blocking everything. When it faded away, so did the monstrosity. I never want to see that thing again. I know that if I do, I will die.”

Once again, life returned to normal. However, it was to change again when, during one evening, she was shocked to see a black shape appear on the lounge wall. Suddenly a hole appeared and she saw two men, wearing what looked like diving suits, waving at her. She was helped in by the two men; the next thing she knew was coming round in a small room. She had trouble focusing her eyes, but became aware of figures of men and women gazing down at her, and felt she should not worry. A bright object appeared above her head and two small ‘discs’ were placed in each side of her ears, two inches below the lobes, so that, she was told, ‘they could communicate with her’.

“After a few minutes I was helped off a couch, which I was on, and taken out of the room to a passageway and then through another door. My sight had cleared a little and I then saw the face of a blonde haired woman. She smiled at me and said, Magyar Hagar. I didn’t understand. She explained it meant teacher. I glanced around and saw what looked like babies high chairs - the ones they eat off. I was then taken over to where a large screen was placed. On this screen were many mathematical equations, which I couldn’t understand. I was then taken over to one of the ‘high chairs’ and placed inside one. I was then instructed to place my hand into an opening in front of the chair and to tell the ‘teacher’ what I thought it was. In the opening were placed organs of the body and I had to put them in the right order. I was then taken back to the other room and placed on the couch. When I woke up, I was back in my front room.”

Mrs. ‘E’ claimed she had been on the ‘ship’ many times, and was taught many things, and that there were other people from other planets, who were there to learn. She asked them what the monstrosity was (the woman in the park) and was told its name was Kalhoute.

Mrs. Anne West, who carried out research into the claims made, discovered that the dance hall had been pulled down years ago. The ‘rock’ could not be traced. Repeated attempts to interview the father of Mrs. ‘E’ proved unsuccessful. A cursory check of the witness’s ears failed to determine the presence of anything unusual.

Although we can see correlations with other incidents, involving complaints of interaction with presumed Alien species and allegations of abductions that will be found in the Volumes of Haunted Skies, we felt unwilling to form any judgment on what was alleged to have taken place, as fascinating as this account appeared to be.

In addition to this we were unsuccessful in tracing the current whereabouts of Anne West, in order to ascertain when and where this happened. We spoke to Geoffrey Ambler from Contact UK, in 2012 (known to us personally) hoping he might be able to put us in touch with Anne West. Unfortunately, this matter took place a couple of years before he became involved.

Was it all in the mind, rather than any fabrication? Unlikely, in our opinion, but we shall probably never know. However, we felt it was worth bringing to the attention of the reader, if only to contrast it with similarly described incidents, involving visits from the ‘Men in Black’. (Source: Awareness, Issue 4, 1985. Contact UK/Anne West/Francis Copeland, Contact UK)

IRELAND 1975

At 12.37pm on 23rd June 1975, a radar operator aboard a ship (unnamed) was operating his equipment in the Atlantic, off the coast of Ireland, due to thick fog, limiting visibility to 1,000yds, when he picked-up an echo closing in on the ship, which lasted for about a minute. (Location 52 °, 30mins North, 20 °West) On checking the radar screen, he noticed the objects trace was disappearing at an impossible rate of velocity, and immediately reported it to the Captain.

The matter was later reported to the MOD, who warned of the consequences of any breach of the Official Secrets Act. Fortunately the witness, who demanded that his name be withheld, contacted Peter Bottomley and Gordon Clegg - UFO investigators for BUFORA, who interviewed him, a number of times, about the matter.. One is bound to wonder if this UFO came out of the sea. (Source: BUFORA Journal, March/April 1976, Volume 4, Number 12)

SPANISH SIGHTING 1972

Gordon Creighton - the Editor of FSR - told us about a sighting, which took place on the 21/22/June 1972, involving French student Javier Bosque, who was awoken at 2.00am by a powerful light flooding the bedroom where he was staying, at the Escuelas Escolapios Theological College, at Logrono, in North Eastern Spain. Rather than present the whole extract, which was covered in Flying Saucer Review, Volume 19, No. 2, March/ April 1973, due to lack of space, we shall outline some brief details obtained from the witness, who was interviewed by Albert Adell and Pere Redon and which were then subsequently translated into English by Gordon.

Javier reported that a metallic, or totally smooth surfaced luminous egg-shaped light (not discoid), showing shiny and vibrating edges, entered his bedroom by opening the leaves of the window which had been left ajar. It then moved straight towards the centre of the entrance to his bedroom-alcove, while maintaining height of about two metres off the floor, without emitting any noise or sparks. Frightened, Javier covered most of his face and sunk as deeply as possible into the bed. The object then performed a sudden downward movement and stopped again. At this stage Javier noticed that his transistor radio, which had been playing prior to the arrival of the ‘visitor’, was producing some high-pitched bleeps. He switched-on the tape recorder and waited to see what was going to happen next. The object started a downward movement. When it reached a height of 40cms, it stopped briefly, and then:

“Put out a beam, resembling ‘the antennae of a snail’ in movement, first
towards the transistor radio, (which physically moved in a swaying action on
both occasions the beam hit it) and then the tape recorder. The beam withdrew
back into the object, which was about 5cms in diameter. It then rose up to a height of two meters off the floor, halted for a few seconds, headed straight for the window, and vanished upwards into the sky.”

Javier confirmed that after the event had taken place he made a through search of the room, but found no sign of any burns or marks left by the passage of the object through the room. (Source: FSR, Volume 19, No. 2, March/April 1973, from STENDEK Journal of C.E.1, the Centro de Estudios Interplanetarios of Barcelona, Albert ADell and Pere Redon)

Daily Mirror 26.10.67.



Monday 14 May 2012

HAUNTED SKIES UPDATE: The Authors write



Western Telegraph 23.01.1975

Worthing Herald 23.01.1974

It is not all about writing books!  We still have to commit ourselves to ongoing investigations into UFOs, even if they are from the 1970’s!  

So, along with our investigations, and as part of our marketing plans, we drove down to Marlborough in Wiltshire on Saturday 12th May 2012.  We stopped for a cup of tea, and placed some business cards in various places along the High Street, as well as in the front of what had once been the Old Fairy Shop.  It is now Susi Watson’s shop selling high quality interior furnishings. Our placement here cost us £5 for four weeks,  but we considered it to be well worth it, as this delightful small town is well frequented by the tourists. 



Then we drove to Avebury, where we dropped a free copy of Volume 4 to Esther Smith, manageress of the Henge shop, hoping that she may be inclined to start stocking the series of Haunted Skies.  Fingers crossed.

Then we travelled on to Chitterne,  in the middle of Salisbury Plain,  Wiltshire 2703 where we interviewed a witness who told us of a remarkable event that happened in the Summer of 1977, involving the  sighting of a UFO over Cley Hill  Farm. The incident was to leave his Aunt Janet’s face  tanned through exposure to the object.  On the following morning, the family found a small burn ring in the lawn and brickwork damaged and burnt.

A group of officials arrived and advised the head of the household ,who went out to see them, that they were not to tell anyone about what had taken place. However, with the death of the parents, the story has now been told.  A full report will, of course, be contained in Volume 6 if we can get the events of 1977 into that particular volume.

We made our way to the Barge Inn in Honey Street, where they are rebuilding the barn, and also left some cards there. We spoke to Terry, one of the representatives of the Barge Inn, who indicated a willingness to stock some of the books in due course, but we shall see…….time will tell. 




We made our way to Cleeve Hill just outside Cheltenham, and walked along the hill to the top as we wanted some shots of the Aerial Transmitters. This  was the scene of a remarkable sighting involving Police Officers in the summer of 1975. 

After this we walked back down gingerly avoiding cow packs and sheep muck!  We took some delightful photos of the sheep and lambs. 



Volume 5  (1972-1973-1974)  is nearly completed and we await seeing Jon Downes to finally finish.  Hopefully it will be next week, depending on whether he is able to see us, but if not it will go via the email service.  We need to see where we stand with the script for the next volume,  which will be 1975, 1976 and maybe 1977.

If anybody has any reports or sightings they wish to bring to our attention now is the time to tell us so we can include them. We are also reminding people that if anyone takes photos of HM Queen can they please let us have them so we can include them in the forthcoming  Silver Jubilee edition of Haunted Skies, that will cover the 1977 period.

We would also like to know if someone could advise us how to write ourselves up on Wikipedia; our illustrious leader is on there and he looks great!        

One final request please.  We are struggling for illustrators; Steven Franklin is doing very well, but we don’t want to overwork him! Our other illustrator, Wayne, is off line at the moment due to his PC being rebuilt. So, if anyone would like to send us an example of their work we would be happy to consider it.  If we like it we would be delighted to include it in the book alongside the originals, but  we cannot, unfortunately, pay people. However, we hope that the opportunity of getting some work into the books, with - of course - our recommendations will suffice.

Although we run at a loss, we believe that this information should not be lost and that the history should be preserved.  You can contact us on johndawn1@sky.com

In view of the fact that we are still unable to get any mainstream publicity about our work, either on the TV or the radio, we contacted a senior journalist at the Daily Mail who has worked on UFO stories, and asked him what the problem was. This is what he had to say:

I appreciate your dilemma:   It is difficult to get anyone in the mainstream media to take much notice of a serious study of UFO activity. Although most national newspapers, including my own, the Daily Mail, do report credible UFO sightings, (and indeed we even report foreign sightings on Mail Online, which is the most visited newspaper web site in the world), there is a rarely much follow-up.  

This is for the obvious reason that there usually is nothing more to report; a UFO is here one minute, gone the next.   And in many cases, if not the majority, trained observers such as police and military witnesses are reluctant to be publicly identified.
 
In addition to that, it is a sad, and uncomfortable fact, that serious researchers such as yourselves are often undermined by an obsessive minority - crackpots, unfortunately, who flood us with wild theories and unverifiable 'facts' and irrelevant history whenever a sighting is reported.

I don't know why your books  have had such little media attention, but I can tell you that literally dozens, if not hundreds, of books are published every week, and books editors of newspapers don't have the time to read all of them.   Indeed, they tend to only be able to concentrate on the books that are brought to their attention by PRs employed by the publishers.  This isn't a firm policy, by any means, but it isn't a case of the media wilfully ignoring books such as yours; it is a matter of going with what has been deliberately, if not aggressively, targeted at them.

I can only urge you to keep up the good work.    Going on local radio and TV is an effective way of promoting your work.   All local media outlets welcome stories in their own area.   And national newspapers often pick up their stories that way.   And I would suggest, too, that simply sticking to the facts of a reported sighting will add to credibility.   The mistake so many investigators make (not including your good selves, I am sure), is to add their own theories as to where the craft came from and what the purpose was.   This then takes the sighting into the realms of fantasy.   So, too, do theories that governments are covering up sightings.”

Daily Mirror 19.12.67.

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Haunted Skies update on Volume 5 - 9th May 2012


We have just returned from our regular 200 mile journey from our house in the Midlands to see our publisher Jon Downes, who is fortunate to live in the tiny village of Woolfardisworthy situated a few miles from Bideford.

The PDF for volume 5 was updated with the latest information, and after an excellent meal with Jon and his lovely wife Corinna - assisted by Prudence the dog - we made our way back to the caravan permanently stored at Ashcroft Farm just outside the village.


On Saturday afternoon we sorted out the back cover, and later on drove back to the caravan to relax a bit.  During the evening we took some photos of the moon which was large in the sky, it being the largest and closest of 2012, and for a change there was no rain!


On Sunday morning we packed up and drove home. Unfortunately, due to the main road being closed for repairs, we were forced to take the diversion signs which took us through Ilfracombe  and ended up driving the ‘old route’, which took us over the infamous Porlock Hill.  Dawn is shown standing outside the AA box at the top of the hill.

Our descent down the hill brought back some frightening memories, as many years back I took a caravan over the hill with complete disregard for the safety of my then young family, after not having seen the signs at the bottom of the hill warning against this very danger.

On this occasion, I had a Rover 2.6 and just about managed it with the engine in first gear screaming, to get up and the brakes smelling and burning on the way down.









After getting onto the motorway, we stopped at Sedgemoor Service Station on the M5 and took this photograph of a walking Union Jack flag!


I have had the opportunity of checking the final PDF once arriving home and have found now just ten more errors. With regard to page 188, which needs filling, I interviewed veteran UFO researcher (and a thoroughly nice man) Roy Lake of the London UFO Studies, and this will go in on that page nicely.

Other News
I see that Nick Pope is selling a UFO book via Kindle and wish him the best of luck


Canadian Wave of forgotten sightings circa 1973

This ‘wave’ of sightings reached its peak on the 21st of the month, and involved no less that 49 separate sightings. The local newspaper La Presse published an account headed ‘Flying saucers at Saint Hyacinth,’ on the 21st November 1973. This was followed by the Journal de Montreal, which printed an article titled, ‘Martians are invading Joliette’.

It is also worthwhile bearing in mind the nature of what was seen during a period of UFO history, now nearly 40yrs ago, to tell of another rather disturbing incident, which happened at the home of a married couple living in Joliette, at 2.00am on the 22nd November. It began when the woman concerned, who was having trouble sleeping, went into the kitchen to light up a cigarette. Suddenly, a white object appeared outside the window. Wondering what on earth it was, she went closer and was astonished to see:

“…A four feet tall ‘thing’, showing a rounded ‘head’ and two very bright eyes. They were three times as big as normal human eyes. Around the head or helmet was a kind of halo, or flames, surrounding the ‘head’; it had what appeared to be ‘lace’ around the neck. The shoulders were not square like human beings, but sloped down at an angel of 45°. I wasn’t scared because I thought it was so beautiful.”

After about fifteen seconds, the ‘entity’ moved out of view. The woman then ran into the bedroom and awoke her husband, who got dressed. He switched the outside light on, but there was no sign of the ‘visitor’. The family dog was found outside in a very distressed condition. The next evening the cat displayed out of character behaviour and was very unwilling to leave the side of the couple. (Source: UFO Quebec Magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, Director Wido Hoville)

During the same early morning (it may have been a few hours earlier) the local Provincial Police and Catholic Priest saw UFOs in the vicinity of Domtars Quarry, Joliette, where limestone is produced. The news of this sighting spread like wildfire with people thronging to the quarry in their cars, hoping to see UFOs over the next few days. The Army explained away the sightings as being a helicopter, performing military operations! Undoubtedly, it surely wasn’t this! Sadly, we do not have enough space to include all the sightings that happened during the period, but have selected what we consider to be the most interesting.