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On 8 January, the Sun newspaper was back in the business of UFO hype (following last Summer’s ‘invasion’ scare), this time with a front-page banner headline. The main story was trailed with an excruciating pun – E.T. Farm Harm – but stemmed from a story that had already been in the local media for 48 hours. Nevertheless, the Sun joyfully announced in a leader the next day that they had got “the nation buzzing” with features in most news sources and many TV and radio debates.
According to the hype, a ‘UFO’ had collided with a turbine on a wind farm at Conisholme in Lincolnshire early on Sunday 4 January, causing serious damage, including the disappearance of one of the turbine’s three 80ft (24m) blades and damage to one of the two adjacent blades. Operating company Ecotricity was said to be puzzled by the incident. But several locals (which became ‘hundreds’ by the second day of the Sun saga) had seen strange lights nearby beforehand, and so the speculation began.
The FT team decided to search for the facts, and here is an overview of an ongoing enquiry.
Firstly, the location is Fen Farm off Fen Lane, south west of the village of Conisholme. This sits amidst flat farmland affording expansive views and two miles (3.2km) inland from the beaches of the North Sea. The facility was built in 2005 but has only been fully operational since April 2008. It has 20 masts, each 295ft (90m) tall.
This location is extremely rich in UFO activity, with a major close encounter at a caravan park on the beach at Saltfleet in April 1984 and a 1990s contactee case just to the south near Mablethorpe.
However, there is something of a clue as to why this farmland should be so full of strange aerial activity. Two miles (3.2km) east is Donna Nook, one of the most active firing and bombing ranges in the UK. Mock tanks are set up on the sands, exercises using remote controlled drones and all sorts of MoD technology have been carried out here – and can appear mysterious when not recognised for what they are.
In some respects, this is a British “Area 51” – but most media seemed entirely unaware of Donna Nook, implying that because countless people had seen strange lights around here over the years, aliens might be visiting and were behind the incident on the wind farm. While there are, then, usually more prosaic reasons for high levels of local UFO activity, Donna Nook apparently was not operating on the weekend in question (although the Daily Mail did claim that testing was being carried out that night at both Donna Nook and North Coates).
The incident on the wind farm can be timed to around 4am on Sunday 4 January, because several local residents within a mile (1.6km) of the turbines were awoken by a crash, which in daylight was revealed to be the collapse of the fated blade. Ecotricity staff were quickly on site and found the remains of the blade beneath the mast where it had clearly fallen.
So, at first, this was simply an engineering mystery. Wind farm blades do fail, if rarely, at an estimated five or six per year worldwide, crashing to earth due to various structural problems. All that was needed here was to discover why this particular blade had fallen and reassure locals there were no safety fears from the other 19 masts. A forensic investigation was launched, with debris sent to Germany for analysis, but initial study failed to reveal any obvious causes.
Then the UFO witnesses appeared. On the tail of the local media stories in Louth, papers in Grimsby and Scunthorpe received sighting reports from witnesses who had seen things that they thought just might have hit the turbine. These dated back into 2008 but a few focused on the night before the failure. There were initially two main sightings, one at around 6pm and the other about 10.30pm on 3 January… so even the last of these was six hours prior to the actual fall of the blade.
It is important to remember that no witness saw a UFO hit the farm, and nobody heard anything (aircraft or UFO) at the time when the turbine failed – only the crash as it fell off, possibly hitting and damaging the second blade during its collapse. So the link between the UFO sightings and the event on the farm is circumstantial at best, which, given the level of activity in this area, is not as probative as it might otherwise appear.
The first group of sightings at about 6pm involved a number of locals who saw red, orange and yellowish lights in the sky that moved rapidly over the fields. The best-documented comes from Dorothy and Stephen Willows who were driving near the wind farm along Fen Lane heading to a party in Louth. They saw a bright light lower than aircraft usually fly crossing their path in the direction of Fen Farm. It was not like a plane, but was bright. They did not stop to follow it, but continued to their destination. As they lived a mile or so from the wind farm, they were awoken by the blade falling 10 hours later and once the riddle of that event became local news gave new thought to the light they had seen the night before.
Some four to four and a half hours later, and three miles (4.8km) south of the wind farm at Saltfleetby, retired farmer John Harrison saw something curious from his house. It was very low in the west over the general area of the wind farm and at first looked like a hole in the sky where the Moon might be. But it seemed brighter than the Moon and very large. It hovered low over the ground as a whitish glow and appeared to have ‘tentacles’ coming from the base towards the ground. It was visible for over 15 minutes, seemingly stationary. It is this ‘octopus’ UFO that has generated the most excitement from some ufologists.
As the local media story developed that week, a further witness came forward. She was 71-year-old Lesley Whittingham, who lives over 15 miles (24km) north-west on the Humber estuary at Alkborough. Her sighting was at 1.30pm on the Saturday, so almost 15 hours before the turbine fell. But she had an added advantage. Not only had she pointed out the UFO to her husband and, just before it faded away, her neighbour, but she was also able to take photographs. These depict a strange pale yellow and orange/red smudge against high ice-laden clouds. This silent ‘explosion in the sky’ gradually faded out of view over about five minutes.
This assortment of witnesses, with photographs, was by now big enough to interest the Sun and generate major international interest in this case. Moreover, another witness had now come forward, 66-year-old local councillor Robert Palmer. Concerns were being expressed about the safety of the farm, and there were even calls to close it pending the findings of the engineering report; having a local councillor as another UFO witness only fanned the flames. Mr Palmer’s sighting was at around 7pm as he drove along Louth Road near the farm. He saw a large, white light in the sky that moved as he drove – an effect he thought might be due to his own motion and a stationary object. However, it appears in essence that this was a big white ‘star’ in the sky.
This is the main substance of the case as it presently stands. All sorts of speculation and theory have been paraded by the media – from the ubiquitous spaceship ramming the mast – for which, of course, there is no evidence – to a lightning strike or ball lightning, a meteor or space junk hitting the farm, and even an experimental unmanned military drone (although with Donna Nook closed this seems unlikely). However, one fact stands out here: the failure of the turbine and the UFO sightings are probably unrelated. Moreover, the four sightings spread over this part of Lincolnshire are different in description and very probably in explanation. If they are not even related to one another (as seems likely) and none can be directly correlated with the wind farm incident hours later, then where do we stand?
Seemingly, we have five separate events, each in need of its own resolution, linked together primarily though intense media speculation and basic human nature. While investigations continue and things could change before the next issue, this conclusion appears to be the most logical one for now.
The preliminary findings of the Ecotricity report discovered no “tell-tale signatures of, for example, lightning strikes or collision”. Aside from structural failure, a possible cause for the blade to fall was the extremely cold weather (the longest sustained freeze in many years with local temperatures of –6ºC / +21ºF around 4am). Any turbine failure caused by a build-up of ice might well occur at this stress point. But the turbines had sensors that should have switched off had ice begun to accumulate. These did not trigger.
And what of the UFOs? Ice might have been involved here too. The Alkborough photograph and attendant sighting is suggestive of a sundog – bright, low winter sun reflecting from the mirror-like surface(s) of ice-laden clouds – although a flare is another possibility.
Around 7pm, Venus was extremely bright in the sky and, through the icy air, was (as other reports made elsewhere that night attest) a spectacular sight. In the open, flat countryside it would be no surprise if this caused the Louth Road sighting.
As for the moving coloured lights at around 6pm, it is known that Peter Bell, a retired farmer who lived near the wind farm, was holding a large family party in the garden and launching spectacular fireworks. Partygoers say they launched roman candles and rockets towards the farm and even joked about hitting the turbines – only to discover the damage clearly visible from their garden the next morning! The fireworks probably did not damage the blade but might have been an unexpected trigger for the teatime UFO sightings of coloured lights.
Finally, we have the Saltfleetby “octopus UFO”. Could even this be resolved? Interestingly, the witness mentions the Moon more than once in connection with what he saw, and the Moon was close to setting in that part of the sky. In the past there have been reports of a ‘Moon illusion’, in which, when close to the horizon, it appears to the human eye much larger than when high in the sky. This, coupled with the presence of ice-laden skies and ground mists, can produce some very odd visual phenomena. Most seasoned UFO investigators have had cases reported – quite soberly – as landed craft that turned out to be misperceptions of the Moon. Was the giant “octopus with tentacles” simply the Moon seen through unusual atmospheric conditions? Researcher Martin Shough has started analysis attempts to find ground sources that might have been silhouetted as tentacles.
Most of these solutions are works in progress and may be superseded. What we can say is that this case, while a fascinating story, probably reveals little about alien visits and rather more about how social factors and multiple, often insignificant, real-life events can come together to create a ‘close encounter’.
As we went to press, Vince Dale of Ecotricity told FT that while definitive results of tests in Germany were still awaited, most possible causes for the damage had now been eliminated. Ice and lightning damage had been pretty well ruled out; there was, so far, no evidence of structural failure,and design failure seemed highly unlikely, as there have been no similar cases elsewhere. Which leaves maintenance failure or collision as the prime candidates, although there is no evidence in the form of foreign debris to suggest that the latter is any more than a possibility.
Most national press and news websites, 6–20 Jan 2009.
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