FT271


If you don’t fancy spending your nights standing on a freezing cold hilltop watching the night skies, it’s still possible to do some UFO investigation by trawling real-life cases for previously undetected similarities – UFO Snap! By way of illustration, here are two seemingly unconnected and straightforward encounters that together hint at something more intriguing.


HEDGE TRIMMER
A local newspaper in the Midlands offered the first pointer with a small item mundanely entitled “My Close Encounter” and describing a sighting by a local farmer near the village of Tittensor, Staffordshire. A follow-up by experienced investigator Martin Keatman produced the kind of report that is the lifeblood of all UFO archives – a tantalising blend of the ord­inary and extraordinary.

It occurred on a chilly December night in 1978, when “Farmer J” was driving from his home to the local hospital to collect his wife after her shift there. This routine allowed the time to be pinpointed quite accurately as 9.56pm. Suddenly, Farmer J saw two very bright lights moving towards him across the hedgerows surrounding the narrow, country lane. He drew to a halt in a muddy turning-point and wound down the window. There was no sound, despite the proximity and low height of the approaching object, puncturing his theory that it was a helicopter. Farmer J described its smooth motion through the sky as akin to a submarine in water.

Switching off his car engine, he got out and climbed a small embankment, getting a perfect view as the low-flying ‘craft’ banked to reveal its full shape and glided above the fields to cross the lane some 35m away. Indeed, he said it was so near that had he thrown a stone he could have hit it. But instead he gazed in awe at the strange spectacle. The object banked again, to avoid a tree and telegraph pole, and headed away north-westwards as he returned to his car.

The solid, metallic UFO comprised a long oval base tapered at both ends and a pillbox-like dome on top. It was about 11m long and 3m wide. The dome was about 3m by 3m and light poured through five or six dark struts separating it into small compartments. On the centre of the base was a curious and distinctive grille consisting of several bars perhaps 90cm long.

We might think about an airship or hot air balloon, for instance, which were considered in analysis. But there was no trace of any of these locally and the witness testimony involving silence, speed and the manœuvres does seem to dispel these suggestions. In the end, we classed this case as unidentified.


IN THE DARCO
Three years after the above sighting (and reported in apparent ignorance of it) there was a very similar one. This happened at almost the same local time (9.30pm), again on a dark country lane surrounded by open land, hedges, trees and power lines. It also occurred at a similar time of year (24 November 1981) – although this repeat occurrence took place over 6,500km away, just outside the small Texas settlement of Darco, where it was investigated by local MUFON investigators Jean Fuller and John Combest. They did exactly what Martin Keatman had in the UK and retraced the steps of the primary witness.

This man was driving yards from his homestead with a young woman along a rural road. Approaching from the north-east was an object with two bright lights. It moved in very low and close and they stopped their pick-up truck to watch as it tilted to reveal its full structure. Again, there was absolutely no sound despite the quiet surroundings, and the couple drove off along the road and watched as the UFO banked to cross the bushes at the side of the lane and move away to the west and north. The direction and banking of the UFO were remarkably similar to those of the object seen in Staffordshire three years earlier, as indeed were its estimated (and calculated) height, distance and speed. The two craft were also physically alike. The Darco object was another cigar-like oval (about 7.6m wide) with tapered edges and a small cupola-like dome on top. This had several vertical streaks on the surface (that in the sketch could be termed strut-like) and, on the base, seen when it tilted towards them, a small, square grille-like pattern of windows from which light emerged.

Overall, the impression on studying these files is of the same object repeating its encounter in similar locations at the same time of day and year – but on two separate continents. However, there were some minor differences. For example, the Darco UFO shone two beams onto the highway around the car and had a few small coloured lights seen at close range on the edge of the cupola.


SNAP!
Together, these cases show how UFO Snap! can be an enlightening exercise. Only by careful reading of case reports and seeking patterns would the match-ups here become apparent. Once you’ve done that, it practically leaps out at you that these two sets of witnesses independently encountered the same object. This leaves us pondering what these witnesses chanced upon on these isolated roads. The most obvious IFO has to be a helicopter, which can pass low while examining power lines (a feature of both locations). Although we can probably never eliminate that explanation, there are several reasons to be doubtful about it – not least the total absence of sound.  Moreover, the main Darco witness worked for the local power company – the most likely source of any hypothetical craft.

There are other cases like these two in the UFO records, as Dr J Allen Hynek said when the Darco case was reported to him. So, we should be searching for further examples in the extensive UFO records – they may form a pattern revealing further pieces of a puzzle that belong together.