Strange lights return to Greenham

Another UFO sighting in Greenham, as family claims orange lights hovered over the common

IT WAS a clear, balmy night as Avril Mason, 27, left her parents’ house shortly before 11pm last Thursday. There was not a cloud in sight.

As her parents said goodbye on the doorstep, the three of them looked into the night sky and saw a baffling sight.

Two orange lights, round like globes and at the height of light aircraft, hovered silently in the east, above Greenham Common.

After a few minutes, a third light appeared, and the three lined up in formation.

“First of all we thought they were helicopters but there was no sound. They were just hovering there for about five minutes,” said Mrs Mason.

“They were kind of like stars, round in shape. Obviously we knew they weren’t normal. They were really bright – brighter than stars, and they twinkled.”

Mrs Mason’s father, Steve Hillen, 57, said: “I know for a fact they weren’t aircraft. There was no sound and there was no flashing lights.”

After hovering for about ten minutes, they glided slowly off towards the disused airbase, and disappeared.

Both the Met Office and the Ministry of the Defence claim to have no knowledge what could have been caused the mysterious lights.

And RAF spokesman Karl Mahon said that none of their aircraft would fit the family’s description.

But the sighting tallies with a string of similar incidents in West Berkshire.

In September 2006, a triangular-shaped formation of glowing lights was seen drifting across the sky above Greenham Common.

Some witnesses said the lights formed a V-shaped formation, hovering over the common for three minutes before disappearing into the night sky at lightning speed.

Neither the MoD nor the Met Office was able to explain the sightings, or the power cuts and bright flashes that accompanied them.

And in another startlingly similar incident, a Swindon taxi driver spotted four bright orange shapes in the sky, drifting at low altitude, in June this year.

A few weeks before that, a Newbury man told Newbury Weekly News he had spotted circles the size of four football pitches hovering in the sky above Henwick Fields, Thatcham. He said his son had also seen the lights.

Local astronomer Steve Harris offered a range of possibilities for UFO phenomena, but said none seemed to fit the latest sighting.

“The International Space Station went overhead a couple of times on Thursday, but it doesn’t flash and moves at the speed of aeroplane. It doesn’t sound like burning-up space junk either,” he said.

“It might be helicopters – the Apache helicopters can be quite quiet nowadays, but honestly I haven’t got a clue” he added.

Anyone who has seen other strange sights over West Berkshire or can offer an explanation should contact Liam Sloan at liam.sloan@newburynews.co.uk

(Source + Video: http://www.newburytoday.co.uk)