This article was published in the daily newspaper The Evening News, Norwich, Norfolk, U.K., on August 29, 2006.
A strange series of lights seen in the sky last week have prompted one group to ask for witnesses to come forward to help fuel the debate on whether we are being watched by beings from outer space.
Kim Briscoe asks "Do you believe?"
Witnesses to a reported sighting of an unidentified flying object over Hellesdon are being asked to come forward.
So far two people saw a black triangular craft appear in the sky above Low Road, but the Norfolk UFO Society (NUFOS) feels more people must have seen the mystery in the sky.
The Evening News was contacted by one of the witnesses to the anomaly, which happened at 12.20am on August 23. A second man, a civil aviation worker at Norwich Airport, also reported seeing the lights in the sky.
The aviation specialist, who did not want to be identified and said it was definitely not a stealth aircraft, was walking home from the cinema when he saw the craft about 50ft in the air, and judged it to nine feet by five feet by comparing it with nearby trees.
He said: "A bright red ball just appeared. It glowed then turned blue and a triangular black glass type solid craft appeared. It pulsed various lights but there was no sound. It turned as if to look in my direction.
"It fired off a light beam that jumped rapidly from house to house along Low Road. It then increased the light at the flat edge, I presume the back, and it just shot off in total silence towards the north. No sound at any time except a static fizz in the air."
Witness Austin Paxman, of Norwich, contacted the Evening News and said he was taking a short cut across the Royal Norwich Golf Club when he saw the same craft, but from a different angle.
He said: "There seems to be more and more UFO reports for Norwich and I am curious as to what is being done about it."
John Sayer, of NUFOS, said he would be interested to speak to people who have reported UFO incidents.
He said: "This does appear to be a very detailed report and the fact they are in aviation lends it credibility - if they are telling the truth.
"In a book by Timothy Good called Beyond Top Secret he says the hotspot for UFO activity in the UK in terms of reports to official bodies is the Norwich area."
"We approach reports in as rigorously a scientific way as possible. We don't just accept anything and always investigate things thoroughly."
"Ufology is more about the study of UFO reports rather than UFOs themselves."
"One of the things we try to do is to familiarize ourselves with what conventional aircraft look like at night time."
"According to the folklore 90 per cent of sightings are explainable but I have never seen any hard statistics on that I think it's just what people say."
"I don't think people are that stupid that they can mistake planes for UFOs, especially in an area like this where people are used to seeing helicopters and planes going over all the time."
According the UFO evidence website, multiple surveys over the last few decades and from different countries show about seven per cent of people have seen a UFO. At least several hundred thousand estimated UFO sightings have been documented in the last 50 years, and the total number of UFO sightings is estimated to be in the millions, although only a small percentage report the sightings.
More information is available from www.ufoevidence.org. Mr Sayer, of NUFOS, can be contacted on 01603 755331.
PANEL
An official Ministry of Defence UFO report, seen by the Evening News, lists the following UFO sightings in the area between 2002 and 2005:
April 21, 2005 - Three objects were seen hovering in the sky at an undisclosed location in Norfolk at 6.31am.
May 5, 2004 - At 11.10pm a bright, pulsing spider looking object was seen above Kings Lynn.
September 13, 2003 - A shape as bright as Mars, a sort of white light with a dim brightness moved in a south east direction at 8.15pm above Great Yarmouth.
July 15, 2003 - A disc like object, moving in the sky slowly above Gorleston-on-Sea, poised once and then headed in a north east direction.
May 28, 2003 - At 7.50am a saucer object was seen in the sky above Great Yarmouth.
August, 22, 2002 - At 9.30pm at Shropham, near Attleborough, aerial lights were seen in the sky.
January 24, 2002 - At 4.12pm in Cromer, eight to nine lights were spotted which looked like they were close and then they separated. Not too bright. Were like large fireworks.
