This article was published in the daily newspaper Milton Keynes Citizen and the web site Milton Keynes Today, U-K., on August 31, 2004.
A heating engineer who did not believe in aliens is reconsidering his view this week, after coming face-to-face with what he believes was a UFO.
Matthew Hinsley, of Deanshanger, was driving towards Old Stratford along the A422 at around 2am last Monday morning, when he claims a UFO dropped from the sky just yards in front of him, hovered above the road, and then shot away.
The 29-year-old, who says he used to ridicule people who believed in aliens, was left so gobsmacked by what he thought he saw that he pulled over in the nearest lay-by to gather his thoughts.
Matthew, who was on his way from work to his girlfriend's house in Bletchley, told the Citizen: "I have never seen anything like it before in my life – I don't even believe in aliens!
"I was driving along and on my right hand side I noticed what I thought was a cluster of around 30 stars packed together.
"Then it started darting around the sky sharply, so I tried to take a picture of it on my camera phone, but it shot off just as I was doing it.
"Then, as I was checking my phone to see if I had got a picture of it, a bright blob zoomed down from the sky around 20 metres in front of my car and I caught a picture of it by mistake.
"It hovered for a split second and then shot off out of sight to my left, leaving a trail of light behind it."
Matthew, who claims he has been left bewildered by the experience, told his girlfriend, Vanessa, about what he had witnessed as soon as he got in.
He said: "I think I was in a bit of shock when I got in, I was shaking as I told Vanessa about it.
"Everyone I've told thinks it is unexplainable.
"But the nice thing is that they all believe me – they know I'm not the sort of person to make it up."
The Citizen showed a copy of the picture Matthew took to Dr Ulrich Kolb, astronomy expert at the Open University in Milton Keynes.
After analysing the image, he said: "It could have been any number of things – a very powerful meteorite which may have seemed close but was miles away, a form of lightning, or a reflection on his windscreen.
"It's very difficult to say exactly what it is, but it's certainly not a UFO."
"There are plenty of natural explanations."
