York residents report numerous UFO sightings (From York Press)

York residents report numerous UFO sightings

4:30pm Friday 9th January 2009 in News By Mike Laycock, Chief reporter

Russ Kellett said he has been overwhelmed by the response from readers of The Press following his article regarding UFO sightings over York

A UFO expert says he has received numerous emails from people who have seen mysterious lights in the skies over York.

Russ Kellett told today how he had been overwhelmed by the response since The Press published a short article last week about three UFO sightings early on New Year’s Day, and urged readers to contact him if they too had seen something.

The newspaper said that big white balls of light had reportedly been seen over York Minster, the Pottery Lane area and near the university.

Mr Kellett, of Filey, said he had since received 18 emails from people across the city who had also seen UFOs at that time, which was probably the second biggest response he had ever known to such an article.

He said one York person emailed him to say: “I had just finished work, so I sat down to smoke a cigarette on a bench outside, when I noticed a light above me to my left. As the object travelled towards me, I could see that there were tubes of lights coming from the underneath which were pulsating, but there was no sound. It travelled quite fast from my right to left where it went out of view. It was around 12.30 to 12.45 am.”

Another wrote: “I was in the garden saying good night to friends after our New Year’s party when my husband called me to come back outside to take a look at an object in the sky. The object was like a very big red ball in the sky. It seemed to stop in the sky for two or three minutes. Then it just disappeared.”

A third said they saw three very large circular objects, one of which moved off fast and disappeared while the other two just vanished, while a fourth said they saw an object in the sky while travelling towards Barlby on the A19. It then split up into three white balls of light and shot off at great speed.

But a woman from Wigginton has also come forward with a possible explanation for at least some of the sightings. Renee Smith told The Press she had lit a Chinese lantern and let it float into the sky early on New Year’s Day, in memory of her sister who had died of cancer early last year, and she thought some people might have mistaken it for a UFO.

A spokesman for RAF Linton on Ouse said the base was closed over the New Year period, but he was not aware of any UFO sightings in the region.

Blowing in the wind...

THE York UFO reports follow claims that a wind turbine in Lincolnshire was wrecked after being hit by an unidentified flying object. Local residents have reported seeing a bright light on the morning it happened, prompting speculation that a UFO had caused the damage. But an expert has said the severance of a turbine blade may have been caused by a mechanical failure.