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On Saturday, 6th June 1993, a number of people saw unusual lights maneuvering in the skies over the Shiregreen/Parsons Cross-area of Sheffield. Although the sightings were not in themselves spectacular, the number of independent witnesses, none of whom were aware of the others, and the similarity in their reports, is intriguing.I first heard of the sightings after midnight on the night of 6th June. Jon Slater called me in great excitement only an hour after the event and I was able to take details over the phone while they were still fresh in his mind. I took down notes, and called him back the next day to arrange to interview Jon and his mother, which i did on Sunday afternoon.

SIGHTING #1

Jon Slater is a 32-year old school groundsman living in Molineaux Road, Shiregreen. On Saturday night he decided to take his dog for a walk before going to bed. He opened the front door and was immediately confronted with the sight of 3 unusual objects in the sky ahead and above him. He called for his mother and she joined him on the front steps of their house.

The objects were a very bright orange, in a horizontal line, moving very slowly northwards, away from the witnesses. Jon estimates their size as that of a 10p piece held at arms length. They appeared to be. Self-luminous, sharply defined solid. No larger form behind or between them. There was absolutely no sound. The lights were very distinct against the darkness and the low, heavy cloud cover.

Jon left his mother watching while he ran inside and telephoned his friend who lives close by. Jon then returned to the doorstep, where his mother reported that the objects had simply continued to move very slowly northwards in his absence. (The call was quick, but by the time his friend had dressed, the objects had gone.)

As they watched, the 'right-hand' object (#3) suddenly picked up speed and sped off northwards and out of sight, "faster than a jet." Jon had snapped his fingers to indicate the speed of the object's departure

The middle object (2) then sped north, but suddenly stopped dead. It appeared to shrink in size (or diminish in brightness), grow in size (or flare up again), then shrink (or darken) and vanish altogether.

The 'left-hand' object (1) then sped oil in the same direction as the other two, also faster than a jet", abruptly turning at a sharp angle to the north-west with no change in speed, to vanish in the distance.

The entire event lasted approximately one and a half minutes. Jon and his mother kept a watch on the sky for some time afterwards but saw nothing else unusual.

Jon was impressed with the speed of the objects' departure, the 'sudden stop' of the second object and sharp angle turn of the third, the complete silence and the intense brightness and colour of the lights, which he likened to the afterburners of a conventional jet.

Although Jon has an interest in UFOs and collects Quest International's Ufo Magazine, 1 found him to be a reliable and intelligent witness who described what he saw, with no attempts to elaborate on or exaggerate any details. His story the following afternoon did not change from his excited report over the phone on Saturday night.

Co-oberrating but independent witnesses came to light when I arrived at work on Monday morning. A friend and colleague called me over to tell me of an experience He and his wife had had on Saturday night. He knew of YUFOS and was eager to discover if anyone else had reported the lights. Obviously I questioned him before passing on any information gathered from the previous witness.

Sighting #2

Ken and Linda Dickinson were returning from a night out on Saturday when they saw the UFOs. They approximate the time as 11:10-11:15. As they were driving along High Greave, they saw strange bright lights high in the sky. Originally, Ken thought that there were five lights but as he was concentrating on his driving he cannot be sure.

The lights were still visible as they continued to drive and were so strange that Ken stopped the car on Lindsay Avenue and got out for a better look. Now he could see that there was definitely a group of bright orange lights moving high in the sky, three in front, with a fourth some distance behind.

The lights were travelling steadily northwards, the leading objects in a rough triangle formation moving with an up and down bobbing motion, like a yo-yo.

The trailing light moved steadily some distance behind the others before suddenly dipping downwards "as though it was coming down to earth. As it lost altitude, the couple thought that they could see something dark trailing behind it, "that flapped up and down." In fact, with the size, the bright light and the trailing 'thing,' Ken thought with alarm that it was a hot air balloon crashing. The object then vanished from sight, appearing to 'come down' around Colley Road.

The other three lights continued northwards before picking up speed, one of them abruptly turning sharply to the right in a seeming collision course with one of the others. However, they passed without crashing and continued on their independent courses until they vanished into the distance.

Concerned, Ken looked around for other witnesses, wondering whether to call the police. As he stood there, a man walked past, and Ken asked him if he had seen the lights. The man said that he had but appeared only vaguely interested and suggested Ken should call the police. As Ken was considering this, a police car drove towards them. The car slowed, with the policeman in the passenger seat peering at Ken as if wondering what he was doing. Before Ken could speak to the police though, the car picked up speed and drove off

Ken thought that the police may have been following the lights, or at least seen them, but if they did, the policemen either did not make a report, or the police were unwilling to reveal it.

The next day, sure that he would find some trace of the 'crashing' object, Ken drove over to Colley Road and checked the area, but could find nothing unusual.

Sighting #3

Steven Matthew's, a 15 year old schoolboy was out in his garden in his home in Fircroft Road, Shiregreen with his dogs and his younger brother Chris, aged 12.

At around 11:10pm, their attention was drawn to a gold coloured light in the sky. As they watched, two more lights joined the first, forming together to assume a triangle formation. They were moving fast, and appeared the size of a 10p held at arm's length.

Steven shouted his mother who looked out of the window and saw them too. She then telephoned Steven's friend Kathryn (Witness#5) to co-overrate the lights, which were moving roughly in the direction of her home.

The lights moved away, and Steven thought he saw two of the lights drop 'something black', but which became lost in the darkness.

The lights were in sight for approximately five minutes, and afterwards, the family's dogs "barked for a long period of time.

Sighting #4

Kathryn Ritchie and her mother live on Molineaux Road, Shiregreen, some distance from Jon Slater. Mrs. P. Ritchie received the phone call from Steven Matthews' mother at 11:10pm and went to the living room window which looks out on the front garden. She was able to see people in the street looking up, apparently at the house. She then realised that they were actually looking past her house and up at the sky. She went to a window at the top of the stairs, which looks out over the rear of the house and was able to see the lights Steven had apparently seen, and called her daughter Kathryn. Together, they watched the lights move across the sky.

Kathryn described 3 golden orange lights moving northwards at a high rate of speed, in a triangular formation They were about the size of a match-head, and were very sharply defined, and apparently solid. They were not three lights on a single object.

The lights were in sight for around 1 minute, before moving out of sight behind the side of the house.

Karthryn was so impressed by her sighting that she felt the need to check upon what the objects could be. Showing excellent initiative, she telephoned Sheffield Airport, who were very interested in the report and put her through to Air Traffic Control.

ATC said they had nothing in the area at the time, but would check around other airports in an attempt to identity the lights. They called Kathryn back later, but could not explain the lights as conventional civilian aircraft.

Kathryn also contacted the police, who informed her they had received no other UFO reports and that the police helicopter was not in the area either. Later, Kathryn phoned the Sheffield Star and spoke to David Clarke, who I had already alerted to the other sightings. Knowing of my investigation, David passed Kathryn's number to me, and I was able to speak to her, and she put me in touch with Steven Matthews.

FOLLOW UP INVESTIGATION

As with many cases of 'Lights In The Sky', there is little that one can do after the event but run the usual checks with airports, the police helicopter etc but no explanations were forthcoming.

It is interesting to note that two weeks previously there had been a stream of reports, again on a Saturday night, of huge balls of light moving across the sky, which David Clarke discovered were hot air balloons. A week after that, there was a spate of sightings in the Killamarsh area, which remain unexplained. However, it is unlikely that the lights seen on the 6th June were hot air balloons, as the airports would have been well aware of them, and the speed and rnanoeuvres described by all of the independent witnesses are not those of hot air balloons.

The night in question was completely overcast, and so astronomical bodies or anomalies, such as meteorites, planets, etc can be ruled out.

It is possible that the UFOs were a hoax, created with illuminated helium-filled balloons. There was a series of these late last year and reported in The Star by David Clarke. The 'crashing' object described by Ken and Linda Dickinson certainly fits with a rapidly deflating balloon, especially the 'streamer-like thing' which flapped behind it. Ken maintains however, that the object was quite large: as already noted he thought it was a hot-air balloon, i.e. the type people ride in, which was about to crash.

These helium balloons are carried only on the wind, and all witnesses confirmed that there was very little, if any wind that night, as well as heavy and low cloud cover. Although it is notoriously difficult for people to accurately judge the speed of an object, especially when they are not certain of it's altitude or actual size, 'very fast' can sometimes mean 'very fast', if not actually 'faster than a jet' as some witnesses claimed. The differing speeds, sudden stops, and independent directions makes it difficult to believe that the lights that people saw on Saturday night were illuminated Helium- filled balloons. Similarly, radio-controlled 'UFO balloons', available by mail order from numerous stores can be ruled out considering the distance the lights appeared to cover.

Of course this is a far cry from calls of 'spaceships' and aliens and it should be stressed that none of the witnesses made any mention that they believed they were seeing anything 'extraterrestrial', just something very unusual.

There is a distinct possibility that the lights were military craft, something the military would be unwilling to admit to even if asked.

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