Frequently asked questions and others stories(FAQs)

Surely they were some form of aircraft?

The argument against this theory is that in 1971 it is unlikely that we had such technology. To manoeuver silently for hours over peoples' houses, avoiding normal aircraft just does not make any sense. Remember, my sister and I were directly underneath one and it was completely silent. I thought that some form of model aircraft could be used or model balloon. For the former case, model aircraft make a lot of noise when close up, are small and do not hover. Model helicopters do hover of course but are equally noisy. So called 'drone' craft which the military use are also noisy (or would have been at that time). In recent times, helicopters with near silent blades have been developed.

You were looking at the Northern Lights!

Most definitely not! Every night of the week, small(ish) red lights flashing and moving over houses - I think not! Moving away when aircraft appeared.Also,we were underneath one. No way!

What about a geological effect

Paul Devereux has an interesting theory that geological activity near faults in the Earth crust can cause balls of plasma to appear. There is some laboratory evidence to back this up. After reading my witness account you must realise that in this case, if it was plasma it was pretty intelligent! Also there was no random element to the phenomena, these lights appeared literally every night of the week during the winter months. During the summer it took a long time to get dark and we were not aware of the phenomena. However, that is not to say that during our sleep the same drama did not take place.As a passing note I would like to state that no radio interference was experienced as I even took a radio out with me on several occasions.

Surely others must have seen this too?

It was not until many years later that I became aware of other witnesses. An investigator in the early 1990s from BUFORA put an advert in a local paper calling for witnesses. Several came forward. One witness surprisingly turned out to be a friend of my mothers who had seen with her whole family a classic 'flying saucer' near Cammachmore in 1968. This was three years earlier than my era. The witness was a schoolteacher who now lives in Newtonhill. She is a reliable witness who was very reluctant to come forward. In fact she only mentioned it to my mother because she had previously brought up the topic concerning my interest. Her Father could not believe his eyes as he had always been very skeptical of such things. In more recent times UFOs have been sighted at the Bridge of Don near Aberdeen.

Did you ever see the strange figure again?

Never again did I see the figure that glowed in the dark! However a couple around the same time period (early 1970s) later reported the same figure in the air in front of their car. Their car was parked in the 'Den of Logie' lay-by just outside Stonehaven at the time. The couple did not want to be identified publicly though I gather they got quite a shock! I only know about this because of the BUFORA investigation in the early 1990s.

Why did you not report this earlier to the police etc

What you have to remember is that during the early 1970s such things as UFOs were treated with extreme skepticism. Nowadays there is some degree of tolerance due to television exposure. I was also quite young at the time with little or no influence in the community. I would have been ridiculed. Even my attempt to gain support at school failed miserably.

One funny incident happened in the early 1970s. My sister and I had been watching one of these lights above the Whinwood plantation (just a usual evening for us). The plantation as it is known on the map belongs to the owners of Muchalls Castle (see map).As we were watching that evening we noticed a fire starting and the silhouette of a person walking away.He walked across the fields and into a waiting car parked on one of the back roads near us. We quickly phoned the police and fire brigade who put resulting inferno out.The police were puzzled at how we just happened to be watching the wood at that time of night! We made up a story.We heard later that the finger of suspicion for the fire was pointed towards a former employee of the Castle owners. Nothing was proven.

I once plucked up enough courage to phone Dyce airport in Aberdeen to ask them if any helicopters were in our area, or had been. The answer in the vernacular was 'Dinna be feel min,fit wid we be puttin helicopters oot there for at nicht?'. This can be translated as definitely NO!

Were you abducted or did your life change after this?

After the first experience my life did change. I became very nervous indeed when at home! I have had no experience of so called 'missing time' and to my knowledge was definitely not abducted! I did however have a series of strange dreams, which lasted for years on end. This I believe was triggered more out of fear than because of a real incident. After a year or two it became part of everyday life to view this phenomena and even a bit of a bore at times. I remember studying up to 9 O'clock in the evening for my O-Grades and Higher exams (Scottish examination system at that time) after which I would go out for a look for maybe half an hour.

What is my explanation?

I can tell you what they most certainly are not! They are not aircraft (military or otherwise) built by mankind at this time. Neither are they balls of plasma. They are not 'drone' or model aircraft. I doubt if they come from outer space although I remain open minded about the possibility. If I have to stick my neck out I will go for some form of time machine from our future. After all, who would be more interested in humans than human beings themselves. I am also open to the possibility that these flying machines are E.T in origin but have no biological entity on board. In other words, some form of intelligent machines that gathers data over a period of time.

What do you do for a living and are you qualified in any way to make such claims?!

Well I did not reveal such information in the past. However,sometimes it strengthens the case if you do.I am a Professional (Chartered) electronics Engineer and hold BSC and PhD degrees.I admit I am no Albert Einstein by any stretch of the imagination but am well versed in how to put two and two together.I am also very 'mainstream' in my education having published around fifty papers in various (but related) electronic areas. Thus I do have some understanding of where technology stands and the history of our own technology. Anything is possible with military applications (so called 'Black' projects) but I doubt very much if mankind developed this technology at that time. As you have seen by my account I was by no fault of my own drawn into the phenomena. If you are thinking 'this guy is just another weirdo' or words to that effect, try and see through my eyes and my experiences. What would you have done? I had no choice but to study the phenomena or bury my head in the Muchalls sand.One of the things that convinces Scientists of the truth is that experiments are repeatable. Whilst not quite my experiment this phenomena was certainly repeatable on a daily basis for years on end. That convinces me at least. The boat of truth my shake but it will never sink.

Are you doing this for publicity like many others?

An interesting though unrelated incident from the evening Express in Aberdeen

Another wild theory of mine at present is that UFOs are left-over technology from an advanced civilisation that USED to be on earth but that now are all dead. We are their decendants who for some reason lost the technological knowledge due to some form of world catastrophe that wiped out most of the people. The remainder lived in caves until they gradually restored their technology to the state we have today after say 5000 years or so. The technology could be hidden away say under the sea or somewhere we don't know about and ocassionally comes out to log data into some giant computer! Far fetched bnut not as impossible as you might think. We often got the thought that these machines we say were just logging information and nothing more. Maybe some survivors of a lost civilisation put them there to observe something else (say some form of military goings on at the time)

*UFO SEEN AT BRIDGE OF DON* A Mystery object has been sighted flying across the night sky above Aberdeen. Photo sales assistant Anne Marnie (42) was left rubbing her eyes in disbelief after her early morning close encounter. She had gone to her door at 3am to get one of her cats when she saw a bright, white band of vapour in the sky above her Bridge of Don home. Stunned Anne, Forvie Cresent, traced the vapour to it's source - a craft with two or three lights which was travelling at speed. She said: "I couldn't identify it. It wasn't a plane or helicopter. It also made a deep noise which didn't sound like a plane. "I looked away for a few seconds, then when I looked back it had disappeared. I can't describe or explain what it was so to me it was an Unidentified Flying Object." Anne's experience is the latest in a series of strange sightings in the North-east, including reports of a huge luminous cloud reported at Muchalls last year. A brother and sister claimed to have seen white lights, moving within it, going left and right, on and of. The latest sighting is unlikely to have been a plane landing at or leaving Aberdeen as the city airport closes at 10.30pm. City aviation expert Jim Ferguson says the object may have been a large plane flying across the North east en-route to another country. A vapour trail could be seen on a clear night if the moon was bright, he said. "In situations like this it could have been something like a 747 Jumbo flying at high levels between the Low Countries and the US," said Mr. Ferguson. A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority couldn't say whether a civilian aircraft would have been flying over the city at the time of the sighting. The Ministry of Defence says many reports of alleged UFO sightings are also proved to be natural phenomena. What do you think? Write to the Evening Express, Postbag, Lang Stracht, Mastrick, Aberdeen AB9 8AF, or fax your letter to 0224 699575.

An interesting email from an anonymous witness - much later in time though and in a different though nearby location

We lived in ***(edited out) road muchalls in the 90s.Our house overlooked the sea.One evening when we went to bed we spoted a large bright light in the direction of the marine pub,at first we thought it was a light on a search helicopter.We watched it for at least 20 mins,the lightsuddenly shot upwards at a hell of a speed.We still talk about it today.i am very open minded,but what i saw still in my mind.

More News Items Original reference: Northern Echo, dated November 22, 1963 "The Aberdeen collier Thrift arrived in Blyth at noon yesterday eight hours overdue after an unsuccessful search off Girdleness for a mystery object, which disappeared into the sea three miles astern of the ship. The Thrift was heading south for Blyth when shortly before 6 p.m. on Wednesday1 evening four members of her crew including the skipper, Capt. J. Murray, saw a 'flashing red light' which passed within a mile of her port side, 15 to 30 ft. above sea level, and suddenly disappeared three miles astern. "Capt. Murray alerted Stonehaven radio, put his vessel about and made for the spot where the light had vanished. The collier had two radar contacts on her screens, but when she reached within a quarter of a mile of them, they disappeared. The Thrift searched for three hours, circling the area several times and was joined by lifeboats from Aberdeen and Gourdon, a Shackleton from RAF Kinloss, which dropped flares on to the surface, and a B.P. transporter. They discovered no traces of wreckage, however. "The Thrift gave up the search at 8.50 p.m. and went to Blyth, being further delayed because of bad weather. We could not make out what the light was.' said Capt. Murray. It passed about three quarters of a mile off our port side, flashing brilliantly until it disappeared. It made no noise at all, yet we could hear the Shackleton when it was miles away. Judging by the way the radar contacts disappeared from our screen it seems that whatever was there must have sunk before we could get to it. We found no trace of wreckage during our search, but something definitely fell into the water.' "

MYSTERY AFTER UFO SIGHTINGS PUZZLE EXPERTS Strange lights in the North-east night sky have baffled the experts. Sixteen lights travelling rapidly across clear skies were spotted over two nights by a Fyvie resident. Air traffic control bosses and aviation experts have ruled out aircraft or satellites, because the lights were travelling too fast to be planes or orbiting objects. Astronomy experts say the lights could not have been "shooting stars" because they were travelling too slowly and from different directions. One North-east UFO expert was at a loss to offer a straightforward explanation and said the mysterious sightings should be logged as genuine close encounters with unidentified flying objects. The high-level Fyvie flyovers first appeared on Thursday about 10.30pm and were still crossing silently overhead more than two hours later. They took only seconds to cross the sky, then gave a repeat performance on Friday night and into Saturday morning. Resident and Evening Express reporter Graham Lawther said he spotted the first lights at 10.35pm on Thursday. He said: "I had stepped outside for a good view of Mars, which is closer to the earth now than it has been for thousands of years, on what was a crystal-clear, moonless night. "But I also saw a small white light, high in the atmosphere, appear in the southern sky and fly extremely fast to the north. "It was far too rapid for an aircraft. It was across the whole sky in under 10 seconds and a plane would have taken several minutes." Mr Lawther saw seven identical, fast-moving pinpricks of light between 10.35pm and 11.20pm, and six more from 12.15am-12.45am. Three more were witnessed on the Friday night, between 10.20pm and 10.35pm, the first heading south and two more quickly heading north. The lights, which appeared to be at the altitude of a high-flying aircraft gave off a white glow. A RAF Kinloss spokeswoman said: "We had no activity in that area on either day." A National Air Traffic Services spokesman said: "I have checked with our colleagues in Aberdeen and Prestwick, which covers the upper air space. "There are no reports of any sightings from either night." A spokesman for the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh said the lights could have been satellites in high orbit. He said large satellites were occasionally seen with the naked eye, though never 13 in less than two hours. He said they were almost always observed shortly before dawn or after dusk, when sunlight reflected off their highly polished surfaces. Our skies are hotspot for saucers The North-east is a global hotspot for UFO sightings. Aberdonian Ian Taylor, who has been studying the subject for more than 50 years, said folk travel to this region from all over the country in the hope of a close encounter. Lights and objects were regularly seen near Muchalls, Portlethen, Deeside and the area north of Aberdeen, he explained. The ex-RAF man said it would be difficult to explain away the sheer number of the latest phenomena in the skies above Fyvie as aircraft, satellites or shooting stars. "These were obviously aerial objects, either generating their own light or reflecting light," said Mr Taylor. "What was seen was straightforward UFO activity." Mr Taylor said no one should jump to the conclusion that the sightings were necessarily "craft from another planet" but said they were certainly unexplained observations of unidentified objects. "The frequency of sightings up here is immense," said Mr Taylor, who lives in Aberdeen's West End. "If you are willing to go out and look in the evening, particularly in the winter time, you would be able to see things you would not believe." Recent North-east sightings have included: A hovering ball of light seen from Kincorth for two hours last January. A silent red light following a couple in their car on the A90 just south of Aberdeen in December 2002, which shot off vertically. Two "bright globes" spinning above Cruden Bay in October 2001, which faded after 10 minutes. A black wing-like object, which glowed and buzzed a couple's home in Aboyne - and which was also seen by a man driving between Daviot and Oldmeldrum.

MYSTERY FIREBALL SIGHTED IN NORTHEASTERN SCOTLAND "A mystery object was seen streaking through the sky near" a community in northeastern Scotland, UK. "A comet-like ball was seen plunging towards the sea off Cammachmore, near Stonehaven. The bizarre X-Files-style sighting left residents baffled--but skywatchers believe it may have been a piece of space junk." "The Cammachmore 'comet' was spotted in unseasonably clear skies at around 10 in the morning" on Thursday, December 12, 2002. "'Myself and my husband were having a cup of coffee when something caught my eye out of the window,' said the woman, whose house overlooks the coast." "'We both stared out at the sky and could not believe what we were seeing. The object was hurtling straight down from the sky and was travelling at some speed.'" "The couple, who did not wish to be named, then grabbed binoculars to get a better view." "'I can only describe it as like looking at a ball...with a small comet-like tail behind it,' she said." "'My husband is a bit of a plane buff, and we both agreed this definitely was not any kind of aircraft.'" "The object then swiftly vanished from view within water." "Aberdeen coastguards were unaware of it. 'My guess is those people were confused by the sight of the sun for the first time in months,' said a spokesman." "A Met Office spokesman said, 'From the description, it sounds like it may well have been space debris.'" Aberdeen Evening Express December 13, 2002.

Story submitted by: Anonymous Age: 33 Occupation: Engineer (ed - this was not me!) I was travelling to a job going south from Aberdeen Scotland to a little village called Stonehaven. The time was approx 4-30pm. The weather was fine, there was broken cloud to the south. I was just filling the van up with diesel at a petrol station approx 6 miles from Aberdeen when I noticed a golden cloud with a glowing sphere underneath which was a metalic gold colour and approx 5-20ft in diameter and about 3000-4000ft in the air, moving to the west from the direction of the sea moving against the direction of the wind which was coming from the west.Thats why I noticed it. It seemed to be attached to the cloud above it but it was too far away to see exactly what as it was approx 1-2miles distance away. It traveled in this fashion for maybe 100 meters where upon it stopped and seemed to hover in the sky for about 30 seconds and then it did something that blew my mind. For some reason it seemed to notice it was being watched and decided to move where it did what I can only call move like a worm or snake. It went from being 5-20 ft to maybe 50-200ft in length while doing a rapid right turn then a left turn and then a loop to go behind a cloud while going from rest to approx 300-500 mph in less than 2 seconds. It seemed to make a trail in the sky as it moved maybe accounting for the apparent change in size. I then lost sight of it when I noticed in the background another sphere exactly the same as the first but I did not move at all and had no cloud above it and just seemed to sit there . I watched that for a couple of minutes but it did nothing. As I was on a schedule I had to get going so I went into the garage and paid for my fuel and jumped into my van and started down the motorway when I picked up the first sphere moving rapidly to the west at approx 1000-3000mph. I could not be exactly sure it left a trail like a jet ehxaust but it did not resemble that really because the trail seemed to turn in on itself and faded away very quickly as though the sphere was spinning the trail was completely different from the first one. It seemed more like a vapour trail where the first one was more like the sphere, seemed to shape shift. I know I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I cannot say what it was I saw for certain but I know that even the latest jet fighters cannot move in such a fashion. I have flown aircrafts myself and know what the can do and I know of every type of raf fighters there is as I did aircraft recognition in the atc (air training corp) and recieved 100%. I cannot explain what I saw but to me it looked as though I was looking at an unkown aircraft with capabilities beyond our understanding of physics. So where do I get myself one of them, anyone know???? This is the first time I have told anyone this. It happened 3 months ago on 17 feb, 2002

MYSTERY BANG CAUSES ALARM IN COASTAL COMMUNITIES The Press and Journal North Scotland TOM KIRK 09:00 - 07 January 2006 A Mystery noise, suspected to have been a sonic boom, sent shock waves through communities along a stretch of Aberdeenshire coastline yesterday. The sound, described as a loud, two-part bang above ground level, shook windows and tiles and prompted several calls to the police. People in Cove, Portlethen and Stonehaven heard the noise at about 11.25am, variously describing it as like a quarry blast, gas explosion or firework. But other people, who in some cases were only in the next room, heard nothing. Police are still unsure what caused the sound. It is thought it may have been a sonic boom, which is the sound made by the shock wave created when an aircraft or missile passes through the sound barrier. Sonic booms are often heard as a double-bang, which was reported by some people yesterday. They also tend to cause windows to shatter. But that did not happen yesterday - and the RAF said there were no military aircraft active nearby. Harry Roulston, 63, of Stonehaven, was on Portlethen golf course when he heard two very loud noises in quick succession. "I had just come off the 18th green and we were marking our scorecards," he said. "There was suddenly this terrific noise like something really heavy falling. "It didn't sound as if it was an earthquake. It was quite a physical noise. "When I came back to Stonehaven I dropped in at the golf club there and as soon as I went in there were four guys who all said 'Did you hear that noise?'" Muriel Thomson was working in the shop at Portlethen Golf Club and said the windows had shaken. "We didn't know what it was," she said. "It sounded to me like it was coming from Cove. The glass in the windows definitely shook and we thought for a minute something had hit the shop." Staff at Portlethen Academy reported what sounded like a large object falling, while a group of builders working on a property off Muirend Road also heard a bang. Staff at Michies Chemist in Portlethen described what they thought was a "big firework". Another woman, who lives just a short distance away, reported something much bigger, like a quarry blast. "It felt as though the roof was going to come off," she said. "I could feel the tiles on the roof shaking. "It was like a solid boom and I felt a faint pressure round my head." Despite police suggestions that it was a sonic boom, a spokesman for RAF Kinloss said they were not aware of any military aircraft having been active in the area. "Our pilots are told not to break the sound barrier," he added. "Normally if that happened every pane of glass within a 25-mile radius of the source would be liable to break. "Often these things turn out to be quarry blasts." Police, however, contacted local quarries as they attempted to find the cause. They told officers there had been no significant blast. Officers were sent to check the affected areas but found no signs of an emergency. The spokeswoman added there was no apparent threat to the public, although the incident is being kept open until police are satisfied there was no explosion. The British Geological Survey in Edinburgh said there had been no seismic activity but did suggest the possibility of a sonic boom. Grampian Fire and Rescue Service sent a unit to Portlethen but found no evidence of there having been a problem. Aberdeen coastguards also reported no emergency.

11 April 1960 20:20 Stonehaven, UK Reddish-gold disc flew to the north into cloud. Flew out again but headed in a different direction. Independent observers. A flying disc was observed. Multiple independent witnesses. One red disc was observed in cloudy weather by six witnesses on a road for two minutes (Greig).

21 November 1963 : Stonehaven, UK An object was sighted that had an appearance and performance beyond the capability of known earthly aircraft. One object was observed by several witnesses on the ocean. Hynek rating: CE1: Close Encounters of the First Kind Vallee rating: CE1: UFO comes within 500 feet of the witness, but no after effects are suffered by the witness or the surrounding area.

Copper-Colored UFO Seen from Aberdeen Beachfront, UK (from UFO casebook) My partner, myself and baby went for a drive last night and ended up driving down to the beachfront at 20.45 to the minute or so. Before I stopped the car I saw a flare being shot out at sea which caught my attention. I then pulled in the to the roadside and then I saw what I thought was maybe a beacon which resembled someone transmitting a message via a torch or similar. My partner did not see the flare being shot but we watched the flashing light anyhow. I decided to call the coastguard at 20.55 or so to relay what I had seen thinking it may be a boat in trouble as there has been recently. The coastguard told me there had been lots of phone calls also reporting the same type of thing and she took my details but got cut off I think and didn't bother to call back. The crux of this was really that looking out to sea in the direction of this flare etc to the right of this towards Stonehaven town south of Aberdeen I saw what I would describe as a copper coloured star in the sky changing colour from copper to white but it was totally stationary. I decided to drive a bit closer about a mile in a southern direction and both my partner and I saw it expand to a much larger size than when I first spotted it. It was a bit strange I felt so decided to drive closer to it to a town south of Aberdeen called Cove about 2-3 miles out of Aberdeen but I�m afraid I lost it before I reached Cove. Looked up to the sky for a while but nothing to be seen except stars. I have never seen anything strange in the sky but this my first glimpse of something which I would consider strange or out of the norm. Perhaps someone could comment on this or whether I am seeing something that's a normal occurrence. It does make me wonder as the coastguard said there had been a lot of activity last night in the sky with quite a few calls from the public. Regards, Neil Prosser

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