English Channel night sky peppered by UFOs?

by Stevie Smith - Jun 17 2009, 15:45

A fresh wave of UFO sightings reportedly viewed by hundreds of onlookers late on Monday night have been explained away as nothing more ominous or otherworldly than a dazzling downpour of galactic debris.

More pointedly, British coastguard officials have moved to quash fanciful stories of alien visitation, claiming that widespread reports of strange lights hurtling through the night sky above the English Channel coincided with an expected meteor shower.

“There were reports of flares all down the coast, which went on for about half and hour but there was a forecast for a meteor shower,” commented a Solent Coastguard spokesman.

“At some times of the year you get known showers, although I’m not sure if this was one of them, but certainly on a clear night it’s not uncommon to see them,” he added. “You get reports right along the coast virtually simultaneously, that’s the give away really.”

Meteor shower or otherwise, the lightshow was seen and reported by people all along the English coastline from Hampshire down to Devon, and also on the Channel Island of Jersey and across the thin body of water in France.

With shocked callers claiming to be witness to a series of glowing green and white lights darting across the sky at around 21:30 on Monday night, it is believed the meteor shower was likely one of three officially forecast to happen during the summer months.

Monday night’s meteor shower follows on from last week’s close encounter experienced by German teenager Gerrit Blank (14) who suffered a glancing blow to the hand by a meteorite travelling at 30,000 miles per hour as he walked to school.

The Tech Herald: German teenager struck by blazing meteorite

 

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