07/05/2014 – Blackley, Manchester – White Light Sighting
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 04/06/2014
Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms
have been used
Sighting
Details
It was between 9 and 10 pm on the evening
of 7th May 2014. Richard was in his house in East Blackley, Manchester with his
girlfriend Emma. They were watching TV in the living room. Suddenly something
caught Richard’s eye through the window. He got the attention of Emma and they
both stared outside. It was a warm clear evening and the sun was just setting,
no moon or stars were yet visible in the sky. Travelling from Rochdale Road to
Victoria Avenue in an Eastward direction he saw a fast moving white coloured
light. It appeared to be within half a mile of his location, and only a couple
of hundred feet high. It was also descending as it moved. It was extremely
bright but did not have a trail behind it. Richard estimates it was at least 12
foot across but could have been larger.
Aerial
map highlighting Rochdale Road (A) and Victoria Avenue (B):
Richard and Emma watched the light for
about 25 seconds until it went out of sight in the direction of Charlestown, by
which time it was quite low in the sky and looked like it was going to descend
to the ground.
Sighting
Analysis
White lights are often seen after dark and
usually have a mundane explanation. They can often turn out to be distant
aircraft, white coloured LED balloons, satellites or shooting stars. However
this sighting does sound unusual. As the light was descending as it moved the
most likely mundane explanation is that it was a meteorite. But it does sound
like it was observed for too long to have been this, meteorites are usually
only visible for a brief moment as they cross the sky. Also they usually have a
burning trail behind them, yet Richard says this light did not. As the witness
states, it appears to have been moving too rapidly to have been a plane or
helicopter, and certainly too fast to have been an LED balloon. Richard says
that he is well aware of what shooting stars and distant aircraft look like
after dark and says that it was definitely something else.
Could the object have descended to the
ground somewhere in the Charlestown area? It certainly appeared that it was
going to. So far no other reports of this light have been found online so we
have no way of knowing if anyone else observed it. If any more information on
the mystery light becomes available this report will be updated with the
details.
Copyright
Dave Hodrien 2014