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Mrs Sylvester's painting of the lights.

Nottingham's UFO investigator Tony James tells us about Nottingham's biggest ever UFO case.

After countless witness reports, Tony and EMUFORA tried to conclude the case, just what was it?

Was it an airship?
On May 30th 1991, the Daily Star national newspaper printed a story with a picture of Richard Branson鈥檚 鈥楲ightship鈥�, a new airship that has a double skin that allows it to shine like a neon sign in the dark.

My first thought was 鈥榯his is it, case closed鈥�, but we still had some homework to do. I contacted Richard Branson鈥檚 press officer and explained the UFO situation to him.

Was one of Richard Branson's airships mistaken for a UFO?

He told me that the 鈥榁irgin Lightship鈥� was in America and had been undergoing tests for the last three weeks. This totally ruled out the Virgin airship.

I was also given details of another airship company that might be able help. I wrote to Airship Industries to find out if they had anything in our area at the time.

Their reply was that Airship Industries had called in the receivers on the 10 September 1990, therefore, 鈥渨e would not have been flying any airships in May 1991鈥�. I also learned that there was no other airship builders in the UK.

East Midlands Airport
I also wrote to the East Midlands Airport for answers and got a right snotty letter back from the Operations Director.

East Midlands Airport didn't want any involvement in EMUFORA's case.

It went on, "I appreciate that UFO鈥檚 might be a minority interest to you and your association, but frankly the airport has neither the time nor any interest to deal with your enquiry".

It also went on that there would have to be an incident with an air traffic control officer or a pilot to start an investigation, and as there was no evidence of this, then 鈥榳e would be wasting our time鈥�. 聽

Ministry of Defence
I contacted Nick Pope of the MoD and had a long chat with him and his press officer. We went through the complete checklist and none would satisfactorily explain the two objects that flew over Nottingham on that night.

However, I was eventually informed, by a reliable source, who claimed the Mod had tracked its movements from the East of Nottingham to the West and into Derbyshire, that it played havoc with their (Mod) airspace and they had no control over them, and aircraft had to be kept at a safe distance鈥�.

The Ministry of Defence couldn't explain the two objects.

I can understand these two unknown objects causing difficulties with air traffic and having to keep airliners away at a safe distance. I can understand the cover up of saying, 鈥渨e do not have full control of our airspace鈥�.

I can also understand why they choose not to come out of the UFO closet and state that UFO鈥檚 are for real. What would the powers that be have said if an airliner had collided with one of these huge triangular craft? Another point is, if the Mod knew they were there, then the East Midlands Airport must have had them on their radar sets as well. Who diverted the air traffic?

The Operations Director at the East Midlands Airport stated that they had no evidence. What happened to the radar tapes? What happened to the pilot and tower control communication tapes? It鈥檚 my assumption that the Operations Director at the East Midlands Airport lied when he wrote the letter to me. 聽

Conclusion?
During our investigation, we interviewed over 100 people from all walks of life. I had a telephone conversation from a Police Officer who had seen the low flying bright lights and actually radioed in and stated that he thought an airliner was about to crash near junction 27 of the M1.

The M1 motorway in 1991.

Other witnesses also saw strange lights and triangular craft in locations that were miles away from the plotted flight path. Junction 27 of the M1 is north of Hucknall and well off these two UFO鈥檚 trajectory.

Reports also came in from the south of the city, from West Bridgford and the Meadows, and several sightings from Beeston. Reports were also collected form witnesses in Underwood and Melbourne in Derbyshire. 聽

We tracked the flight path of the two main triangular craft. The two triangular craft appeared to come in from the East and were first seen over rural Calverton village and then over rural Woodborough.

The craft them made their way over to Carlton, flying low over the high-populated districts of the city, making their way over Arnold, Rise Park, Bestwood and Bulwell before heading out over countryside again towards Eastwood and into Derbyshire.

Several people watched the two triangular craft disappear into a cloud, on a clear night over Ilkeston in Derbyshire. 聽 I can only surmise that while two triangular objects were seen on a flight path going East to West, from Calverton to Bulwell to Ilkeston, some other strange craft were airborne over the South of Nottingham and over Junction 27 in the North of the city.

How many UFO鈥檚 were over Nottinghamshire鈥檚 skies that night would remain a mystery, unless we can view a copy of the radar tapes or get more information from the Mod 聽

Once we had completed our interviewing, we had a list of over 100 people with signed reports. We could not interview everyone, so we sent out questionnaires to other witnesses, about 15 of these questionnaires never came back.

We know that there were about twenty people watching this event from outside a pub in Hucknall and another group of people outside on Surgays Lane in Arnold. I have a list of phone call witnesses who watched and reported their sighting by phone, most of them on the main flight path. 聽

Two UFOs may have flew over Notts and disappeared over Derbyshire.

We checked with the only two airship manufacturing companies in the country, one had gone under and had not flown anything at least since the previous September.

The Virgin Company was testing their ship in America and had been doing so for about three weeks. Tollerton airport stated that they knew nothing, they do not deal with commercial aircraft anyway and as far as I know, only operate during the day.

The East Midland Airport Operations Manager either lied or he was totally unaware of the events during this particular night, either way he should have been made aware of the event.

聽After talking to Nick Pope and his Press Officer for some time and going through the usual check list, I was told much to my surprise, that 鈥淲hatever passed through our airspace, caused havoc with our air traffic and we had no control over them鈥�.

My conclusion is that two unidentified flying objects flew low over Nottinghamshire from East to West and disappeared over Derbyshire. Unless we get more witnesses to come forward on this case, then this is all we鈥檒l know.

We need to hear from any passengers or aircrew, including Pilots, air traffic Controllers to give us more information. If the radar and communication tapes still exist, we would like to hear and view these. Any help with this case, any additional information would be greatly received.

If you have anything to add about this case, or if you want to report any other UFO stories, contact Tony James or the team here at 成人论坛 Nottingham.