Date of Event: Sunday 03rd April 2022
Time of Event: 14:10
Reported: 07th April 2022
Case Reference: NW220401
Investigators: Ash Ellis, Abigail Hyslop, Natalie Pearce
The witness and her husband had been visiting the Heskin Hall Shopping Village in Chorley, Lancashire (fig. 1), when she noticed something glinting in a clear blue patch of sky. Describing it as a ‘bright pulsating sphere’, the couple watched the object for around 10 minutes as it was moving slowly upwards and sideways. During this time they witnessed commercial aircraft flying overhead but at a much lower altitude than the object and they noted that there was a distinct difference in appearance and movement.
The witness had attempted to capture the object with her iPhone camera but with it being an older version and with the object being so high it couldn’t pick it up on the camera and so the footage was deemed useless, however we were able to deem the exact time of the sighting.
During a telephone interview with Abigail, the witness gave a clear account of what she saw, offering her own theories on logical possibilities and subsequently ruling them out. She also noted that her partner, who was generally a sceptic and very down to earth, also questioned what the object could be and couldn’t come to a possible conclusion. After interviewing the witness, she was found to be very credible and genuine. Risking ridicule from family and friends as well as her profession as an architect, she filed the report with us as the experience has puzzled her, and she is eager for an explanation, as well as sparking a more general interest in the UFO topic.
The object was estimated to be at an altitude of 60-80,000 feet, stationary for a short time before moving upwards and then to the side in a North West direction. It was at a constant slow speed and no noise could be heard. The object was obscured from view by a cloud after approximately 10 minutes. The weather was described as mainly clear blue sky with patches of clouds, cold with little wind, and this was confirmed as accurate using data from WorldWeatherOnline.com.
The witness provided us with a Google Earth image showing the exact location of where they were stood and the direction of the sighting, which can be seen below (fig.2).
It’s worth noting that this location is in an area roughly equidistant between three airports. Manchester, Liverpool and Blackpool. A check of tracking data using Flight Radar 24 shows a number of commercial aircraft in the area at the time, again confirming as accurate what the witness is reporting (Figs.3 & 4). Even though unlikely, we got in touch with our contact at the National Police Air Service (NPAS) which ruled out any police helicopters or other aircraft being in the area at the time.
During the telephone interview, the witness stated that one of her initial thoughts was that it could be a weather balloon and, although the description doesn’t quite match how a weather balloon or high altitude balloon would appear, we got in touch with the Met Office in Devon who confirmed to us that weather balloons wouldn’t be released in such close proximity to airports for safety reasons and that they also don’t use or test drones in this area (in answer to a secondary line of enquiry). We also contacted local universities and there was no weather or atmospheric related research being carried out at this time.
Prior to our site visit we made a number of enquiries on social media, to local newspapers, and to local Facebook groups to see if anybody else had seen anything unusual around this time. UFO sightings databases were also checked for any corresponding reports. None of this gave us any new or useful information.
Site Visit
Abigail and Ash made a site visit to the location (fig. 5) of the sighting on Monday 18th April 2022, just 10 days after we received the initial report. The witness was unable to meet us on the day but we were able to find the exact location where the witnesses were stood and the view of the area of sky where the object was seen. No obstacles or obstructions are seen, there are no towers such as telecommunications or digital antennae in the vicinity and the location is on a slight incline with a view down into the countryside below. There are some trees visible as per fig. 6 but not high enough to obscure the area of the sighting, thus the witnesses would have had a clear, full view of the sky with nothing in the area to account for what was seen.
Further possibilities we considered and ruled out were:
- Drone – the object was far too high to have been a commercially available drone, which have a legal maximum height limit of 400ft, and although they can fly to the altitudes in the 1000s, it would still be far below where it would have to be to be a valid explanation.
- Balloon – not impossible that this is a Mylar balloon, but again the sheer height of the object as well as how big it appeared to the witness means it would likely have to be a very big balloon to be plausible. In most cases, the balloon would have also burst or deflated before it could get to this altitude.
- Celestial object – although some celestial bodies can be seen in daytime, particularly Venus in certain circumstances, this object was moving as well as pulsating and not stationary as it would have to be to be a planet or a star.
- International Space Station – Although middle of the day in a bright sky, low-orbit objects such as the ISS or other satellites can sometimes still be seen. However, according to http://www.isstracker.com/historical the ISS was over near Australia at the time and using the Stellarium software to locate other space based objects there aren’t any that would have been visible at this time.
Conclusion
There appears to be no terrestrial explanation for this sighting on 3rd April 2022, and as it stands this case is being closed as ‘unexplained’. If more information or reports come to light in relation to this report then we will reopen the file and reassess all the data that we have. But for now, this case remains a true ‘UFO’ in Chorley.
