Welsh UFO Sightings 1951

Welsh UFO sightings from 1951. For sightings from other years please click HERE.

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PRESS
January
Merthyr

IFO: Santa arrived on a flying saucer for the Merthyr Branch of the R.A.F. Association's children's Christmas party! (Merthyr Express, Jan 27th 1951) Silliness, sure, but I see so many older reports prefaced with 'we'd never heard of the phenomena then' or similar...

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PRESS
Sunday 21st January, evening
Mountain Ash

Multiple witnesses saw a glittering amber ball moving slowly across the sky in an easterly direction. The Aberdare Leader for January 27th reported:

ANOTHER WORLD WATCHING US? AMBER BALL IN THE SKY. STRANGE PHENOMENON SEEN BY MOUNTAIN ASH MAN. "Then felt he like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken." Was it a new planet that was seen by Mr. Tom Llewellyn as he stood at the door of Nazareth Church, Mountain Ash, just after the evening service had commence on Sunday? A new planet or just a comet crossing the sky? Or, maybe, another instance of the phenomenal flying saucer?

Mr. Llewellyn, who resides in Woodland Terrace, Mountain Ash, describes what he saw as "an amber ball, about twice the size of a football, which glittered like a diamond ring." It was, he says, about 2,000 feet up, travelling slowly in an easterly direction. He watched it for about two minutes before it faded out of his line of vision. He was not alone when he saw it, with him were few of the younger members of Nazareth, who were equally amazed and baffled as to what "The Thing" could be.

Yet another witness of this strange spectacle was Mrs. Lilian Powell, Oxford Street, Mountain Ash, who, as the Church bells were ringing on Sunday evening, saw what appeared to be a glowing light moving slowly across the sky. At first she thought it was an aeroplane, but there was no sound of an engine, and after viewing it for a few minutes, she described it as resembling "a ball of fire."

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PRESS
February
Mount Kilimanjaro

Not in Wales, but a man from Wales claimed to have photographed a flying saucer over Mount Kilimanjaro. The Western Mail of February 20th 1951 reported:

Newport man snaps a 'saucer.' (Mombasa, Kenya. Monday.) A Newport man, Mr. H. B. B. Fussell, a sports dealer, and passenger on board an airliner, claimed when the aircraft landed here to-day that he photographed a "flying saucer" hovering over Mount Kiliman-Jaro, Northern Tanganyika. All passengers and crew of the airliner claimed they saw it and two other American passengers took photographs with a telescopic lens. Mr. Fussell said it looked like "a sausage with vertical marks down the side." After hovering round at 30,000ft. it rose to 40,000ft., stayed still for about a minute, then sped away at a terrific rate. - Reuter.

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SUFON
Summer 1951, c. 15:00 or 16:00
Jersey Marine, Neath

A 9-year-old girl named Sue was on her own at the front gate of her terraced house, 22 School Road, Jersey Marine, a small village located on Swansea Bay, between Swansea and Neath. She saw an object described as a big orange ball like the sun, but bigger come from the direction of the sea in the south, at an altitude of about 300 feet. 

It came right over her without a sound, towards the north. It had a distinct edge and was all one colour or shade of orange. It went behind 'The Rocks', the small rocky hills which stand to the north of the village in the direction of the BP oil refinery at Llandarcy, taking 5 minutes to make the journey. Sue went inside to tell her mother.

Source: SUFON Files, witness interviewed by Emlyn Williams 2018.