Welsh UFO Sightings 1963

Welsh UFO sightings from 1963. For sightings from other years please click HERE.

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BUFORA
April 18th, 21:00
Criccieth, Gwynedd

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BUFORA
July, 14:30
Nottage, Mid-Glamorgan
Investigator Randall Jones-Pugh reported a sighting of a "Cigar, manoeuvering lits" to BUFORA V6/N3.

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Summer 1963
Bristol Channel

Described as taking place two years before Reginald Eaves' February 1965 sighting of a 'ghost plane' crashing into the Bristol Channel, a family saw a greyish object - which they took to be a plane - flying towards the Welsh coast when it suddenly veered sharply and plunged into the Channel. Search and rescue efforts yielded no results. So far I haven't traced any corresponding press reports, but this is the relevant section from Howard Hunter's article for The Annals of Enquiry (July / August 1991):

Two years earlier, a family were picknicking one summer Sunday on a clifftop overlooking Portishead when a greyish object, shaped like a plane, passed silently overhead at about two or three thousand feet. It was heading out to sea in the general direction of the Welsh coast when it suddenly veered sharply south and without warning plunged into the channel.

The startled watchers reported the incident to police and coastguard, but intense searches carried out later that day produced no trace of any crashed or wrecked craft. Authorities again were unable to explain what might have been involved.

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August
New Quay, Dyfed

A man on holiday on the west coast of Wales saw a large creature whose presence was disturbing a colony of seals. It had a large body, four small 'paddles', a long neck and small head which were above the water. It was 30 - 40 feet long and 8 feet wide by comparison with the seals, and dark in colour.

From The Leviathans by Tim Dinsdale (1976).

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PRESS
Friday August 23rd, 00:05
Langland, Swansea

Large glowing 'jelly-fish' shaped object travelling the sky.

The South Wales Evening Post of Friday August 23rd 1963 reported:

MYSTERIOUS OBJECT IS SEEN IN SKY OFF LANGLAND LARGE AS DOUBLE DECKER BUS WITH RED-ORANGE GLOW

Still wondering whether he could believe his eyes, Swansea bank manager, Mr W. D. Evans, told me today of the mysterious object he saw in the sky off Langland soon after midnight. As large as a double-decker bus, shaped like a jelly-fish, and emitting a red-orange pulsating glow, it travelled silently from east to west on a steady course between 40 mph and 60 mph at between 2,000 and 3,000 feet, he said. And, smilingly, he added: "I had not been drinking. It was a fantastic experience. Looking back on it now, I find it very hard to believe it happened. It was extraordinarily eerie." So convinced was Mr Evans, an ex-R.A.F. operations control officer, that what he had witnessed for a full minute-and-a-half was unearthly, that he rang Swansea police and gave them a full description.

DISAPPEARED

He called out near neighbour in Beaufort-close, Langland, Mr Desmond King, a production manager, who saw the object for about 15 seconds before it disappeared low down in the direction of Mumbles lighthouse. Mr Evans’ wife also saw the object, and the police had reports from two taxi drivers who had seen things in the sky. One of them thought it was a flare which had come down at Southend. Police searched the beach at Southend but found nothing. R.A.F. air traffic control at Uxbridge were informed but they had had no report of a distress flare.

SOUNDLESS

Said Mr. Evans: "My wife and I were returning home after taking an accident case to hospital. Looking up, towards Langland Bay Golf Club, I saw this thing which I first thought was a very large flare. But it passed directly overhead, completely soundless and on a definite track, unaffected by the wind. There was a tremendous glow from the thing. It was obviously going to a plan. It was either controlled from the ground or from inside. But who could live in such an inferno? The fact that it was so low and such a tremendous spectacle, cuts out any suggestion of a meteor."

LIKE JELLY FISH

"It was the shape of a shuttle-cock or jelly fish, and travelled low, steadily and majestically. It was something sufficiently unusual to be quite frightening. I have always been sceptical about flying saucers, but this is something clean outside normal human experience so far as I am concerned." Mr King confirmed that the object emitted an orange light, was moving in a straight line at a steady altitude, was silent and travelling from east to west.

FASCINATED

"I had not seen anything like it in my life. I was quite fascinated, but cannot think of any explanation. It was nothing like a meteorite, and I would not have thought it was flare," he said.

Coastguards on look-out duty at Mumbles saw no object to seaward. "From reports we have had from police, the object must have come from landward. In our view, it was a rocket of flare by some unauthorised person. There was no distress flare last night," said a spokesman.

"SUFON note: The report says twice that the object was travelling east to west, but this is contrary to the fact that Mr and Mrs Evans first saw it over Langland Bay Golf Club, which is to the west of them. Furthermore Mr King said it disappeared in the direction of Mumbles lighthouse, which is east of his location in Beaufort Close, Langland, in which case it would have been travelling west to east. Also the coastguard said the object had originated from landward, which again suggests a west to east course. Therefore it is safe to assume that the Evening Post reporter has had his compass bearings mixed up [Emlyn Williams]."

The South Wales Evening Post published a letter from a researcher looking into this case on May 26th 2003.

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PRESS
Thursday August 22nd, afternoon
Sketty, Swansea

SIR, - The report of an unidentified flying object seen at Langland prompts me to write of a strange object which I myself saw last Thursday afternoon from our garden in Sketty. It was certainly no ordinary aircraft and my mother and I watched it for about five minutes before it disappeared from our view above the clouds. It was white and oval in shape and crossed the sky from south-west to north-east. Perhaps other people saw this object and it would be most interesting to know if this is so.

J. R. F. Sketty, Swansea

Published in the South Wales Evening Post on Wednesday 28th August 1963.

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PRESS
November, 08:55
Swansea

On Tuesday December 3rd 1963 the South Wales Evening Post published a short report on a local school sighting:

SAUCER SIGHTED

Have you seen a flying saucer lately? Four members of class 4A at Cadle Junior School, Fforestfach, believe they saw one one morning last week.

Writing to describe the experience they say: "It was shining and then it went dim and disappeared into space. It was a round shape as if it was flattened. It was like a hovercraft. It had three spikes sticking out of it and they looked like legs. It had a propeller which was turning underneath it. The time was approximately five to nine. Everybody in our class thought that we were nuts, but we can assure you we did see it."

The Thursday December 5th edition published a follow up piece as part of their Post Man's Diary feature:

I have news for the four members of Class 4A at Cadle Junior School, Fforestfach, who because they claimed to have seen a flying saucer one morning last week have been dubbed nuts by their classmates.

There was something unusual in the sky, a glowing disc-like object that was spotted by Mr. and Mrs. Victor Morgan, of Llangyfelach-road, Brynhyfryd. Mr. Morgan told me: "I managed to fix a pair of binoculars on it. It seemed to be very high and large and was travelling in a jerky manner. It suddenly streaked away into the distance." He added: "I don't believe in flying saucers, but I don't know what to make of this."

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PRESS
Friday November 29th, afternoon
Neath

Brightly shining round object trailing red flame. This sighting was mentioned in BUFORA's 1963 reports summary. The South Wales Evening Post published a letter with the details on Saturday December 7th 1963:

LETTERS: A STRANGE ROUND THING OVER NEATH

SIR, - I would like to endorse the claims of some children in Fforestfach who reported ("Evening Post," December 3) that they had seen a strange object of the type known as "flying saucers", in the sky last week. On Friday, November 29, I also saw a strange round object that appeared to come from the Neath Abbey direction and then went in a westerly direction over Mynydd Drumau towards Birchgrove.

It was a clear afternoon when I watched it pass slowly across the sky. It shone very brightly but there was no sound, as might have been heard from an ordinary aircraft, at all. As it approached the mountain it emitted a bright red glowing flame of considerable length, that appeared to come from the back of the object. This flame resembled that which might be seen when fuel burns in an ordinary rocket.

I watched this strange craft, flying saucer, call it what you may, for the space of about three or four minutes, until it finally disappeared from view. Its strange round size and bright shining appearance made me positive that it was certainly no conventional aircraft. The slow speed at which it moved and the definite course it followed removes any suggestion that it might have been a meteor.

There have been many sightings of such mysterious objects around the Swansea area in recent months. The authorities have tried to fob us off with stories of weather balloons, high altitude aircraft, and other such things, but no satisfactory argument has yet been offered to explain these strange, eerie happenings.

Down-to-Earthman, Neath

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BUFORA
December 2nd, daytime
Near Swansea

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FSR
Sunday December 22nd, 03:15
Porthcawl

Flying Saucer Review V10/N2 (March-April 1964) carried a report written by the witness, P.C. David G. Curtis of 52 South Road, Porthcawl, forwarded by Mrs. G. E. Blundell:

At 3:15 a.m. on Sunday, December 22, 1963, I was on duty in Philadelphia Road, Porthcawl. It was a clear night with countless stars. I was looking straight ahead of me when suddenly my attention was distracted by a large light in the sky above me. At first I thought it was just a large brightly glowing star, but on closer observation I could see that it was too huge for a star.

It was a bluish-white glow, cylindrical in shape, and was quite steady. Suddenly, at tremendous speed the object just flashed across the sky and disappeared. I would say that the object was in my full view for about 7 or 8 seconds. During that time I made contrast to other stars, and the object definitely had a bluish glow about, and without doubt was too large for a star.

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BUFORA
Winter, 22:45
Penally
An object described as a golden sphere was seen in the sky at Penally, south-west of Tenby.