Welsh UFO Sightings 1988

Welsh UFO sightings from 1988. For sightings from other years please click HERE.

The light then moved very rapidly to the right (south-east), to the gap between the two houses at the west end of the block, then to other gaps each time stationary for approximately 20 seconds. The observer allowed the vehicle to coast backwards, following the object. There was no sound apparent at first, but then a distinctive but low rumbling noise was noticed. There was no smell. Duration of sighting: 5 minutes.

The witness was from an RAF family background, father having served in the RAF for 38 years. The witness telephoned RAF St. Athan to report the sighting at 1.45 PM on the same day.

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MOD FILES
15th January, 20:45
Penmaenmawr

Witness - along with their neighbours and police - saw a diamond like object over Jubilee Mountain with many and varied very bright colours emanating from it. The object remained stationary for around an hour before moving slowly eastward. The UFO was viewed initially with the naked eye and then through binoculars. The sighting was reported to Colwyn Police at 21:00.

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PRESS
Wednesday January 27th, early morning
North Cornelly

The witness, a man from nearby Pyle, was taking a walk along a lane near Meadow Street in North Cornelly. His attention was drawn to a large object hovering in the sky roughly over the area of South Cornelly before it shot off. 

In a statement from South Wales Police: "He described the object as being the size of three maisonettes with three rows of different coloured lights. The object moved off, but he could not state in which direction." Police officers interviewed the man and are satisfied he is no hoaxer.

Source: South Wales Evening Post 28th January 1988; Western Mail 28th January 1988.

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MOD FILES
Thursday January 28th, 06:45
Sketty, Swansea

An alternating white and green light was seen directly above the witness at home in Sketty, Swansea. The sighting was reported to the police, who passed it on to the MOD.

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MOD FILES
Saturday February 6th, 18:30
Kilvey Hill, Swansea

Over a period of six hours, a large, cone-shaped object was seen with the naked eye and through binoculars, 3 ½ miles from the observer, over Kilvey Hill. Meteorological conditions were good, and the sky was clear. The object remained stationary from 6.30 PM to 8 PM, then gradually moved in a westerly direction. The sighting was reported to police who passed it on to the MOD.

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MOD FILES
16th February, 21:30 - 23:00
Newtown, Powys

Witness and their neighbours saw one round shaped object, emitting single red, green and white lights.

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FSR
March 1st, 21:30
Henryd

Flying Saucer Review V33/N3 (September 1988) published the following letter:

Dear Sir, I was interested to read, on the last page of FSR 33/1, report no. 5: "A V-shaped craft with a row of red flashing lights." It sounded similar to a craft which I and two members of my family saw on the 1st March of this year. We were out walking near our home at 9:30 p.m., when we saw a bright light low over the mountains to our west. It was much brighter than the average star, and, due to thick cloud, no other stars were visible. We carried on walking, but continued to observe it.

The light remained in the same position for over five minutes, then began to rise towards us. Its speed was slow at first, but increased gradually, and it curved round until flying in a southerly direction. As it turned, the white light at the front was no longer visible to us. Instead, we could see two red lights, forming a line perpendicular to its flight. Two more red lights then appeared in front of these, as if the front of the craft were rising in comparison to the rear. The formation of the lights was:


We could see nothing of the rest of the craft in the darkness. Although none of the lights ever went out completely, their brightness seemed to be increasing and decreasing regularly, at intervals of about half a second. They flashed in a pattern; the lights which I have labelled 'A' and 'D' would brighten at the same time, then become dimmer as 'B' and 'C' brightened.

The craft made a noise rather like an old-fashioned aeroplane: a steady, low-pitched droning as it rose towards us, fading as it turned away. It was not the noise of a helicopter. Yet can any aeroplane remain in the same position for over five minutes, as this did? The craft disappeared into the low cloud south of our village, Henryd. However, the following evening, we were just leaving our house at about the same time, when we saw it again. It was disappearing beyond the mountains south of our village. Since then we have watched for it in vain.

Yours sincerely, Sally Aspden 

(Gwynst-Y-Mynydd, Henryd, Conwy, Gwynedd, LL32 BYB, Wales) 

20th March 1988

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MOD FILES
Friday March 4th, 20:45
Pontypridd

Fine and cold with good visibility. A clerical assistant was on doorstep of home and saw two star-like objects in a northerly direction. The first one had pulsating white lights, the second had a steady, dimmer light. No sound or smell was noted. The witness then watched them through living room window. They were about 200 yards away and at an altitude of about 1000 feet and stationary. The sighting's duration was ten minutes, ending at 8.55 PM. The witness reported it to Pontypool police.

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CONTACT

Janette and Cindy (pseudonyms) had heard of a sale of furniture in a Warehouse, which was to take place that evening. They decided to go and look at it. On their way back they were laughing and joking. Foreseeing a UFO appears to be quite common to UFO witnesses, it is a sixth sense just before, people often say they were suddenly compelled to go out of the house or whatever. In this case mother and daughter jokingly said “what if we go round the next bend and we see a UFO, what do we do?’ then they giggled. Around the next corner moments later a large colourful craft came from nowhere to the right hand side of the car. It was about 12ft. from them. 

Cindy was so scared she screamed “Mum, drive as fast as you can, and let us get home” but said Janette, her legs had turned to jelly and she couldn’t change gear. The car seemed to have become lifeless, the lights were dimming. The craft had bright colours of pink, lime green and red which all seemed to mingle together. Eventually their car suddenly spurted into action and she drove as fast as possible to her sister and her husband’s house, which was nearer than hers. They only realised afterwards that they were just a few yards from the house, when previously it had been miles away. They were petrified, and her sister and brother-in-law recall the terror on their faces. Later they reported this to the Police in Newtown, the nearest large town to their village. They had by then realised they had lost 45 minutes of time they could not account for at all, also the miles on the road, they had no recollection of motoring. 

This left Janette very depressed for months. She then decided to contact various people to see if she could get any help, She wanted to have hypnotic regression, but her daughter would not hear of this, so Janette reluctantly gave up the idea. She was put in touch with me through BUFORA. I think she heard of them on the radio. We had a number of talks on the ‘phone, she started reading any UFO books she could get to try and fathom what had happened to them. She arranged to come up and spend a night at my house. Eventually all these arrangements came to nothing, for her daughter wanted to forget the whole incident, and she felt without her co-operation she could not go ahead with exploring these avenues on her own. They then moved house and I lost touch with her. 

Source: Who Are They? by Margaret-Ellen Fry.

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PRESS
March
Dwygfylchi

Nigel Harris, Craig Roberts and Justin Everley - third year pupils at Aberconwy School - were out jogging when they saw a flying saucer hovering over the Sychnant Pass. It was about the size of a car with green, red, yellow and blue lights around the edge and a bright red light underneath. The boys reported their sighting to the police.

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MOD FILES
Wednesday March 9th, 20:30 - 22:14
Trimsaran

A witness in Trimsaran observed in a southerly direction, a white light which moved north to a position over the village, with another close by, then it moved in a northerly direction and getting lower. A streak of red light was observed from the left hand side. No noise was heard. Was also seen by 6 to 8 others.

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March, c. 13:00
Lisvane, Cardiff

'I was helping my colleague, G. T. to undertake a survey of his friend's house on a Friday lunchtime in March. He was operating the dumpy level and I was holding the staff. It was an extremely windy day and I had enormous trouble trying to hold the staff still so he could take accurate readings. As I glimpsed at the top of the staff to see how much it was moving due to the wind, I saw two black spheres travelling across the sky in a south-westerly direction. Initially we thought that they might be balloons, but this was quickly disregarded as they remained in perfect formation - in such wind, balloons would have been blown out of formation. 

As previously mentioned, it was an extremely windy day with many clouds travelling quickly across the sky in an easterly direction - opposite of the objects. When we got back to the office, around 2.15 pm, I immediately phoned the control tower at RAF St. Athan to report the sighting. I asked them if they had seen anything on radar as the objects were heading in the approximate direction of the base, to which they replied that being as it was an aircraft repair facility, the radar had been turned off for the weekend.'

Source: Michael Hopkins, 2018.

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MOD FILES
March 20th, 21:40
Pontnewydd, Cwmbran

Witness saw a bright pulsing light emitting rays of light, from their front window. The object was stationary then disappeared behind the mountain ridge. The sighting lasted around 10 minutes and was reported to Cwmbran police station.

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MOD FILES
April 4th, 22:00
Anglesey

Witness saw an object similar to a shooting star but with a green front and yellow rear. The sighting was reported the next day to RAF Valley.

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MOD FILES
Wednesday April 6th, 21:05
Glyntrefnant

Clear conditions. The witness was with daughter in a car ten miles north of Glyntrefnant, when they saw a large round object, with many coloured flashing lights, making a 'sucking' noise, moving erratically and hovering. The witness reported it to Carmarthen police who passed it onto the MOD, stating that the informant was known and is a reliable person who was badly shaken by the incident.



(carmarthen)

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MOD FILES
Wednesday April 13th, 20:30 or 22:30
Blackwood

Fine clear night. The witness, a married woman was in the rear garden of her home in Blackwood when she saw what she described as a very large star with beams of light, making a bleeping noise and shooting out beams of light. The object was static in the north-east sky several miles away. She reported it to the police at Blackwood.

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PRESS
April
Cwmdare

John Rees, 49, a foreman at Enghart Fans on the Hirwaun Industrial Estate was out walking his dog when he saw a luminous object in the sky, moving along a spiral path in a northerly direction towards Neath. John drew pictures of the UFO for his workmates 'but they were treating it as a joke.' Police said there had been no other reported sightings on the night in question.

John told the Aberdare Leader: "I would not have bothered to take a second look, if it had not been for the spiral path and the intense luminosity - and two downwardly directed parallel beams. It had a cylindrical shape, like a lager can. The clouds were pitch black on the horizon but the moon was above the cloud line and it was very bright. Fortunately the object stayed above the cloud line and I was able to keep it in view.

It moved towards Neath and then back, in a southerly direction towards the Maerdy mountain. I was watching it for about three quartrers of an hour. I usually meet a teacher when I am out walking the dog between 10:15pm and 11. I was hoping he would come by so I could have someone to verify the sighting, but unfortunately he did not turn up this time.

I was shocked I can tell you, I have never seen anything like that before. I thought it was a plane out of control at first. Planes do fly over the Cynon valley at that time of night. I have never believed in UFO's but there is no doubt that I saw something out of the ordinary. There was no noise from it. I wiped my eyes then I closed one of them to make sure I was focussing right.

I am hoping that someone else will now come forward with the same story."

Source: Aberdare Leader, 28/04/1988.

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MOD FILES
6th May, 02:15
Llanwern

Witness was sat in the canteen at Llanwern when they saw a ball of flame in the sky that appeared to be about the size of a car. It was travelling up the Severn Estuary towards the Severn Bridge The coastguard suggested it was a meteorite. The sighting was reported to police at 03:00 and covered in the Western Daily Press 07/05/1988.

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BUFORA
Sunday July 17th
Bargoed

"Witness report of white light stationary over TV mast. Could be anything." BUFORA listed this sighting in March 1991 (UFO Times, N12) and noted they did no follow up. It was also reported to the MOD.

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MOD FILES
15th August, 20:58
Carmarthen

Witness and their boyfriend were in a car when they saw a very bright large ball shaped light, bigger than a star. They stopped the car and got out to look. The sighting was reported the following day to RAF Brawdy.

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UFOWATCH
Sunday August 21st, 16:20
Brecon Beacons

4.20 PM. Clear blue sky. Nigel Charles (43) was driving along the A4067 towards Brecon (not A4167 as he states in his report). He saw in the distance what he at first thought was a helicopter tracking back and forth from the field to the road. As he got closer he was able to see the shape better. He eventually came to a halt under the object which hovered above him at a height of maybe 30 feet. There was no noise from the object. He described the object as being triangular/dart in shape, black in colour, approximately the size of a small car (mini), with no obvious windows. Its thickness he estimated at being 8 inches. 

There was no sign of any propulsion, and it emitted no engine noise. Nigel turned the car engine off to listen, but there was nothing, not even a hum. He watched it for a while and then it shot off, from a standing start, disappearing over the horizon in about half a second, again without making a sound. No other road traffic came past during the sighting. 

 Nigel said: "I am an educated, professional person with a degree in astronomy, and have never suffered from hallucinations. Having spent some years in military I am able to recognise aircraft, this was something beyond anything I've ever seen, this craft allowed me to view it for some minutes it wasn't till I went to grab my camera from car that it took off too quickly for me to photograph." Duration of sighting: 2 minutes. 

Source: http://www.ufowatch.com/display.asp?id=1960 via SUFON.

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NUFORC
Saturday September 10th, 21:00
Bridgend

A man and woman were walking across a bridge over the motorway when they saw what appeared to be a star descending in a diagonal pattern. As it grew closer, they could see that it was semi-circular in profile and had windows with silhouettes of figures in them. It hovered motionless for about 7 to 8 minutes and was about 300 yards from them. One of the witnesses motioned to the craft to come closer but it shook from side to side three times as if to say 'no'. It then flew towards the horizon quickly disappearing from sight.

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MOD FILES
11th September, 10:35
Jeffreyston, Pembrokeshire

Witness was walking between Broadmoor and Jeffreyston villages when they saw one bright continuous light. It moved west to east, faster than an aircraft. It was reported at 22:55 to RAF Brawdy.

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SUFON
September or October, c. 20:00
Crofty, Gower

Darren, 17-year-old was in his bedroom, listening to records, in a dormer bungalow in Rhyd-Y-Fenni, Crofty. His parents and 15-year-old sister were downstairs. Suddenly the side walls, which were also the roof, started shaking. He said he seemed to 'know' to look out of his bedroom window, east-facing rear of the house, and when he did so, his view of the sky was filled up by three huge discs. He described them as being stereotypical spaceships, very low and close to the roof, and slowly moving away from him towards the east (having just passed over his house from the west).

There was a sound like something heavy being dragged, and the craft looked solid, with no seams or joins, as if they'd been made in a mould. The bottom of the discs, which is all Darren could see of them, had a light circle or 'porthole' of white light in the centre, around which were arranged, curved white light panels. There were no flashing lights. The three discs were arranged in a triangular formation, with one at the front, and the other two a breast behind and all were close to each other. He opened the window which overlooked the rear garden and back-to-back gardens of the next street. There were three people outside, two from the opposite house, and one elderly woman. He heard someone say 'we see these regular'.

Darren went to call his parents and sister and when they came up to see, the objects had moved quite far away over the hills inland, going over the ruined Hermon Chapel on the hill to the east. They were visible as a group of lights moving slowly away from the witnesses. Darren thought later that they had moved far too far in the time taken to call the others, if they had been going at the same slow pace, and he had a feeling that there might be a period of missing time involved between seeing them and calling for the others to come up.

The next day, Darren telephoned the South Wales Evening Post and was told that they had heard about it already, as others had phoned in about seeing lights. An article appeared in the paper that evening. Also on the following day, his sister was told by a friend in Gowerton School, that he had also seen the objects while he was fishing on the point in the nearby Crofty Industrial Estate.

Source: SUFON Files: Darren interviewed by Steve Drewson and Emlyn Williams 26 October 2015.

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MOD FILES
21st October, 19:00
Ciliau Aeron

Witness was in a car with his wife and eight year old daughter when a very bright green light that filled the car's interior. The sighting was reported to the press and RAF Brawdy ATC on October 22nd.

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PRESS
Felinfach, West Wales

Family in Green Beam Terror - The Daily Star (28th October 1988) carried a rather interesting report of a family travelling home by car when they encountered a dazzling bright green light as they drove through the village of Felinfach, West Wales. Witness Tony Silvestri stated "It was so bright I couldn't see through the windows." The sighting lasted several seconds and once the light was gone Tony stopped the car to calm his wife and young daughter who also saw the light.

The witness reported the incident to the RAF who promptly investigated the case. Flight Sergeant David Pengilly said, "We like to get reports soon after an incident so that immediate action can be taken to find out what it was." He added, "We don't like unidentified things in our airspace." Unfortunately, Richard Lawrence of the Autherius Society was also asked to comment and had this to say, "If a beam of light is emitted from a UFO then there's a real possibility that extraterrestrials are on board." (Obviously!) Jenny Randles balanced Lawrence's madcap response explaining that its been a busy year for UFOs.

Evaluation: Fireball Meteor.

Source: BUFORA Bulletin #30, November 1988   



The Star report was the one mentioned in BUFORA but the story was also carried in various Welsh newspapers: Western Mail 28/10/88, South Wales Argus 28/10/88, and the Cambrian News 28/10/88. NUFON #134 Nov / Dec 1988 described how they were contacted to comment on the case.

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MOD FILES
1st November, 17:30
Neath

Witness saw a 'large cigar shaped object, about an airliner size, moving towards a larger object [of] the same shape'. It was moving at a steady fast pace. The sighting was reported to the local police station at 19:52.

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MOD FILES
14th November, 18:20
Foot of Pen Dinas, Aberystwyth

Witness saw a a very bright yellow glowing long and thin object like a rocket. Behind the main body was a string of round red and yellow bead-like shapes. The sighting was reported via letter to the RAF on November 15th.

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MOD FILES
23rd November, 21:15
Tregynon, Powys

Witness was in a car when they saw one 'large round very bright white ball' in the clear sky, with a long streak behind it. They reported the sighting to Powys police.

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MOD FILES
5th December, 22:55
Llandough, Penarth

Witness and family saw a cluster of blue, red and green lights with the naked eye and through binoculars. They reported the sighting to Bridgend police the following day.

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MOD FILES
12th December, 21:15
Cae Cali, Brynteg

Witness and their father saw a flashing white light reflecting off the clouds. It was stationary at first then slowly rose. It made no sound. Sighting was reported to RAF Valley.

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