UFO mystery for aircraft enthusiast

A model aircraft enthusiast says he has been left puzzled by three unidentified flying objects he spotted over the skies near his home.

Mervyn Davies, the founder of Oswestry and District Flying Club, is wondering if anyone else saw the strange bright lights in the sky on Wednesday night.

The evening was full of aerial activity because of the annual perseid shower, which sends thousands of shooting stars streaming across the skies each year.

But Mr Davies says what he saw were not stars, but lights acting in a manner he had never seen before.

Mr Davies, of Llys Rhysnant, near Four Crosses, said he spotted the first object at about 9.45pm from his bedroom window and after it rose into space, two other bright lights emerged, which shot at great speed around the sky.

He said: "I know what aircraft can do because I do the model flying club and I go to all the air shows such as at Welshpool and Cosford and these were definitely not normal aircraft.

"The first thing I saw was bright light in the sky which I assumed was a helicopter over in the Shrewsbury direction but it was too far away to see exactly.

"It was the colour of a lit-up bulb, a bright white colour.

"I then got my binoculars and the object was like an arch shape and it got higher and higher until it must have reached space.

"The best way I can describe it was liked a banana shape, with both its points facing down, like in an arch.

"Its light was very bright and the shape was nothing like I had seen before, it was certainly not a helicopter or a plane.

"It climbed and climbed until it must have been in space and there was other colours coming from it too, such as red and green.

"It climbed very slowly into space and then just stopped there.

"Then the other odd thing that happened was that two lights then came from it.

"They were also very bright and like the colours of a lit-up bulb.

"I am not sure if they came from the first object or came from underneath it but they were really, really bright, very white in colour.

"They were going at terrific speed around the skies and one was behind the other as they started coming down towards earth.

"They literally shot across the sky.

"I live in the flight path for Manchester Airport so I know how fast jets can travel but they were going much faster.

"They were travelling at about five times as fast as a jet would, perhaps even more.

"I watched the lights for a while, I remember looking at my watch at about 10.15pm so the lights were there for a while.

"I had to go and get my dog in from outside then and when I got back the lights had gone and the sky had clouded over.

"It was something really odd and I am just wondering if anyone else saw something that night."

Mr Davies's sightings is not the first time unusual objects have been seen in the area.

Powys is becoming a hotbed of UFO sightings according to figures released by the police last month.

UFOs have been spotted regularly in the sky in the past four years, with ghostly activity also prompting 999 calls.

The data, released by Dyfed-Powys Police, includes a caller from Welshpool who reported seeing a UFO "dropping in the distance."

There were two reports of UFOs in the police force area last year.

Various sightings of unidentified flying objects have also been seen around Shropshire.

* See anything strange in the skies? Let us know at newsroom@shropshirestar.co.uk