My first possible UFO..

[Goggs Mackay]

On Friday 10th May around 1350 hrs, I was driving round the southern tip of my local airport, which houses easily the busiest heliport in Europe. At the time I sighted the object I was facing pretty much directly east toward the coast.
At the time the sky was blue with excellent visibility. I wear glasses for driving which aren't very strong, I'm slightly short sighted and glasses sharpen distant objects.

My whole life I am used to seeing choppers going offshore from this airport, having taken many myself. I couldn't be more used to the sight of helicopters.

I've done some very rough calculations based on what I think was the distance, and angle of elevation though of course there has to be a pretty large margin of error.

Anyway, the object I saw looked kind of like a blimp, ostensibly white but it looked as if it was lit from the inside and bear in mind this was bright sunshine. The effect you get when a hot air balloon has it's burners going off and it sort of lights the inside of the balloon, that is the kind of effect it seemed to me.
The object was initially going north to south but what appeared to me like about 15-25 mph, which is odd as the object is slap bang in the middle of the helicopter flight path, going very slow and the 'wrong' direction, as choppers usually are going E-W or W-E.

It grabbed my attention because of it's slow movement, the fact it didn't look like a helicopter (certainly not a plane) and the direction. None of this is completely odd however together it got my attention.

What happened next is the bit that is really weird. It stopped completely, being that is was quite slow already I couldn't tell if it 'stopped on a dime' or not but anyway, it stayed motionless for a second, then either it literally shrunk to a point in half a second, or it shot off toward the coast (east) so fast, it appeared to shrink to nothing, like an old CRT TV going off.

Obviously I cannot say what it was but it was not a plane, helicopter, blimp, microlight, balloon etc.
Oh and the size I estimate to be about 1-2 times the size of the 20-seat choppers that fly here, in particular the S-92.

If I've got the distance roughly correct, I've estimated it's height at about 1.7 km and it's horizontal distance from me as 4.6 km.

I've put a quick drawing on google maps, with the red circle my location, the green circle with crosshairs, the approx position of the object and the grey line is the horizontal line of sight, which I've added because of course I could have wrongly estimated it's position. It could have been larger and further away or closer and smaller etc.

There is no local UFO group but I'll report to a national one and on Chris' advice, I'll try contacting the local control tower.

 

[Wade]

I love, love, love the fact that you mentioned the ufo MAY have shrunk to a certain point as well as may have shot off in a certain ditection. You don't really hear that kind of "throwback" type of detail any more. Kind of like the old analog tv picture shrinking away that keel had mentioned. I wonder if this aspect isn't present today in other cases but it doesn't come to mind because it doesn't fit in our north, south, east, and west frame of reference. Good Stuff Gordo.

 

[Randall]

There is no local UFO group but I'll report to a national one and on Chris' advice, I'll try contacting the local control tower.

Very interesting. It would be a good idea to see if you can find any other witnesses. Starting with the airport is a good idea. The next thing to do if you have the time is to map out the places along the flight path where people are likely to have been outside and notice the object: Patios, beaches, swimming pools etc, and go ask the people who frequent them ( lifeguards, severs, and other employees are a good start ). While doing that, post a notice on the physical bulletin boards, also put one in your local free papers ( if any ) and online ads. You might get lucky. In the meantime:

• Did the object at any time appear between you and another identifiable object in the background such as another aircraft, clouds, even the Moon ... anything?
• What was the duration of the sighting?
• You were driving at the time. Correct? Which direction?
• You were alone at the time. Correct?
• What visual cues did you use to gauge the distance?
• Was any sort of superstructure visible? Or was it simply a blimp shaped light?

 

[Goggs Mackay]

@Ufology - I am about to answer your points, thanks for posting them but I had to mention how funny it was mentioning swimming pools - you mean outside swimming pools? There is one in the whole North-East of Scotland, and it's heated. It just isn't hot enough here in summer. I know Canada is much colder in winter than here but you do get a summer.

Anyway, your points one by one,

- At no time was the object between me and something behind it. Blue sky only.
- Duration I'd estimate 5-10 seconds, I'm sure it was already there when I saw it, I only noticed it shortly before it 'left'.
- I was driving, W to E, pointing at the coast. If you look closely at the road that rounds the southern tip of the airport, it's like U-bend. It was at the exact 'bottom of the U' that it did the disappearing trick.
( I might mention that at the time, I was aware I could be seeing dirt on the windscreen so I moved my head, while looking at it, it was 100% out in the sky at a distance.)
-Gauging the distance, that is the really dodgy part. I suppose I am used to seeing choppers flying overhead and around and am used to the 'atmospheric hazing' effect that Biedny mentioned. It's not scientific at all but I was very sure, as sure as I can be, that the object was not as far as the coast. If it was indeed around the size of a chopper then I'll have the distance reasonably good, but of course because it was a strange object I cannot be sure.
-No superstructure to speak of but it was a little too far away to tell.

 

[Randall]

@Ufology - I am about to answer your points, thanks for posting them but I had to mention how funny it was mentioning swimming pools - you mean outside swimming pools? There is one in the whole North-East of Scotland, and it's heated. It just isn't hot enough here in summer. I know Canada is much colder in winter than here but you do get a summer.

Really ... that's quite interesting, and I could see why you would think it was a funny suggestion. I had no idea it was that chilly there all year. I did notice some golf courses on the map. Maybe you'd have more luck checking them out than the non-existent outdoor pools. Notice that so-far I haven't just written this off. Even though it was basically just a vague light about the size of a helicopter off in the distance near an airport, your experience in viewing aircraft in the vicinity coupled with the seemingly fantastic acceleration or vanishing is worthy of a few more questions.

• So when you say 1 to 2 times the size of a helicopter are you saying the same size or twice as big, or the same size plus a factor of 1 or 2 times ( at least twice the size ).
• The difference between a UFO and a UAP is that the former conveys the idea of an alien craft while the latter conveys the idea of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Given the data so far, your UFO report favors the latter. What features of this sighting would you say indicate a craft as opposed to something much more vague or ethereal?
• Have you considered any other conventional explanations besides a windshield artifact?

 

[Randall]

As an aside, you might be interested in this fireball report from last September:

• Date: 2012-Sep-21
• Time: 2250
• Location: dyce, aberdeen
• Report: Bright white/green light. Travelling east to west, low in the sky, quite level. As it travelled behind clouds, it lit them up green. Before it disappeared it had a copper coloured tail, two-three separate parts of.

Fireball Reports Search Results

 

[Polterwurst]

Wow, Goggs! You've definitely been listening to the paracast too much. You're seeing things already.

But seriously, that sudden diminshing business is very strange indeed. When you were saying "blimp" and "burners going off", I was like "well, that'll be what it was, then". But even if it had been, say, a balloon and perhaps there was an air leak and it collapsed, I guess it wouldn't have just appeared to stand still but should have started to lose height instead of just shrinking away. I wish I had seen that.

 

[Randall]

On May 10 2013 the AECC, which lies along the flight path in the map hosted two significant events, the first being a £2000 per table black tie Gala Dinner with entertainment provided by international singing sensation, Katherine Jenkins, and the second being the Skipper Expo Int. Aberdeen 2013, featuring displays and demonstrations. The University of Aberdeen also launched it's May Festival with events in various locations. So perhaps what you saw was a media blimp that was reflecting the sun making it appear larger and brighter than it really was, and that as it rotated to a position either head-on or straight away, the large side view diminished very rapidly to a point and the angle of reflection changed, causing it to blend into the background, giving the impression that it had rapidly moved off or vanished. I know what you're thinking, but I've seen a lot of aircraft reflecting the sun that looked really odd at first, and if this blimp wasn't mirror shiny, but white translucent ( as might be expected ), the reflection wouldn't be the typical glint and flare, but more like what you observed.

There is also what appears to be an observation tower near the AECC. Perhaps try contacting the AECC, Mara Media, and the local news stations to see if they knew of any aerial coverage of these events, or of anyone reporting a similar object.

 

[Randall]

Have I mentioned swamp gas yet ...

 

[Polterwurst]

Well, if he'd said it disappeared within half a minute.... but half a second seems awfully short for a rotation manoeuver. Of course, adding the time it seemed to stand still, that would be one and a half second.

That's the thing with not having seen it myself. It's easy for me to say that it probably was a media blimp or something when I have no idea how anomalous the "disappearance" looked. But if it had been just a rotation manoeuver, it should have been visible afterwards, with the skies being clear.

 

[Goggs Mackay]

The tower pictured above is 5 mins walk away from where I live, and over the years various car showrooms and events at the AECC have indeed had small blimps for advertising but always tethered ones, as I imagine it would be too dangerous to have something that can be affected by wind so much in the flightpath of so many large helicopters. I mean there are loads everyday, far less on weekends but mon-friday they are near constant. I have never in my life seen an airship type craft in this area and what I saw was certainly in the height vicinity. The choppers are supposed to have a floor of 1500' when travelling offshore.

Of course nothing can be certain, it's extremely difficult to determine the size of an object in the sky with no reference but let's just say that it did not look out of place, height-wise with every helo I see in that area.
I know people who saw the meteor- type event and it was in the dark, and much faster. I am certain it wasn't celestial object, and it wasn't at all see-thru. When I described a balloon with burners going, that was only to describe the colour a white balloon would have with burners going, a kind of light-orange with the white.

Even though it looked strange and unique to me, I would definitely have put it down to a man-made object until it stopped and disappeared. Even a jet fighter could not disappear so quickly and if it was a balloon that burst, it would not appear to go off to infinity, perhaps I'd have seen the deflated balloon falling or flapping about. Whatever happened it seemed controlled, though I hasten to add apart from it's exit, nothing screamed 'ET' or 'alien craft' but then again, I've always wondered when people see strange stuff, like when I saw some kind of apparition, it didn't seem weird until after when you process that something unnatural happened.

This object was undoubtedly a few miles away, but easily big enough to notice and certainly too big to just turn on it's side and appear to disappear.

I don't think I've mentioned that although I thought initially it was a blimp-type thing, it had no fins etc or any other 'sticking out' bits. More like an american football but fatter toward one end, as if you held a football (US) at arms length, but rotated it a little so that it is not symmetrical to your sight anymore.

The size, if I have the distance at all right would be around 1.5 times the full length of a Sikorsky S-92, an aircraft I've travelled in a few times.

I absolutely had the impression this was a totally solid object but who really knows at that distance.

 

[Randall]

The tower pictured above is 5 mins walk away from where I live, and over the years various car showrooms and events at the AECC have indeed had small blimps for advertising but always tethered ones ...

The military does have much larger blimps that are tethered at heights up to 10,000 feet. Whether or not you have any around there I dunno, but they have them in Aberdeen USA. Also, the rotation on axis of a large cylindrical shape from broadside to a head-on orientation would reduce it's visible profile to a point that could easily blend into the background. I've seen it many times here in Calgary while watching aircraft. Off in the distance the sides reflect the sunlight, and as they turn their profile changes and they literally seem to disappear, even with huge wings and engines. However when you get binoculars trained on them they're not actually gone at all. Plus it's possible that it wasn't a tethered unit, but a powered unit doing a tour of the area.

Now I'm not saying that a blimp is definitely what you saw, but the explanation is sound for most of the description you have provided. It explains the shape, the light, and how it could "suddenly shrink to a point". It even explains a certain amount of illusion of movement as the light reflecting off it runs down the side as it turns. However if it suddenly "shot off toward the east" ... well that's another story. Unfortunately your description is rather ambiguous on that point.

What impresses me the most is the fact that you seem confident that it was something out of the ordinary, and you don't come across as someone who would post it if it didn't leave a distinct impression on you. Your best bet on this right now is to undertake a bit of an investigation, and since you live pretty much right below where the object seemed to have been, that shouldn't be too hard. The case has basically landed right in your lap. So put on your UFO investigator's hat !

 

[Goggs Mackay]

I'm totally willing to entertain the possibility it was something mundane but with the clear sky, apparent distance and lighting conditions etc I'm sure it's not a case of an object turning, so that it blends into the background - I suppose one explanation would be that it was wielding some kind of camouflage tech, in that it was projecting the blue sky behind it, around it?

It would have to be almost 2D flat. If it was a blimp, then it was easily close enough to be able to see it from any angle - also the way it disappeared, it didn't even seem to begin to rotate.

Is there any easy-to-use animation software that I could use to make a simple visual demo?
I could always make a flick-book, you know, you draw frames on like a post-it note pad and flick through them quickly to make a cartoon effect?

But if that's the case, it would be as interesting a sighting as a spacecraft!

I must stress that I am certainly not claiming to have seen an ET craft, high strange event etc but this is the first object I've ever seen in the sky that I could not easily explain.

 

[Randall]

... but with the clear sky, apparent distance and lighting conditions etc I'm sure it's not a case of an object turning, so that it blends into the background ...

Given your estimates, the visual distance would be about 5 kilometers, which means that a 5 meter wide circle ( cylinder head on ) would barely be visible to the unaided eye, and if it were a color similar to the background and barely moving, it could very easily blend into the background. It wouldn't need any active camouflage. Plus, based on the information you've provided so far, there was no way that your eyes could have perceived the object in its true 3D form. Therefore how can you be so sure that the shrinking effect could not have been an illusion caused by the rotation of a roughly cylindrical object ( such as a blimp ) from a broadside orientation to head-on?

I'll grant it that it was sufficiently odd to you for you to mention it to us, and that alone carries some weight with me personally, and just like you're not claiming it actually was something alien, I'm not claiming it wasn't. I'm only providing the most rational explanation I can think of given the evidence we have so far. If you want that to change, then you need to get out there and dig up some more witnesses ... people who were closer and who saw it streak off into the distance without any ambiguity.