Lights spark UFO mystery

By Claire Doughty
Published: 19 January, 2008

A CITY couple were left stunned when they spotted six mysterious lights hovering in the sky above their home.

And Trish and Ken Fraser now want to shed some light on the unusual phenomenon and find out exactly what they were.

They saw the unidentified flying objects on Sunday, January 6, above their home in Balnacraig Road.

And the Highland News has been contacted by another local resident who also saw something similar at the same time.

The strange episode occurred at around 7.30pm, when the yellow coloured lights were seen moving slowly from the west to the east in pairs.

Trish and Ken told the Highland News they have tried to come up with a logical explanation, but said they were unlike any known aircraft and said the slow movement, lack of noise and length of time they loitered about discounted any man-made explanation.

Trish (53) who captured the spectacle on her digital camera said: "I was just sitting in the conservatory and I saw the lights. At first I thought they might have been microlights, but then I realised it wasn't that."

Trish who works as an assistant at the city's Farraline Park-based library added: "There was no sound at all and they were all an orange or yellowy light. They came from the west and travelled to the east. When they got further to the east, it appeared as though they went higher into the sky.

"I have never seen anything like that before. I just think that someone else might have seen them or be able to explain what they were. They were much bigger than stars. Someone suggested it could have been a meteor storm, but I never imagined that such a thing would look like that.

"I don't believe in aliens or anything like that and I don't think that it was that, although if it was ET that would be okay."

Her husband Ken (55) who has his own painting and decorating business said he had been watching the TV when Trish called him through to see the lights.

He said: "A friend of ours who lives on the other side of the canal in Iona Road also saw them. They were visible for about ten minutes and then they disappeared into the distance.

"I thought at first it was a helicopter as we quite often get them or planes flying over but there was no noise at all. Also planes usually have the red and green lights on them and these didn't.

Trish Fraser with the picture she took of the UFO passing over her home. Bobby Nelson

"They came from the direction of Craig Dunain and then disappeared. I think they just got so far away that we couldn't see them any more.

"We thought it could be explained away very easily, but so far we haven't got anywhere."

A woman in the Hilton area of the city also reported seeing strange objects in the sky when she was in her garden.

She said: "I saw three orange coloured lights moving across the night sky for quite a few minutes. They were really unusual and couldn't have been plane lights because they seemed quite large in the distance and because of the way they moved and then seemed to stop and move again.

"There seemed to be a slight flare off them and someone suggested they might be hot air balloons. But I didn't think that was likely at the time of night in the dark."

Pauline Macrae, a committee member with the Highland Astronomical Society was also perplexed as to what the bright lights could have been.

She said: "I really don't know what this could have been. I can't offer an explanation. There was nothing astronomical at that time unless they were satellites."

The Highland News contacted RAF Kinloss and Inverness Airport to see if any aircraft could have been in the area at around 7.30pm on Sunday, January 6.

However both the RAF and Nat Anderson, a spokesman for Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd, said no aircraft were flying at that time in that area.