Chancy encounters

Press, 5 December 1979, Page 21

Chancy encounters

By KEN COATES in London People who are convinced there are such things as flying saucers are rubbing their hands. In the latest reported sighting in Britain, no less reliable witnesses than four police officers — three men and a woman — chased a cigar-shaped, lighted object across Hertfordshire in three patrol cars. The police first saw it hovering over Rickmansworth at 3.25 a.m. brilliantly lit and moving silently about 500 feet off the ground. It was then seen above Chorleywood and was logged by police there as well. Last seen it was heading towards Oxley with no visible means of support. Hertfordshire police asked the air traffic con-

trol centre at West Drayton whether there were aircraft in the area. The answer was, “No.” According to a police spokesman, the officers did see something. “They are very genuine types," he said. A spokesman for the British U.F.O. Society said he was delighted about the police sightings. For too long members had been branded as cranks, he said. The sightings come soon after a report from Paris which said three men loading a van just before dawn in Clergy-Pontoise saw a large, luminous cloud descending. Two of the men ran home for a camera, but the third moved in to take a closer look and has not been seen since. Early in November an experienced airline pilot made an emergency land-

ing at Valencia, Spain, after asserting that his Caravelle aircraft was being followed by two unidentified flying objects. From Madrid last week it was reported huhdreds watched an object hovering high for several hours. Two late-n ight radio shows devoted almost their entire programmes to the mysterious object. The most colourful report comes from the British U.F.O. Society spokesman who was not to be upstaged by Continental sightings. He said that only last week a Scotsman reported coming across a spacecraft. As he watched, a robot-like creature got out and walked towards him, tapputg him on the shoulder. The hardy Scot then fainted and when he came to the robot had vanished.