(1) Investigation of Two Possible UFOs And Three Figures, Fishwick, Brian,
MIGAP, March 1980
(2) Personal Files
(3) UFO News Bulletin (BFSB) vol. 2 no. 4, 1980
(4) UFO Contact? Terry Hooper-Scharf (full details)
I return, again, to Brian Fishwick and MIGAP for this one. When I initially read the report I was somewhat dumbfounded.
At around 23:00 hrs on Monday, 17th March, 1980, Mrs K and her daughter, Miss KS, decided to drive a friend (her daughter’s), Miss R, home. It was a clear, star-lit night. Mrs KS lived in a semi-detached house on the edge of a private housing estate in Rainhill a small village five miles (8 km) from St Helen’s, Merseyside. Miss KS was driving the car and headed along Amanda Road and then took a left along Longton Lane. It was half-way along this lane that Mrs KS looked out of her window to the left which had houses along it with a field to the rear. A bright ‘star’ fairly high up was descending.
Mrs KS turned to her daughter about the light and got her to stop the car so that she might get a better look at it. The light was getting lower and both could now see a shape to it and the object was heading over the fields at the back of the houses towards them. Frightened, Miss KS started up the car and drove off as her mother and Miss R kept watch on the object which got lower and was lost to sight behind the houses. They assumed that the object had landed in the field but admitted to being too scared to go and look.
As the car reached Warrington Road, Miss KS took a right turn which would take them to Prescot and then on to Liverpool. After two miles they turned into Knowlsley Lane and headed northward. To the right was Lord Derby’s estate which consisted of the Old Hall and New Hall, acres of farmland, plantations, a large peat moss and lake. To the left were a number of houses. They turned right and dropped Miss R off at her home.
It was around 23:35 hrs as the pair turned round and headed back home and it was as they headed along Knowlsley Lane that Mrs KS noticed a red light that was above Lord Derby’s Ash Plantation and descending. She pointed this out to her daughter who also observed it. Both “said that the red was an unusual red colour, they really couldn’t describe it.” The light ascended until it was just above trees and travelling parallel to them, Miss KS continuing to take quick looks at it as she drove. Both were frightened by the light keeping pace with them that Miss KS put her foot down on the accelerator moving away from the object. However, the light began to accelerate, too, and paced the car.
As they drove on the light became obscured by some trees though Mrs KS reported that she could still see it through gaps in the trees. Approaching Elm Cottage they came to a clearing and could now see that the light was diamond shaped. If they were nervous before then the fact that the object then changed colour to a yellow and started moving toward them did not help the situation. Miss KS put her foot down and sped off while her mother kept an eye on the object until losing sight of it behind another clump of trees. They continued on their journey and arrived home at 00:10 hrs.
Although the copies I have are unsigned, there are three accounts –Mrs KS, Miss KS and one from her friend, whose account corroborates events up to the point where she was dropped off at home. Their illustrations of the object sighted match but have the usual slight witness discrepancies one expects.
Liverpool Air Traffic Control stated that there was no air traffic recorded at the time of the incident.
It was after the interviews were over and Brian Fishwick was preparing to leave that Mrs KS asked her daughter: “Shall we tell him?” It now that this becomes anything but “just another UFO report”.
It appears that on the outward journey, just past the Croxteth Lane turning on Knowlsley Lane, they had seen a figure walking in the road. He was described as having long grey hair, a long thin, pale face and wearing what looked like a white Mackintosh and looked “scruffy” and as they got closer to him they thought he would move on to the footpath. He did not. Miss KS had to swerve to avoid hitting him.
Now, to me, that must have been a tramp or even a drunk. No importance to a UFO sighting. On the return journey, just after they passed Elm Cottage, they saw a similar figure but were unsure whether this was the same one. Again, he was walking in the road and Miss KS had to once more swerve to avoid hitting him. Big deal. Same person, behaving the same. However, as they reached the roundabout at the junction of Knowlsley Lane and Liverpool Road, they saw a third figure who was described as looking exactly the same.
I was always told “once is nothing. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is beyond coincidence.” A “road phantom”? I don’t believe in dead people haunting a location and I certainly do not believe in scruffy men teleporting around. Yet, both women –Miss KS’s friend on the outward journey- saw the figure. Were the women just confused or making it up? Well, they were both alert after the earlier sighting of the object and both stated they had no idea whether the figure(s) had anything to do with that. They mentioned him/them because the sightings were “odd” and obviously made an impression on them.
I wonder in these cases whether there is any “Ruth Syndrome” involved ? We know that on several occasions Ruth’s “apparitions” were seen by others but, in this case, it seems there was no enquiring into any previous seen phenomena –ghosts, poltergeists, etc.. As you’ll see with the rough map Brian supplied, it is a hell of a distance from the Elm Cottage sighting to the roundabout.
There are a lot of questions here and I am afraid we will never know the answers: even assuming an inmate from Rainhill Mental Hospital, which was not too far away, was wandering about or even two patients which is pushing it, that final sighting doesn’t get explained. At this time up until the late 1980s a lot of mental health care homes purchased clothing in bulk. In Bristol you would see patients out and about and they were easily recognized: grey cloth cap, baggy grey trousers, brown raincoat and black ex-Army boots. However, they did not look all alike facially or all have the same hair.
I tried to think of every angle and Brian assured me that the women seemed sincere in their puzzlement at seeing the three figures. And, no, no one suggested regression hypnosis as there is no evidence of any missing time. Just another UFO sighting and three(?) odd men.
Above: map of the outward journey
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