Broad Haven UFO Flap Reaches 40 Year Mark
Original drawings by the children who witnessed the incident.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of one of the UK's most famous UFO flaps, which took place in Broad Haven, a village in Pembrokeshire, Wales. In 1977 a group of schoolchildren spotted what they said was a silver, cigar-shaped object in a field near their playground. Their teachers and headmaster were naturally skeptical, but the children's descriptions of the strange craft remained remarkably consistent, even after being interviewed separately.
One child witness, David Davies, described the craft he witnessed as "cigar-shaped" with a "dome covering the middle third". Davies said his sighting filled him with "awe and wonderment" instead of fear, but that he did feel a strange impulse to run away. Since the incident, Davies has had an intense interest in UFOs, saying that they've come to "dominate" his life.
David Davies was one of the children who spotted the craft in 1977.
Only two months later, another witness came forward saying she had seen an "upside-down saucer" and two "faceless humanoid" creatures with pointed heads. This time the witness was an adult, Rosa Granville, who ran the Haven Fort Hotel in Little Haven, less than a mile from the original sighting. Granville described an intense heat coming from the object, which she said looked like an "upside-down saucer" occupied by two "faceless humanoid" creatures with pointed heads.
"There was light coming from it and flames of all colors. Then [the creatures] came out of these flames, that's what I don't understand," said Granville.
Upon investigation, she found "two inches of burned ground" in the field. Granville stated that the incident left her feeling "agitated and disturbed."
The sightings sparked a massive interest by the media.
Despite mass media coverage, the Ministry of Defense did not take the sightings seriously--at least not publicly. Files released by the Ministry of Defense show that the organization conducted intensive investigations of UFO sightings, including the flap which occurred around 1977. And while Broad Haven may not have been taken seriously, other sightings certainly were.
Flt Lt Cowan, an officer from RAF Brawdy, after failing to find evidence of anything he considered untoward at the site of the Granville sighting, joked "Should a UFO arrive at RAF Brawdy we will charge normal landing fees."
Lt Cowan firmly believed that the incident was the work of pranksters, and included in his report the idea that a "local prankster was at work" and the description of aliens "fitted exactly the type of protection suit that would have been issued in the event of a fire at one of the local oil refineries," an idea corroborated by local businessman Glyn Edwards, who in 1996 claimed to have wandered around that area in just such a suit in 1977.
The claim of pranksters is challenged by the idea that multiple witnesses described a remarkably similar craft, which would not be explained by a businessman in a fire suit, and to this day no holistic explanation for the event exists.
A conference is being held today in Broad Haven to honor the 40th anniversary of the event, which organizer Emyln Williams describes as something that sparked "worldwide interest" in UFOs.
Williams believes in the possibility that something strange happen in Broad Haven in 1977, citing the consistency and number of accounts as strong evidence in favor of the flap.
"Over 40 years at least one of them might have come forward to say they made it up - but they haven't," said Williams. "That year there was so much happening. It is what we know as a UFO flap."
Source: BBC