CAMBRIDGESHIRE’S FIRE IN THE SKY
A “very big flaming object” was seen spiralling through the sky above Cambridgeshire in April. Witness Gerry Underwood, 55, spotted the mysterious object at around 8pm from outside his canal boat in Stretham. “It looked like a very thick chemtrail to start with,” he explained. “It looked like a short, skinny cloud. It wasn’t moving quickly at all. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a meteorite, because they are gone in seconds. We have seen hundreds of shooting stars, but this definitely wasn’t that either.”
Mr Underwood says he observed
the enigmatic phenomenon for between 10 and 20 minutes as it slowly spiralled down. “It started to glow orange. There were flames coming out of the back of it as well. It was really unusual.” He took photographs as it fell, leaving a huge trail behind as it descended into the distance towards Huntingdon, disappearing behind some trees. “The sheer size of it is what’s got me,” he added. “When you look at the pictures, they show the trees in the foreground and it’s way beyond that – it was very big. It landed beyond the horizon, that’s how big it was – we couldn’t see it land.” A Chinese lantern, the cause of several supposed UFO sightings, was mooted as a potential culprit, but BUFORA’s Heather Dixon suggested the object was an aircraft contrail: “Being illuminated by the setting Sun would give it the dramatic, burning, red appearance. The 20 minute timescale for this would also support the idea this was a contrail. Something like a Chinese lantern would burn out much more quickly and fireball meteors only last a second or two.” thesun.co.uk, dailymail. com, 17 Apr 2020.