Oval over Orkney, ORKNEY I · United Kingdom
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
IT WAS AROUND 8:30 P.M. I WENT OUTSIDE TO LOOK AT THE STARS AND NOTICED THIS FLASHING OBJECT OVER PAPAY WESTRAY (ORKNEY). I WENT INSIDE AND PHONED A FRIEND WHO THN WENT OUTSIDE HIS HOME AND HE WITNESSED IT TOO. HE CALLED ME BACK AND DID NOT HAVE A CLUE WHAT IT WAS. I WENT OUT GAIN AND THE OBJECT HAD MOVED FURTHER TO THE LEFT OF SIGHTING. AT FIRST WE THOUGHT IT WAS A AEROPLANE OR HELICOPTER. RULED THIS OUT DUE TO AEROPLANE NEVER STANDS STILL IN FLIGHT, NOR DOES A HELICOPTER FLY THAT HIGH, PLUS THERE WAS NO SOUNDS.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #173382). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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UK sighting reports were handled by the MoD's UFO desk until 2009; later records answer to the Freedom of Information Act 2000, earlier files sit at the National Archives. Through Aletheca, the house instrument, anyone can commission the request — filed, chased, and published in the open, refusals included. The draft goes over already written: the records sought, and the date window they would live in.
Routed to: UK Ministry of Defence · records window 2022-12-08 → 2022-12-25