408

WAUN WEN, SWANSEA 26 MAY 2017

10 AM. Cloudy, fine, light wind.

The witness, a 50-year-old man, was walking up Carmarthen Road from Swansea city centre towards his home in Waun Wen. He had just passed the Dyfatty area, and was walking on the left hand-side of the road.

He spotted an object flying past him about 100 feet above the ground coming from behind him and following the course of Carmarthen Road on a steady level course at speed towards the north-west. At first he thought it was a drone or plastic bin bag being carried on the wind. However there was no sound, so that ruled out it being a drone.

There were no lights visible. It was roughly round, and he compared it's shape to a piece of paper which has been scrunched into a ball.

About the size of a washing machine, he said it was black and white in colour, and because it was not spinning, he could see that the patches of black and white areas all over it were distinct from each other. It was travelling at speed, roughly 60-70 mph, and he had the impression its flight was controlled and powered.

When it reached a position further up the road, over the Cherry Tree pub, it suddenly turned 20-30 degrees to the right (due north) and started climbing, with a rolling or wavering motion from side to side slowly as it went. He finally lost sight of it due to a tree blocking his view of it.

Duration of sighting - 7 or 8 seconds. Subsequent weather research has ascertained that the wind direction at 6 am that morning was from to the west, veering to north-west by 12 pm.

Roughly the same direction as that taken by the object. However due to the fact that wind was only blowing at a speed of 17 - 22 mph, was far slower than the 60-70 mph described by the witness.

Source: SUFON Files: witness report by telephone 1 June 2017.