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Case ID:

525

19 MAY 1909 - PONTYPOOL

PONTYPOOL

Sighting,UFO,Lights,Cigar shape

10 PM. Mr Garth Fisher, architect and surveyor, and his wife, who reside at Penygarn, a village just outside Pontypool, assert that they saw the vessel pass by, at a considerable altitude right over their house, and going in the direction of Herefordshire.


Mr and Mrs Fisher's impression of the ship was that it was cigar-shaped, and carried a piece of canvas. There was also a powerful light attached. A number of men employed at the Town Forge saw it going over the mountain in the direction of Abergavenny. Passing over the forge the airship darted off at right angles.


A number of Post Office officials state that they saw something floating in the air about the same hour of the night, and that it had a powerful light, which quivered.


No one, however, appears to have heard the noise of a motor working.


So far as the Pontypool incident is concerned, a possible explanation is forthcoming. Mr Victor Swanton states that what was actually seen in the district on Wednesday was nothing more than a model airship, which, in conjunction with his brother, he had constructed for the purpose of experimenting with. The model, he says, was about 6 ft or 7 ft long, and elliptical, rather than cigar-shaped.


Wednesday being a favourable night for making an experiment, he accordingly let it loose from his house. An electrical flare light was attached, in order to show which direction the model took, and this was, doubtless, mistaken for the searchlight.


The model, continued Mr Swanton, attained a height of about 1,500 ft to 2000 ft, and sailed quite as well as he had anticipated in different directions. When reaching an altitude of about 2000 ft it went over Pontypool in the direction attested by the witnesses of the lights on Wednesday night - viz. Towards Llangibby.


Source: 'Western Mail' Friday 21 May 1909.




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