1163

Between 6.30 and 8 pm.

Cold, clear night.

Natalie Bowden (aged 13 years 6 months) lived at 38 Beechwood Road, Uplands, Swansea, which stands on the north side of the street, which runs east-west. Natalie was in the back room with her dog, watching TV and suddenly had a feeling that she should go out the front door. She did so, but the dog did not follow her, and saw a huge object over the houses on the opposite side of the road.

She remembers a shape of lights on the underside of the object, which she compared to a stadium, which consisted of a ring, round or oval, which protruded below the craft. Large coloured square windows or panels of light were on the outer side of the ring, which constantly changed colour. She remembered these colours being creams, ochres and pinks and others, all soft hues iridescent and 'pearly.' The colours were pulsating rather then flashing. The outside of the ring was sloped rather than straight. She could not see in detail the body or shape of the whole craft due to the brightness of the ring, but it was large, covering the street. She assumed that it was circular, because of the ring of light beneath it.

Natalie was alone to begin with, for about 5 minutes, while the object was silently hovering 30 feet above the street, just above the houses opposite, and also covering the street. She called her sister (Ashleigh) and stepfather (David) out of the house. She remembers, too, that even though it was a cold winter evening, it wasn't cold during the time of the sighting, and it was perfectly quiet: "you could hear a pin drop," she said. There was no sound from the craft and everything was completely still and silent.

When Ashleigh and Dave came out, strangely there was no excitement or interest evident from Dave when he was now confronted with the sight of the UFO. Her sister was unusually quiet. By this time a few more people were in the street, around seven plus Natalie, her sister and stepfather who stood opposite her at the top of the steps that led down to the street. There were some people down the road to the left, the James family (Duncan and his son) and Mrs Parker to the right, a man who lived to the right, across the road )who Natalie called the rose man as he always tended his roses), and some other whom she did not know.

They stood there for about 5 minutes and then Dave said he'd seen enough and went back indoors! Ashleigh, who normally did not get on with him, nevertheless followed him in, and Natalie remembers that her sister turned in a sort of fluid, automatic movement, which was unusual enough for her to have noticed it. Natalie told them she would not leave until she sees the object go. For some reason this was important to her to see it leave. She stayed watching it, and mentally asking it questions. She said she actually started to get a bit bored waiting for it to move or do something! She was aware of a pressure sensation in her ears.

It must have been after another 10 minutes that she suddenly had a feeling of bitter disappointment: "I found myself feeling gutted as it had gone! All I could see were the stars. I was very confused because that was my goal to watch it move, but was left there feeling perplexed, dazed....also no one else was on the street, except me." It was now cold and windier, normal for January.

She went back in feeling 'gutted' and Dave asked her jokingly, "Did you see your UFO go?" Her sister didn't discuss it at all. They did not discuss it with any of the neighbours at all in the days following, which again, was strange.

Natalie explained that the following day she showed her stepfather the Evening Post and there was an article about a Russian satellite out of orbit, which was suggested as a possible explanation of the sighting over Swansea the night before [that South Wales Evening Post article was actually published on the following Monday 24th January 1983].

About a week after the incident, while washing her hair, Natalie found a small bald patch on the left side of her scalp. The bald patch is still present, and the skin feels raised. She showed it to SUFON investigators and it is confirmed that it does indeed, feel slightly raised above the surrounding skin.

Years after the incident, in 1998 she got in touch with local investigator Neil Spring who interviewed her and decided to pursue hypnosis to try and find out what had occurred during the missing time episode. She was put in touch with a local hypnotherapist, but after a preliminary test the hypnotherapist decided that Natalie was an unsuitable subject.

Natalie brought the subject up with her sister at this point but Ashleigh remembered the incident as if it were a dream - she said she could remember lights coming out of the circumference of the object - which in Natalie's opinion, covered almost the length of the street. And Ashleigh remembered the object as being a disc in shape but cannot remember the 'stadium' below the centre of it. Dave said he didn't remember anything at all. Natalie's memories are vivid and clear, except for the missing time episode. She has a feeling that the experience was meant for her alone.

She kindly met members of SUFON on 16 August 2016 for a videoed interview, at the house, which her mother had only recently sold, and was empty, so there was no problem in conducting the interview on the doorstep, in the exact location where she had been during the sighting. This formed Part Five of SUFON's series of short videos documenting the 'Night of the Triangles.'

Source: SUFON Files: witness interviewed by Emlyn Williams via Facebook August 2016, and on video with Steve Drewson, Laurence Lowe and Mike Maunder 16 August 2016.