Local sightings

I will list sighting reports as they come in. Remember we are interested in your sighting reports, drawings, photos etc no matter how old. Southend and the surrounding area has been a hotbed of ufo activity across many decades.

Brentwood October 2010 (in relation to object seen over Brentwood and published in local newspaper)

I saw a similar object above in the sky in Brentwood when i lived in a tower block in Brentwood, my wife worked evenings so i would relax on my balcony whilst reading and listening to jazz fm, one summers evening i looked over high up i could see jet planes the sky was very clear but had sparse clouds, i noticed very high a silver egg shaped object come out from behind what cloud there was, i thought it may be a balloon but it was very high and moving much faster and irratically then what i would think a balloon may, it also move in and out of cloud but also disappear and reappear in clear area of sky, my balcony view had Harold Wood-london in distance, i observed object for about 20 minutes on and off until it completly vanished, this happened one summer between 1998-2001 all i can remember is was ayear or so after frank sinatra died.

I live in Leigh on sea and one night a few months ago i cant remember the exact date must have been early august approx 11pm i stepped outside my house into the garden for a cigarette the sky was overcast somewhat but not overly you could still see stars i was the only one there annoyingly would have been good to ask someone what on earth it was i saw, anyway, i was near the end of my cigarette ready to go back in, when i looked up into the sky immediately ahead of me (im backed on to a park so a large area of sky is clearly visible without looking directly up) and from nowhere an orange 'comet' looking object appeared for about a minute or so moved slowly across the sky below the clouds and vanished it didn't speed up to go it kind of just vanished like someone had used a dimmer switch on it, i should describe the object a bit more, i said comet looking because it seemed to have a short streaking tail kind of like a tear turned sideways, it was clearly part of whatever it was as it wasn't moving fast enough to have a tail, it had a dark orange colour with yellow and white as you looked at the centre, it made no noise at all. Now, most lights i would shrug off because i live near the flight path of Southend airport so i know an aeroplane at night when i see it or hear it, this was not an aeroplane.

At around 17.45 yesterday evening (Sat) my wife and I were parked in Thorpe Bay Gardens gazing out across the estuary. She drew my attention to something moving rapidly east to west across the water about 50 yards from the shore i.e beyond the moored boats. I can only describe it as being a long flat dark shadow about 15 - 20ft long moving at approx 30mph. It looked as if it was gliding on or just under the surface and heading towards Southend pier. We viewed it for around 20 seconds till it disappeared from our sight. The weather was fine and the estuary very calm - visibility still good. There was no apparent wash from the object but some surface disturbance. Probably nothing at all but we could not think of an explanation other than a submarine or whale!!

I was out on my bike (push bike) riding through the near by woods to me Thorndon Country Park, was on my own and I was out for about an hour and a half. I often go, not usually on my own but know the woods very well and usually stick to the same route. It was raining wednesday just gone, didn't put me off, although usually I would think twice about going but this time I couldn't wait to get our there, I usually I have a bit of light from the moon, not this night though it was darker than dark, really dark. I have a good front light which enables me to see where I going, but I had to go slow as the rain and mud was a tad intense. So there I was minding my own in the dark woods, along a path I know well when all of a sudden I was lit up. The only way I can describe it is it was like a flash of a camera, only from above and lasting a tad longer, say one and a half seconds. It lit me up and a good 5 feet all around me but not the path in front, not the sky, just me. It made me stop, if freaked me a bit but just thought I was going mad so continued on my journey. About 30 mins later I was on a 'road' entrance way that runs to the car parks, again, unlit, dark as dark can get, just about see where I can go, then it happens again. This time the edge of the road lit up either side of me, giving me a visual marker of how wide the light was, like I was under a huge spot light for a second or two, I couldn't see the surrounding woods, or ahead, and the sky line didn't light up either. THIS WAS NOT LIGHTENING, it was just me in a circle of light, nothing else. I stopped, freaked and got out of there as fast as I could, so much so I fell and hurt my leg. I've thought and thought this through thinking somone with a camera, reflection from my front light etc but nothing adds up , the light came from above and just on me !!!!!!!

Thought you might be interested in this, do you remember when i spoke to you last about the black orb and the black flying saucer that my wife and i saw out in the estuary, this is just about exactly what we saw its the same just happens to be in New Zealend, they are the same height over the water and hovering and bobbing around in the same fashion next to each other! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJsx7bfF4VQ

Had some nice clear skies since last time I was in touch, few nice shooting stars and 1 unknown during the August bank holiday; had left my house at 9.15pm to walk down the sea wall to the pub when a bright white light went directly overhead (west to east), I watched it for 4 or 5 seconds before it disappeared. Too bright for a plane (and had no beacons) white light showing from underneath and behind as it went over as if it was a ball of light. Faster than a plane, no noise, couldn't estimate height as it was directly above with no references. Don't think it was low sun on a satellite as it seemed to big and bright. I joined the sea wall between the sailing club lake and boat park of blackwater sailing club (north of Heybridge Basin), I was about 20 mtrs along the sea wall when I saw it. Size of object I saw during this sighting was about the same as 2 daylight sightings from about 6 or 7 years ago, one was a bright light that popped out of a storm cloud west of the Basin, stayed stationary for 20 or 30 seconds then ducked back in again as if it had been spotted. The other was a silver metallic ball North east of the Basin (above River Blackwater) that stayed still for a good 5 minutes then shot up and off East. Evening weather hasn't been clear enough recently to see anything else but as you mentioned before there does seem to be a lot of activity around here.

Saw your website and am contacting you because ive just had an incredible ufo sighting and i dont know who to tell. i spoke to the local paper but they dont seem that interested. My family and friends just snigger at me! but i know what i saw and its totally freaked me out. this is not lights-in-the-sky stuff, this is a solid craft going over my head in BROAD DAYLIGHT and its left me quite shaken up. if youre still running the site and are interested in hearing about it, please contact me. i promise you, this is NOT a hoax mail. thanks (Diagram sent)

London June 2010 (Interestingly this is the same description as cameraphone footage we have from Billericay and Great Wakering -Mark)

Can you give me your take on this: I saw a UFO at least 13 years ago that I have never forgotten and I didn't know who to report it to. It looked like a white star, nothing at all unusual about it except it's speed, because it zipped right across an open sky in a split second and then zig-zagged in various directions. Sometimes it zig-zagged in a continuous movement, other times at a point in the zig zag it would pause and just look like a star again. I've seen sattelites that move slowly comparison. My partner heard it which is why we looked out the window into our back garden - I never heard it. When he pointed to it, I just saw a star until it changed it's travelling angle and just moved at an incredible speed to another point in the sky. It moved out of view over our rooftop to the front of our house and we saw it zig-zagging more erratically towards central london and then it disappeared into overcast cloud. It was quite late at night and we probably watched it for 4-5 minutes.

About 4 years ago a friend, who was smoking in my garden late at night, witnessed exactly the same thing but I was elsewhere in the house but didn't see it. He knew nothing about the previous sighting and his account was very similar, mentioning the look of a star and the incredible speed from area in the sky to another and then just stopping dead.

I saw something in the sky a few hours ago that has left me quite puzzled, thought I'dgoogle it then found this little group... basically i went onto my balcony at around 9:30pm for a cigarette on today's date being April 6th 2010, it was kinda cloudy but you could still see stars behind the clouds and the flashes of airplane lights, my house gets view of Leigh on sea, Canvey and quite a bit of the Thames, just as i was finishing my cigarette i looked up and saw an amazingly fast (i was a young jet spotter and used to go and watch jets land at bases when i was younger), faster then any thing i know, with how high and distance covered I'd guess 2000mph + ball of blue (but not bright) fly from west to east and disappear from view because of the roof on my building. The noise it made was like the wind but also a quiet hum and surely something that fast should have some kinda sound barrier noise after it, i must of got to see it for about 6 seconds, from seeing planes fly at that altitude the blue from this object was bigger than a plane light, maybe 3 times the size, just the speed of it done me in though. I would be very happy if just one other person saw it tonight or if you could let me know if someone saw anything similar at any other time.

Thanks for a swift reply. I live on Crowstone road half way between London road and Kings road (i think its called). I've seen weird lights in the sky on 2 other occasions now but this object and the speed is still keeping me up thinking what it might of been as i'm quite a logical thinker and most of the time can work it out meself plus the speed of it is just bizarre. I will add i am a keen shooting star/meteor watcher on the right months (pretty much all of them) and this object left no tail or trailing vapour, also i know about the lights that various Southend night clubs have on them and they would reflect off of the cloud.

Dagenham and South Ockendon April 2010 & November 2009
On November 5th 2009 I was standing outside in my parents back garden in Dagenham, Essex when something caught my attention in the sky.
I had drunk a couple of cans a lager and wasn’t sure at first but it seemed to move so slowly, almost hovering across the sky that I knew it was not normal. It was a very large Ball of Fire. At first I thought it was just a firework due to the fact it was bonfire night, maybe a rocket type but it was moving slowly towards us. I could see that it was not an aeroplane or a Helicopter because of the speed it was moving. It started in the sky about 2 miles away and within seconds it hovered across our garden approximately 500-600 metres up in the sky, as it passed over head I could see it. A large clear Orb with a Ball of Fire inside once it got 200 metres away it suddenly shot upwards very quickly and disappeared out of sight within seconds. I knew this was not normal and told family who of course took the mickey out of me. I have never seen anything like this before and am certainly not the type of person who would normally tell people about this or fill in this form but today is the 10th April 2010 and I and my Wife have just seen exactly the same thing again. My wife did not believe me when I told her in November but she was just with me smoking a cigarette on our balcony in South Ockendon, Essex and she witnessed it with me. Again it was a large Giant Ball of Fire in the sky approximately a mile away from us and I would say about 500 metres up into the sky. It was so clear that you could see it was fire and it was hovering slowly from right to left of our view. It was far too slow to be a plane and had no noise to it. My wife could not believe what she was seeing and I told her it was what I saw before. We watched it for maybe 30 seconds and the Orb changed route and shot extremely quick straight up into the sky and out of sight.

This evening (April 3 rd ) at 8.10 pm, I saw something strange. Myself and a friend saw 4 red/orange lights moving in formation over Laindon, Essex from west – east- north. The first light looked like and aeroplane until a second light nearly collided with it. Then 2 other lights appeared from the horizon in bright pink faster than a missile. No sound was heard and they all kept formation for 5 minutes before gradually disappearing.

I saw an orange light in the sky moving south – north last night (02/04/2010) aswell around 8.45 pm and the same kind of light moving west – north on Sunday 21 st March at around the same time.

While I was outside in the front garden waiting to be picked up by my girlfriend to go shopping I was looking up in the sky at the various airplanes that were passing by. As I was watching an airplane travelling at approx 25,000 to 30,000 feet going from east to west I noticed at a lower height(10,000 to 15,000) an object that I can best describe as hokey puk shaped and brownish in colour. It was travelling in the same direction as the higher aircraft and keeping pace with it, I watched the object until it went out of my field of vision.I am a person who watches the sky on a regular basis this object to me did not look like the conventional stuff that I see on a regular basis. I am also ex army so was trained somewhat in observation skills.
Location: wickham road area of chadwell st mary nr grays. Weather conditions:Bright sunny morning with partial cloud cover (although object was observed in a clear part of the sky) slight breeze.

Last night at approx 10.30pm to 11.10 my daughter and myself witnessed to red disc shaped objects above our garden in Brentwood Essex they were silent and pulsated stood still then took off at high speed towards Romford. They then came back but this time there was appox four or five flying in formation above each other then in a straight line when my daughter observed them through binoculars she could see there were green lights also.

This is just a line to report a possible ufo sighting ,seen in the sky outside my house in canvey island essex, on 13/6/09 at 22.45 on Saturday night,this was witnessed by five people,My husband was standing in the garden having a cigarette when he noticed a round orange/red ball going across the sky,it almost looked like a fireball and It had lines coming of of it. when it moved it was silent.Although planes go across this area sometimes of a nightime this was noticeable by the lack of any noise at all and by the lack of flashing lights we managed to take two photographs of it, but unfortunately did not have a camcorder available.

This photo was taken on 14.07.2009 at 16.29 at the river crouch at the bottom of ferry road burnham on crouch. you can clearly see the dark object just above the boat. when zoomed in you can see the shape and a slight gassy looking trail coming from it. there is another object further away but to far to get a clear shape. be interested on what you think or this. best wishes

My wife and I were travelling back along the A120 last night towards Braintree (just at the junction for the town) and in the sky were some very very strange orange lights, they were not glowing bright and looked as if they had ragged edges. There were about 9 of these and as we drove towards them they seem to split into two groups either side of the carriage way. We turned round and went back to check but there was absolutely nothing in the sky apart from plane lights etc. Just wondered if anybody else saw them and if anyone has any idea what they are.

I just wanted to tell you about something I saw in the sky on Wednesday 28 October. It was approximately 7.35 p.m. and I had just left a friend's house in South Ockendon and was walking towards where I had parked my car. I saw what appeared to be a vivid bright orange ball of light coming towards me. It appeared to be quite a lot lower than an air craft would fly and was moving slightly slower than an aircraft would. I stood by my car and watched it for about 5 minutes. There was no-one else around so I couldn't talk to anyone about it and I was so mesmerised by it that I did not have the foresight to get my mobile phone out of my bag to photograph it. It is difficult to assess how big it was, but as it drew closer a I could see a very bright corona around the outline of the ball and what looked like flames coming off it. The object was moving mostly in a straight line but would occasionally make small adjustments to the left or the right. There was absolutely no noise. The object passed right over my head and continued on over the roof tops of the nearby houses. I have seen meteorites etc. before, but have never seen anything like this. I so wish that someone had been with me to witness it.

Its 22nd Dec 2009 and about 6:15 saw a orange ball of light very bright going over wickford, essex heading north.
It had a what looked like a 180 degress fan of orange light on the top of it. At first i thought it might be a meteor or something but it changed direction heading what looking like north east. It moved really fast and faster than a helicopter and too low for a plane.

Just want to say first that I am middle aged and have been an avid sky watcher for half a century in this neck of the woods - I know what I see, I lived here all through the American airbases and their flashing around the sky during the 60's and 70's. We are also on the flight path for Stansted airport so I am used to seeing aircraft lights. I have seen three things that were odd here on the North West side of Ipswich - just off the A14.
First sighting was around 7 years ago around 3.15pm, just leaving Ipswich and approaching the A12 Copdock interchange - waiting at the
roundabout - looked over towards Caple st Mary direction and noticed a silver grey metallic cigar shape going roughly North to South. I was
the carer on the school bus for special needs children, I asked the driver to look at the object, he did and said it was the ad' blimp from a local country pub and dismissed it. I know that blimp, this was not it and the pub was a mile behind us. I told Ray the driver this and he said we would go back that way and look. We did and the pub blimp was still above the pub. The craft I saw was not plump and stubby as a blimp but longer and flatter. I asked around and hunted the papers for days but no word of it.The craft I saw had no running lights of any kind. Oh, by the way, the fireball that went over Ipswich some 32 years ago I saw, I was at a bus stop on the other side of town, an amazing thing !

Next was one evening last March, my husband and I had just arrived home - we live in a close of one storey flats with a central car park. We had just got out of the car, it was dark, and just above the flats opposite ours there was a sudden blue-white light, it was just there, no noise, no movement. It was bright like a L E D but it did not light anything around it and it had no beam. My husband and I stood watching it, he said it was possibly a helicopter but I said "where's the noise then, and why is there no beam to the light ?" All was silent, just the light, we watched it for around a minute or two and it just winked off. My husband saw it differently to me, he thought it was a long way off which might account for hearing nothing. I think it was near because we are in a close and from the centre of the car park you cannot see very far away. We regularly get the air ambulance and police choppers over here as we are near the A14 & A12, this was not a chopper, it had no running lights at all - just a light of bright blue-white. Not a star, not a planet, not swamp gas! If a star is say a 50p size then this would be a dinner plate!

Next was three weeks ago- I work early in the mornings and at 5.30am I was at the bus stop and looking around the sky. The bus stop is just
outside our close and about 8 meters off to one side. I was looking back at our flat - eastward, it was dark still and there were quite a lot of clouds in the eastern sky, as I looked I saw a sudden beam of blue-white light shoot through the clouds north to south, it was a beam but it was diffused somewhat by the clouds it passed through, it's difficult to say what length the beam was but up in the sky at around ten o'clock high it reached one end of the block to the other, I guess that could mean as much as several miles in the sky. A few minutes later it flashed again in the southern sky. A definate beam. Well there you have it, UFOs seem to pass here diagonally to the flightpath of aircraft.I do not think these things were normal everyday things or natural phenomena. I will keep a camera with me in future, thanks for your time, people don't usually want to hear about this sort of thing, or they think you're crazy!