A ballooning in sightings of UFO
Our story sparks more recollections from readers
7/17/06

After the Luton News reported the 50-year-old mystery of a UFO sighting
over Ramridge Junior School it became clear that the town was not alien
to the unusual.Among the many people who made contact with the paper
after our front page report were other Lutonians whose lives have never
been quite the same since they saw something strange in the sky.Steve
Clark was three years below Bill Dillon at Ramridge Junior School in
1957 when they both witnessed a mysterious flying object in the Luton
sky.Even though they grew up living in the same street, it wasn't until
1982 that the men first met and compared stories, and it wasn't until
Bill's version of events featured in the Luton News three weeks ago that
Steve decided it was time to make his own story known to a wider public.

'There was something there that startled everybody that day,' said
Steve, 57.'We were in the playing field of the school. 'I never saw it
arrive or leave, but what I do remember quite clearly was a woman
teacher on my right and four or five other kids to my left, and I think
we were playing rounders, and everybody just stopped. 'The teacher
looked at us and she had a 'what the hell's that' look on her face. She
was a bit alarmed.'Steve said he could see a round object in the clear
blue sky, appearing no bigger than a marble at arm's length to his naked
eye, hovering in the distance.The youngster's sighting was much shorter
than Bill Dillon's and he said he never had a chance to see the UFO
manoeuvre in any significant way.And when the retired Lutonian first
spoke to Bill in the 1980s about their experiences the older witness
said he thought they were talking about two different events.

The main disagreement seemed to be over the shape of the inexplicable
sight.Bill said it was saucer-shaped and Steve described it as round,
but UFO researcher John Hanson many years later told them it was much
more likely they were both witnesses to the same phenomenon, whether
alien, man-made or natural, despite their differing recollections.One
explanation offered at the time, and often used in UFO sightings, was
that the Ramridge pupils and teachers all saw a weather balloon.But
Steve said he extensively researched weather balloons as an adult and
none of them resembled what he saw.He also explored the possibility that
it was another man-made flying object, such as an airship.'There had
been a lot of airship activity in the town from 1919 until the industry
packed up in 1990,' he said.'It could have been an airship coming down
nose towards us or it could have been the underside of Bill Dillon's
saucer-shaped object, but it's so long ago now no one is ever going to
know.

'That day is something that's been in my memory all my life, the same as
Bill Dillon, but I remain open-minded about what it was really'Was it a
UFO, was it a balloon? 'We're never going to know.'