Fire in sky mystery
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Fire in sky mystery
By Sarah Robertson, The Sunday Sun
 
Northerners have been left baffled by sightings of mysterious objects
lighting up the region's skies.
Several people have reported seeing balls of fire, and one woman even
claimed she and her daughter had narrowly avoided being burnt after one
hit her car.

Graham Little described how he saw spheres of bright orange light and
was so shocked he called the Royal Astronomical Society to try to find
some explanation of what he saw.
The 46-year-old was with a friend and his 10-year-old daughter when he
saw the giant balls of light over Washington, Tyne and Wear, at around
10pm on Friday night.
He said: "I've been frightened to talk about it for fear of ridicule.

"I just want to know what it is as there has to be some sort of rational
explanation.
"I've never seen anything like it in my life. We saw a ball of light in
the sky about 5000ft up.
"It was oscillating and pulsating, but it was not a plane. It moved up
and down for a couple of minutes then it disappeared. I am in shock as
it was so weird and strange.
"I look at the stars regularly with my telescope and have seen
meteorites and satellites and it was something totally different.

"I can only describe it as being like when a firework first goes off and
you have that split second when it bursts into a bright light."
And on Thursday afternoon, a 56-year-old woman, who did not wish to be
named, called police saying that a ball of flame the size of two
footballs had hit the car she was travelling in from West to East
Boldon.
The woman, who had been a passenger in her daughter's car, said: "As it
came towards us it hit my side of the car. If it had been a split second
earlier I would have had the window open. I got such a fright.

"We went back but there was no glass, no petrol, so I don't think it
could have been someone throwing something at us."
A spokeswoman for Northumbria Police said officers were investigating.
She said: "We are aware of this and there were superficial marks on the
car which rubbed off which were caused by unknown means and we are
looking into this."

Professor Sir Arnold Wolfendale, professor of physics at Durham
University said the strange phenomenon could be ball lightning which
takes the form of a glowing, floating object often the size and shape of
a basketball.
He said: "It could be ball lightening which is a candescent ball of gas
and can be up to 1ft in diameter. That would seem to be the likely
cause, but I would not like to say."