On this day in Yorkshire 1955

The Air Ministry are investigating a report of a boomerang-shaped object being seen hovering above Lasham Aerodrome (Hants) yesterday when the British National Gliding Championship meeting continued.

The object, which was dark coloured and thought to be about 3,000 feet above the ground, was first spotted at 1.13 p.m. by Mrs. Yvonne Bonham, secretary of the British Gliding Association, of Belsize Square, Hampstead, and Mrs. Alex Orde, her predecessor in that office.

Another official was told and he telephoned to the Air Ministry, saying: “The object was seen 290 degrees from the airfield, at an elevation of about 60 degrees. It was hovering for about 30 seconds and then made off in a north-westerly direction at high speed.”

Soon the Ministry asked for further details.

Last night a Ministry spokesman said in London: “A report has reached that an unusual object was seen in the sky and it is being investigated.”

Hovered half-a-minute

Mrs. Bonham said; “As soon as I saw it I said. ‘That’s a flying saucer.’ It was hovering above Philip Wills’s glider for about half-a-minute and then went off at very high speed.

“It looked to be about 40 feet wide, but I would not like to be precise about that. “As it went away it seemed to drop steadily.”

Mrs. Orde stated: “It certainly was not a bird; it moved too quickly. It did not appear to be like anything we had seen in nature.”

But this was a TV balloon

A glistening silvery object suspended in the sky over the moors in the Oxenhope area, near Keighley, gave rise last night to speculations on flying saucers.

The explanation given to The Yorkshire Post by Keighley police was that it was a captive balloon supporting an experimental aerial of the Independent Television Authority.

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