BANBURY, Oxfordshire

Via Filer's files:

George A. Filer, Director Mutual UFO Network Eastern
August 20, 2003

BANBURY, Oxfordshire -- I am a glider pilot in the UK, and the following, which may be of interest to you, is a slightly amended and expanded form of a posting I made on a glider pilots' online discussion group yesterday: On Sunday 3rd August at about 2:30 PM, 1430, I was standing at the launch point at Shenington Airfield when I noticed a small object passing overhead, downwind, directly above and in line with our E-W runway. At first I thought it was a tiny feather drifting with the wind a few feet above my head, but on locoking again, I realized it was much higher, moving in a straight line and at a steady speed. I would hazard a guess at 3000 to 4000 feet altitude. The object was white, but with a slightly wispy, almost translucent appearance which gave it a somewhat indistinct outline, hence my initial reaction that it was a feather. I could however just make out a definite structure, that was basically rectangular in overall plan form, and consisted of what might have been a lattice of booms, which gave it an appearancec rather reminiscent of an oldfashioned TV aerial. Seen from a long distance this would explain why it looked rather vague and wispy. It was moving asymmetrically, that is, set at a slight angle in relation to its direction of travel, which was from west to east. It had a steady and purposeful forward motion, and remained observable as a white speck receding into the distance for a short time after it had passed overhead. Another glider pilot, who that afternoon had landed in a field some 30 miles to thce east of my position, reported that he and his retrieve crew had also seen the same object. They, too, were unable to identify it.