Before 1960 Hunting-Clan aircraft and ground crew sighting of an unidentfied flying object.

Reading a book about Air-hostesses, (Trolley Dollies, Angela Waller, isbn978-1-84262-870-6 pub 2009 by Pen Press and later by Dales Large Print 2011) I came upon this;

"One of our freight planes (a York) was descending to land at Khartoum with four men on the crew who had all been flying for at least 15 years. Suddenly the captain and first officer pointed ahead to an 'object' hovering over the airport and asked each other, 'What's that?' The other two men on the crew a flight engineer and a radio officer-navigator also looked ahead and were equally amazed by the sight. The captain called Khartoum control tower which , at that time, had all British staff, and asked, 'What's hovering over your runway?' The answer came back, 'We don't know what it is. we can all see it, but it's not showing on our radar screens.' They all described what they were seeing as a 'classic flying saucer shape' and it was hovering, just a few hundred feet high, absolutely still...suddenly, the radio officer who told me this story, said 'It started to move very slowly, and then suddenly it went off at such a speed that it left a blur on your eyeballs.' "

Seems an official report was made by air crew and ground staff at the time.

I have had a quick look at past ATS threads and even did a Google search, but found nothing. Either I am asking the wrong question or there was nothing more to report, or was there?

Anyone out there that knows anything more about this? Was it ever explained away? The crew were all old hands and were all aware of the tricks light can play and were adamant it was no trick nor was it a weather balloon.

Sorry no links, hence the long quote.

a reply to: dowot

Hmmm, that's quite interesting. I can't seem to find any information about a UFO over Khartoum. Do you have the name of the airport where it was sighted along with the date of the report?

a reply to: dowot

Very interesting. More info would be welcome! Thanks for sharing it. Sounds like it was randomly tucked in a non-UFO oriented book as a simple anecdote. Did the author give sources for the story anywhere?

Thanks!

Reply to jonwhite866 and aboveboard.

Thanks for reading and asking, but there is little more I can say. I copied out most of what was written in the book, and yes it had nothing to do with UFO's, just simply the story of an air hostess, who worked for the airline, Hunting-Clan which later amalgamated with Airworks to form British United Airways, as did the Radio Officer who seems to be the source of this story.

As to when, I can only guess, as there is no mention, in fact there are very few actual dates in the whole book, but the Avro York aircraft only lasted till 1964 and was first commissioned in 1949, (Historical note, it was derived from the Lancaster bomber, so by 1964 was rather old. en.wikipedia.org...). So it has to be between 1950 and early 1960. Not a lot of help I have to admit.

The airport is just referred to as Khartoum, it was one of the main stopping off points, so presumably if there is a choice, it would be the main one.

I do wonder if it was just a tease by the radio officer to the air-hostess, but not sure that really could be true. except for the lack of further information.

The only bit I did not copy from the book was, "Obviously, our aircraft could not land, so it went into a circuit around the airport with all four men on the crew watching 'it' the whole time. suddenly they all shouted, it's starting to move...' "
The York was a freight plane so would not have had a hostess, so the story is second hand. It comes in a chapter titled "From WW1 to flying saucers" and follows a story about camels being on the runway at Khartoum, which was related by the air hostess herself. Again not much help.

So you have as much information at the moment as I have.

When you consider that at least 6 and maybe more people were witness to the event, and there was a supposed official report made, there is a dearth of any more information.

a reply to: dowot

It's just a hypothesis but from other UFO sightings I've read about, this one seems to be the most 'in your face' so to speak. Most sightings are very vaguely told as if the witness(s) couldn't fully make out what they saw and that they THINK the object was saucer shaped. What you've quoted sounds very set in stone that both those in the plane and at the airport saw the same object that WAS of the shape of a saucer. Vague sightings would be more publicly released purely because they're vague and not finite, leading them towards the HOAX or explainable category making it safe for public release, whereas sightings that are obvious and have more proof towards it such as this, would have more attention from the military, government or whoever handles them resulting in the lack of info to the public, especially when this was in a time where the internet didn't exist making it easier for these stories or sightings to be hidden.

On the basis that this story IS true, my guess would be that as this was a clear, vivid sighting, those who handle these situations this got there and dealt with the situation without any knowledge being let out to the public and kept it locked away in a filing cabinet, which could be why there's nothing on the internet about it and only in that book. It is still very interesting to stumble across these stories that are only portrayed in non related books.

Would you be able to tell me the name of this book so I can look through it myself?

a reply to: jonwhite866

Hi Jon.

No problems. Book title is Trolley Dollies, by Angela Waller, isbn978-1-84262-870-6 pub 2009 by Pen Press and later by Dales Large Print 2011, I did look for an online version, but no luck, obviously a bit too recent. The book is listed as being available from Amazon, there are also some reviews of the book although, strangely, there is no mention in the reviews of the reported UFO incident, and a bit more information about the author.

Your theory is certainly a possibility, I am not too certain of the reality of the events, could it just have been a chat up line? But if so, I have a feeling it would be recorded by the author as such.

I am trying to contact the author, so far with no success and with the lack of interest by other ATSers maybe I will just let it remain as an interesting insight into human nature, unless you can think of any ways to research further.

What is written in that book seems very plausable and backed up with multiple

Apologise. the full book title is "Before there were trolley dollies" www.angelawaller.co.uk...

a reply to: dowot

Thank you Dowot, I will check it out when I get a chance. It is strange how it's not been mentioned in any reviews. Will have to try and do some more digging.

a reply to: jonwhite866

Had a delightful email from the original writer of this incident.

She is confident that the incident happened in 1956. She also spoke to the crew involved a few years back, but thinks they are all now deceased.

So now to a bit more research.