UFO sightings over Basingstoke: what is known, and what remains unsolved
The Basingstoke Gazette went through its own archive and compiled seven occasions between 1975 and 2008 when residents of the southern English town saw mysterious lights or objects in the sky. Of these reports, two – the 1975 hot-air balloon case and the 2008 lantern case – were clearly explained; the rest received an official answer only in part or not at all.
The series began in 1975, when British UFO researcher Ken Rogers claimed that Basingstoke lay beneath a "flying saucer flight path" and that local farmers would soon be able to see glowing objects above their fields. Witnesses speaking to the paper at the time reported lights and also an object visible for ten minutes, and Rogers suspected a connection between the sightings and ancient sites. A few weeks later, however, Rogers himself admitted that one of the reported UFOs was actually a hot-air balloon, and the paper noted that many similar cases could also be explained by aircraft or weather phenomena.
A decade later, in November 1987, three local residents reported a strange sight. Standing outside a pub, 18-year-old Nicholas Palmer watched an angular, pointed object that moved erratically across the sky for ten minutes, and he firmly believed that what he saw was a UFO. That same evening, Richard Faulkner spotted a cigar-shaped object hovering over the northern part of Basingstoke. The case seemed serious enough for the paper to contact the nearby RAF Odiham air base, but according to an air force spokesman nothing unusual had happened that day, and they could offer no explanation.
In 1996 the debate took a different turn: Steve Marriott, a resident of the Worting district, wrote a letter to the editors referring to UFOs sighted in the Tadley area and to alleged documents of the Ministry of Defence. According to Marriott, the documents confirmed unidentified aerial phenomena, and he was convinced that UFOs really exist.
The lantern case that was solved
The best-documented story took place in 2008: orange lights appeared over Basingstoke, moving in formation, and neither air traffic control nor the Ministry of Defence could immediately say what they were. According to witness David Osborne, the lights approached the town from the direction of Odiham, and he said he had never seen anything like it in his life. Reg Lockyer, another witness, said he couldn't believe his eyes and was completely shocked by the sight. The mystery was finally solved by a newlywed couple, Glenn and Cody West: according to them, their wedding guests released thirty to forty Chinese lanterns into the air above the Audleys Wood hotel, and this caused the light phenomenon.
The idea raised in 1980 of founding a dedicated UFO observation group in the town, and the appeal published in 2000 seeking witnesses, in themselves show that local interest persisted for decades, but they produced no concrete results.
What do we know, and what don't we?
The entire string of stories rests on a single source, the Basingstoke Gazette's own archive, which collected its earlier articles in one place. The 2008 lantern case can be clearly explained based on the couple's own account; the 1975 hot-air balloon case was retracted by the person who reported it. For the 1987 and 1996 reports, however, neither RAF Odiham nor any other authority gave an explanation, and no independent footage or document has surfaced for either case, only the witnesses' words.
The sober take
The 2008 case was demonstrably caused by Chinese lanterns, as the wedding couple themselves confirmed; the 1975 report was explained as a hot-air balloon, while according to the Basingstoke Gazette article no official explanation was given for the 1987 and 1996 cases.
What was that?
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