Posted by: James Easton
Here then is the report, in full, which appeared on the front page of this week's Berwickshire News (Thursday Nov 24 1994). I'll contact Malcolm and see if any other witnesses to this object came forward as a result of the article.

It may well be worth noting that the people of this area are well use to seeing aircraft and helicopters of varying descriptions in this part of the sky because the area is used by the RAF to train jet pilots and to prepare for various NATO training exercises over the North Sea.

UFO IS SIGHTED AT ALLANTON

A Paxton man claims he watched a UFO for around five minutes as it hovered over a field near Allanton last Thursday evening.

Steven Rutherford (19), who works as a clerical officer at Berwick Station was returning home after a day's shooting in Duns, when he saw the UFO from the road between the Pistols crossroads and Sunwick farm.

"It was like a big disc and was just a field away," Steven told the Berwickshire News this week.

Describing exactly what he saw, he added: "It was about 5pm on Thursday when I was driving home from Duns. It was a big disc-like shape. At first I thought it was a plane going to land but it just stopped above the ground, it didn't land."

"I immediately stopped the car and switched off the engine and I sat and watched it. It wasn't making any noise at all and dropped down to just a few feet off the ground."

"I used the telescopic sights from my gun to get a closer look at it. It was a black coloured disc, with two big lights which lit up the ground underneath it. It also had red and green flashing lights. It wasn't spinning or anything. Then all the lights went off and it seemed to disappear but it soon reappeared and went off in the direction of Berwick."

Steven said a friend's father in Chirnside had also seen the strange object and he is sure that the driver of another car, which passed him while he was stopped had also spotted it as he flashed the lights when he drove past.

DELIGHTED

Malcolm Robinson, Scottish co-ordinator for the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA) was delighted to hear of Steven's sighting, especially the description of what he saw.

"From the description Steven has given it seems to be very similar to the UFOs spotted recently in the Bonnybridge and Falkirk areas - they too were black, disc-like and had flashing lights," he said.

"In recent years the main hot spots for UFOs have been near Falkirk and Bonnybridge and around Muchalls near Aberdeen but I can't remember any sightings in Berwickshire. This latest sighting would seem to conform with the types of reports we have been receiving from people in the Falkirk and Bonnybridge area." [END]


As a follow-up to last week's front page story relating the sighting of a disc shaped object over Berwickshire, the Berwickshire News printed an update, which is transcribed below.

In the wake of last weeks sighting a friend of mine who lives at Northallerton, in North Yorkshire, tells me that he himself saw a bright "horizontal" light pass in the sky above him moving silently at "tremendous speed", he's sending me a detailed account of what he actually saw but tells me that the following day the local radio station in North Yorkshire received a number of calls from people who all saw a strange object in the skies around the same time as my friend did. The radio station dedicated it's afternoon slot to a phone-in, inviting witnesses to contribute, which they dutifully did.

Berwickshire borders the county of Northumberland, which in turn borders north Yorkshire so it is possible that all these sightings could be related.

UFO SIGHTINGS ESCALATE

Following last week's UFO sighting near Allanton several more people have come forward to tell of their extra terrestrial experiences with more UFOs spotted in Berwickshire.

Three teenagers, all pupils at Berwickshire High School, claim to have seen a UFO at Preston.

Laura Wilkinson (14), from Duns, and her friends Jennifer Webster (13) and Carrie Warnock (13), both from Preston, were at Preston Village Hall on Monday night when they saw a "black object with green and red flashing lights."

Laura added, "it was hovering above a field at Cambridge. It was there for about 15 minutes and then just disappeared. Another friend saw something similar on Saturday night."

There have also been other reports of strange sightings. Five Coldstream men saw what they thought to be a UFO back in January and a Whitsome couple say they too saw something with red and green flashing lights on a couple of occasions. [END]

One further, intriguing aspect of the reports concerning the black, disc shaped object is this:

"Then all the lights went off and it seemed to disappear but it soon reappeared..."

"It was there for about 15 minutes and then just disappeared..."

It's not the first time we've heard this, is it.