There were certainly no firework displays visible in the night sky when we left home around 7.00pm to visit our friends in Ipswich during a torrential downpour of rain which was set to continue for the most of the night.

My wife Ann and I left our home in Needham Market, drove the short distance along Barking Road before bearing right over Grinstead Hill then turning right onto the Ipswich Road at the Barking Lion Public House.

Dave Feakes

Negotiating the s-bend as we approached the Bizon Tractor depot on the outskirts of the village, and immediately before climbing the short hill facing us, we were confronted with something very unusual coming into sight on the brow of the hill.

What appeared to be a great big glowing red ball, was moving along the hilltop, from our right and towards the Ipswich Road.

I slowed down for two reasons, first as I did not know what the object was, and second, for safety as I had no idea what it was likely to do.

The object seemed to be flying just above ground level so could not possibly have been a tractor or any road vehicle, yet was both too low and too slow to have been any conventional aircraft

The object itself was silent and as it reached the apex of the hill it seemed to alter course and head off across the fields at a greatly accelerated speed and height before disappearing into the darkness beyond the distant trees, barely visible in the gloom of the night.

I am absolutely certain that, despite the weather, I could have identified any object which came into view such as a planet in the sky, a firework display, a road vehicle, a helicopter or an aeroplane. It was none of these things.

Objectively, it could not have been a planet because of the heavy rain falling from the overcast sky and it was unlikely to be any kind of firework on two counts, that Guy Fawkes night was a wash out and it would have had to be really massive in size to match what we saw.

As far as vehicles where concerned the red glowing ball could possibly have been a red rear light on, perhaps a tractor, except even with the distorted vision caused by the rain on our windscreen, it could be dispelled as the object sped off and disappeared over the trees in the distance.

That just leaves the possibility of an aircraft. At that stage the RAF still occupied Wattisham but none of their jets would have been flying as low in such atrocious conditions let alone so slow.

If the red glow was from the jet engine then the aircraft would have had to be flying backwards to begin with.

So could it have been a helicopter? Although I do not believe any were based at Wattisham at the time, any pilot flying that low and close to electric cables and pylons would deserve to be grounded and helicopters are extremely noisy but the object in question was totally silent.

It looked like a great big glowing red round ball so, it was an unidentified object, and a flying one at that!

Whatever it was, it seemed to be flying from the general direction of RAF Wattisham, eastwards before veering south east towards Barham or Claydon and then in the direction of the dual USAF Bentwaters and Woodbridge airbases and the Suffolk Coast.

Despite scanning the local press and listening to local radio over the following days, there were no reports of any UFO activity or mysterious aircraft in the area.

We did not say anything about the incident for fear of ridicule yet I now believe we should have reported the sighting at the time and perhaps have received some explanation for the sighting.

Obviously intrigued by what we witnessed, at no time were we alarmed or frightened by our strange encounter.

Suffice to say in these days of alleged alien abductions, I can safely say that we did not experience anything like that nor was there any missing time from our Saturday evening schedule.

The question will always remain, though. Did we see a real alien spaceship in the wet Needham Market sky, a secret military experimental aircraft, or was it some inexplicable phenomena which will always remain a mystery?

I believe I know.

Have you ever seen anything strange in the skies over Suffolk? Or do you think UFOs are just a load of nonsense?

About 25 years ago i saw a ufo walking home with my brother, it was silver and hovered about 50 yards infront of us above a bungalow, in oulton broad nr lowestoft suffolk. we watched it for a few minutes then it flew into the night. we were playing with walkie talkies at the time, i do not know if this has anything to do with it. zeplin or cigar shate, silver , did not emitt any light although it was lit up. I understand that no one beleives us, but at least my brother saw it as well so its not so anoying when people dont beleive me.
David Cutting, Oxford

Hi my name is Russ Khroma & I’m 13. Although I believe in Extra Terrestrials, I actually think that that red object might have been a ball of lightning. Dave Feakes mentioned that it was raining that night! Sorry Dave, but I believe that this PHENOMENA was acctualy BALL LIGHTNING.
Russ Khroma