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A ballooning in sightings of UFO
Our story sparks more recollections from readers
After the Luton News reported the 50-year-old mystery of a UFO sighting over Ramridge Junior School it became clear that the town was not alien to the unusual.
Among the many people who made contact with the paper after our front page report were other Lutonians whose lives have never been quite the same since they saw something strange in the sky.
Steve Clark was three years below Bill Dillon at Ramridge Junior School in 1957 when they both witnessed a mysterious flying object in the Luton sky.
Even though they grew up living in the same street, it wasn't until 1982 that the men first met and compared stories, and it wasn't until Bill's version of events featured in the Luton News three weeks ago that Steve decided it was time to make his own story known to a wider public.
'There was something there that startled everybody that day,' said Steve, 57.
'We were in the playing field of the school.
'I never saw it arrive or leave, but what I do remember quite clearly was a woman teacher on my right and four or five other kids to my left, and I think we were playing rounders, and everybody just stopped.
'The teacher looked at us and she had a 'what the hell's that' look on her face. She was a bit alarmed.'
Steve said he could see a round object in the clear blue sky, appearing no bigger than a marble at arm's length to his naked eye, hovering in the distance.
The youngster's sighting was much shorter than Bill Dillon's and he said he never had a chance to see the UFO manoeuvre in any significant way.
And when the retired Lutonian first spoke to Bill in the 1980s about their experiences the older witness said he thought they were talking about two different events.
The main disagreement seemed to be over the shape of the inexplicable sight.
Bill said it was saucer-shaped and Steve described it as round, but UFO researcher John Hanson many years later told them it was much more likely they were both witnesses to the same phenomenon, whether alien, man-made or natural, despite their differing recollections.
One explanation offered at the time, and often used in UFO sightings, was that the Ramridge pupils and teachers all saw a weather balloon.
But Steve said he extensively researched weather balloons as an adult and none of them resembled what he saw.
He also explored the possibility that it was another man-made flying object, such as an airship.
'There had been a lot of airship activity in the town from 1919 until the industry packed up in 1990,' he said.
'It could have been an airship coming down nose towards us or it could have been the underside of Bill Dillon's saucer-shaped object, but it's so long ago now no one is ever going to know.
'That day is something that's been in my memory all my life, the same as Bill Dillon, but I remain open-minded about what it was really
'Was it a UFO, was it a balloon?
'We're never going to know.'
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Weather for Bedford
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 12 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: West
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