Do you remember when... Unidentified flying objects were spotted over Newtownabbey

The East Antrim Times reported sightings of unidentified flying objects at two locations in the borough in November, 1967.

The first allegedly took place near Ballynure, where a local lady said at first she thought it was a star in the night sky, around midnight, before she saw a glow turning red, green and black.

A spokesman for the Air Traffic Control, at Aldergrove, said no aircraft had come under its control at that time.

However, he suggested that it could have been a plane flying from Scotland to Dublin.

“Most of this traffic passes over Larne on its way to Dublin,” he said.

However, two brothers who lived at Mervile Garden Village were not convinced it was an aircraft. A 20-year-old said he had seen a “disc-shaped object with bright lights” across Belfast Lough.

He said, at first, he had thought it was an “ordinary aircraft” because of its red and green lights but it had remained in position, “for too long before climbing high into the sky and vanishing”.

He went on to say that because of their concern, the brothers had decided to ring Aldergrove.

Meanwhile, a “UFO” had also been reported over Sydenham, in Belfast, which had been picked up by radar stations at Aldergrove and Bishopscourt.

A Belfast bound BEA “Vanguard” with 73 passengers on board was also said to have passed within several miles of the object. The captain also reported seeing the lights.

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