At aproximately 7:45 pm Monday, March 9, 1998, Mr. M. Peast, Mr. D. Matthews and Mrs. J. York were travelling southbound on the M5 Motorway heading towards Exeter, UK.
They were about 39 miles from Exeter when Mr. Matthews spotted what appeared to be a star in the south at a height of about 30,000 feet. As he watched the star, it began to move just like a conventional aircraft with no obvious signs of erratic movement or obvious navigation lights.
Mr. Matthews alerted his companions and asked for their opinion. All were watching and trying to identify the object. As they travelled on, the object began to maneuver around and descended about 3,000 feet, then displayed an array of bright white lights with a red light in the centre or the tail section (it was difficult to tell exactly, as the object was still some distance away).
They began to take down all the information and try to assess what they were actually looking at. Just then the craft descended from a height estimated at 25,000 feet to a height of 5,000 feet within a couple of seconds and executed a vertical lift maneuver which revealed the shape of the craft as triangular. The lights on the craft by this time became much more discernible. The craft displayed three very bright white lights, and in the centre there appeared to be a large section of reddish coloured light that pulsated in intensity.
The craft was about the size of a jumbo jet in their estimation, although it was difficult to give an accurate account of its size.
As the craft climbed, the witnesses said they saw a small yellow and orange glowing ball that dropped from the reddish area of the craft. This glowing ball of light shot off at high speed towards the south and was immediately followed by the triangular shaped craft. The ball seemed about the size of a tennis ball but moved so fast it was hard for the witnesses to estimate its true size.
Both the craft and the ball of light rapidly disappeared from view into the night sky, and all were left with a feeling of wonderment at what they had seen.
The motorway was steady with traffic, and other motorists must have also witnessed these events, because the traffic slowed down and everyone who passed Mr. Matthews and his friends seemed to have their eyes on the sky at that time.
They watched these events for about 15 minutes and, according to the motorway signs, they travelled about 9 miles at an average speed of 50 mph during the sighting.
Original file name: CNI - Triangle over UK
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