Chesham UFO riddle solved
10:54am Tuesday 3rd March 2009 in
THE mystery of UFOs spotted over Chesham has been solved – by the woman who launched them into the sky.
Three bright orange lights which seemed to disappear were spotted flying over Great Hivings by resident Ian Knight on February 14.
But they were actually Chinese glow lanterns released by Joanne Collins at a friend's house in Berkeley Avenue – half a mile away.
Mrs Collins, a 36-year-old childminder from Poles Hill, had bought them to use at son Max's seventh birthday party a few days previously.
Bad weather meant they could not be set off, but Mrs Collins kept them and lit them after a meal with husband Paul at a friend's house.
The mum-of-two said her brother-in-law told her about the mysterious UFO sighting after he spotted a report on it in the Bucks Free Press' sister paper, the South Bucks Star.
She said: “He said, 'Look what's on the front page of The Star'. I couldn't believe it, it was really funny.
“If you didn't know what they were, they might look a bit suspicious.”
She added: “It was the first time I had bought them. I went to a wedding in Henley last year and they had about 50 going off.
“You light a candle at the bottom and the heat makes it rise.
“It was a cold night and the higher it gets, the colder it gets and the candle goes out.
“They go really high, they just go on forever.”
Mrs Collins had bought them over the internet from a company based in Norfolk.
She added: “They are becoming more common. I hadn't really seen them until my cousin had his wedding.”
Comments(29)
SDJones
says...
11:30am Tue 3 Mar 09
Steve Totteridge Hill
says...
11:36am Tue 3 Mar 09
TheT0nemeister wrote:Stick in the mud!
Yes we all knew they where chinese lanterns. I personally think these are a huge fire hazard what if one hand landed on someones head or worse still ended up in a petrol station?
wierdo
says...
12:10pm Tue 3 Mar 09
Clearly they could lead to real UFO's being missed and the planet being invaded by what we mistakenly assumed to be lanterns.
Ban them immediately.
warm-even
TheT0nemeister
says...
12:12pm Tue 3 Mar 09
Steve Totteridge Hill wrote:Steve I think your undermining the seriousness of this. I like to have a good time with friends to but as quoted in the article above "They are becoming more common." this could be the start of something big! Which will get out of hand, burn down homes, nature reserves possibly causing wild bush fires in our forests. Fortunately at the moment its only a few individuals lets hope these things get banned and bring an end to all the UFO (potential arson threat) mystery!
TheT0nemeister wrote: Yes we all knew they where chinese lanterns. I personally think these are a huge fire hazard what if one hand landed on someones head or worse still ended up in a petrol station?Stick in the mud!
Bloke from
says...
12:17pm Tue 3 Mar 09
TheT0nemeister wrote:Or worse still in a pile of that dog poo that is left everywhere!
Yes we all knew they where chinese lanterns. I personally think these are a huge fire hazard what if one hand landed on someones head or worse still ended up in a petrol station?
I do hope that Joanne takes the time to track them down and pick up her litter! Those little metal candle holders can be quite sharp and may hurt someone or something...
MikeyPikey
says...
12:34pm Tue 3 Mar 09
And as for landing in a petrol station.... what one of the many un-covered ones.... they dont come down until they are out anyway - thats how they work.
kids and helium baloons beware.....
wayneo
says...
12:38pm Tue 3 Mar 09
MikeyPikey wrote:It would appear that is what they are suggesting ; it is the typical attitude of ban it in case it might be dangerous as opposed to it is dangerous. Crikey, they'll have stabalisers on motorcycles next.
So are people really suggesting banning a rice paper lantern that has a tea light in it that gets blown out at a mouses cough because its a fire hazzard? and yet everyone will quite happily continue to support the barrage of explosives that get launched into (or near to) the night sky through the months of October and November? i'd sooner see a flock of silent laterns pass overhead....anyday. And as for landing in a petrol station.... what one of the many un-covered ones.... they dont come down until they are out anyway - thats how they work. kids and helium baloons beware.....
Bloke from
says...
12:46pm Tue 3 Mar 09
People who carelessly discard litter in any open place are committing a criminal offence. This includes private as well as public land, and land covered by water.
Prosecutions for littering are brought under section 87 - Offence of Leaving Litter - of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The offence is: "A person is guilty of an offence if he throws down, drops or otherwise deposits any litter in any place to which this section applies and leaves it.”
However, a person convicted of this offence could be liable to a maximum fine of £2,500 (a level 4 offence on the standard scale).
I end my case.
wierdo
says...
12:47pm Tue 3 Mar 09
Do we now have to get up in the morning and start clearing up lanterns from china too?
If they are not to be banned, then surely local govenment should be able to add a tax on them to pay for the clearing up...
cell-next
MikeyPikey
says...
12:51pm Tue 3 Mar 09
Bloke from
says...
1:05pm Tue 3 Mar 09
Having just popped out to get some lunch, my front offside car tyre burst causing me to swerve off the road and into another parked car, finally coming to rest in a lamp post!
When I looked at the tyre, imagine how surprised I was to find a little candle holder wedged in my tyre!
This is now going to cost me a lot to repair!
* This post may contain lies
park-room
Blueberry
says...
2:02pm Tue 3 Mar 09
Now they're trying to make the fact that it wasn't really a story into a story.
It's either some very clever post-structuralist existential joke. Or it's feeble space-filling disguised as journalism.
Ilya Stavinsky
says...
2:14pm Tue 3 Mar 09
They are not interested in discovering truth about UFO esspecially if this truth will undermine their business. For example, about 1 year ago I discovered that AFOs (Aliens Flying Object)live in our Earth's atmosphere and invited all "well-known" Ufologists (journalists, hunters etc.,) to show them AFOs in the night sky anywhere in the world and specifficaly in Manhattan (Columbus Circle, 59st) and in my place. None of them expressed interest to accept my offer. Read my article on internet; "Aliens live in our Earth's atmosphere" and other articles related to this subject.
Blueberry
says...
2:15pm Tue 3 Mar 09
TheT0nemeister
says...
2:29pm Tue 3 Mar 09
wayneo wrote:Don't be silly I would'nt go as far as stabalisers. The simple solution would be to just ban motorcycles.
MikeyPikey wrote: So are people really suggesting banning a rice paper lantern that has a tea light in it that gets blown out at a mouses cough because its a fire hazzard? and yet everyone will quite happily continue to support the barrage of explosives that get launched into (or near to) the night sky through the months of October and November? i'd sooner see a flock of silent laterns pass overhead....anyday. And as for landing in a petrol station.... what one of the many un-covered ones.... they dont come down until they are out anyway - thats how they work. kids and helium baloons beware.....It would appear that is what they are suggesting ; it is the typical attitude of ban it in case it might be dangerous as opposed to it is dangerous. Crikey, they'll have stabalisers on motorcycles next.
Ilya Stavinsky
says...
2:30pm Tue 3 Mar 09
The point is that there is a conflict of interest between finding the truth about UFO and running UFO business.
May be you are right the word "big business" is too strong.
TheT0nemeister
says...
2:47pm Tue 3 Mar 09
MikeyPikey wrote:Look here pal if you set one of these babies off next door to a petrol station, combining wind speed and trajectory it could well fly straight under the cover and across the forecourt causing widespread panic and catastrophe. Suddenly nice paper lantern becomes pretty lethal fire ball!
So are people really suggesting banning a rice paper lantern that has a tea light in it that gets blown out at a mouses cough because its a fire hazzard? and yet everyone will quite happily continue to support the barrage of explosives that get launched into (or near to) the night sky through the months of October and November? i'd sooner see a flock of silent laterns pass overhead....anyday. And as for landing in a petrol station.... what one of the many un-covered ones.... they dont come down until they are out anyway - thats how they work. kids and helium baloons beware.....
Plus ça change...
says...
3:58pm Tue 3 Mar 09
Imagine the view from its biodegradable flying webcam.
Save Wycombe
says...
5:37pm Tue 3 Mar 09
MikeyPikey
says...
6:02pm Tue 3 Mar 09
and to suggest someone would let off a latern in the forecourt of a petrol station is rediculous.
I still hold up that fireworks are far more dangerous, and litter the country far more than a biodegradable rice paper and wax latern.... ok i'll accept that the tin foil candle holder may cause all 8 lanes of the M40 to close while the highways agency remove it.......
RSIAW
says...
6:02pm Tue 3 Mar 09
Save Wycombe wrote:So youve never set off a firework or been to a display?
I can't believe any responsible adult doesn't see problem with lighting a candle and setting it off on a random flight - having no control over where it might go! At least helium is safe.
1000s of people each year are maimed and killed around the world,by fireworks.As far as i know,there have not been too many from chinese lantern.Maybe that tells you something.
Blueberry
says...
8:31pm Tue 3 Mar 09
But without knowing the relative numbers it's impossible to know the relative risks.
TheT0nemeister
says...
8:33am Wed 4 Mar 09
RSIAW wrote:The issue here is not FireWorks its chinese laterns! Get with the script! The shear increase in chinese latern related cases recently reported in the BFP is startling. This is just an accident waiting to happen.
Save Wycombe wrote: I can't believe any responsible adult doesn't see problem with lighting a candle and setting it off on a random flight - having no control over where it might go! At least helium is safe.So youve never set off a firework or been to a display? 1000s of people each year are maimed and killed around the world,by fireworks.As far as i know,there have not been too many from chinese lantern.Maybe that tells you something.
Blueberry
says...
8:56am Wed 4 Mar 09
The main risk of these lanterns is silly stories about UFOs.
TheT0nemeister
says...
9:26am Wed 4 Mar 09
Blueberry wrote:Its not just the case of the floating bonfire this is only one harard. These things could quite easily get court up in a plane engine taking off from booker airfield (technically known as a Lantern Strike) causing the pilot to ditch the plane in the Wye river.
As has already been poited out, as long as the candle is lit, the lantern floats; it only sinks when it goes out (or goes out when it sinks), so it's not going to set anything alight. The main risk of these lanterns is silly stories about UFOs.
Steve Totteridge Hill
says...
12:59pm Wed 4 Mar 09
TheT0nemeister wrote:You really have no idea do you.
Blueberry wrote: As has already been poited out, as long as the candle is lit, the lantern floats; it only sinks when it goes out (or goes out when it sinks), so it's not going to set anything alight. The main risk of these lanterns is silly stories about UFOs.Its not just the case of the floating bonfire this is only one harard. These things could quite easily get court up in a plane engine taking off from booker airfield (technically known as a Lantern Strike) causing the pilot to ditch the plane in the Wye river.
The little flame heats the air up and the balloon goes up! After about 3 minutes (100's of feet in the air) it runs out of fuel (goes out) and drifts back down to earth.
There's more danger from the real balloonists that carry a great more fuel!
TheT0nemeister
says...
1:29pm Wed 4 Mar 09
Blueberry
says...
1:36pm Wed 4 Mar 09
And if there's such a cold wind, it's unlikely there would be many windows open.
There are far more dangerous things to worry about: crossing the road, being a smoker etc etc
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TheT0nemeister says...
11:13am Tue 3 Mar 09