Leicester triangle UFO, finding the 3 helicopters...

(Apologies if this is discussed elsewhere. I did look but couldn't find anything.)

More UFO sightings reported in Leicestershire as residents describe 'triangular object' in sky (27th February 2019)

'...on the Leicestershire Live Facebook Page, David Haith noted "a huge triangular UFO with lights on each corner was witnessed slowly and silently gliding through Leicester" on the evening of 24 February (last Sunday).

He explained: "The UFO was seen by 47-year-old commercial energy consultant Nigel Bailey, who posted details on Facebook."

On the Facebook post, Nigel wrote "Sorry this isn't related to this post but I've just seen a huge triangle-shaped aircraft flying slowly over Leicester.

"I caught up with it in the car but lost it. I saw three helicopters flying around it at a higher altitude than the police helicopter flies around it.

"The triangle was so low that I could make out the shape and the three lights at each corner and it had strobes flashing down the sides.

"It was silent!"

My query is: assuming that this happened at least somewhat as suggested (right place, time, etc.), and assuming the helicopters involved were carrying transponders, is it possible to go back in time on any flight tracking sites to see which, if any, aircraft were airborne around Leicester on the evening of 24.2.2019?

(I assume that, in peacetime, over the UK, RAF, coastguard, police and private helicopters must all carry transponders, but I'm not certain.)

I looked on one popular site but its data seems to only go back 1 year. Another seemed to want the user to know the tail number of the craft and search on that basis, but here that's impossible.

Hence, does anyone know if a search for aircraft movements in the way suggested/required is possible?

Thanks
 
Yes that is possible on FlightRadar24 if you have a Business subscription as you need more than 1 year of playback (unfortunately I only have Gold subscription!). It offers 3 years of playback data.

You can register for a Business account (at $499 per year), and then cancel it within 7 days without charge. This would give you access to 3 years of playback data for 1 week for free. (not that I've ever done this :| honest.)
 
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She said: "Me and my grandson were sitting on the sofa and saw what looked like a star in the sky, but it was flashing different colours so we went outside for a better look.
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I have very little time right now, but everything I've seen in the articles and videos points to a scintillating star (or several such), with perhaps some planets thrown in. Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are prominent in the SW at twilight with Vega and Altair nearby.

But this seems like a better match with Rigel, Procyon and Sirius in the SE, in a triangle shape a bit later in the evening; with Sirius being the prime suspect.

I suggest to start with the astronomical body notion, and do a more detailed analysis; matching up the times and directions with the eyewitness descriptions.
 
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Whilst others are looking for flight data and such, I thought I'd try to parse out exactly who said what. The story is credited to a Tess Rushin, presumably a reporter at LeicestershireLive. It seems to start with Mr. David Haith on Facebook.

Meanwhile, on the Leicestershire Live Facebook Page, David Haith noted "a huge triangular UFO with lights on each corner was witnessed slowly and silently gliding through Leicester" on the evening of 24 February (last Sunday).
He explained: "The UFO was seen by 47-year-old commercial energy consultant Nigel Bailey, who posted details on Facebook."
On the Facebook post, Nigel wrote "Sorry this isn't related to this post but I've just seen a huge triangle-shaped aircraft flying slowly over Leicester.
Content from External Source

This is a little confusing. It appears that David is on the Leicestershire Live FB(LLFB) page and is telling people about a separate(?) FB post that Nigel wrote. So I take this as David did NOT see the UFO, only Nigel did.

It's not clear where Nigel made his original post, but from the wording, Sorry this isn't related to this post, it sounds like he chimed in, or went off topic, while replying to some other post.

Did David copy and paste the original Nigel post when he made his post on the LLFB page or is he just retelling it?

Then this completes Nigel's supposed post:

"I caught up with it in the car but lost it. I saw three helicopters flying around it at a higher altitude than the police helicopter flies around it.

"The triangle was so low that I could make out the shape and the three lights at each corner and it had strobes flashing down the sides.

"It was silent!"
Content from External Source
Next we get this more detailed account of the encounter, but note this is not from Nigel directly, rather from David who "got in touch with Nigel". So this is at some point after Nigel had made his original post somewhere on FB? Got in touch how, text, at the pub on FB? (Bold by me)

David got in touch with Nigel, who explained: "I had just come out of the front door around 7.15pm to go to pick up my wife who works at Glenfield General Hospital.

"I looked up and saw some strange strobe lighting in the sky.

"It wasn't the height of the normal commercial aircraft going over - nowhere near that height, more the height of helicopters as they’re flying over."

He said that he could easily make out in the clear night sky a triangular shape with lights on each corner.

He added that there were red and green strobe lights splashing down the side.

"It was far too big to be a drone – it looked at least four times the size of helicopters that fly over," the witness continued.

"It looked a foot wide at arm's length – probably no more than 5,000 feet up.

"It was travelling west towards the motorway.

David noted: "Nigel watched the craft moving across the sky for two minutes before it vanished behind a block of flats , so he moved into a car parking area near his home where he followed it again for three minutes before it also was obscured by houses.

"It was while in the car park that he spotted a helicopter flying towards the scene.

"He thought the sighting was over so drove off in his car for the five-minute journey to collect his wife from Glenfield General Hospital but spotted it again from his car as he drove into the hospital car park, where he then counted three helicopters.
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There's some more details that may be useful in tracking airliners or helicopters and then Tess Rushin ends the story with this:

Have you seen anything unusual in the skies over the past few nights? Send your pictures and videos to newsdesk@leicestermercury.co.uk
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What's important, I think, is that all of this is David relaying Nigel's account to Tess.

It's unclear where Nigel originally posted about his encounter, if he did at all.

It's unclear what David posted on the LLFB page: (Bold by me)

David Haith noted "a huge triangular UFO with lights on each corner was witnessed slowly and silently gliding through Leicester" on the evening of 24 February (last Sunday).
He explained: "The UFO was seen by 47-year-old commercial energy consultant Nigel Bailey, who posted details on Facebook."
Content from External Source
All above EC from: https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/...ufo-sightings-reported-leicestershire-2590859

He explained this on FB? Or did he only post the that a UFO was seen? Then the explanation about Nigel Bailey was told to Tess Rushin?

At the very least, most of it appears to second hand. Nigel's original FB post may exist but it's unclear.

We have complete names, times and dates, but Tess Rushin didn't seem interested in trying to talk to Nigel himself, content to take David's word for it and then solicit more UFO stuff.

Not to say the story isn't real, just that we have very little, if any, eyewitness accounting to go on. Maybe David made the whole thing up.

[Edit] Something else that occurred to me just as I hit the post button. Here is David's version of Nigel's version of the rest of the encounter: (Bold by me)

David got in touch with Nigel, who explained: "I had just come out of the front door around 7.15pm to go to pick up my wife who works at Glenfield General Hospital.

He said that he could easily make out in the clear night sky a triangular shape with lights on each corner.


David noted: "Nigel watched the craft moving across the sky for two minutes before it vanished behind a block of flats , so he moved into a car parking area near his home where he followed it again for three minutes before it also was obscured by houses.

"It was while in the car park that he spotted a helicopter flying towards the scene.

"He thought the sighting was over so drove off in his car for the five-minute journey to collect his wife from Glenfield General Hospital but spotted it again from his car as he drove into the hospital car park, where he then counted three helicopters.

"He watched the triangle for two minutes flying over the hospital before it again vanished behind buildings.

Nigel picked up his wife Emma and immediately told her: “'I think I’ve just seen a UFO' and, as we were coming out, I pointed out one of the helicopters that was still flying around.”
Content from External Source
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/...ufo-sightings-reported-leicestershire-2590859

Note the encounter lasts for ~15 minutes, is clearly visible in the sky and is seen at multiple points around town. And yet, Nigel seems to be the only one that sees it.
 
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Maybe. He's in the UK, though in Bournemouth quite a ways from the events, and he's into this stuff.

I don't do Twitter, so I'll try to post or quote how he describes himself and his 3 latest post:


Retired journalist fascinated by people and world events. Special interest in anomalous phenomena.

Thousands who died from Covid could have been saved with effective drug treatments, Dr Peter A McCullough told Joe Rogan It was intentional "to create acceptance for and then promote mass vaccination." https://open.spotify.com/episode/0aZte37vtFTkYT7b0b04Qz?si=sw6hMq_8Slawom1hdPDn8g&nd=1… Fuller quote: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hMwu66PxYGUF9ZYd-wZo-3JTq5AhSOL7A33Zh9djUyM/edit?usp=sharing…
@MaajidNawaz

Journo Ross Coulthart believes the US Govt should keep UFO tech secret. "You don't want technology like this to fall into the wrong hands. I don't want a raving lunatic like Vladimir Putin or President Xi of China to be in control of this"

Transcript of podcast dialogue between Dr Garry Nolan, Jesse Michaels and Dr Hal Puthoff about Physiological Effects of UFOs on Humans.
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https://mobile.twitter.com/wotzitt

Again, I apologize for not being able to post a Twitter post, but you get the idea.
1. Vaccines are dangerous.
2. The US government has secret UFO tech.
3. Hal Putoff

Again, doesn't mean it didn't happened, just this guy is into UFOlogy and sounds like the kind of guy that would promote a UFO encounter.

Couldn't seem to find a "Nigel Bailey" from Leicester on Facebook, but that doesn't mean a lot.
 
I couldn't find a more suitable "David Haith" and the surname doesn't seem to be that common. Perhaps a fit. We'll see. I've tried to contact him on Twitter.

Elsewhere, I found that consultant Nigel Bailey works/worked here: https://rocketreach.co/nigel-bailey-email_16912247

Lastly, I think I have found the original post:
Source: https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10218618302987573&id=1197246299&set=a.1472578453248&source=48

Nice work bandit! So the plot thickens. It appears that Nigel's original post was on Colin Andrews FB page. The noted Crop circle guy was discussed recently here on Metabunk:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/in...orb-near-crop-circle.12153/page-2#post-261962

Unfortunately, when I go to the link, it wont let me copy and paste, so I'm screen shotting as best I can. Here is the part about Nigel posting to Colin's FB page and that's where David learns about it. Note that he says it looks like a "typical TR-3B".

1639535641974.png

So our David is messaging with Colin when Nigel posted his encounter. All of this detail was left of the original story.

1639535928415.png
Also left out of the original story, is that Nigel thinks he saw a UFO in his school days and then again while sitting in traffic. He thought about filming this latest one, but was , you know, just to gobsmacked :

1639536188588.png

Finely, we have David describing the aforementioned TR3-B:

1639536740390.png
So what we have is:

Nigel, who thinks he's seen UFOs in the past describing what he considers might be a UFO but also happens to look like a "typical" non-existent mercury-nuclear powered anti-gravity aircraft.

He posts his sighting to the FB page of noted Crop Circle crank Colin Andrews.

Who happens to be IMing with UFOlogist David Haith.

Now it gets fuzzy.

Who then posted about it on the LLFB page.(?)

And then talked to Tess Rushin about it all.

Sans any mention of Colin Andrews, the "typical" secret aircraft and Nigel's previous encounter.

Did I miss anything?
 
I have a free Business account on FlightRadar24, which I get for running an ADS-B node on Raspberry Pi. I've done this for years.

Feb 24, 2019. Time is around 7:15 (19:15 UTC as UK, not summer time), location is Glenfield, just west of Leicester.

Two planes overhead at 7:11 2021-12-14_15-13-20.jpg

Passing by at around 7:17 is this 777, landing at the East Midland airport, which did an interesting left turn then right 180. Large plane, quite low, banking. Might look like a triangle.
2021-12-14_15-16-02.jpg
 
I have a free Business account on FlightRadar24...

Feb 24, 2019. Time is around 7:15 (19:15 UTC as UK, not summer time), location is Glenfield, just west of Leicester.

Two planes overhead at 7:11 2021-12-14_15-13-20.jpg

Passing by at around 7:17 is this 777, landing at the East Midland airport, which did an interesting left turn then right 180. Large plane, quite low, banking. Might look like a triangle.

Thanks, Mick.

While that might explain the triangle, what does anyone make of the suggestion that 3 helicopters were present, though?

If none are showing on Flight Radar 24 (tracked by transponder) as per Mick's screenshots, and assuming that 3 helicopters really were in the air over Leicester in approx. the same location, might this indicate they were... police? ...air ambulance? ...military? ...something else? Do police and other state-operated helicopters ordinarily appear on there?

I understand that NATS is not subject to FOIA, so we can't get data from them.
 
Thanks, Mick.

While that might explain the triangle, what does anyone make of the suggestion that 3 helicopters were present, though?

If none are showing on Flight Radar 24 (tracked by transponder) as per Mick's screenshots, and assuming that 3 helicopters really were in the air over Leicester in approx. the same location, might this indicate they were... police? ...air ambulance? ...military? ...something else? Do police and other state-operated helicopters ordinarily appear on there?

I understand that NATS is not subject to FOIA, so we can't get data from them.

Military etc aircraft often do not show up on FR24

The entire thing could be made up, all we have is retelling of a third hand account from someone known to be into ufology. Maybe he saw this plane thought he saw some helicopters as well, maybe the helicopters were actually lights that were just part of the same plane and the estimate of the size was off, maybe he just made it all up. There's no way to know.
 
Passing by at around 7:17 is this 777, landing at the East Midland airport, which did an interesting left turn then right 180. Large plane, quite low, banking. Might look like a triangle.

Sounds familiar.Boeing 777s have white nav lights on them and are regularly mistaken as 'black triangles' on Reddit/UFOs. I live under a regular 777 route (LHR- Tokyo) and see them most evenings - they do have a triangle appearance when in a dark sky.

1639555337920.png
 
Yes, that one does. It was the best image I could find of a 777 at night with lights on. (its not one of mine). The Tail and Wing Lights form the triangle.
 
So Mick found a large 777 heading west at the right time and in the right place, and Nigel basically describes and airliner, complete with red and green strobes.

1639584652865.png

Nigel even says it's likely terrestrial, even if it's top secret and possibly non-existent, but he talks himself out of it being an airliner because of the size and speed compared to other airliners he's seen.

1639585403461.png1639585446787.png
But what he and his wife see is something completely different. A highflying airliner passing overhead, not something making an approach.

Just personal experience last week waiting at Sacramento International SMF, the vast majority of flights are 737s. So when FedEx's big 'ol DC10 comes in, it looks really big and slow. If Midlands airport is any thing like Sacramento, then a 777 lumbering in would look huge.

As big as a Boeing 737
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There are many changes from the GE90 engine, but it’s the size that is the most obvious difference. This is the largest engine ever on a commercial aircraft. At 13 feet in diameter, it is wider than the fuselage of the Boeing 737. It will make quite a sight when it starts appearing next to smaller aircraft at airports.
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https://simpleflying.com/big-engines/

The GE90 is not yet installed on 777, but the current engines are some of the biggest around.

Lastly, it's somewhat hard to tell, but my reading says that Nigel experienced this whole thing from inside his car, so that would answer the silence issue.

Take a believer,

1639586463041.png

who unexpectedly sees a larger than normal plane lining up for an approach and shares it with a UFOlogist and a Crop Circle expert on Facebook and finely pass it along to a lazy reporter looking for click-bait, maybe this is what you get.

All screen shots from:

Source: https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10218618302987573&id=1197246299&set=a.1472578453248&source=48
 
The classic case of people thinking that they will get an decent, honest investigation by passing sighting details to a UFO "expert"
 
H
I have a free Business account on FlightRadar24, which I get for running an ADS-B node on Raspberry Pi. I've done this for years.

Feb 24, 2019. Time is around 7:15 (19:15 UTC as UK, not summer time), location is Glenfield, just west of Leicester.

Two planes overhead at 7:11 2021-12-14_15-13-20.jpg

Passing by at around 7:17 is this 777, landing at the East Midland airport, which did an interesting left turn then right 180. Large plane, quite low, banking. Might look like a triangle.
2021-12-14_15-16-02.jpg
Hi Mick,
I am interested in this case too. Can you do me a favour with the Business account, i would be extremely grateful.
Can you check if a police helicopter was dispatched from Husbands Bosworth npas base (just south of Leicester) between 7.40-7.50pm (same date) and show its flight path (like above). Thank you.
 
Military etc aircraft often do not show up on FR24

The entire thing could be made up, all we have is retelling of a third hand account from someone known to be into ufology. Maybe he saw this plane thought he saw some helicopters as well, maybe the helicopters were actually lights that were just part of the same plane and the estimate of the size was off, maybe he just made it all up. There's no way to know.
Thanks re: the fact about military craft not showing up on FR24.
 
Just FYI, I found David Haith online. He was very polite and helpful. He linked me to Nigel Bailey online and I messaged him. I explained my interest in the case and he replied. He happily spoke to me for a few minutes, I said that others had theorised the 777 double-turn hypothesis, but he said it, 'absolutely wasn't a standard aircraft.' I then very politely asked if he'd speak to me on the phone, he said no... and then he blocked me.
 
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There's quite a bit of history of triangle sightings on the West side of Leicester and around the A5/Fosse Way area particularly (just happens to be where I live as well) - or is it just a hot spot of people "interested" in triangle sightings that creates the extra reports......
 
H

Hi Mick,
I am interested in this case too. Can you do me a favour with the Business account, i would be extremely grateful.
Can you check if a police helicopter was dispatched from Husbands Bosworth npas base (just south of Leicester) between 7.40-7.50pm (same date) and show its flight path (like above). Thank you.
A helicopter passed by at 19:50, but from Norfolk, by the Aviation museum. It flew straight past. No police helicopters showed up.

2021-12-16_16-45-43.jpg


Google Earth file attached
 

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A helicopter passed by at 19:50, but from Norfolk, by the Aviation museum. It flew straight past. No police helicopters showed up.

2021-12-16_16-45-43.jpg


Google Earth file attached
Thanks Mick.
I thought i might be able to explain the police helicopter and its "flying around". After a few back and forth.
Leicester shire police said (see attached) thanks again
 

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