1173

Exact date in October not known - ignore date in panel.

Dusk. About 7-7.30 pm.

Neil, in his 40s who lives in Gabalfa, was at home fixing his Dad's friend's scooter and decided to take it for a test run, and had a feeling to go to Western Avenue, not far away from where he lives. He stops at the junction with Aberporth Road, located just south-west of the Gabalfa flyover/interchange.

He has an urge to look to his right (south) and immediately sees an orange sphere moving towards him from the direction of the River Taff and Bute Park. He described it as an orange ball, the colour of a setting sun. After 5 or 6 seconds, contemplated getting his phone out but was so in awe as he realised, "It's f...ing real!" that he just stood and watched. It was about the size of a car as it approached and passed his location, heading along Western Avenue towards the east, just a couple of feet above the lamp posts. There was no sound, and strangely there was no sound of traffic either, as there seemed to be no cars on what is normally a busy road. He described a yellow bit at the top with a black line which went around it, just a couple of inches below the top. The outside edge was "perfect", a crisp edge.

It was moving at a speed of about 20 mph and as the road went up the hill, it too followed the contour, keeping the same height above the lamp posts, and passing over the railway bridge on the way. It climbed up above the fly-over of the Gabalfa interchange and then turned right to head off towards Maindy and Cathays area. So it actually had performed an arch coming from the south, heading north-east then going south-east. After it had gone, he became aware of traffic passing and all back to normal.

Neil said that when it he got home his dad told him off for going out on the scooter, which wasn't his, for so long. He was under the impression that he had been only gone for 5 minutes, but in actual fact he'd been out for about half an hour.

Source: SUFON Files: telephone interview by Emlyn Williams 1 December 2021.