Damage to British wind turbine sparks UFO speculation (Roundup)

Jan 8, 2009, 12:20 GMT

London - An investigation was under way in Britain Thursday into how a blade fell off a giant wind turbine in an incident that sparked immediate speculation about a possible collision with an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO).

Locals living near the wind farm in Lincolnshire, in the east of England, reported seeing 'strange lights' streaking towards the 60- metre-tall generator during the night on Sunday.

One of its three giant blades, measuring 20 metres in height, came off completely and another was left twisted and severely damaged, reports said.

The severed blade was found on the ground beneath the turbine, a spokeswoman for wind turbine company Ecotricity said Thursday.

'We're conducting a thorough investigation into what happened. This kind of thing has never happened to us before,' she said.

While UFO experts said they were 'excited' by the incident, investigators told the BBC that they were working at other possible theories to explain the 'unique incident.'

These included lightning, ice falling from an aircraft, material fatigue, mechanical failure or even the freezing weather.

Dorothy Willows, who lives near the town of Louth where the incident took place, told the Sun newspaper: 'The lights were moving across the sky towards the wind farm. Then I saw a low flying object. It was skimming across the sky towards the turbines.'

Another witness reported a 'giant explosion in the air.'

John Harrison, a local man, had yet another observation. He reported seeing a 'massive ball of light with tentacles going right down to the ground' over the wind farm.

'It was huge. With the tentacles it looked just like an octopus,' Harrison told the Sun.

But Fraser McLachlan, chief executive of wind turbine insurers GCube, said that although unusual, incidents of this nature were reported about five or six times a year.

'We don't normally see things like aircraft - or UFOs - hitting them. It's usually a mechanical failure that causes the blade to separate from the main hub,' he said.

The recent freezing weather could have been another possible cause of the breakage.

But Russell Kellett of the Flying Saucer Bureau said this was the latest of a number of sightings of 'strange lights' in the north of England reported to since New Year's Day.

'I've been inundated,' he said. 'A local witness told me they had seen what looked like an orangey light in the area near the wind turbine and early on Sunday morning they heard a loud bang. There's no doubt something hit it.'

Turkey farmer Robert Palmer, who drove close to the turbine on Sunday morning, said he saw a bright white light with an orange edge.

'If we are being looked at by other people, by other planets, it would be interesting to find out why they have chosen this part of the country,' he said.

The Ministry of Defence in London said it would not investigate the incident.

'Unless there is evidence of a potential threat, there is no attempt to identify the nature of each sighting,' said a spokesman.