When I saw that the article about UFOs on the front page of the last week’s Daily Star Sunday newspaper I was not surprised that it featured my old mate Russ Kellett.

He was a regular contact during my time in Scarborough and a great source of stories on that very subject.

He said he had been abducted by aliens, was a UFO investigator, had written books on the subject and organised regular sky watch events to search for new sightings – the area was even named as a hotspot for such incidents.

He even organised a UFO conference one year at Scarborough Spa with a number of guest speakers.

Stories on UFO sightings were always popular with readers and here is just a small selection of the articles that we worked on together during that time.

I was even interviewed for TV by a reporter/presenter who was actually from Roswell in the USA which was more famous for the infamous crash site.

The truth is out there

SCARBOROUGH could soon have its very own collection of X Files after the latest sighting of a UFO in Newby.

Witnesses saw a white glowing sphere above houses, travelling slowly in an easterly direction before disappearing into a sea fret.

One witness, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the ball glowed red when it was in the fog and he estimated it as being half the size of an average house.

He looked at the object through binoculars and saw three black rods coming from it at angles. The witness said it flew fairly low, below cloud level, but had no flashing lights and was silent.

The incident happened at around 10.15pm last Tuesday just days before the latest Hollywood blockbuster The X Files: I Want to Believe opened in the UK.

The film is the second spin-off from the successful TV series to hit the big screen, reuniting David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully as they investigate unexplained abductions.

Filey-based UFO hunter, Russ Kellett, said the Scarborough area has had a lot of recorded sightings over the years and he had recently heard of one from 1959 at Staxton Wold.

He said: “A chap was coming home and he saw a gold flying saucer late at night. He pulled up to have a look at it at the side of the road. He daren’t tell anybody about it at the time.”

He added he was hoping the man would tell people about his experience at one of his regular UFO meetings.

Mr Kellett, 45, said he spotted a white light about half an hour after the Newby sighting but thought his sighting might have been the International Space Station.

He said: “We get a lot of people that have said they wouldn’t ring in with what they have seen. I have seen stuff and know what I have seen isn’t an aircraft. The Newby sighting must have been fairly close and it must have been a big object.”

Mr Kellett first became interested in the subject after experienced a “close encounter” in West Yorkshire in 1988 when he was waiting at a level crossing and was hit by a beam of light from above.

He thought nothing more of the event until the next day at work when people asked if he had seen himself in the mirror – his face and hands were completely sunburned.

And he has recently been given a lump of melted metal which he said was recovered from a crashed UFO in Wales 34 years ago.

The shiny blob is similar to aluminium but heavier and was discovered in the Berwyn Mountains after reports of a spaceship crashing to earth.

At the time there were reports of a massive explosion which shook nearby houses on January 23, 1974, and witnesses reported military personnel ordering people out of the area.

He said: “I have all sorts of information about a UFO operation that was going on between the late 60s until the 80s. I also have the locations of UFOs that had been intercepted and destroyed as well.”

From the Scarborough Evening News on Tuesday, August 5, 2008.

Students report UFO above castle

MORE strange objects have been spotted in the sky over Scarborough.

Several people contacted the Evening News with reports after earlier this week we published an article detailing recent unexplained sightings.

Lecturer Pat Argent said two groups of his foreign exchange students spotted an unexplained flying object (UFO) above Scarborough Castle at 9.45pm on Tuesday.

He said one group had been at the top of the steps at the side of the Grand Hotel and the others were sitting on the beach at the time of the sighting and they all saw it.

“It was like a big fireball. It started to go up from the castle area and it was moving up in the sky with a straight trajectory.

“After a few minutes it stopped and it became fixed for around five minutes. Then it disappeared,” he said.

Mr Argent said he saw a UFO in November 2007 and the Spanish students had been sceptical – but now they were convinced about them after witnessing it for themselves.

The students who saw the object were Sergio Guindas Garcia, Ana Maria Checa, Sanchez-Oro, Guillermo Bautista Ruiz, Alvaro Lozano Carneros, Carlos Remiro Hernandez, Tomas Rodriguez Huescar and an unknown French student.

And 61-year-old Carol Buxton said she also spotted a yellow ball above the houses in Wain Close in Eastfield on Sunday at about 10pm.

She said it had a number of red lines extending from the ball and was travelling at about 30mph in an easterly direction. She said: “My daughter, Katie Barker, said ‘Look at that in the sky’ and we all got up to have a look. It was just above the houses. It was going quite slowly.”

She added that it could not have been a helicopter because there was no noise and they watched it for three or four minutes before it just disappeared.

There was also a spate of sightings in the Filey area with witnesses reporting bright orange lights – and even flying saucers.

Earlier this month, holidaymaker Barry Liles reported a large white object about 50ft above the ground in Muston.

Russ Kellett, of Filey, who has recently been appointed as the vice chairman of the British Flying Saucer Bureau, said he had received a lot of reports lately including one from a woman who lives in Hunmanby.

He said: “On Sunday night at about 11pm she said she saw three orange lights in formation and a red light that seemed to be following behind.

“They came over near Hunmanby then went out across Primrose Valley and when they got out there they went north up the coast.”

He said the same woman claimed to have seen a “flying saucer” land in a field near her home about three weeks ago. “She said it had a lot of fairy lights round it in all different colours.”

From the Scarborough Evening News on Saturday, August 22, 2009.

Aliens with a taste for fish and chips

Town’s first UFO conference to take place at Spa

NEW evidence about the Silpho Saucer hoax in the 1950s and video footage of an unidentified flying object are two highlights of Scarborough’s first UFO conference.

Enthusiasts from across the country are expected to flock to the Spa Complex at the end of the month to hear talks from a number of experts from as far afield as the United States of America.

The news follows several sightings in the area at the end of last month.

The conference organiser, Filey-based UFO investigator Russ Kellett, said Scarborough was still a popular area for UFO reports. “It must be the sea air and the fish and chips,” he added.

The objects were spotted in the sky over Barrowcliff, Scalby and Tanghill in York between 9pm and 10.30pm on Saturday September 26.

In Scalby, at about 9.15pm, a family spotted an orange object which was moving very slowly, at low altitude and silently.

The Barrowcliff sighting was 15 minutes later and similar to the Scalby object, while a dog walker witnessed a UFO in Tanghill, York, at about 10.30pm.

Mr Kellett said: “If the two objects seen in Scarborough were the same as the one seen in York, it would make the object’s speed about 45 miles an hour.

“There do not seem to be any navigation lights on the craft and the object seems too big to be a Chinese lantern – they only last about 20 minutes.”

Harry Challenger, the editor of the Flying Saucer Review magazine, will be the opening speaker and he will unveil new evidence about the notorious Silpho Saucer, which was allegedly discovered on moors near the village in November 1957.

Mr Kellett said: “He will talk about his time with the magazine and some of the success that they have had over the years. He will also talk a little bit about the Silpho Saucer and he has some new information.

“There was something very odd about it – if it was a hoax, the metal it was made from was crystalline, not the normal structure.”

The saucer-shaped object was discovered on November 21, 1957, between the villages of Silpho and Hackness. It measured 18 inches in diameter and weighed 35lb. When it was opened, there were 17 thin copper sheets covered in strange hieroglyphics.

The find was reported in the Scarborough Evening News, on December 9, when the headline proclaimed “Scarborough has had a flying saucer – a real copper-bottomed one”.

Rumours circulated of armed strangers combing the moors, offers of large amounts of cash, and messages thrown from passing cars.

Mr Kellett said he would be speaking at the conference on both days when will relate his experiences of alien contact which directly led to his involvement in the investigation of unexplained phenomena.

“I’m going to be presenting some of the most compelling video footage that has been seen – if a picture speaks 1000 words, then a moving picture speaks 10,000 words,” he said.

He added that the footage would include that of an unidentified object at Oliver’s Mount earlier this year.

He said: “We’ve looked at all the possibilities, including vehicles and tractors, and I’m still baffled by it – it was there and then it disappeared.”

Other speakers will include Glen Steckling, the head of the American-based Adamski Foundation, an abduction agony aunt, an animal mutilation expert and Win Keech, who will show footage of the formation of a crop circle in Wiltshire – possibly the only recorded evidence of such an event.

Mr Kellett said he was pleased with the response from interested members of the public and added that he was hoping to stage a larger UFO festival in the area next year.

● The conference will be held in the Spa’s promenade and mezzanine bar on Thursday October 29 and Friday October 30, between 6pm and 11pm on both days.

From the Scarborough Evening News on Tuesday, October 13, 2009.

UFO conference achieves lift-off

ORGANISERS of Scarborough’s first UFO conference are hoping to stage the event again next year after a better than expected attendance.

Flying Saucers have Landed was held at the Spa Complex last Thursday and Friday and attracted enthusiasts from across the country.

Russ Kellett, a Filey-based UFO investigator and the conference organiser, was hoping for 50 people each day and there were almost 50 on the first day and just over 60 on the second.

“It was fantastic having everyone over to Scarborough. There were a few technical problems but the feedback has been very positive. We’ve learned from experience – don’t leave anything to chance.”

Mr Kellett said he had received emails from several people who were at the event from as far afield as London, Derby, Norwich, Liverpool, Newcastle and Scotland.

During the conference members of the audience were invited to tell of their experiences, and Mr Kellett said: “Why aren’t these people coming forward to the media? It could be because they are scared stiff.”

He added that there had been a very strong reaction from members of the audience when he showed video footage including what he believed to be an alien dogfight.

He said: “One woman nearly passed out and people were shouting ‘it’s attacking’.”

As well as Mr Kellett speakers at the conference included Glenn Steckling, co-ordinator of the American-based George Adamski Foundation, Harry Challenger, the sixth editor of the Flying Saucer Review, an abduction agony aunt, an animal mutilation expert and Win Keech, who showed footage of the formation of a crop circle in Wiltshire – possibly the only recorded evidence of such an event.

Mr Kellett initially hoped to organise a larger UFO festival next year but is now hoping to keep the event similar to this year.

“After seeing just how difficult it is rather than going bigger I think I will stick to the same event,” he said.

“We’d love to do it again but the festival is a bit too ambitious and I think we will stick to another conference rather than a festival.

“I want it to be the best conference and it’ll take a few years to get a festival organised.”

Mr Kellett wants more local people to speak at next year’s event. He said: “We are getting celebrities from around the world but we must have people from this area first and foremost.”

From the Scarborough Evening News on Thursday, November 5, 2009.

Actor Danny in town to make film on UFOs

AN ACTOR normally associated with Cockney hardmen and horror movie roles has filmed part of his latest documentary in the Scarborough area.

Danny Dyer spent time in July filming the BBC3 programme – called I Believe – in Filey with UFO investigator Russ Kellett.

The star has revealed that he had previously spotted an unidentified flying object and admitted that the experience freaked him out.

Mr Kellett said: “He was like somebody that I’d known for years. We all felt very comfortable around him and my sister said what a lovely lad he was. He came across exactly as he does in films – he was the same guy that I’ve watched in films and he was sat in my house.”

He added that the actor had travelled as far as America to interview people for the documentary.

“He came here and he saw our evidence. He came here and had a damn good time – that can only be good,” he said.

Local investigator, and former pilot, Win Keech also took part in the making of the documentary.

He recently was a guest speaker at Scarborough’s first ever UFO conference and has filmed video footage of the formation of a crop circle in Wiltshire, possibly the only recorded evidence of such an event.

During the filming Mr Dyer heard about Mr Kellett’s close encounter near Bradford in 1988 – where he saw strange red lights at a level crossing – and looked at video footage shot by local UFO investigators.

He added that the actor seemed genuinely interested in the subject. “We all went out to a location where we had videoed some of the UFOs. Danny seemed to be amazed that we filmed the object so close to us. It was a pleasure having him here.”

Last week it was reported that Mr Dyer had an out-of-this-world experience while filming the new documentary.

He said: “I saw one, yeah. People think I’m a complete lunatic now but I did see something a bit mad. I went to America, to a hippie commune and had to get a bit spiritual.

“I went to meet some people who have been abducted and things like that, and they told me some really mad things. I think you have got to open your mind a little bit.

“I just want to believe that there are things out there. I did see something. It wasn’t a plane, it wasn’t a helicopter, it just looked like a massive star going across the sky. But it freaked me right out.”

His previous TV documentaries have included The Real Football Factories and Danny Dyer’s Deadliest Men.

And his film roles have included parts in movies such as The Football Factory, Severance, Outlaw, Doghouse and Dead Man Running – where his co-star is rapper 50 Cent.

Mr Kellett said: “He has worked with 50 Cent and now he has been to Filey to work with £1!”

From the Scarborough Evening News on Tuesday, November 17, 2009.