This website has stored cookies to help the work better. If you're not familiar with Cookies, please check more details in the link.
BUFORA
The British UFO Research Association
Investigations & Research since 1962
UFO Photographic Analysis Project 
Written by Mark Easen
I have an interest in all areas relating to UFOs and related phenomena, and I am particularly focused in seeking to explore and understand the various historical and current UFO related events by separating the facts from fiction in the complex areas of UFO investigation and research.
As an Investigations Coordinator for BUFORA, I follow up some of the sighting reports submitted to us. A majority of the objects reported (usually airborne) that may initially appear to be unidentified, do have a perfectly rational explanation, as there are so many objects and lights in the sky that can appear strange or unknown to the public. The investigator will analyse all factual information, as provided by the witness together with any other pertinent information from other sources, before attempting to reach any definitive evaluation or probable cause for the ‘UFO’. Once a comprehensive investigation has been conducted by an accredited investigator, who has a broad working knowledge of the many objects and lights in the sky that are responsible for these reports, then an evaluation will be sent to the witness.
It is generally agreed amongst experienced and researchers worldwide that 95-98% of all UFO sighting reports have a perfectly rational explanation and upon investigation become Identified Flying Objects (IFOs).
In addition to coordinating and conducting investigations, I offer my opinion relating to photographic imagery received by BUFORA. These images come in the form of digital images, photographic prints, print film negatives, slides or video clips.
It is often the case that people may capture a photograph without noticing anything unusual, but upon processing, printing or viewing the image on a computer screen, an anomalous object is observed somewhere within the image. On occasion a spurious object may have been seen with the naked eye, but when the resulting photograph is viewed, the object bears no resemblance to the object observed with the naked eye.
There are many, sometimes complex, reasons why this occurs and all possibilities must be evaluated. In my experience, it is vital to assess how a camera’s settings can affect a photograph and these have to be considered. A reasonable technical knowledge of photography, together with the information contained with the completed sighting report form, will allow an objective and credible evaluation for the ‘UFO’ photograph. For more detailed information please see my ‘Photographic Analysis’ article on the BUFORA website.
I also assist with tutoring the Investigators Training Course (ITC). The ITC has six modules plus an examination and gives a fundamental understanding of what can be observed and misidentified in the sky, in addition to directives on photographic sightings and perceived high strangeness cases. Upon completing the ITC an investigator then goes on to evaluate two sighting reports to a high standard and they will then be upgraded to an Accredited Investigator for BUFORA.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 2023: BUFORA EVALUATION OF OBJECT PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE SKY OVER CASTLEMARTIN ARMY BASE.
We had an interesting enquiry the other day. Took a fair bit of logical thinking & digging to get to the bottom of this one. I thought our readers might be interested in taking a look at the enquiry and our subsequent evaluation below?
Good day,
I
think that this may be one for Mark Easen. I recently filled out one of
your on-line enquiry forms about an object in the sky outside Merrion camp
at Castlemartin, west Wales. Briefly, going to street view on Google
maps or postcode SA71 5EB (outside the
camp) and “looking” up the road, a strange object can be seen. You can
follow
the road to the next crossroads keeping it in
sight, then it disappears and you can turn and see it (shiny) from the
other side. These images were taken in April 2011. Looking at Google again
today, I accessed earlier images, as well as slightly later, and the
object was there again.
Now,
that led me to suspect that the object had something to do with Google’s
mapping. From what I can find out about “street view”, however, it’s all
done from ground level. It’s believed Google also use drones for aerial views,
so perhaps, I thought they were killing 2 birds with one stone. However,
the object doesn’t look like any drone, and it “disappears” after a
certain point (i.e.it’s not with the camera on all of its journey). Also,
I assume that use of a drone in the airspace next to an MOD facility would
be prohibited. No such image appears on google maps anywhere else locally,
just in this one spot.
So,
my question to you is, is it an odd-shaped drone? It’s not an aircraft and
doesn’t look much like a balloon; if it were a parachute, surely it would
be dropping. If it’s man-made, does it explain some UFO sightings? And if it’s “alien”, there must be something
very interesting about the camp - because these things seem to be present
regularly. Is it possible that they are caught on camera but not visible
to the naked eye?? What’s your take on this?
Our Evaluation:
Dear (witness name not shown),
Many thanks for sending your enquiry to us at BUFORA regarding the anomalous object you noticed in the sky on Google Street View near the Castlemartin Army Training Area.
I'm sorry it has taken me a while to respond to you. Initially I was struggling to identify what this object might be, but I now believe I have found a highly probable identification, let me take you through it.
Firstly, I have seen quite a few unusual shapes & objects visible in the sky on ‘Google Street View’ in my time, and there are many perfectly rational explanations that could account for most of these, including birds, balloons, reflections and lens flare, dirt on the camera lens etc. and when I did a good search on ‘streetview’, I confirmed that the same consistently shaped object was showing up in the sky just to the West of where the army camp is (rather than directly over the camp) only on certain dates and not on others.
It was visible from the B4319 outside the camp on Google car camera runs on April 2011, May 2011, Sept 2011 but not those taken on Oct 2021 or April 2023.
From this, my thoughts were that we were looking at a real object rather than dirt on the lens or a reflection, and the shape & appearance did not resemble a bird or insect, although I thought it somewhat resembled the shape of a hot air balloon.
An internet search revealed a company called 'Hot air balloon ride Pembroke' which was about 5 or 6 miles away to the North East so I did consider this a possibility, although like you say - the army camp will probably have prohibited airspace over it, plus the prevailing wind will be in the wrong direction, so this seems to be unlikely to be the cause.
My focus then was that it might have something to do with the army base, but a search for this initially did not come up with anything, until I found this article:
about surveillance balloons and "military grade balloons called Helikites" and so I went onto the website of the manufacture - Allsopp, which shows a video of their range of products with their 'Desert Star Helikite' looking remarkably similar to the object seen on Google Street View.
Object as seen on Google Street View below:
Desert Star Helikite image below:
The website also states "Desert Star Helikites protect coalition forces in Afghanistan by lifting surveillance cameras for the British and US Army". So if these UK made devices were being used in action, I would say it would be reasonable for a UK Army base to be testing them and training troops in their use, especially in 2011 which is during the Afghanistan war of 2001-2021.
I did another search and found out that the Castlemartin Army 'range' is actually huge as described in this article,
and further searches on Google Street view shows the same object in the sky at other locations in the wider area (but still inside the 'range') at Merrion, Castlemartin town and Redford Hill, but only on runs in May & Sept 2011 not those on Oct 2021. I even found it visible from the B4320 near Newton looking South so I expect there would be many other images of it if one wished to search the 'range' area further.
So in conclusion, whilst I cannot say definitively that the object(s) seen on Google Street View is a Desert Star Helikite being tested by the British Army from Castlemartin Army Training Base, this hypothesis does seem to fit very well so I'm pretty sure that this is what it was. I have not called the base to see if they can confirm this identification as it was 12 years ago plus I expect their activities are listed as classified and they will not be at liberty to divulge that information even if they could remember it, but in my view their confirmation is not required in order for this explanation to be considered as highly likely.
I do hope that this evaluation has been of use to you?
Kind regards
Mark Easen
BUFORA Investigations