UFO HUNTERS 

Working with the team in Lancashire  

By Pat Regan, Founder of North West UFO Research

Many people have asked me how I ever got involved in UFO research.  

The following article may shed a little light of this particular question. 

I had the great pleasure of working with the highly amicable UFO Hunters some time ago. I spent a most enjoyable day with the team, subsequent to their arrival in the UK from the United States.  

They interviewed me, along with my daughter Jasmine, following our unusual sighting of a UFO that came close to a rare twister in Lancashire. 

I have written a great deal about this particular situation in my book UFO: THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH. 

http://ufo.books.officelive.com 

This is a small extract from my book, which describes the initial situation.  

The Lancashire UFO and the Twister mystery of Sunday, 6^th July 2008 

Pat Regan’s report on the Twister/UFO incident at Rufford in Lancashire  

I wrote this following transcript as an authentic record of what actually had occurred on that somewhat bizarre afternoon.  

Controversy and speculation surrounds a set of simple pictures that I took on the afternoon of 6^th July, 2008. 

I was quietly fishing with my 7-year old daughter Jasmine along a wild stretch of the Rufford Canal, by an old railway bridge (5A) in Rufford, Lancashire.  

Jasmine had decided to play on the ground behind me and before long I looked around to notice that she had created a nice little stone circle of about 2-3 feet in diameter with rocks she had discovered on the footpath under the bridge.  

I was busy trying to catch the roach, perch and bream, which were nibbling at my bait when Jasmine suddenly started to shout that a ‘twister’ was coming towards us. At first I took no notice thinking she was still playing. However, she started to get increasingly upset so I reeled in my line and walked over to see what all the commotion was about.  

She was standing by the wall of the bridge and pointing back westwards towards our home town of Southport and still going on, like a child possessed, about an alleged twister.  

I noticed at first that the clouds were extremely dark and soon became aware that a large grey cone, stretching from deep within the top layers of the clouds, that was moving towards us.  

I was momentarily overwhelmed, even excited. I said to Jasmine that she was correct; it was indeed a tornado. I then scrambled up the slope of the stone railway wall to get a better look at the twister. I had to cling onto the top of the old bridge with my knees whilst I got my camera out of its case, which was strapped around my neck.  

It was a pretty awkward exercise but I somehow managed to balance myself and cling on although I was quite high off the ground. I could feel my heart beating faster and faster as the grey funnel of the twister moved nearer to us, it was incredibly exhilarating.

I also recall that my hands were trembling with excitement as I clung to the wall and when I had taken enough shots I hastily reached into the pocket of my fly-fishing waistcoat for my mobile phone.  

Whilst still on the wall I rang my wife, Cath, to tell her what we were witnessing. She hastily replied with something like – “What – you just get my daughter home right now out of that twister.” 

Looking back now her comments of that time seemed extremely comical. It’s a rare thing for us to get such a freak weather system and Cath’s understandable maternal anxiety, and me being literally up the wall at that time, made the whole situation sound so very humorous.  

After taking the pictures I carefully crawled backwards to the ground. Poor Jasmine was still upset saying that she wanted to go home as the twister would “kill us”. I tried to reassure her but she was exceptionally distressed.  

The twister had thankfully started to veer away to the north when a sudden gust of strong wind hit us. It only lasted for seconds but was awfully powerful and pushed me backwards like an invisible hand.

The clouds, above and behind us whirled frantically and inky black in a gigantic circle, just like something out of a fantasy horror movie, which added to the entire surreal drama of the situation.

I had seen clouds like this in films but never realised that they could actually occur in reality. They seemed to be pulsating, incredibly menacing and swirling. At this point I started to share Jasmine’s instinctive apprehension for the situation at hand. We both had been suddenly thrown into a dreamlike situation and primordial, animal fear of the unknown soon started to twinge at my guts.

Soon however the twister had moved away and the sun returned, although we could still hear a few claps of thunder from different places in the sky.  

Thor was still banging his old war hammer it seemed, although the feeling of imminent danger was thankfully fading away.  

Jasmine remained afraid for some time and even though I carried on with the angling I stayed by her side to reassure her that it was now safe for us to be there. The whole affair seems so bizarre and abstract.  

Following that exhilarating event the weather improved and the sun peeped out for a while. However, an hour later the rain started and we eventually made our way back to the car, which was parked about half a mile away. The real fun of this peculiar event started a little later on though.  

A small greenish coloured speck in one of my dramatic twister pictures later created an enormous amount of interest in the press both locally and across the globe, although we did not notice this object at the time I had taken the snap.  

It seemed that I had inadvertently photographed a UFO.  

I later uploaded the pictures and story onto the ‘Save Southport Greenbelt’ (SSGB) eco-website as it was such an exciting tale.  

I include the link here as it was so significant.  

http://ssgb.150m.com/twister.htm

 

Above: Pat Regan’s classic UFO picture, captured during a rare British twister in Lancashire  

 

I have since looked over the area of these fields and it is relatively featureless in the agricultural terrain therein. The line of sight – as the crow flies - that I was pointing my camera towards was from the said bridge, number 5A in fact, to the location of the well-known Southport Gasworks structure.  

One internet report did however mention that in the ‘zoomed in’ image, pixilation in the UFO matched the pixilation of the surroundings perfectly, which proved that my image had not been altered in any way by me - the photographer. I could have told them that! 

Some friends etc have suggested that the UFO was debris thrown by the twister and I have also made a note of that possibility on SSGB website. However, I consider that the UFO was too far away from the core of the storm to be something affected by it but I could of course be in error!  

The oblong-shaped disc seems to be a solid and evenly shaped entity.  

I have heard local reports that some objects like trailers in fields were moved by the twister but I will maintain that the UFO in my shot was exceedingly high up in the air (possibly hundreds of feet). I do not feel that this British twister had the force to carry a large solid object that far into the sky.  

NB. This latter belief we later confirmed by a university tornado expert.  

Looking at the zoomed in image of the UFO one could easily perceive that the object is moving from some other world dimension into our realm.  

Oddly enough – the closer one sees the object the stranger (or more mysterious) it seems to appear. I have spent considerable time looking at the picture of it and at times it almost seems to be moving out of an ephemeral veil into concrete reality.  

Above: Close cropped image of Pat Regan’s UFO. Note the distinct motion blur to the left of the object as it moves rapidly toward the twister  

I just count myself fortunate that I managed to photograph a British twister and get a UFO at the same time. I am 51 years old and I have never seen anything like this before.  

Nevertheless, this substantial Rufford twister was a first for me. Its sheer size was most impressive and indeed quite menacing.  

Dave Pavoni of ‘Motion Picture Productions, Inc’ contacted me in the latter part of July 2008 with a request for a possible interview with me concerning my UFO encounter in Rufford.  

Dave says that he thinks the story/pictures are ‘amazing’ and that the 2nd season of History Channel - America’s UFO Hunters - series will arrive in the UK in August. 

Above: lots of questions at Rufford canal from the UFO Hunters interviewers 

They want to take me back to the Rufford Bridge where I inadvertently snapped my UFO picture. They are also I believe interviewing ex-MoD UFO expert, Nick Pope, for the show. Nick seems like a nice chap and has been most helpful to me during all the latest UFO mania with the press etc. I seem to have been thrown headlong by the gods into this extraordinary UFO melting pot.  

As a published writer of political intrigue, mythology, legend and Pagan – related topics, perhaps fate has pushed the UFO world into my life for the sole reason of me adding my thoughts on this subject – who knows.  

As they say – all will be revealed in the end!  

Well, the interview promised by Producer Dave Pavoni indeed occurred when two large white vans, loaded with TV filming equipment and enthusiastic Americans, arrived at my home.  

The Rufford UFO story quickly spread to various news sources in numerous countries. 

This was the concise North West UFO Research press release that I produced following the interview.  

UFO Storm - UK invasion 

Updated:  

Several videos are now available on YouTube showing North West UFO Research Founder, Pat Regan, filming with the UFO Hunters T.V show from the States in summer 2008.

 

Above: Filming with the UFO Hunters. From left to right: Pat Uskert, Pat Regan, Jasmine Regan and Dr Ted Acworth. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgKYW0NaKaY  

Dr Ted Acworth (UFO Hunters team) and Dr Grant Allen (Manchester University) later discussed the UFO that Pat Regan photographed in Rufford.  

The object was moving, according to this detailed research and examination of camera shutter speed etc, at incredible rate. The estimated speeds of the tornado were around 80 mph yet the UFO had motion blur, indicating much greater velocity of flight. 

Several theories have been tabled regarding what the Rufford UFO could have been. However, all have ultimately been discredited, not just by me, but by experts (as above) in various fields of research.  

The UFO Hunters claimed that the object was “Not like any known craft.” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s4YRwi4tFw 

So folks, this was how I became involved in the UFO axis. Since this time, and following the recent release of my UFO book, the whole situation has snowballed out of all proportion.  

UFO reports are always coming into my office and at times I have a job keeping up with the situation, yet it is both enjoyable and progressive work. 

All I had originally wanted was a quite afternoon’s angling with my daughter but.... 

Now, what have YOU seen in the skies?   

Pat Regan © 2010  

Author of: 

UFO: The Search for Truth 

What others say... 

“This book is no dry analysis of a quaint mystery. It's a muscular thesis that isn't afraid to take on the difficult issues and ask the questions that more traditional UFO researchers have avoided. Buckle up, readers, and get ready for one hell of a ride.” 

 (World renowned Ufologist, Nick Pope)  

http://ufo.books.officelive.com

http://canwritewillwrite.com/UFO.html?

 

Short video by author Pat Regan about UFO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv1heuGAk_I

Pat Regan on MSNBC Today Show with TV Anchor, Dara Brown:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sETokzBw8Y

The New Pagan Handbook

http://thenewpaganhandbook.viviti.com ?

Dirty Politics

http://dirtypolitics.viviti.com ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7SZpBDn8AM ?

The Torch and the Spear

http://www.amazon.com/Torch-Spear-Patrick-Regan/dp/1898307725/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_4

Pat on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002GWKPOQ