Did a ufo hit wind turbine in Conisholme UK? See picture and news article..

Originally posted by fleabit
Ice from a plane might be plausible.. however.. it would be there. They went out immediately after this happening. I think they would have noticed a large chunk of ice, either from the blades, or from a plane that wrecked it.

As far as i'm aware, no-one was aware of the damage until the next morning. If you know different, can you post your source please? Otherwise statements like the above are really unhelpful in an investigation.

I've watched this thread with interest. Lots of speculation, few facts.

There is not as yet any proof that the turbine was hit by an alien vehicle. It was hit by an unseen UFO, because no one has come forward to say they witnessed an unidentified flying object strike the blades.

It was of course hit by something moving over 200 ft in the air and the evidence points to an unseen aerial object. The power generation company Ecotricity was already calculated and publicly stated on its website that an object with the size and mass of a cow would be needed to break the blade. No speed is given, but as these blades are tested as fully as is aircraft fusilage for stress etc, the company must already know at what speed the impact took place.

It is probably not saying, because that will give credence to an aerial object. It goes without saying that the turbine was hit by an unseen UFO and that makes it a Civil Aviation Authority issue, but the CAA has strangely not got involved.

It is inconceivable that the Ministry of Defence and the CAA are not involved. You can bet your last penny that they are.

The UK newspaper the Sun ran the story days after the event. The company knew its turbine was damaged within hours. The story was circulating around the Globe long before the British media announced it. It had no choice as the UK authorities would look stupid, the world talking of a UK event that the Government wanted kept quiet.

The Sun newspaper claimed the blade was missing. The wind farm is 12 miles from the sea and the blade did not vanish into it. It was recovered on the wind farm but not below the mast. It is now in Germany undergoing forensic testing.

Of course, no one has actually seen the broken blade. It was removed long before the story broke in the UK. So, whatever the result of testing, anything remotely like alien residue will not reach the public domain.

The Government arranged the story that the blade was not missing and was found directly below the mast. This only emerged AFTER the story broke in the Sun and was an attempt to play down the distance it had travelled after being hit. The company will not state the distance from the turbine it was recovered.

As for broken blades. The UK press has misquoted an Ecotricity spokesperson as saying this happens five to six times per year, yet the official version on the Ecotricity website states 'this is a unique and isolated occurance'.

A bit of a difference there.

It does seem a coincidence that UFOs were noted by members of the public the previous evening and night and the damage occuring. There is probably a compelling connection - I like to think so, but as yet, there is no proof that a UFO or the UFOs observed bumped into the wind turbine.

It should be noted that the blades face the same way across the farm. It will be obvious to investigators from which direction and from what angle the object struck the blade.

If a meteorite as some claim, then that should be recoverable within hundreds of yards of the collision point and, the blade will show a falling impact as opposed to a level or even rising line upon impact. If these latter, it can be nothing else but an aerial and perhaps controlled object.

Scott L. Felton

Conwy UFO Group, North Wales, UK.

www.conwyufogroup.piczo.com

[email protected]
.

Originally posted by ScottX
I've watched this thread with interest. Lots of speculation, few facts.

1)It was of course hit by something moving over 200 ft in the air...

2)It goes without saying that the turbine was hit by an unseen UFO...

3)The company knew its turbine was damaged within hours.

4)The story was circulating around the Globe long before the British media announced it.

5)The Sun newspaper claimed the blade was missing. The wind farm is 12 miles from the sea and the blade did not vanish into it. It was recovered on the wind farm but not below the mast. It is now in Germany undergoing forensic testing.

6)Of course, no one has actually seen the broken blade. It was removed long before the story broke in the UK. So, whatever the result of testing, anything remotely like alien residue will not reach the public domain.

7)The Government arranged the story that the blade was not missing and was found directly below the mast. This only emerged AFTER the story broke in the Sun and was an attempt to play down the distance it had travelled after being hit. The company will not state the distance from the turbine it was recovered.

8)As for broken blades. The UK press has misquoted an Ecotricity spokesperson as saying this happens five to six times per year, yet the official version on the Ecotricity website states 'this is a unique and isolated occurance'.

A bit of a difference there.

9)It should be noted that the blades face the same way across the farm. It will be obvious to investigators from which direction and from what angle the object struck the blade.

Scott L. Felton

Scott for someone who starts their post suggesting that few facts have been stated in the thread, I find it amazing that you have so many inaccuracies in your report.

I have numbered your points in your quote above so I can discuss each of them-

1) You have zero proof that the turbine was hit by anything.

2) "It goes without saying" it most definitely doesn't. Its quite a ridiculous statement.

3) Please provide your source for this as it is very vague.

4) Absolutely incorrect and innacurrate. The Louth Leader was reporting this before any other media in the UK, and certainly before other countries.

5) It was not recovered from anywhere, it has always been at the bottom of the mast.

6) Yes plenty of people have seen it, the 69ft blade was at the base of the mast and we have documented evidence of it being there. There are pictures on this very thread. I've highlighted them twice. Such ignorance annoys me.

7) The goverment arranged the story? Any proof of that? No, because its been there all along.

8) They haven't misquoted anyone from Ecotricity, that quote came from the MD of a completely different company and has not been misquoted.

9) No it will be obvious which direction the wind was blowing last


I don't think i've ever seen a post on ATS so factually incorrect, so full of blatant mistakes and just so frustrating.

It is because of people like you that anyone associated with discovering the truth are able to be discredited as idiots.

Originally posted by LincolnUK
It is because of people like you that anyone associated with discovering the truth are able to be discredited as idiots.

Agreed. You should have to pass a test before you're allowed to post here.
That would help in keeping the posts at an intellectual level.

Absolutely everything to do with this incident has been hyped to something it's not. It's a failed fan. There's plenty of sources indicating that this happens. NO PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE. NO proof that anything out of the ordinary happened AT ALL.


[edit on 10-1-2009 by KIRKSTERUK]

there was no storm... no wind! and certainly no lighting! it was a cold clear winters night..& 3 strange orange orbs buzzing around

Originally posted by KIRKSTERUK

Originally posted by LincolnUK
It is because of people like you that anyone associated with discovering the truth are able to be discredited as idiots.

Agreed. You should have to pass a test before you're allowed to post here.
That would help in keeping the posts at an intellectual level.

Absolutely everything to do with this incident has been hyped to something it's not. It's a failed fan. There's plenty of sources indicating that this happens. NO PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE. NO proof that anything out of the ordinary happened AT ALL.


[edit on 10-1-2009 by KIRKSTERUK]

It's the age old problem of what is proof. Seeing a man running carrying a smoking gun still doesn't prove he shot the person lying dead on the ground. You would think it likely he did it, but it's circumstantial, and open to further investigation. That's what we have here. A broken wind farm blade just does not get international press coverage on it's own, some of it is hype yes, but also a lot quite understandable concern, considering MANY witnesses involved saw things they were unable to explain, which is very unusual in itself in a "UFO" case.

Sure, people mistake a lot of lights in the sky but it's also easy to underestimate people's power of observation. Everyone knows what fireworks look like, planes flying at night, stars and even lanterns are now widely heard of and seen. When so many people independently see something which just does not fit what they have seen before, you do have to take note. People are not that stupid, especially living in rural areas where the local night sky is a very familiar sight.

I quote one witness

“It was huge” he said “At first I thought it must have been a hole where the moon was shining through but then I saw the tentacles – it looked just like an octopus.

It was an incredible site;I have never seen anything like it before. I have no idea what it was, all I can say is what I saw


[edit on 10-1-2009 by highlander2008]

This whole event is a bit perplexing, but I think a few things can be ruled out.

For those saying it could have been a military aircraft. If it were flying less than a 1000 feet off the ground don't you think people would have noticed?

If it was a standard jet aircraft it would have been deafening, if it was a UAV or drone, or a prop aircraft it would most certainly have been heard (unless it was a new stealth prototype).

Also, it had to be strong enough an aircraft to hit the turbine and fly away in one piece. This would seem to rule out a smaller aircraft or UAV, as they would have crashed following the collision.

This leaves us with the military aircraft explanation, again which I don't believe to be plausible because no one heard or saw a military aircraft in the area.

In reference to the 'tentacle' shape many people witnessed, it could have in fact been ball lightning, a rare atmospheric phenomenon, but it's hard to account for one blade being knocked off and the other bent. It appears as if something physical hit it.

Also, it could have been fan failure, and the ball of light with tentacles could have been some sort of electrical disturbance which resulted from the blade breaking off. (This could be a stretch, as I'm not entirely sure how these towers are constructed).

Pending the forensic analysis, I'd have to say this at least has the potential to be a very interesting UFO case.

PS: Does anyone know if these blades are made of fiberglass or metal, or are they composite?

[edit on 10-1-2009 by JipStix]

reply to post by JipStix
You mention the blades material. Maybe the ufo was interested in whatever the blade is made of. Maybe the blade was made of advanced stuff and this caught the attaention of a passing mothership.

The operators of the wind farm may have accidently made contact with this possible ufo. The windmill, it probably has some sort of light on it so planes/gliders can see it. This light may have attracted the ufo. The ufo orbs are contacted using light signals from Earth, maybe the lights on the windmill did the same.

reply to post by ufoorbhunter


Very interesting point.

I have a theory that some UFO's might navigate using energy fields rather than the visible spectrum.

Think of it like this. Bats use sonar to find prey, as do dolphins. Or think of the Predator, he sees the world in infrared rather than the visible spectrum.

I think that some UFOs navigational systems are designed around energy flow. They navigate through magnetic fields and through energy itself, so the wind turbine would look like another energy source, which could be why they were attracted to it.

It could also be why they buzz nuclear aircraft carriers and airplanes, or fly-by nuclear test sites. Energy is being emitted, and I bet their navigational systems pick up on it.

Again, this is just a theory, and I don't yet 100% believe a UFO hit the wind turbine, although it is quite a perplexing case.

[edit on 10-1-2009 by JipStix]

This may have been posted before, but if not, in this interview on C4 the young "horse-rider" girl witness clarifies in further detail the "tentacle" observation.

She says that it was a light with "lightning-bolt" tentacles below it. This is what I suspected when I heard the description. Seems there certainly was something causing an electrical discharge over or even on the turbine. This was seen by several people.

This leads to an interesting theory. Bear in mind these things are actually gigantic dynamos, they genearate large ammounts of electrical charge, that's their function.

So, there was a short-circuit, and it began earthing itself somehow through the blades? I am no expert and would be interested to hear from anyone who is. But it does seem that there was evidence of large electrical discharge to the ground, and coincidently, this thing is one gigantic generator. This may well cause other flashes sparks in the air depending on humidity.



[edit on 10-1-2009 by highlander2008]

reply to post by JipStix

The Sun reported that yellowy orange globes were seen near the event. That really is suspicious. The ufo orbs as I call them are contactable using light signals from torches. They like it for some reason. If these winmills have lights on them then they would attract ufo orbs if they were passing.

Originally posted by LincolnUK
HOT NEW NEWS?!?!

www.ecotricity.co.uk...

Speculation that a lump of ice falling from a plane at a normal altitude?

That's not a bad theory at all. However -

How heavy would the block have had to be?

Are we all in danger of falling ice blocks?

Why wasn't there any substantial ground damage?

And it just happened to fall on a windturbine???????

Sorry, I dont buy it.
Meteorites rarely hit people, why should airplane-piss???

reply to post by TallWhites


FFS - i was replying to THAT post - stop trying to weasel out of it by pointing me to ANOTHER pot where you back peddle

i read the post i replied to just fine , so stop being a cock

Originally posted by JipStix
PS: Does anyone know if these blades are made of fiberglass or metal, or are they composite?

[edit on 10-1-2009 by JipStix]

I posted the full specs on the the previous page, here they are again.

Generalities

* Wind farm name : Conisholme Fen Re-submission
* Country : United-Kingdom

Wind turbines

* City : Lincolnshire
* Installation : 2008/05
* 20 turbine(s) Enercon E48/800 (puissance de 800 kW, diamètre de 48 m)
* Total power : 16000 kW
* Total wings surface : 36200 m²
* Developed by : Ecotricity
* Operator : Ecotricity

Installed power and production capacity

* Total installed power : 16 MW
* Yearly estimated production (see below) : 36 GW.h
* Supplied population by this windfamr (estimation, see below) : 14700 habitants
* Computation hypothesis : private consumption including home heating
Source

Now for the intresting part.

Rated power:
800 kW

Rotor diameter:
48 m

Hub height:
50 - 76 m

Wind class (IEC):
IEC/NVN II

Turbine concept:
Gearless, variable speed,
variable pitch control

Rotor

Type:
Upwind rotor with active pitch control

Direction of rotation:
Clockwise

Number of blades:
3

Swept area:
1,810 m2

Blade material:
Fibreglass (epoxy resin);
integrated lightning protection

Rotational speed:
Variable, 16 - 30 rpm

Pitch control:
ENERCON blade pitch system, one independent source

More info PDF file Link

I put my money on there being a defect on the blade with the independent pitch system.

Sory to re-quote but people seem to be overlooking the facts, the blades rotate clockwise. The warped blade would be the blade that would of been in the path of the one that failed and snapped off. You can clearly see the impact area on the warped blade from where the snapped off one hit it.

As for the Ice theory turbines have sensors in the blade. If they detect ice forming they turn themselves off. So I think we can rule that one out. As many people have pointed out.

"Owners Ecotricity last night confirmed the ice theory had been ruled out"

We will just have to wait until next week, if it is a UFO then yup this is amazing. Untill we get more into there is no point jumping the gun

I still think the most probable explanation is that the wind turbine was hit by lightning.

In the video posted by Highlander2008, a witness described "this weird octupus shape in the sky that had long lightning bolt tentacles down to the ground". (From 1:10 in this video: www.youtube.com...) Hm... Lightning bolt tentacles. Sounds very much like lightning to me, but that's just my personal opinion, of course.

Lightning is also the number one cause of damages to wind turbines:

Eighty-five percent of the downtime experienced by a second southwestern USA commercial wind farm was lightning-related during the startup period and into its first full year of operation. Direct equipment costs were some $55,000, with total lightning-related costs totaling more than $250,000.

www.lightningsafety.com...

The influence of lightning faults on operational reliability turbines increases. In a study completed in 2002 it is expected that up to 8 out of 100 wind turbines could be damaged by one direct lightning strike every year. Between 1992 and 1995 Germany alone reported 393 accidents with damages due to lightning: 124 direct strikes to the turbine, and the remainder through the electrical distribution network
Direct and indirect effects of lightning can produce severe damages on electrical and mechanical components of wind turbines, being responsible for considerable unplanned downtime. The question is not “if” but “when”
the wind turbine will be stroked.

www.icrepq.com...

Image of wind turbin being hit by lightning:

criepi.denken.or.jp...

The way modern wind turbins are constructed, also explains why just the blades were damaged:

Most wind turbines of today include lightning protection. Typically, the lightning protection installed in the blade tip discharges the lightening inside the rotor blades, going around the nacelle and then down the tower thereby diverting the electrical charge away from the machinery. Very rarely does the lightning destroy a turbine completely. Damage, if any, is usually confined to a blade or blade tip and can be repaired or replaced easily.

www.skypower.com...

reply to post by psycho81


Right-o, thanks for the specs.

Yea I wasn't saying that it was certainly a UFO, I was just postulating that most conventional avenues seemed unlikely under the circumstances.

I would have to agree that it could have been lightning, although it does seem quite odd to have lightning in such frigid conditions.

At this point, I'm certainly with you. Until we get more evidence it's foolish to definitively conclude that it was a UFO, or something else.

We need more evidence and more data, and for now it appears conventional, but there's nothing wrong with postulations and theories.

[edit on 10-1-2009 by JipStix]

Originally posted by highlander2008

Originally posted by KIRKSTERUK

Originally posted by LincolnUK
It is because of people like you that anyone associated with discovering the truth are able to be discredited as idiots.

Agreed. You should have to pass a test before you're allowed to post here.
That would help in keeping the posts at an intellectual level.

Absolutely everything to do with this incident has been hyped to something it's not. It's a failed fan. There's plenty of sources indicating that this happens. NO PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE. NO proof that anything out of the ordinary happened AT ALL.


[edit on 10-1-2009 by KIRKSTERUK]

It's the age old problem of what is proof. Seeing a man running carrying a smoking gun still doesn't prove he shot the person lying dead on the ground. You would think it likely he did it, but it's circumstantial, and open to further investigation. That's what we have here. A broken wind farm blade just does not get international press coverage on it's own, some of it is hype yes, but also a lot quite understandable concern, considering MANY witnesses involved saw things they were unable to explain, which is very unusual in itself in a "UFO" case.

Sure, people mistake a lot of lights in the sky but it's also easy to underestimate people's power of observation. Everyone knows what fireworks look like, planes flying at night, stars and even lanterns are now widely heard of and seen. When so many people independently see something which just does not fit what they have seen before, you do have to take note. People are not that stupid, especially living in rural areas where the local night sky is a very familiar sight.

I quote one witness

“It was huge” he said “At first I thought it must have been a hole where the moon was shining through but then I saw the tentacles – it looked just like an octopus.

It was an incredible site;I have never seen anything like it before. I have no idea what it was, all I can say is what I saw


[edit on 10-1-2009 by highlander2008]

I'm missing something here, there's NO PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE. So for all we know, the citizens of this small town could be doing this to bring in tourists to help the community. In the current state of the financial system this comes at a great time!

reply to post by ufoorbhunter


I'm more leaning towards lightening theory but for your info' the turbines do have a light on them. a really bright red light which in itself can easily be mistaken for a UFO at distance.

Blade material:
Fibreglass (epoxy resin);
integrated lightning protection

Also repoted in "The Sun"

"A lightning strike was also ruled out as there were no singe marks."

There is still a small chance of it being a lightning strike but I think they would of picked up on that one. I think there is more chance of it being a UFO than the weather.