Posted On: April 11, 2022

The year is 1977, the place, Broad Haven Primary School in Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom. A cigar-shaped craft landed next to the Primary School and was witnessed by 14 school children who saw a silver creature.

On February 4th, 1977, there were no alien invasions or tales of abduction, yet a UFO sighting by a group of Pembrokeshire school children remains one of the most famous cases in Wales.

It was 40 years ago when a class of pupils at Broad Haven Primary School said they spotted a UFO in a field near their playground.

It was one of a wave of sightings in the area in 1977, dubbed the Dyfed Triangle.

David Davies was 10 at the time and heard reports of pupils seeing flying saucers throughout the day.

"I was a natural born skeptic so after the bell rang I decided to go to the area that the children said they had seen it," he told BBC Wales.

He described seeing a silver "cigar-shaped" craft with a "dome covering the middle third".

"My sighting only lasted a couple of seconds. It popped up and then went back behind a tree."

Mister Davies said he did not feel afraid, "more in awe and wonderment", although he admitted he had "a strange desire to run away".

None of the teachers believed the children and so the headmaster separated them and got them to draw what they saw. There were slight variations, but what they drew was basically the same.

Mr. Davies described the days that followed as a "wild rollercoaster."

"It went crazy with the media and it was difficult to settle down and actually think about what we had seen."

Official explanations were:

"There is general speculation in the neighbourhood that a practical joker may be at work," wrote staff at S4, the government department that investigated sightings at the time.

It was also thought school children could have confused a sewage tank as a UFO, although many were from farming backgrounds and would have been familiar with the machinery.

More recently, a former U.S Navy sailor said the figure in a silver suit was in fact a member of U.S military personnel wearing their standard fireproof uniform and the UFOs were new Harrier jets flying over.

Neil Spring, who wrote a book based on the Broad Haven sightings advised:

"The moment I heard of this small village plagued by UFO sightings, I was inspired to understand what really happened," he said.

His research uncovered a secret investigation by the military police.

"Whilst the government was telling the public they had no records of any unusual activity in the area, privately, officials were so concerned about the UFO sightings in Broad Haven that they asked the military police to conduct a 'discreet' investigation," he said.

Mr. Spring believes local pranksters were behind some of the sightings, but said "people emulate what's happening around them" and the pranks were inspired by events which had been "sincerely reported".

"My research showed that there were strange occurrences in Broad Haven long before the incident at the school and for a long times afterwards. So you can take the children out of the story and you'll still have the story."

My Take: I like what Emyln Williams of the Swansea UFO Network said about the incident. "One child can lie, but can a whole class? Over 40 years at least one of them might have come forward to say they made it up, but they haven't."

Resources: bbc.com on February 4th, 2017.

Posted On: April 11, 2022

The year is 1977, the place, Broad Haven Primary School in Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom. A cigar-shaped craft landed next to the Primary School and was witnessed by 14 school children who saw a silver creature.

On February 4th, 1977, there were no alien invasions or tales of abduction, yet a UFO sighting by a group of Pembrokeshire school children remains one of the most famous cases in Wales.

It was 40 years ago when a class of pupils at Broad Haven Primary School said they spotted a UFO in a field near their playground.

It was one of a wave of sightings in the area in 1977, dubbed the Dyfed Triangle.

David Davies was 10 at the time and heard reports of pupils seeing flying saucers throughout the day.

"I was a natural born skeptic so after the bell rang I decided to go to the area that the children said they had seen it," he told BBC Wales.

He described seeing a silver "cigar-shaped" craft with a "dome covering the middle third".

"My sighting only lasted a couple of seconds. It popped up and then went back behind a tree."

Mister Davies said he did not feel afraid, "more in awe and wonderment", although he admitted he had "a strange desire to run away".

None of the teachers believed the children and so the headmaster separated them and got them to draw what they saw. There were slight variations, but what they drew was basically the same.

Mr. Davies described the days that followed as a "wild rollercoaster."

"It went crazy with the media and it was difficult to settle down and actually think about what we had seen."

Official explanations were:

"There is general speculation in the neighbourhood that a practical joker may be at work," wrote staff at S4, the government department that investigated sightings at the time.

It was also thought school children could have confused a sewage tank as a UFO, although many were from farming backgrounds and would have been familiar with the machinery.

More recently, a former U.S Navy sailor said the figure in a silver suit was in fact a member of U.S military personnel wearing their standard fireproof uniform and the UFOs were new Harrier jets flying over.

Neil Spring, who wrote a book based on the Broad Haven sightings advised:

"The moment I heard of this small village plagued by UFO sightings, I was inspired to understand what really happened," he said.

His research uncovered a secret investigation by the military police.

"Whilst the government was telling the public they had no records of any unusual activity in the area, privately, officials were so concerned about the UFO sightings in Broad Haven that they asked the military police to conduct a 'discreet' investigation," he said.

Mr. Spring believes local pranksters were behind some of the sightings, but said "people emulate what's happening around them" and the pranks were inspired by events which had been "sincerely reported".

"My research showed that there were strange occurrences in Broad Haven long before the incident at the school and for a long times afterwards. So you can take the children out of the story and you'll still have the story."

My Take: I like what Emyln Williams of the Swansea UFO Network said about the incident. "One child can lie, but can a whole class? Over 40 years at least one of them might have come forward to say they made it up, but they haven't."

Resources: bbc.com on February 4th, 2017.