Blackpool man says he has filmed mysterious 'fireballs' in the sky off the Fylde coast

Liam Vesey, from Bispham, said he was on the Prom, off Red Bank Road, when he spotted the 'strange fiery trails' at around 8.30pm last night (April 21).

The 38-year-old, who had been working as a chef at a local hotel before lockdown, said he had been out running when he stopped to watch the sunset.

"I was just out for exercise and I seen it streaking down from the sky," said Liam.

"You can't see too clearly in the video but it was an orange fireball followed by another.

"Then a couple of jets heading in the same direction.

"It was very weird. They were going very fast. I don't know what it was. Maybe a satellite or something?

"It wasn't a meteor as it had a long black trail behind it and it was there awhile."

Liam said he was soon joined by a number of others taking their daily exercise on the Prom, who stopped to observe the curious sight.

"There was a man who works at Sainsbury's who passed me on his bike, I called him over and he stood with me awhile looking at it. There was also a couple of lads on bikes filming it as well.

"It wasn't a plane for sure.

"I have no idea what it was but I am glad I got to see it as it seemed like a once in a lifetime event to see with your own eyes.

"It came from orbit without a doubt. I could see the trajectory and it was from very high up. The fact that there were aircraft afterwards got me really wondering what it could be.

"The footage doesn't really do it justice. I was mesmerised."

The footage appears to show a large streak in the red sky at dusk, but it is difficult to judge whether anything is falling to Earth or not.

The footage provided to the Gazette does not show aircraft tailing the fireballs.

According to Liam, his phone ran out of charge before the jets appeared.

"As you can hear my battery ran out on my phone," explained Liam.

"I stayed to watch and the second object went down in the same direction and more jets seemed to be going towards wherever these things crashed or whatever it was that was going on."

Air traffic control at Blackpool Airport said it had no knowledge of anything unusual in the skies at the time of the sighting.

After studying the footage, the Airport said it could not explain the unusual aerial phenemonon.

An airport spokesman said: "Many thanks for your enquiry regarding sightings over Blackpool.

"The footage was not very clear and we could not determine what or where it was filmed.

"Therefore, on this occasion we cannot be of assistance as it was not observed at the Airport and not related to any Airport activities."

It has been suggested that the object might have been a flare activated at sea.

But RNLI Blackpool said it had not responded to any emergency call outs that night.

"We were not called to or notified of anything last night, so unfortunately can’t help this time," said an RNLI spokesman.

HM Coastguard also confirmed that it had not responded to any flare-related incidents, but suggested another explanation for the streaks.

A spokesman said:" No reports were received by the HM Coastguard to flare related incidents across the Fylde.

"With the clear weather you can sometimes see industrial plants from the Lake District burning off, this might be the reason."

Thousands of people have had their eyes glued to the skies above Lancashire this week due to a host of extraterrestrial activity.

On Sunday and Monday evening, a train of around 30 satellites were visible to the naked eye as they orbited Earth.

Known as Starlink, they are a satellite constellation sent into space by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk as part of his Space X mission to eventually colonise Mars.

Lancashire's stargazers have also been keeping their eyes on the night sky for the Lyrid meteor shower this week.

Astronomers say those looking skywards might witness upwards of 20 shooting stars per hour.

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