Thread by @mrjeffknox

#ufotwitter #ufohistory
Today in UFO History - Close Encounter / Loss of Consciousness
January 14, 1980 — Burnley to Todmorden, West Yorkshire, England
1/6:05 a.m. Truck driver William Barrett is on an early delivery run from Burnley to Todmorden, West Yorkshire, England, when

2/he hears a deep humming sound. Looking ahead, he sees a machine with flames underneath hovering at a lay-by off the roadside. He slows his truck to a near crawl and moves past the object, which looks like a “toast rack” with curved sides and three red glows emerging from the

3/edge to create a misty fuzziness obscuring the base. Now only 25 feet away, he sees that it has a bell- or tortoiseshell shape with a metallic sheen and a tube sticking up from the top. The red glows emerge from under a rim that runs around the lower part of the object. He can

4/now see two figures standing in front of the object, one standing erect and wearing a uniform with a peaked cap, and the other crouched forward, wearing a silvery-gray jump suit. As he passes, the arc lights on the object start flickering like a disco. His headlights go out,

5/and his mind gets hazier and he loses consciousness. He experiences missing time until he jerks awake sometime around 8:30 a.m. [Eberhart]
Source:
Jenny Randles, “Close Encounter in UFO Alley,” IUR 26, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 3–8, 28–29;
Mike Swords File, 307C;