Koi UFO Video 138 : UFO near Warminster 2017 (AeroSparx pyrotechnics)
[DEBUNKED] Koi UFO Video 138 appears to show an object giving off sparks cavorting in the sky above a hill. A caption on one copy of the video states "SOMETHING "CIRCLING" Over UK Skies 6/5/17".
This video was posted online on 30 May 2017 on a local news website ("Somerset Live") with the headline "UFO spotted hovering over Cley Hill near Frome". The video quickly spread via Facebook and other social media. Articles appeared on the websites of various tabloid newspapers in the UK, including The Daily Mail, The Mirror and The Sun. Most of the articles mentioned that the video was filmed near Warminster, "Britain's UFO capital" and referred to UFO sightings there in the 1960s.
One copy of the video received over 350,000 in just its first week online.
As detailed below, Tim Dews of a local company known as "AeroSparx" kindly confirmed to me that this video showed one of his company's "Twister" aircraft. AeroSparx uses "wingtip pyrotechnics" to perform a "formation firework at night, and coordinate ground-based fireworks with a flying display". Various videos of AeroSparx performing at several airshows can be found online. The "UFO" video shows one of Tim Dews' practice flights in an AeroSparx Twister. Tim Dews obviously found the coverage amusing. He posted on Facebook about the number of views obtained by this UFO video and stated "I am off to get an alien costume".
Rather unusually, one of the news websites involved (the "Somerset Live") posted a follow-up article briefly giving the facts behind this video, in a further article (entitled "UFO spotted over Cley Hill near Frome was not aliens"). Similarly, attempts by some other researchers with an interest in viral "UFO" videos (notably Scott Brando of "ufoofinterest.org") resulted in the explanation being given briefly in an article in The Express. Thus, the explanation of this particular video has received more publicity than is usually the case with debunked "UFO" video.
However, the articles containing an explanation, unlike the earlier "UFO" articles, have not gone viral and appear to have had little effect on the on-going spread of the relevant "UFO" video or the number of views being gained by the relevant "UFO" video.
Sections below:
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
3. The real background to this video
4. Relevant online discussions
1. The relevant video
Koi UFO Video 138 appears to show an object giving off sparks cavorting in the sky above a hill. A caption on one copy of the video states "SOMETHING "CIRCLING" Over UK Skies 6/5/17".
Screen shots from this video are included below for ease of identification.
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
This video was posted online on 30 May 2017 on a local news website ("Somerset Live") with the headline "UFO spotted hovering over Cley Hill near Frome".
http://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/ufo-spotted-hovering-over-cley-80484
The video quickly spread via Facebook and other social media.
Articles appeared on the websites of various tabloid newspapers in the UK, including The Daily Mail, The Mirror and The Sun.
Most of the articles mentioned that the video was filmed near Warminster, "Britain's UFO capital" and referred to UFO sightings there in the 1960s.
One copy of the video received over 350,000 in just its first week online.
3. The real background to this video
Tim Dews of a local company known as "AeroSparx" kindly confirmed to me that this video showed one of his company's "Twister" aircraft.
AeroSparx uses "wingtip pyrotechnics" to perform a "formation firework at night, and coordinate ground-based fireworks with a flying display".
Various videos of AeroSparx performing at several airshows can be found online. The "UFO" video shows one of Tim Dews' practice flights in an AeroSparx Twister.
Tim Dews obviously found the coverage amusing. He posted on Facebook about the number of views obtained by this UFO video and stated "I am off to get an alien costume".
https://www.facebook.com/tim.dews.9/posts/10154558806032231?pnref=story
Rather unusually, one of the news websites involved (the "Somerset Live") posted a follow-up article briefly giving the facts behind this video, in a further article (entitled "UFO spotted over Cley Hill near Frome was not aliens").
Similarly, attempts by some other researchers with an interest in viral "UFO" videos (notably Scott Brando of "ufoofinterest.org") resulted in the explanation being given briefly in an article in The Express:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/814228/UFO-Warminster-Thing-Cley-Hill-Somerset-aliens
Thus, the explanation of this particular video has received more publicity than is usually the case with debunked "UFO" video.
However, the articles containing an explanation, unlike the earlier "UFO" articles, have not gone viral and appear to have had little effect on the on-going spread of the relevant "UFO" video or the number of views being gained by the relevant "UFO" video.
4. Relevant online discussions
Quite a few comments on this UFO video were posted in the comments section on Youtube.
As at mid-June 2017 (i.e. approximately two weeks after the original copy of the video was uploaded), a copy of the video on the "Secureteam10" website has over 10,000 "thumbs up" (roughly twenty times the number of "thumbs down" votes for this video).
