Fireball! Ball of flames pictured falling from the sky over York

meteor-york-feb-2015 — The bright object pictured over Bishopthorpe. Photograph: Chantelle Byford

People in York were stunned to see a bright burning object falling from the sky on Tuesday (February 3).

Chantelle Byford was one of those who saw the unidentified flying object – and she was quick enough to capture a photograph of it over neighbouring houses in Bishopthorpe.

As her children Olivia, nine, Charlie, six and 18-year-old Ailish got ready for the day ahead Chantelle was doing the washing up.

She told YorkMix:

I was getting the kids ready for school. I was washing up. The blinds were down in the kitchen so I didn’t see it but my daughter Olivia said ‘there’s a big fireball in the sky’.

With the sun coming up I thought it was like a very red sunrise. She said, ‘No, mum, look’ – and she opened the blind and it was there, above the roof of the house in front of us.

It was like a big ball of flame, I thought oh my god! It wasn’t flying across, it was going straight down.

She went into the garden and took the photograph, above, on her iPhone.

We stood and watched it for ages as it went down behind the roof. It was travelling quite fast and you could clearly see it was on fire.

I was expecting a noise, a bang or something because you could clearly see it was something falling out of the sky and it was on fire.

Chantelle switched on the news when she went back inside “because I did expect something to come of it,” she said.

Describing the sighting as “very random for a Tuesday morning!” she said her youngest, six-year-old Charlie, was particularly excited.

He thought we were getting invaded by aliens!

Another person who saw it was Claire Davies from Acomb. She told YorkMix

I was walking for my bus. I looked to my left above the houses.

I saw a very thick orange trail with something at the end of it. I thought, ‘Blimey, what’s that?’ It was a bit strange.

Claire added: “I suppose if it had been anything serious we would have heard about it on the news.”

What was that thing?

After Chantelle posted her photograph to the York Past And Present Facebook Page, the speculation began.

Most people seemed to think the most likely explanation was a meteor. And there was a report of a meteor sighting as far away as South Lanarkshire in Scotland at about the same time left on the Latest Worldwide Meteor / Fireball Reports website.

Other speculation about the possible source of the ball of flame followed.

Could it have been afterburners of a fast jet?

– Averil Addison

Probably meteor

– Ali Lou

It’s an alien invasion 🙂

– Jayne Stafford

It might be ice

– George Robinson

Amazing but whatever it is, hope it burnt up before it hit something on the ground! Could be some space debris

– Sue Thorn

North Yorkshire police said they had received no reports about the UFO.