THANKS.
Well it’s easy enough to make fun of the lady, but when you read the full story, there are some similar reports from other parts of the UK. I also recall that last year, there were reports of what seemed to be ball lightning in west Yorkshire. This was not perceived to be a UFO sighting, and it did take place during a weather situation that favoured ball lightning. Ball lightning can suddenly appear as a mass of glowing electrons that in past cases have done explosive damage to homes and buildings and even killed one or two people in the past. So it’s possible that this report is a mis-diagnosed case of ball lightning.
I am of the general opinion that many UFO sightings are optical phenomena that are mistaken for moving spacecraft when in fact they are either mirages moving rapidly, or electrical phenomena in the atmosphere. Sure, some of the reports are attention-seekers who are disturbed individuals, this one doesn’t really have that kind of feel to it because there were other witnesses and it doesn’t sound contrived with the admission that she doesn’t know what a Chinese lantern looks like, etc.
In the linked newspaper report, there is a story about damage to wind turbines from similar fast-moving orange-light objects of unknown origins. This could also be ball lightning striking the wind turbines and causing explosive damage due to the electrical field set up by the collision.