LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- Strange lights in the sky , mysterious flashes , dozens of witnesses , a missing wind turbine blade and a tabloid splash featuring the pun : E.T . farm harm . The Sun tabloid newspaper 's UFO splash . Let 's hope there is n't intelligent life out there watching us . Britain 's tabloid Sun newspaper Thursday proclaimed from its front page that a wind turbine was ruined after a UFO hit one of its 20 meter-long blades in Conisholme , Lincolnshire . Dorothy Willows , who lives near the damaged turbine , told The Sun she was in her car when she saw strange lights in the sky . `` The lights were moving across the sky towards the wind farm . Then I saw a low flying object . It was skimming across the sky towards the turbines . '' Apparently , hours later , she and her husband were woken by a big bang ; one of the turbine 's three blades had gone . It , was , however , on the ground below . Other locals told the newspaper that the lights looked like `` balls of flames . '' Russ Kellett , a UFO expert , told the newspaper : `` Balls of light were seen in the sky and the MoD [ Ministry of Defence ] has no explanation . It must have taken a pretty massive object . We are very , very , very excited . '' However , The Guardian newspaper 's Web site content director Emily Bell had a simple explanation for all those `` balls of light '' in the sky . She told The Guardian the lights were fireworks her brother Tim had bought at the local garden center for the 80th birthday party of dad Peter Bell . `` It was a medium-sized fireworks display with absolutely no ballistics , and the fireworks were mostly dropping over my parents ' house . But we were laughing that we could have broken the wind turbine , '' Emily said . `` There we are in the middle of a scoop and we 're beaten to it by a red-top tabloid , '' Emily 's mother Bridget , 74 , told The Guardian . Later Thursday , the British Press Association reported the blade may have come off after a mechanical failure . Fraser McLachlan , chief executive of GCube , which insures more than 25,000 wind turbines worldwide , told PA that although it was unusual , this kind of incident happened up to six times a year . `` It does happen that a blade will sometimes just come off a machine for one reason or another , '' he said . `` The main reason is the blade may shear . `` We do n't normally see things like aircraft -- or UFOs -- hitting them . It 's usually a mechanical failure that causes the blade to separate from the main hub . '' He said the cold weather was another possible cause . Dr Peter Schubel , an expert in the design and manufacture of wind turbine blades at the University of Nottingham , agreed . He told the BBC that if the turbine blade was still , it would take a 10-tonne load to remove a blade , but if it was rotating the force could be a lot less . `` It 's definitely not a bird . It could be ice thrown from a neighbouring turbine that struck it . '' Aliens out of control or simple mechanical failure ? A case for Mulder and Scully ? What do you think ?
British tabloid blamed UFO for destroying wind turbine towers . Newspaper reported locals saying there were ` ` strange lights '' in the sky . Second report said there were fireworks from staff member 's family celebration .