Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong might have gotten a little more excitement than they were hoping for during one of the region's recent protests, with a strange object in the sky moving slowly at first and then, as the BBC coverage showed, suddenly shooting up in the air out of sight.
The unusual occurrence was noticed by a television viewer in Scotland, who immediately recorded the broadcast and sent the video to a local news outlet, the Hamilton Advertiser, for further investigation, according to OpenMinds.TV.
When the UFO first appears in the video, it seems to hover near the front of a building rather than land on it, then moving to the right towards another tall building where it stops and hovers, according to the Huffington Post.
The UFO "is seen flying diagonally before landing on a building and then shooting off vertically and at speed," the Hamilton Advertiser describes.
Although the aerial object's path is seemingly straight throughout the video, it suddenly "shoots off vertically" up in the air like an almost visible burst of energy, hence fueling UFO theories and making it an object of interest.
"I don't think it's too far-fetched to believe it is a drone. Maybe one that's closer to the camera than we think," said Ben Hansen, former lead investigator of the Syfy Channel's "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files" TV series.
"The lighting setup is a bit strange, but it could look like one solid light because of the distance," Hansen told HuffPost in an email. "When these things want to go straight up, they can cruise really fast. The way it sort of wobbled or floated as it settled by the building makes me think it could be a drone."
Agreeing with Hansen, Marc Dantonio of FX Models believes the object has nothing to do with space aliens.
"I agree with Ben. This video appears to me to be a drone, as well," said the visual analysis expert. "The vertical acceleration illustrated is not at all unreasonable. Some of these can really punch out of sight fast. The green lights are actually a bit of a standard. Green usually means that the batteries are at full charge and have GPS satellite linkup."
Lending support to Hansen and Dantonio's theory is a BBC posted video taken by a drone on Saturday. But since the date of the incident remains unknown, it can't be confirmed whether it was the same drone. Or even if it was a drone.
Meanwhile, "it is rapidly becoming the norm to see aerial vehicles like drones and quadcopters above outdoor public gatherings like concerts, festivals, and protests," according to OpenMinds.TV. "These remote-controlled craft are typically fitted with cameras and are used by media and law enforcement."
