Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 30/03/2023
Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used
In early March 2023 I was contacted by phone by a man from Belbroughton named “Bill” who had recently had a stunning sighting of a triangular shaped UFO which flew over his house. I got the word out on Facebook but nobody else reported seeing the object (at least so far). This report documents the sighting in depth.
Sighting Details
Bill lives on Yew Tree Avenue, on the outskirts of the Clent Hills. On the evening of Wednesday 1st March 2023 he was sitting in the living room watching TV with his carer and ex-partner “Natalie”. It was around 8 pm and fully dark outside. The front window curtains of the room were not drawn, providing a view of the sky to the North North East over the tall hedgerow on the opposite side of the road.
He happened to glance out of the window and immediately noticed several white lights in a triangular formation moving towards the property. He listened but was amazed to hear no sound. He asked Natalie “What’s that over there?” She looked out of the window too and upon seeing the lights simply replied “I don’t know.” Bill replied “I’ve got to see!” and leapt up out his chair.
As he headed to the front door, and realising the lights might be something unusual, he called out to Natalie asking her to go and grab his phone, which unfortunately was in the kitchen at the time. He then opened the door and headed outside onto the drive. He could now see the object more clearly. It was a clearly defined equilateral triangle with a brightly glowing orange light at each corner. It was a clear evening, and the main body of the object could be seen silhouetted against the sky beyond.
The UFO appeared to be no higher up than 1000 feet, and about the size of a fighter jet (approximately 50 feet across). It was moving no faster than 150 knots (172 mph), about the speed that a helicopter would fly at.
As it got closer Bill began to hear a strange electrical crackling sound clearly coming from the object. The main body of the object looked reflective black in colour, with no visible markings or windows. The orange lights were not quite at each corner point but in a little bit on the underside of the object.
Bill observed it approach for about 30 seconds. He wasn’t frightened of it, but was instead fascinated and mesmerised. As it passed nearly overhead he noticed that the base of the object appeared to be split into criss-cross sections. There was also a strange shimmering distortion spreading across the base. This distortion looked similar to a heat mirage which can sometimes be seen above a road surface on a hot day.
The object flew past just off to his left, and over the roof of the neighbouring cottage. It vanished from sight over the roof due to the angle. Bill went back inside and ran through the house to the back garden. As he did he met Natalie who was in the process of getting his phone. Sadly by the time Bill had headed back outside the object was nowhere to be seen. He assumed it must have continued on a straight course and disappeared from sight over the woodland directly behind Yew Tree Lane to the South South West.
Bill says that the following day he looked online to see if anyone else had reported seeing it (as if it had kept going on a straight path it would have flown right over Belbroughton), but found nothing.
However he did find some older reports on the so called “Dudley Dorito” (a nickname given by the newspapers to one or more triangular UFOs seen and reported over the area of Dudley in recent years).
Natalie’s Statement
Although Natalie did not step outside, she still observed the UFO through the living room window for a number of seconds. She was more than happy to speak with me on the phone about the incident and provided the following testimonial statement:
“Bill’s chair faces the window. He said what’s that over there? It was like a massive triangle with lights on each point. Could have been 100 foot. Was quite big, wasn’t too quick. Even though it was dark because of the lights could make out the shape. It was weird, and silent as well. I heard a helicopter afterwards.
It was a clear sighting. It’s freaked me out now, if I’m outside and I hear any aircraft. The lights weren’t flashing, just an orange colour. It was quite big…sizeable. I could see it was black in colour. Even though it’s dark ‘cause there’s no light pollution I could see it blocking out the stars.”
Sighting Analysis
This appears to be a rather impressive multiple witness sighting of what is known as a Flying Triangle, one of the more commonly observed types of UFO.
Regarding the authenticity of the witnesses, I have no issue with this. They both came across as extremely believable. Bill stated that he was rather sceptical of the subject up to this point, but this sighting had caused to view it in a whole new light. Natalie appeared genuinely spooked by what had happened.
It was clear that this was a single large object with numerous lights on it instead of three smaller/distant objects flying in formation. Both Bill and Natalie confirmed that they could see the body of the object blocking out the night sky. Bill even mentioned the fact that he was certain it was actually black in colour, rather than it just being in shadow. This seems to put out of the question that the UFO was a formation of high altitude aircraft, Chinese lanterns/lit inflatables or distant drones.
Bill informed me that he has an interest in aviation. He also said that he loves looking at the night sky, so is very familiar with how various types of aircraft look after dark. He is also familiar with how jet engines and propellers sound like. He is absolutely convinced that this was not a normal civilian or military aircraft of any kind. He said that when he initially saw it he thought it was a top secret aircraft and “the next evolution of stealth”, but that “nothing can fly that silent”.
Checking Flight Radar 24 it can be seen that there were no tracked aircraft in the vicinity at that date and time:
360 Radar confirms that the area does not lie within an airway (usual flight route for aircraft):
It also shows that the area does fall within controlled airspace, making it much less likely that the object was an untracked privately-flown aircraft:
The lighting seen on the object does not correspond to normal aircraft navigation lights at all. These are usually a mix of white static, white strobing, red and green, not orange as reported. The object was much too large to be a drone, and again these usually have white, red or green lights on them.
A large lit triangular inflatable seems unlikely, why would such an object be built and flown after dark in the first place? Bill stated that it definitely looked like it was flying on a controlled path, there was no noticeable drifting or rotation as it approached.
There are also the matters of the unusual electrical sound the object was making, and the distortion seen on its underside as it passed over. Neither of these aspects would fit with any of the mundane explanations described above.
Despite the fact that the object did not perform any particularly advanced manoeuvres, I feel it is likely that this was a genuine sighting of a Flying Triangle craft. This is one of the more commonly reported types of craft. They are almost always black/dark in colour and often have a light at each corner as described (although sometimes other lights are also seen).
Whether the craft was human in origin or not is going to be down to your personal opinion. The witnesses did not observe any occupants on this occasion. That said I have investigated many cases where these objects have performed much more extreme manoeuvres and also been involved in contact cases. I have also investigated many that have taken place over city centres. If Flying Triangles really are all top secret military craft, then why would they be regularly flown over populated areas in clear sight?
I would like to thank Bill and Natalie for coming forward with the details of this impressive sighting. If you have any further information regarding it please do get in touch.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023