Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 22/04/2024
Note: For reasons of privacy, precise location details have been purposely omitted
On 2nd April 2024 I was contacted on the telephone by a gentleman named Mick who lives in Olton, Birmingham. He wanted to report a sighting of a triangular-shaped object which he had experienced the previous evening. I arranged to visit him later on the same day to discuss what took place and obtain location photographs.
Sighting Details
Around 8.50-9pm on 1st April Mick decided to go for a cigarette at the back door of his house near to Lincoln Road, Olton. Looking to his left to the North East he saw a familiar copse of trees surrounding the nearby railway track. It had been raining earlier in the evening but by this time the rain had stopped and most of the cloud had cleared.
He looked up diagonally at the stars in the patch of sky visible over the tops of the trees, the left side of his view blocked by the housing. Suddenly coming in from the left an unusual triangular-shaped object appeared, seemingly travelling in a South Easterly direction. It appeared to be an elongated triangle with an orange light at each corner, not particularly bright. The main body of the object was jet black, darker than the sky beyond it. There was no sound coming from it at all.
Mick estimated that the object was not particularly far away, within half a mile of his location, due to the fact that he could clearly see its shape. If it was indeed at that distance he feels that it was around the size of a large aircraft, possibly hundreds of feet across, although it is difficult to judge distance of an object in the sky with no point of reference.
The object did not move on a straight course but instead appeared to turn upward in a gradual curve. He did not have his smartphone on him at the time, it was left inside the house, and he did not want to take his eyes off the object.
After about ten seconds it suddenly seemed to disappear. He didn’t see it suddenly blink out or fly away, it was just there one moment, gone the next. This was strange as there was very little cloud in the sky for it to have been hidden behind.
He waited to see if it would reappear. It did not, but about 8-10 seconds after it had vanished there was a strange low rumbling sound, very different from a normal passenger jet engine. Mick described it as like a “bomb exploding in the distance”. This noise appeared to have come from the North East in the direction the object had been seen in, so he immediately associated it with what he had seen.
The object did not reappear so he finished his cigarette then headed back inside the house. Knowing that the object was not a normal aircraft of any kind, he excitedly called his friend, also coincidentally named Mick, and told him about the sighting. He wondered whether anyone else may have seen the UFO, which is one of the reasons he reached out to BUFOG the following evening.
Sighting Analysis
This is a very interesting sighting with numerous aspects that do not sound mundane.
I checked Flight Radar 24 for the presence of aircraft in the vicinity around the time of the incident. As you can see from the below images taken at 8.50, 8.55 and 9pm there are no aircraft shown (I also checked half an hour earlier and later just in case Mick had the timing wrong):
Only aircraft with transponders on show up on Flight Radar 24, and pilots are not legally obliged to have one active. However Olton lies only a couple of miles from Birmingham International Airport.
This means that it falls within controlled airspace, both above and below 4000 feet, which is indicated by 360 Radar:
Aircraft flying within this airspace are strongly advised to have transponders so they can be detected by Air Traffic Control. This reduces the possibility of the object being an untracked private plane.
Also, and more importantly, the appearance of the object does not sound like a normal aircraft of any kind, civilian or military. Normal aeroplanes and helicopters have white static, white strobing, red and green navigation lights on them not orange static lights, as highlighted by the below diagrams:
The shape of the object would also put out of the question most normal aircraft except for certain military jets such as the Stealth Bomber, and even this is not a straight edged triangle. Mick informed me that not only did he get a good look at it, but that he is also very familiar with how aircraft look after dark due to the proximity of Birmingham airport, a statement I have no issue with whatsoever.
Also the object seemed to curve upwards in a gradual arc. Aeroplanes tend to climb on a straight path not curve in this manner. If a plane turns on an arc towards the position of viewing it could give the impression of curving upwards, but Mick observed the object for ten seconds. Surely in this time it would have become obvious that it was starting to move towards his location?
If the object was not an aircraft then we have to look at other possibilities. It was clearly a singular solid object rather than three orange lights drifting in a triangular formation, as Mick confirmed it was darker than the sky beyond it and he could make out the shape.
It had the wrong shape and lighting to be a drone, and also seemed much too large for that. Hot air balloons are only lit near the base from the flame at the basket. Also owners are not permitted to fly them after dark as they are required to have three mile visibility at all times.
Could it have been a large lit inflatable of some kind, drifting on an air current? This seems rather improbable due to the appearance and way it moved on an upward arc. Also the wind direction around 9pm was North, whereas this object appeared to be travelling South East. This can be seen on the below graph obtained from Weather Underground website:
The sudden disappearance of the object is another anomaly. After an earlier shower, the rain had stopped and clouds largely cleared from the sky by 8.50pm (I live relatively close to the location of this incident and recall this directly). This meant that there was very little for the object to have suddenly been hid from view by. While the idea of it moving behind a cloud which was out of sight against the late evening sky cannot be ruled out, such a cloud would also have blocked out the stars and probably been obvious, especially as Mick was staring at where it had disappeared to see if it would return.
It is unknown whether the strange rumbling noise that Mick heard was related to the object or not. I would have suggested it was the normal rumble of a jet engine taking off or landing at Birmingham International, but Mick confirmed that he has heard this himself on many occasions and this noise sounded distinctly different.
In order to prove that he has contacted his friend about the incident after it happened, Mick actually gave him an unplanned call while I was there speaking with him. When his friend picked up he immediately asked “What did I call you about last night?” His friend responded “A massive black triangle in the sky. As far as I remember three white lights, one on the front and two on the back”. Mick corrected him, informing that the lights were orange. He replied “Orange. Sorry. I forgot that.” Mick then went on to inform him of my presence and the reason for the call (I have a saved audio recording of this conversation but have not included in this report for privacy reasons).
The fact that his friend stated the wrong lights colour is not suspicious at all, it was clearly just a minor detail he had forgotten about. But this conversation as a whole is great evidence supporting that the sighting took place as Mick reported it.
One of the more commonly reported craft reported by witnesses are known as Flying Triangles. These craft are almost always black or very dark in colour, and I have investigated other cases where they have displayed exactly the same lighting that Mick described (although there are a number of variations of both colour and positioning). Given the analysis of the evidence available I feel there is a good possibility that it was indeed one of these craft.
So far I have had no further witnesses come forward reporting the object. If you believe you may have seen it too or have any other information relating to this case please get in touch.
Mick has had other previous sightings of white orbs, these incidents are currently being written up in a separate report, which will be released soon.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2024