Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 07/02/2023
Last Updated: 14/02/2023
Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used
On 17th January "Harold" got in touch with me via the BUFOG website to report on an interesting sighting and possible direct communication he had back in July 2022.
Sighting Details
At 10.19pm on the evening of 2nd July 2022 Harold was in the kitchen of his first floor flat in Pennfields, Wolverhampton. He happened to look out of the rear facing window to the North West. It was a clear and dry night outside and fully dark.
In the sky visible over the rooftops of the opposite house he suddenly noticed a bright light at an elevation of about 25-30 degrees. He initially thought was a distant helicopter, possibly a mile away, ascending vertically at a slow pace. However he soon noticed the light had a glowing tail behind it.
After watching it for about 15 seconds it suddenly began to move in an erratic fashion, moving back and forth instead of continuing to ascend on a straight course. At this point the object resembled three pink/red lights in a triangular configuration. Harold thought he could make out the body of a triangular object between the lights.
At this point he realised that the object was something quite unusual. After watching it for about a minute he decided to go and grab his mobile phone from the living room to attempt to capture it on camera. As he walked back to the kitchen he opened the camera and started recording a video. He rushed back to the kitchen window and held the phone up in the direction the triangle had been seen.
Unfortunately when he looked outside he realised the object had completely vanished. Disappointed that it had seemingly gone, Harold stopped the video recording. He then went through to the living room and quickly sketched what he had just seen.
A couple of minutes later he decided to check the recorded video footage on his phone anyway, just in the off chance that something had been captured. However when he looked in his phone’s gallery, instead of the footage he found an unusual image. It appeared to be mostly white in colour, with a curved pink triangle half way down the left side.
Because of the fact that the object had been triangular and had pink lights on it, Harold felt that the object had been a genuine craft, and that the image was a direct form of communication with him. He excitedly contacted his eldest daughter by phone to explain to her what had just happened.
For a number of weeks after the incident Harold found it hard to think about what had taken place. He was deeply affected by the sighting and the subsequent image he found on his mobile phone.
Sighting Analysis
This is a distant, yet rather bizarre sighting. I did initially wonder whether it could have been a plane flying slowly towards his location giving the impression of rising in the sky. However Harold felt sure that initially the object was ascending vertically moving towards him. Also, although the tail behind the object could have been explained as a contrail during daylight hours, this sighting took place after dark, meaning that any contrail would not have been visible. Also this would not explain the erratic manoeuvres the object was then seen to perform.
While a helicopter can of course ascend vertically, it would not have had a tail behind it, and the lighting configuration observed does not match any kind of normal aircraft navigation lights.
In addition to this, Flight Radar 24 confirms that there were no tracked aircraft in the vicinity at the date and time stated by the witness:
While Flight Radar 24 does not cover every aircraft, 360 Radar indicates that the area lies within controlled airspace:
It also confirms that the area does not fall within any airways:
These two facts greatly reduce the chance of the object having been an untracked aircraft of some kind.
Looking at alternative explanations, atmospheric phenomena such as earth lights or ball lightning seem very unlikely. Earth lights tend to only appear in rural areas for short periods of time and are extremely rare. Ball lightning tends to be a white/pale blue colour and only appears in stormy weather conditions.
While both a drone and lit inflatable/linked inflatables would potentially be able to perform the manoeuvres observed, neither would have initially had a glowing tail behind them, or really have changed in appearance from one moment to the next.
Could the object have been some kind of pyrotechnic/flare? It appears to have had a glowing tail behind it initially, one that was visible after dark. Could this have been the object being launched, and then when it reached a certain height it exploded and then started to drift back and forth, giving the impression of numerous pink/red lights? The way that the object also mysteriously vanished in seconds would also fit this explanation. Perhaps it coincidentally burned out at the same moment that Harold went to fetch his mobile camera.
Obviously none of these mundane explanations could interact with his mobile phone and cause the unusual graphical image to appear in his gallery. However it is entirely possible that this was an unusual camera glitch. Maybe the video did not start correctly causing an unusual error picture to appear instead. I do not have the level of expertise to confirm whether images like this can appear in a mobile phone’s camera gallery under certain specific conditions. Another possibility is that while rushing back to the kitchen Harold accidentally took a photograph instead of a video while his fingers were obscuring the lens, and this is the end result.
That said I have never seen any image like this appear on my phone, I was not able to successfully recreate it, nor can I find anything similar online. Could the image truly have been some form of communication from the object, even though it seemed to be quite far away at the time? It is interesting that the shape and colour seemed to have similarities to what Harold was witnessing, and he certainly believes it was created on purpose for him to see.
If so then this would then imply that the object was a genuine advanced craft, whose occupants had the ability to directly interact with and modify electrical technology in the local area. Triangular craft are often reported by witnesses, and they often have a light at each corner as Harold observed here. I have dealt with numerous cases where these corner lights have been red in colour, although I cannot recall any cases where they were pink.
If it was a craft, then perhaps it is not a coincidence that it vanished at the moment Harold briefly took his eyes off it. I have dealt with many cases where this has seemingly happened, perhaps too many to be put down to sheer coincidence. Many believe that the beings aboard such craft may know when they are being observed or when they are about to be filmed, and use the opportunity to exit the vicinity.
Conclusion
A distant pyrotechnic/flare, combined with a coincidental camera fault of some kind cannot be entirely ruled out in this incident, so I feel that this is possibly the cause of what took place. However there are still aspects which are intriguing and may point towards something more unusual. As is often the case, it’s going to be down to your own personal opinion.
If you have any information regarding this incident, or know about what may have caused the unusual image found on the witness’s mobile phone please get in touch.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023
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