Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Last Updated: 29/12/2014
For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used
Darren is a contactee who has had a number of experiences over the years involving UFOs and beings. On the evening of Friday 5th December 2014 he and his wife Emma witnessed a large triangular-shaped UFO which they attempted to capture on video.
Sighting Overview
The witnesses were at their home on Rushbury Road, Wellington, Telford. At approx 7.35pm Emma went out into the back garden for a cigarette while Darren remained in the living room. It was a cold night with low lying hazy cloud covering most of the sky, although a few stars and the moon could be seen through this.
Looking down the garden to the South-West-West, she noticed several white lights in the distance in the sky behind the copse of trees on Admaston Road, about half a mile from their location. There were two lights at the top and one between them lower down making a triangular formation. She at first assumed these were planes following one another.
However she soon realised that the lights were holding position with one another and that there was no discernible sound coming from them. They seemed to rotate slowly in formation with one another, and at this point she noticed that the area of sky between them was a solid black colour, darker than the hazy cloud cover. It became clear that what she was looking at was a massive black triangular-shaped object which had a white flashing light at each of its corners.
Aerial map showing the sighting location (A) and the estimated location of the UFO (B):
Photograph near to the sighting location taken in the direction of the object:
After watching for about 20 seconds she called Darren shouting “Darren come here quick!” Darren joined her in the back garden and she pointed out the object to him. At first it was completely motionless but then after about 6 seconds it began to slowly turn. The object was absolutely huge in size. Darren estimates it was between 150-200 feet across. Soon after realising what he was looking at Darren took out Emma’s smartphone which he happened to have on him. He tried to begin videoing but instead accidentally took a still photograph in the direction of the object. He then managed to start the video recording off.
Drawing by Darren showing how the UFO appeared to his naked eye:
The object hovered motionless for a further 40 seconds before slowly descending until it was lost from sight behind the tree line. At this Darren ran inside the house and went upstairs to see if he could still observe the UFO. However he soon realised it was no longer visible. He stopped filming and went down to join Emma.
They continued to watch a number of minutes to see if it would reappear. When it did not Darren decided to immediately call me to inform me about what they had both witnessed. They did not drive over to where the object had been situated as Emma was nervous about doing so.
While speaking with them on the phone, they were able to upload and send me both the video and still photograph. Please see below for a full analysis.
Photograph Analysis
Prior to videotaping the UFO, Darren accidentally took a single still image on the smartphone he was using. Although it is far from clear due to the darkness at the time, both the witnesses believe that this photograph has managed to capture the presence of the object in the sky.
Below is the original photograph which Darren took:
Here is the photograph after being ran through some saturation filters on the computer, and with annotations added by Darren:
After speaking with the witnesses in great depth minutes after the sighting took place, I have absolutely no doubt that this is a real photograph taken at the time of the sighting. Although a definite triangular shape cannot be made out, it is clear to see that there is something there which is causing colour differences in the image. As this is at the location that the witnesses observed the object, we can therefore assume that it has been picked up.
Video Analysis
Unfortunately, just like the photograph, it was too dark for the camera to pick up most of the object. Here is the video footage which was taken:
After asking the witnesses additional questions and thoroughly checking the footage, below is an overview of what is seen and heard:
0.01 - Very small dim light very briefly appears then vanishes again. Darren believes that this is one of the corner lights of the UFO. He says that most of the time the flashing corner lights have not been picked up but very occasionally they were.
0.02 - Darren exclaims “There’s no light.” He is referring to the fact that although he can see the UFO with his naked eyes, it is too dark to be picked up on the video screen.
0.03 - Dim light appears to mid right. This is light from the upstairs window of a nearby house and is visible for much of the footage.
0.04 – Darren says “Can’t see anything.”
0.09 – Darren asks “Where is it? Is it still there?” The reason he asks this is that he is looking at the video screen trying to locate the UFO. Emma responds saying “It’s still there darling”.
0.11 – One of the corner lights of the UFO again very briefly appears in a similar location to before.
0.13 – Darren replies “Oh yeah.” At this point he had looked away from the phone and could see the shape of the object and all three flashing white lights.
0.16 – A row of white Christmas lights enters frame at left edge.
0.21 – Darren says “It’s just hovering isn’t it?” to which Emma responds “Mmm.”
0.25 – Emma says “The thing is, what’s that that’s following it?” Emma was standing on the back door step a little higher than Darren at this point. She confirms that she saw what appeared to be lights following in sync of one another seemingly following/approaching the UFO. This suggests that there was another aircraft in the area, perhaps on intercept of the object, perhaps just passing. Either way they may well have been aware of the UFO given its apparent size.
0.30 – Orange street light enters frame at left close to Christmas lights. 0.31 – Emma exclaims “It’s getting brighter”, referring to one of the corner lights of the UFO. However nothing is picked up on camera at this point.
0.33 – Darren says “I can’t see it anymore, ‘cause it’s going over there.” At this point Darren says the object had started to descend and was harder to observe.
0.41 – Emma exclaims “Whoa! See that bright light?” Darren replies “Yeah.” At this time a small light can be seen flickering on and off rapidly near the middle of the frame. The witnesses confirm that this is one of the corner lights shortly before the object vanished from sight behind the tree-line.
0.44 – The nearby bedroom light visible on the right of the frame is switched off.
0.47 – Darren says “I need to go out and look out of the bedroom window.” Emma replies “Go on then. Just don’t let the cats in.” At this point he could no longer see the UFO with his naked eye so wanted to move to a higher vantage point to see if he could spot it again.
0.50 – Darren enters the kitchen and runs through house to continue filming from upstairs. As he moves he says to Emma “You've seen your first UFO!” then “That was seen before weren't it?” (Referring to the previous police sighting)
1.12 – Street light and row of Christmas lights clearly visible from bedroom window. Another orange light and clump of 3 smaller lights also visible in the middle of the picture. These are other local street lighting which were not visible before due to the lower filming height.
1.33 – As the object is no longer in sight Darren switches off the camera.
Sighting Analysis
I have absolutely no doubt that Darren and Emma witnessed what they said they did. It is clear from the phone call from Darren and talking on the video that they had both just witnessed something highly unusual.
I feel quite sure that what was observed was a large triangular-shaped object with flashing white light at each corner, rather than three individual flashing objects such as helicopters with strobes on. The witnesses say that they could see the main body of the object, and that it was darker than the background sky. Also whenever the lights moved they would all move together in the same manner, suggesting they were all part of a single object. The UFO was within half a mile of their position, yet there was no detectable sound coming from it.
While neither the photograph or the video footage are conclusive evidence of a large triangular-shaped object, the flashing light which suddenly appears at 41 seconds into the video footage goes on and off far more quickly than the flashing lights seen on aircraft and helicopters, tending to suggest it was something else entirely.
Considering the large size of the object and the fact that it appeared to be in close proximity to a main road, it is certainly possible that there are other witnesses who are yet to come forward. However it was very dark so may not have been noticed by some, and once it had descended below the treeline it would only have been visible from certain locations.
Looking at all the evidence available I feel it is likely that the witnesses observed a Flying Triangle, one of the more commonly reported types of craft, which may well have been extra-terrestrial in origin. It is unknown whether its presence was anything to do with Darren’s previous contact experiences or not. There is the possibility it was in the area to monitor him in some way, however he did not notice direct interaction of any kind.
Darren’s contact experiences have been written up in a separate case report which you can read in the contact cases section of this blog (West Bromwich Contact Case).
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2014