10/02/2008 - Kingswinford - Black Octagonal UFO Sighting

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report

Author: Dave Hodrien

Release Date: 13/04/2008

The Investigation

The Kingswinford UFO incident occurred on the night of Sunday 10th February 2008, in Ridgewood near to Wordsley. The four witnesses involved often go to the woods in the late evening, start a fire and relax with some drinks till early hours of the morning. 10th February was one of these nights, but was by no means the first time they had been at the location. During their evening they had a close encounter with an extremely unusual flying object. The sighting lasted for quite a long time and certainly warranted a detailed investigation.

On the evening of Saturday 12th April 2008 myself, my girlfriend Katie Francis and brother Andrew drove out to meet two of the four witnesses at the Old Cat pub, Wordsley. We arrived at 8.10pm and soon met up with Christian and Will Horton and their friend Tom. After a short while we then drove to meet up with the 3rd witness Jim Lees. Shortly after went and picked up the 4th witness Dave Moore, while Will, Jim and Tom walked on ahead to start up a fire at the location of the incident.

Christian then directed us to Highcroft Avenue where we parked the car. One of the entrances to Ridgewood, the one always used by the witnesses, lies at the end of this road. We grabbed some drinks and snacks and entered the woods at 10.15pm.

Arial view showing entrance to wood:

Despite it having rained and hailed earlier in the day, the weather conditions were now very clear. The sky was filled with stars and there was only light cloud cover. I am also glad to say that it wasn’t too cold. Ridgewood lies on a slope, and after crossing a stile we found ourselves at the base of this. It was quite dark but due to the moonlight still possible to see. We had a torch with us anyway which we used to point out the many roots we had to step over. Even with this, I still managed to trip on one but luckily was not injured. As the ground began to level out at the top of the slope, Christian and Dave lead us along the path through the trees. After a short distance we entered the clearing where the incident took place. The others were already there and had got a nice fire going in the designated spot, a clear flat area of ground surrounded by logs and a couple of fallen trees. There was a clear view of the night sky above our heads and off to the west, towards the villages of Enville and Kinver. The woods were silent except for very occasional sounds of animals scuttling through the bushes. It was quite serene and not at all creepy. I felt I would have been comfortable walking there even on my own. The witnesses said the same, they had been to this clearing many times before, and had occasionally had to do this journey by themselves to meet up with the others.

Arial view of sighting location:

Photograph of us and the witnesses at the clearing (From left to right - Kate, Dave, Will, Jim, Andrew, Christian):

Shortly after arriving I decided to interview each of the witnesses independently. One at a time I took them off to the side of the clearing and went through the same questions with them. All the witnesses seemed very sincere and believable, I have no doubt in my mind that they were telling the truth about what they saw. Their answers to the questions tied up on the whole. There were slight variations relating to the description of the object, movement and length of time of the sighting, but I got the feeling these were just down to their personal interpretation of what they saw, and also the fact it had been over two months since the incident took place. None of the witnesses appeared to be joking about the incident or elaborating on it in any way. They have gained nothing from revealing the details of their sighting. I believe it to be genuine.

After interviewing the witnesses, Christian then took me to the edge of the woods where they had followed the object and then watched it for a while longer. There is a path leading round the edge of Ridgewood, along which runs a hedge and barbed wire fence. Peering over the hedge it is possible to see quite a way into the East, looking out over the lights of Dudley. Chris pointed out the location in the sky where the object moved to and performed manouvers for a time. He also mentioned to me the location of the field where they had returned to with their friend after the initial sighting of the object was over.

Arial view showing witness position where they continued to watch the UFO:

Photograph of Christian pointing out the direction which they watched the UFO move off in:

Returning to the fire I then took some photographs. It was at this moment that something unsual happened. Dave saw a yellow flash of light coming from the west low down behind the trees. He said it glowed brightly and then faded away. We jokingly said it must have been the camera flash and nothing more was said about it.