10th October 1990 – Walsall – Glowing White Cigar Sighting

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report

Author: Dave Hodrien

Release Date: 18/05/2025

In March 2025 I was contacted by a man named Gary Freeman via the BUFOG website to inform us about a historical UFO/UAP sighting he and his wife at the time Suzanne had. This report covers what took place.

Sighting Details

On the evening of 10th October 1990 Gary and Suzanne drove to the NEC for a Billy Joel concert. After the show they walked back to their car and got back on the road to head for home, with Gary driving and Suzanne in the passenger seat. It was a mild and dry night. Gary cannot recall whether it was cloudy or not.

They began heading North West along the M6 motorway. At approximately 11.30pm they were between Junctions 8 and 9 close to the RAC rescue centre, RAC Bescot. Due to the time of night there was only very light traffic on the road.

Aerial map of M6 indicating the position the witnesses were at

Photograph of the M6 around where the incident took place

Gary was checking the left side mirror when suddenly through the passenger window he saw a brightly glowing white cigar-shaped object appear in the sky to the South West at an elevation of approximately 45 degrees. It reminded him of a fluorescent light tube. He pointed it out to Suzanne.

Photograph of the sighting location in the direction the UFO was situated

The object was stationary and positioned at a sharp angle, at roughly 10 o’clock position. It was hard to judge how far away it was, but it looked quite large in size, about 50% of the width of the window. They both stared at it while continuing to drive along the motorway.

Mock up of the UFO based on witness description

After about 10 seconds it suddenly began shrinking down to the size of a star, then disappeared. Neither of them could explain what they had just witnessed. They discussed what it could have been as they continued their drive home.

The following morning Gary mentioned the sighting to his work colleagues. However they did not seem to be surprised. Some girls in the office informed him that the BBC had reported on the morning radio multiple UFO sightings around the Birmingham area on the previous night. Gary is unsure whether the other objects reported by people looked the same as what he and Suzanne had seen.

Sighting Analysis

Due to the shape and apparent size of the object seen this is certainly an intriguing sighting. Due to the proximity of the sighting location to Birmingham International Airport (roughly 5 miles away) I asked Gary whether he felt it may have been an aircraft with its landing lights on. He does not believe this was the case because he has previously lived close to Manchester and Liverpool airports so is familiar with how planes look at a distance after dark.

Aerial map showing the sighting location (A) and Birmingham International Airport (B)

In addition to Gary’s familiarity with aircraft, there are other reasons for why it was unlikely to be a plane. If it was a plane, the sharp angle of the object in the sky means that it would have had to have been performing a turn. However it appeared stationary for the entire duration of the sighting. If it was turning in the sky, some movement would surely have been noticeable within the ten seconds it was observed for?

Also even though the bright landing lights of a plane can obscure other navigation lights at a distance, if it was plane it would have had to have been quite close to have taken up half the width of the passenger window in the sky. If it was close, other red and green lights or white strobe lights would have been visible to the witnesses.

Drawing indicating normal navigation lights of a passenger jet

If it was not an aeroplane, what else could it have been? It was the wrong shape for a stationary helicopter, and once again other navigation lights would have been noticeable.

Even though it appeared to be within the atmosphere, we must consider objects out in orbit. Gary cannot recall whether it was a clear night or not. However it was too large and the wrong shape for a satellite moving towards them and catching the sun’s rays temporarily. Meteorites are only visible for a few seconds at most so cannot be the explanation. Nor could it have been the International Space Station as this was not in orbit until 1998.

A large lit inflatable would have remained visible in the sky. The sighting obviously occurred decades before drones were commercially available so this possibility can also be discounted.

With alternative explanations addressed, there remains the possibility that the object was a genuine advanced craft of possible non-human origin. I have investigated many cases of glowing cigar-shaped objects before. We will likely never know whether the other sightings reported by the BBC were of the same/similar objects, but this cannot be ruled out.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025