November/December 1971/72 – Netherfield, Nottingham – Red Orb Sighting

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Birmingham UFO Group Case Report

Author: Dave Hodrien

Release Date: 11/11/2026

Birmingham UFO Group’s Facebook community page, BUFOG Truthseekers, now has over 2000 members. In October 2026 I posted a link to a case report covering some red orbs witnessed on a recent sky watch of ours which took place at the Clent Hills. In response to this, one of the group members, Chris Hayward, left a message to say that back in the early 1970s he also had a sighting of a red orb. I reached out to him via Facebook Messenger to find out more information.

Sighting Details

Chris says that it happened so long ago he cannot remember the specific date, but thinks it happened about 10pm on an evening in either November or December of 1971 or 1972 when he was 19 years old. At the time he lived on Louise Avenue, Netherfield, Nottingham.

On the evening of the incident he was walking North West over a railway footbridge close to where Colwick Loop Road crosses the nearby railway line (The footbridge is no longer present). It was a clear evening and due to the time of year already fully dark. He looked over at the stars on his right and noticed a red coloured orb of light in the sky to the East. It appeared to be several miles away and at quite high altitude.

*Modern view of the sighting location taken from Colwick Loop Road*

It was travelling slowly on a straight course from his right to his left in a North Westerly direction. After several seconds the orb suddenly came to a halt in the sky. At this point he realised it could not be an aeroplane, and the lack of sound implied it wasn’t a helicopter either, as sound travels extremely well after dark. Unfortunately he did not have a camera on him at the time.

*Map modified by witness to show position of railway bridge and route of the UFO*

He stared at the light for a further 30 seconds. Then without warning it ascended vertically at an incredible pace. It was gone in the blink of an eye! He realised he had just witnessed something very unusual indeed. As he continued his walk he thought about what he had just observed.

Sighting Analysis

This is a fascinating sighting, especially considering when it took place. If someone reported a sighting of this nature today I would immediately suspect that they had witnessed a drone with red lights on (in fact I have dealt with other cases where this was extremely likely to be the explanation). However, this took place in the early 1970’s, decades before drones were commercially available or in use by the military.

Red laser lights were also not in usage back in the 1970s so again can be discounted. The fact that the object suddenly stopped rules out a plane, just as Chris noted. The instant acceleration and vertical ascent which it then performed was clearly much too fast to have been a helicopter, flare drifting extremely slowly, remote controlled model or lit inflatable.

Despite this being a distant sighting there are no rational mundane possibilities which can explain what Chris witnessed this evening. It is certainly possible that this was an advanced craft of some kind under intelligent control.

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