22nd October 1971 - Clwedog Reservoir, Powys, Wales – Domed Disc Crash
- Chairman Dave
- Jul 29
- 12 min read
Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 29/07/2025
Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used
Over the years I have investigated hundreds of UFO/UAP sightings. In the vast majority of these cases the object(s) seen remain airborne. In rare cases they are seen to descend to or take off from the ground. However this case is rarer still. In this stunning incident, which took place back in the autumn of 1971, a UFO/UAP was observed on fire. According to the elderly witness, who I shall call “Howard”, this object then fell out of the sky and crashed into the Clwedog Reservoir situated in Powys, Wales.
I was put in touch with Howard by his son, who reached out to me on Facebook Messenger in early 2025. Through numerous phone calls I gained an in depth overview of what took place, the details of which will now be shared.
Crash Incident Overview
Back in October 1971 Howard was 28 years old. At the time he lived with his wife and two young children on the North Eastern edge of Hafren Forest, approximately 1 mile away from the village of Staylittle.
Every Monday to Friday he worked night shifts at a company named BRD in Newtown, situated about 15 miles to the East (The company has since disbanded). In order to get to and from work he would drive his Austin 1100 along the B4518 past the North East edge of Clwedog Reservoir.
On the evening of Friday 22nd October Howard set off for work at the usual time of 9pm. It was a wonderfully clear night, with a particularly bright moon in the sky, and the stars fully visible. It was dry, still and not particularly cold.
About 5 minutes into the journey he was driving along the B4518. For a Friday evening it seemed unusually quiet, and there were no other drivers on the road.
Suddenly there was a loud whoosh sound which came from the air over the grass-covered fields off to the right of the road. At the same moment his car engine stopped and he ground to a halt. Looking to the right from where the sound had come from he was astounded to see a disc-shaped object entirely engulfed in flame.
It was quite close to the road, only about 100 yards away, and at quite low altitude, probably only a couple of hundred feet. Not only were there flames completely covering it, obscuring the exact shape, but also what looked like sparks shooting off it.
Howard estimates that the object was between 25-30 feet in diameter. It was travelling on a very slight downward trajectory, and looked like it was in trouble and was going to eventually crash into the ground if it continued on its current course. It was travelling quite fast, in excess of 100mph.
Sitting in the now stopped car, he watched the object for over 30 seconds as it made its way across the fields. Sadly he had no photographic or video camera on him. In the distance ahead was the brow of a hill, beyond which was the main part of the reservoir.
He was convinced that the object, on its gradual decline, would not clear the top of the hill. However as it reached the summit it just about cleared it, and then disappeared out of sight beyond. Howard was intrigued to see where it went, but at present the car engine would not start. He got out and lifted up the bonnet.
The Austin 1100 had a transverse engine setup. In a setup of this type, the number 1 spark plug lead and cap is the spark plug nearest the front of the vehicle. When Howard checked he found that this plug was hanging loose and appeared to have been disconnected. He reconnected it and then tried starting the car again. Luckily it started absolutely fine.
He continued driving along the B4518 in the direction of the hill. He was hoping to see whether the object he had previously witnessed had crash landed so wanted a good vantage point. There is a small car park at the summit, but he felt this would not give him a clear enough view of the surrounding area.
He continued along the road a little more just so he was over the brow of the hill. He then pulled in at the side of the road and got out. Off to his right he now had a clear view of a large part of the Clwedog Reservoir.
The bright moonlight lit the water up extremely well, he could even see the vegetation on the far bank. There was no sign of any burning object or debris. However half way across the reservoir, over the deepest part of the water, he could make out a domed disc-shaped object which appeared to hovering a short distance above the surface.
It was roughly the same size as the burning object he had previously seen, about 25-30 feet across. From his position he could only make out the upper half. It appeared dark gun metal grey in colour. On the side of the central dome he could make out a row of rectangular-shaped windows. These looked slightly lighter than the main body of the object, but were not glowing. There was a singular red light on the outer rim of the object which did not change in brightness.
As he watched he realised the object was rotating slowly in a clockwise direction. If it wasn’t for the light and rectangular windows this may not have been noticeable. Apart from this slow rotation the object appeared completely motionless.
Howard watched it for approximately 15 minutes. During this time no other vehicles came along the road. Even if they had they may not have noticed the object over the water. After this time, without any warning, the object started to ascend vertically at a slow speed. It continued until it was about twice the height of the hill, approximately 400-500 feet up. It then halted briefly.
He could now see the underside of the object. There was a second dome underneath, slightly larger than the upper dome. But apart from this there were no markings or other lights visible.
The object then started moving off to the South West in the direction of the Clwedog Dam at the southern end of the reservoir at a moderate speed.
About 10 seconds later as it reached the dam it greatly increased in velocity and shot away like a bullet to the South West on a straight and level course. It had completely vanished from sight in less than a second!
Howard was absolutely stunned by what he had just witnessed. He knew that both the burning object and the object over the reservoir were completely anomalous, and the second object had clearly been under intelligent control.
He got back into the car and continued his drive to work. Later on he informed a work colleague about the sighting. They did not take the mick, but neither did they didn’t seem particularly interested.
Howard decided not to tell his wife about what he had witnessed due to the fact that they lived remotely on the edge of a forest, and he did not want her to get concerned. However over the weekend he decided to contact the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA) via phone and inform them about the incident.
When he drove back into work on Monday evening his work colleague showed him an article in the Shropshire Star newspaper. The article stated that there had been several other sightings of UFOs in the vicinity earlier in the evening on the same day as his sighting!
Unfortunately Howard did not keep a copy of this article, nor does he remember the specific details of what was reported. He was just aware that the sightings had taken place within the border of Montgomeryshire (now known as Powys). But he believes they may have been previous sightings of the UFO/UAP he witnessed.
Possible Related MIB Incident
Howard never heard back from BUFORA after sending them the completed chart. In the Spring or Summer of 1976 the incident crossed his mind, and he decided to reach out to them by hand-written letter.
A couple of days went by. By 1976 Howard was no longer working for BRD, and instead had an early morning shift at the local Post Office from 5am till mid-day. When he got back in from his shift he got himself some lunch and then went for a nap around 1pm.
At around 3pm he woke up and happened to look out of the front-facing window. It was now that he noticed two men in dark suits, hats and dark sunglasses approach the front gate. They opened the gate, walked down the path and knocked on the door.
Howard did not like the look of the men and was suspicious regarding what they wanted, so pretended he was out and did not answer the door. He watched as the two men left and walked back out of sight.
Son’s Testimony
Throughout his life Howard has mentioned the incident to his son on numerous occasions. His son provided the following statement regarding these conversations.
"The only thing I remember when growing up as a youngster was with him talking about what he had seen but I also vaguely remember seeing paperwork with drawings on them of the UFO, which I believe he had done himself. I assumed the drawings he had done he still had. But they must have been the forms he had sent off."
Incidents Analysis
What Howard witnessed back in 1971 could well be extremely significant – the possible crash of a UFO/UAP into Clwedog Reservoir. UFO/UAP crash cases are extremely rare but do occur from time to time. Could this really be a crash incident which has up until this point been largely kept from the public’s knowledge? There are many aspects worth considering.
Although at present we only have Howard’s detailed testimony to go on, after talking with him in depth about the incident I have no doubt that it occurred as he described. He answered my questions immediately when asked, and it was clear that the experience left a lasting impression on him, hence why he able to recollect it in such good detail decades on. He freely mentioned passing the details on to BUFORA, and his son also confirmed that he recollects his father talking about what happened.
Regarding the burning object, a mundane explanation we need to look into would be a meteorite. At close proximity a meteorite about to reach the ground would very likely be audible. The air disruption caused by the passing of such an object could potentially dislodge one of the spark plugs inside the bonnet of a nearby vehicle, which could explain what happened to Howard’s car at the time.
However there are numerous details which do not fit with this explanation. Meteorites tend to have a burning tail visible behind them as they travel across the sky. Howard did not see a tail, it was just a disc-shaped object covered in flame emitting sparks.
Also if the object was close enough to cause a shockwave and make an audible sound it would have to have been quite close. Meteorites move extremely fast, and are usually only visible for a few seconds before burning up completely. They also tend to descend at a noticeable angle. The object Howard saw was only descending very gradually, and he observed it for around 30 seconds as it approached the hill, so was moving far too slowly to be a meteorite.
It was the wrong shape for a crashing aeroplane or helicopter, and was moving too quickly to be an airship or other large inflatable on fire. The sighting occurred decades before drones were commercially available. Therefore there is the distinct possibility that this was a genuine advanced craft which was in trouble and about to crash.
When Howard reached the summit of the hill he then saw a disc-shaped object hovering over the reservoir. One question to ask is whether this was the same object or not. Could the object have entered the water temporarily, dousing the flames on it, and then it re-emerged unscathed? As Howard stated, it was approximately the same size and shape as the object he had seen on fire.
However he has a different theory entirely. Howard believes that the initial object was a craft, and that it did come down and crash into the water, sinking to the base of the reservoir. He then thinks that a second craft arrived, potentially in an attempt to rescue the crew and/or technology from the crashed craft. He theorises that the initial craft may have sent out some kind of SOS and that the second one was hovering near to where the first one had sunk.
The object seen over the reservoir was clearly not a normal aircraft of any kind. It hovered for an extensive period of time so could not have been an aeroplane. Nor could it have been a helicopter. It had a different appearance, was slowly rotating (something a helicopter would have no need to do), and did not have normal navigation lights. Although helicopters do have red lights, they also have white static, white strobe and green lights, some of which would have also been visible.
The rotation and lighting also put a novelty shaped hot air balloon out of the question. After dark hot air balloon pilots are required legally to hang a white strobe warning light from the basket, which would have been visible.
It was too large to be a remote controlled model, and there would be no reason for someone to fly such a model after dark over the reservoir in the first place.
In addition to this, the sudden increase in speed which the object performed when it left the vicinity put mundane explanations out of the question. We do not possess any military aircraft that can perform such a manoeuvre today, let alone back in the 1970s.
From the witness’s detailed testimony everything points towards this incident being a genuine sighting of either a crash of an advanced craft with a second craft intentionally there to assist, or a singular craft which was on fire and then used the water of the reservoir to put out these flames.
It is unfortunate that Howard did not have a camera with him at the time, as the sighting was quite extensive so he would have had plenty of time to take photographs or video footage. However this is fully understandable as he was just on his regular voyage to work.
It is also unfortunate that he did not retain the article from the newspaper reporting the other sightings in the area. The Wikipedia page for Shropshire Star indicates that it began circulation in 1964:
However when searching for the newspaper on The British Newspaper Archive website the stored articles for the Shropshire Star sadly only go back to 2nd January 1986:
I reached out to the website to ask why this might be the case. Below is their official response E-Mail:
As you can see they did not provide a response regarding why Shropshire Star articles prior to 1986 were not on their site, but did advise going to the British Library. In searching their catalogue I did manage to find Shropshire Star newspaper:
However after chatting online with support staff I was informed that no digital copies of the paper exist, and in order to attempt to track down an article I would need to visit the newsroom at either St Pancras, London or Boston Spa. I intend to visit one of these newsrooms in the near future and attempt to locate the article. If I am successful in doing so it will be added to this report.
Regarding the potential “Men In Black” visit which took place 5 years later, there are multiple possibilities. It is possible these men were actually investigators from BUFORA and had come round to visit unannounced to discuss the sighting in more detail. He had after all sent off the letter to them a few days before, and this would have had his address on. Another possibility is that they were just smartly dressed civilians, for example salespeople attempting to sell a product, or a religious group who wanted to talk.
Of course, there remains the possibility that they were genuinely Men In Black sent out from a governmental or military body who wanted to ask questions about what happened or warn him off talking about it. They could potentially have intercepted the letter he sent and only discovered he had witnessed it at this time, which may have tipped them off regarding Howard’s involvement and address. If so this would explain why they did not visit him sooner to the incident itself.
We will likely never know for certain because he decided to not answer the door, and the men did not make a return visit to the property. Howard informed me that at the time of these incidents he had no real interest in UFO/UAPs and it was only many years later that he learned about visits from Men In Black and their association with the subject.
I would like to thank Howard for getting in touch and going over what took place. It is good to get this potentially important incident down on official record. I hope to obtain some direct drawings from Howard in due course. If you have information regarding any of the incidents which are discussed in this report please get in touch.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025
I live not far from the site that reported this sighting. I must check it out. thanks Dave.