23/08/2026 – Maypole, Birmingham – Silver Oblong UFO Sighting

Chairman Dave

12 hours ago

4 min read

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report

Author: Dave Hodrien

Release Date: 07/10/2026

Sighting Details

At 5:27pm on 23^rd August 2026 Garry was staying at Travelodge Maypole Birmingham hotel on Maypole Lane.

He was relaxing on the balcony at the back of the building watching planes land and take off from Birmingham International Airport in the distance to the North East.

*Aerial map indicating Travelodge (A) and Birmingham International Airport (B)*

*Photograph of the rear of the building showing the balcony*

*Photograph in the direction the witness was facing (taken at ground height)*

A much closer plane came in from the North West travelling on a straight course. This caused him to look up. As he did he noticed a distant object to the North East at an elevation of about 30 degrees. It appeared to be hovering motionless, silent, and brightly reflecting the sunlight. He took a couple of photographs:

After 45 seconds he noticed it was beginning to slowly move so took a couple more:

The object wasn’t coming out particularly clearly so he zoomed in on it and took a further four photographs:

To his naked eye the object looked like a reflective sphere, but on the photos it looked more cuboid in shape. A minute and a half later he took another photograph of the object:

After this he lost sight of it. But three and a half minutes he once again noticed the object, this time over the trees and suburban housing to the East. It was now reflecting the light less brightly and possible to see that it was silver in colour. Garry got the impression it was about the height a patrol helicopter would fly at (500 feet) and at least 30 feet across. He took a further six photos as it slowly moved away:

Then suddenly without warning it vanished from sight. Garry felt sure that it had not disappeared due to the distance it was at, and as you can see from the photos there were no clouds in the sky for it to have been hidden from view behind.

Sighting Analysis

The plane which caused Garry to look up was AFR88JK, an Air France Airbus 220-300, as shown on Flight Radar:

I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the photographs, but checking the metadata of them proves that they have not been tampered with. Here is the metadata for the 10^th photograph Garry took, the clearest shot of the object:

The Camera Info, Creator Software, Make, Model, Software and Profile Copyright indicate that the photos were taken on a Samsung Galaxy S23 FE smartphone and have not been modified by any image editing software. The Timestamp, CreateDate, ModifyDate, DateTimeOriginal, SubSecCreateDate, SubSecModifyDate and SubSecDateTimeOriginal all confirm that the photograph was taken at the date and time stated by the witness. While it is possible to modify photographic metadata, most people do not even realise it exists let alone how to alter it.

In the first couple photos Garry took the object is so far away that it’s extremely hard to see:

The third and fourth photos appear to show two objects. It’s possible that the second object was a second similar object which Garry didn’t notice at the time, or potentially a bird. There are no other aircraft in the vicinity which could account for it:

The initial zoomed photos do show that the shape of the object is more square or rectangular rather than spherical. It is hard to see much detail due to the bright sunlight reflecting off it. Here is a zoomed view of the third zoomed shot:

The same zoomed view with edge find:

The photographs to the East are clearer with less sunlight reflection, likely due to the change in angle. Here is a zoomed view from the first photo:

Zoomed view with edge find:

In the second of these later photos the object almost looks metallic pink in colouration. However, as this colour can only be seen in the one image I think it is likely down to reflection rather than the actual colour:

Edge find on the above zoomed image:

It is hard to gauge the actual shape of the object, but best estimation would be a vertically positioned rounded rectangle. As it is in the sky with no point of reference it is hard to tell exactly how large it is.

The object did not perform any advanced manoeuvres at any point of the sighting. When I spoke with Garry he seemed impressed by how far it had moved across the sky between losing sight of it and then catching sight of it again. However, this was over three minutes, easily enough time for it to have drifted.

It does not have the appearance of a normal aeroplane, helicopter or drone. My opinion is that the object was most likely a silver coloured novelty balloon drifting on air currents. The witness likely estimated it to be further away that it in fact was. When it disappeared from view this was probably down to a combination of the distance it had drifted away into combined with it changing angle and not catching the sunlight as brightly as it had done previously.

As it was observed over a number of minutes, there may be other witnesses who have yet to come forward. Please get in touch if you have any additional information.

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