Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 16/03/2024
Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used
In late January 2024 I was contacted by a lady who I shall call "Diedre" via the Birmingham UFO Group website. She wished to report a sighting of a triangular shaped object she had witnessed while travelling between Banbury and Stafford. This report covers the details of what took place and investigative analysis.
Sighting Details
Between 4-4.30pm on Thursday 25th January 2024 Diedre was travelling from Banbury to Stafford on the M42 motorway with her son "Luke". She was in the passenger seat while Luke was driving. Due to the time of day the road was very busy. It was a dry and still afternoon. The sun had started to set and it was quite dark, yet not pitch black.
They were driving slowly along the left lane of the motorway, heading North, 1 mile after Junction 7 M6 North exit. Traffic was very slow due to congestion.
As they slowly approached a bridge over the motorway. For much of the motorway a line of trees blocks the view of the sky, but at this position there is an embankment free of trees, giving a view of the sky to the North West. Diedre happened to look out of the passenger side window at this patch of sky. It was now that she noticed a hovering object.
The object looked like an upright equilateral triangle, and appeared to be within a mile of their position. It seemed much lower than a plane would usually fly at, perhaps 2000-3000 feet up. The main body of the object looked dark grey or black in colour, although this was not very clear due to the darkness. At each corner was a static light. The lights at the top and lower right corners were white in colour. The lower left light was orangey-red in colour. They were all static and non-strobing. If it was at the distance that it appeared to be, Diedre estimates that it was about as wide as 2/3 of the length of a football pitch (approximately 230 feet).
Diedre wound down her window to get a better look at it. She briefly lost sight of it as they travelled under the bridge. It was still visible when they emerged. She exclaimed that she could see a triangular-shaped object over the fields. Luke briefly crouched down in his seat and looked left through the passenger side window and also got a look at it. He replied “You are right, it is a triangle!”
Due to the high amount of traffic he did not stop the car, however Diedre was able to look at it as they slowly drove about 100 yards along the road, sometimes having to briefly stop behind other vehicles. She lost sight of it temporarily as they passed under the bridge, but it was still visible on the other side. The object appeared to be stationary. It possibly could have been moving very slowly but if so this was undetectable due to the car’s movement.
After three to four minutes she lost sight of it out of the left side of the passenger side window. She did not have a smartphone or camera on her at the time. Luke's smartphone was in his jacket pocket on the back seat of the car out of reach. Diedre was too busy watching the object to think about asking her son to stop the car on the hard shoulder so she could get his phone and attempt to take some footage.
Later on both Diedre and Luke checked online to see if anyone else had reported seeing it, but did not find anything.
Luke’s Testimony
In March 2024 Luke contacted me via E-Mail to provide a testimonial statement about what took place.
“I can confirm I also saw the dark triangle on the evening my mother told you about. I didn’t see it in the same location it was a small way past the bridge having driven a small distance. I don’t remember the bridge but I did see a dark triangular shape as described by my mother.
I only saw it for two or three seconds as I was focused on the traffic. I can say it was not a plane coming in to land. It looked to be banking away flying from East to West i.e. Coleshill towards Birmingham centre.
I am familiar with the flight paths of the planes at the airport. I live under a path and also have seen Flight Radar where the flight paths are shown.”
As you can see Luke's testimony matches that of his mother’s. It appears that his impression was the object was moving and heading West away from their location rather than stationary. However he was only able to observe it for a few seconds. Diedre was able to view it for much longer and I feel that during that time period it would have become obvious that it was travelling Westward.
Sighting Analysis
This is an intriguing sighting due to the shape of the object and its apparent lighting. Due to the angle the object was being viewed at, and the length of the sighting, if it had been travelling across the sky this would have become obvious. So an aeroplane or microlight can be ruled out.
It was not the correct shape for a helicopter hovering over the fields. Also the lighting was incorrect for normal navigation lights. Helicopters (and aeroplanes) have red, green, white static and white strobing lights after dark:
Flight Radar 24 also confirms that there were no tracked aircraft in the vicinity between 4.00-4.30pm. The only tracked aircraft that passed anywhere near was British Airways flight BA1489 travelling from Glasgow to London at 4.12pm:
However this was too far to the West to have been seen at all, and even if it had been in view the plane was moving fast in a South South East direction which would have been obvious over the length of time of the sighting.
Due to the proximity to Birmingham International the area lies within controlled airspace, both above and below 4000 feet, as confirmed by 360 Radar:
Not all aircraft are tracked, however when flying within controlled airspace aircraft are required to have a tracker fitted. This means that it is extremely unlikely that the object was an untracked helicopter. Also Diedre informed me that they live between the base of the local air ambulance, Cosford RAF base, and the local hospital which has a landing area on its roof, so is very familiar with how helicopters look after dark at different altitudes and distances.
If the object was not a plane or helicopter what could it have been? It was clearly a singular solid object rather than three glowing smaller objects arranged in a triangular formation. Due to the apparent large size, a lit inflatable such as an LED balloon, drone or RC model can all be discounted.
Hot air balloons are not flown after dark, as their pilots are only allowed to operate them in FAA VFR conditions, meaning they need to be able to see clearly for up to three miles. In addition to this, the only lighting which would be seen on a balloon would be the flame at its base.
With these mundane explanations discounted, it is reasonable to consider that this may have been a sighting of what is commonly referred to as a Flying Triangle, one of the more commonly reported types of craft, possibly of extra-terrestrial origin. I have investigated many Flying Triangle sightings over the years and more often than not they do have a singular light at each corner, in some cases varying colours. Flying Triangles are usually very dark in colour and can seemingly hover stationary in the sky, just as Diedre has reported.
I would like to thank both Diedre and Luke for coming forward with this information, and their dedication to working out the precise position that the sighting took place. If you believe you may have seen it too or have any further details please get in touch.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2024