August 2005 - Bridport - White Orb Sighting

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report

Author: Dave Hodrien

Originally forwarded by Richard Hall

Release Date: 02/07/2011

Sighting Details

On a clear sunny afternoon in August 2005 shop re-fitter Toni Cliff was working alongside a number of others on the M&Co clothing shop, East Street, Bridport. It was a week day early in the month but Toni cannot remember the exact date. The sky above was completely cloudless; it was a warm day with no wind. It was between 1-2pm in the afternoon.

Aerial map of East Street showing the sighting location:

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Photograph of M&Co:

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Toni and his three work mates Steven, Charlie and Martin were at the rear of the shop having a tea break. Above them in the sky was a bird. Steven asked Toni what kind of a bird it was. He replied that it was a buzzard. They continued to stare up into the sky. Then Toni noticed a white spherical object. It was almost directly overhead, but off to his right a short way. It looked like it was at high altitude, and appeared to be about the size of a car.

He asked Steven “Can you see that up there?” Steven replied that he could. At first the object appeared to be moving on a straight and level course to the North. It appeared to be moving at a very fast speed. Toni estimates it was moving three times as fast as a jet airliner. Then suddenly the sphere seemed to rapidly ascend at a sharp angle for a moment, before levelling out again. As the men watched it continued to make these abrupt stepping manoeuvres.

After about 30 seconds the object suddenly turned sharply to the East. It continued heading East for a short distance and then seemed to fade out of sight, despite the fact that it was a clear day with good visibility.

The men discussed what they had just seen and after a few minutes the realisation that they had witnessed a UFO began to sink in. Later back home Toni thought about the object again and it bothered him, he felt vulnerable and was a little scared. Soon afterwards he told his family what he had seen. They believed him although suggested it was down to misidentification of a mundane object.

Toni still remembers the incident extremely clearly. Unfortunately he has not kept in touch with Steven, the other witness to the object, so I am not able to speak with him regarding the sighting unless he reads this and gets in touch.

Sighting Analysis

If the object had just been travelling on a straight course, this sighting could have been put down to a white coloured balloon caught in high altitude air currents. However the manoeuvres it was making appeared to be controlled rather than random. Also we must take into consideration that if it was at the altitude it appeared to be then it would have had to have been quite large to have been seen from the ground. It appeared to be moving extremely rapidly, much faster than something drifting in the wind would, and it was a still day so the likelihood it was extremely breezy at higher altitude is low. It is possible that it was not white, but was metallic and reflecting the sunlight. However Toni does not elude to this possibility, to him it appeared white in colour.

I feel that the aspects of the sighting point towards it being something out of the ordinary. Sightings of white/metallic spherical UFOs are regularly reported all around the world. There is the possibility that this was a genuine advanced craft, perhaps of extraterrestrial origin.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2011