Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 04/03/2020
In late February I gave a talk at New Horizons paranormal group based at St Annes. During one of the breaks I met a man named Aaron who informed me of an unusual UFO sighting he had experienced back in the summer of 2018.
Sighting Details
It was around 3.30pm on a bright, pleasant and still day in August 2018. Aaron had gone out for a walk. When he is out he often checks the skies for anything out of the ordinary. He was walking West along School Road and just heading past St Nicholas Primary School.
Suddenly for some reason he felt compelled to turn around. When he did, in the distance he noticed a black object in the sky slightly off to the left of the road. He could not immediately identify it as a plane or helicopter, and was intrigued as to what it could be.
He began to walk back East along School Road. As he got closer to the object he began to see it in more detail. It appeared to be a flattened black coloured disc. In the middle of the underside of the object was a bright blue light which was constantly lit. On the left side of the object a fin-like shape also protruded. There were no markings or other lights visible. The object appeared to be about the size of a small helicopter, perhaps 15 feet across. It seemed to be at an altitude of about 200 feet.
The UFO seemed to be hovering near to some trees off to the left of the road on the far side of the crossroads with Midgeland Road. He had his mobile phone on him at the time with a camera, but he did not attempt to photograph or video the object as he was more interested in watching it. Aaron informed me that the camera on his phone is quite low quality and it may not have picked it up anyway. As he continued walking it moved slightly to the right and then was lost from view, seemingly having descended down behind the trees out of sight.
As he continued along the road he rang his grandfather who was in Newcastle at the time. He said “I’ve just seen something really seriously strange. Wasn’t a plane or a drone or a helicopter.” His grandfather asked him to describe what it looked like, which he did.
A number of minutes later Aaron crossed over Midgeland Road and entered the field on the far side which contained the copse of trees. However when he arrived at them there was no sign of the object anywhere, it had completely disappeared. There were two other people walking nearby but he did not ask them if they’d seen anything as it looked like they hadn’t. He was convinced the object he had seen was not a conventional aircraft of any kind due to its unusual shape and bright blue light. It also appeared much too large to be a drone or UFO shaped radio controlled model.
Sighting Analysis
This is quite an unusual sighting due to the blue light in the base of the object and odd fin-shape protruding from one side. I have dealt with other cases before involving disc or cigar-shaped craft with small extensions protruding from them, but they are quite rare.
What could the object have been? It was clearly not a helicopter, and was hovering still for too long to have been an aircraft. There is the possibility that it was some kind of unusual lit inflatable, such as a custom-made solar airship. The object did not perform any advanced manoeuvres which would suggest it was under intelligent control. Solar airships are black in colour and always launched on sunny days as this is required to heat up the air inside them. However they are generally cylindrical in shape and do not have any lights on them. Also Aaron thoroughly searched the area of trees which it had seemingly descended into or behind and found nothing. Surely if it was an inflatable that had descended to the ground it would have been quite obvious given the size?
As this sighting took place mid-afternoon on a sunny day there is the possibility other witnesses may have also seen it, although Aaron did not spot anyone who looked like candidates for this. It remains a compelling mystery.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020