Birmingham UFO Group Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 02/11/2022
On Sunday 23rd October 2022 I spoke at the LAPIS UFO & Paranormal Conference up in St Annes, Blackpool. On the same day there was another fascinating talk by crytozoologists Jackie Tonks and Richard Freeman. Towards the end of the conference Jackie approached and informed me that a number of years ago she had an interesting UFO sighting. A few days later I contacted her via phone to go over what happened in more depth.
Sighting Details
Jackie used to live in Chudleigh Knighton, a village in Devon. She rented a cottage on The Chapelry right opposite St Pauls Church.
One early morning in June of either 2012 or 2013 she was awoken by a constant low buzzing sound. The noise was quite unpleasant and made her feel a little nauseous. She could feel it vibrating through the bed. She realised the noise was coming from outside.
Getting out of bed, she pulled back the curtains of her bedroom window. It was around 4.30am and the morning sun had come up. The weather seemed to be clear and dry.
Across the road to the South she noticed that there was a strange localised mist around St Pauls Church. Through this mist she could see a stationary red glowing oval-shaped light which appeared to be hovering near the left side of the roof of the church, around 35-40 feet off the ground. The glow of this light could be seen through the mist.
Intrigued by the light and the strange sound which seemed to be coming from it, she decided to step outside the house and approach it. She was wearing her pyjamas and some socks, and felt that this was enough clothing to go and investigate.
Stepping outside she walked across the back patio and down the steps which led to the road. There was nobody else around due to the time of morning.
As she crossed the road the sound became louder. It was clearly coming from the glowing red light. It was so strong that it began to affect her middle ear and make her feel slightly giddy.
The mist was completely covering the left side of the church, but was also starting to spread across the road. As she crossed the road she entered the edge of it. She noted that it not only looked unusual, but it also was not damp on her skin. It reminded her of dry ice or the mist made by an air diffuser.
On the far side of the road she walked along the flint wall to the left a short distance to get a better view of the red light near the church roof or just beyond it. The open gate of the church was a short distance to herleft, but due to her attire and how giddy she was now feeling she did not enter the church grounds.
She stared at the light for between 10-15 seconds. It was completely motionless and seemed to be about 100 feet away from her position. Suddenly without warning it completely vanished! At the same moment the low buzzing sound also immediately stopped. In place of where the light had been there was an oval-shaped area of mist which was now clear. After several seconds this had been naturally filled back in.
Mystified by what had just taken place Jackie remained standing by the wall. Over the next 3-4 minutes the mist dissipated, much faster than a natural mist would usually do so. The impression was that it had been linked directly with the red glowing object.
With nothing else left to do Jackie walked back to her house. Her socks were now damp from standing on the road, so she took them off. Her mind was too active to go immediately back to bed, so she made herself a cup of coffee. After staying up a short while thinking about what had happened she decided to try and get some sleep.
In the morning when she first woke up she remembered what had taken place and wondered if it had been a strange dream. However when she went downstairs to the kitchen she found her wet socks by the door, and a half drunk cup of coffee on the kitchen surface. This clarified that the incident was real and had taken place.
Later in the day she asked her neighbours if they had heard or seen anything during the night but they informed her they had not. It is likely that they slept through the noise, as if they had woken up to it they would no doubt have been as intrigued by it as Jackie was.
Sighting Analysis
This is an extremely interesting series of events with some truly fascinating aspects.
Firstly we need to need to ascertain whether the sound was coming from the glowing object or whether they were un-related. Obviously when Jackie first noticed the light from her bedroom window there was no way of telling this. As she walked across the road the noise became noticeably louder and started to affect her more, meaning that it was coming from the same direction the light was situated in. She had never heard anything like it before, and did not hear it again any time while she remained living at the address. And when the light vanished the sound also immediately stopped. It would seem like an extremely unlikely coincidence for two un-related things to stop at precisely the same moment. I will therefore assume that the sound was coming from the object.
It also appears that the mist was coming from the object. The fact that when the object disappeared there was a noticeable hole visible indicates that it had been within it. Also the fact that the mist dissipated so quickly after the object had gone suggests that it was being created by it. Jackie mentioned that it looked un-natural and also did not have the usual dampness to it, again pointing away from it being weather related.
Let’s assume for a moment that the mist was natural and just happened to dissipate rapidly and soon after the object left the vicinity. The object remained motionless for a period of time so it cannot have been an aeroplane or micro light. Also there would likely have been other navigation light colours coming through the mist such as green or white.
Other navigation lights would also be expected if it was a helicopter hovering close to the church, and any red light seen would not have been oval in shape. A red glowing inflatable such as a red LED balloon would very likely have drifted even in relatively still conditions. The sun rises in the East, not the South West, so Jackie cannot have been viewing the morning sun through the mist and mistaking it for an object.
While drones sometimes only have red lights which could conceivably bleed together into an oval shape through the mist, there are two aspects of the incident which point away from any of these mundane explanations. Firstly the sound was nothing like that of an aircraft, helicopter or drone. Jackie says that when she worked in Plymouth she used to park very close to where helicopters would land and take off from Derriford Hospital. She also informed me that there is a holiday park called Finlake close to Chudleigh Knighton and she would regularly see and hear micro lights which had taken off from it. Also her friend's father owned a micro light and would sometimes fly it right over their heads for fun. So she is extremely familiar with how these sound at close proximity. She has also flown a drone before and knows the buzzing sound that this creates. Obviously if the red light had been coming from some kind of lit inflatable there would have been no sound at all.
In addition to this, none of these things would have instantly vanished without trace. They could conceivably have flown away from the location, but in doing so surely Jackie would have noticed the light slowly fade away rather than just blink out? Whatever the object was, it appeared to have been present at one moment and then gone the next, and the fact that there was an oval-shaped “hole” left in the mist indicates that it was situated within it rather than further away.
Conclusion
There are just too many unusual aspects of this incident for it to be easily dismissed as something mundane, even if the buzzing sound, glowing light and mist were all to be considered separately from one another (which evidence points towards not being the case).
I feel it is probable that this was a genuine close encounter with an advanced craft of some kind. Due to the oval shape of the red light, it is likely that the entire craft was glowing red rather than it being a light attached to it, although as it was never seen clearly this cannot be confirmed.
I have investigated many cases where craft have vanished suddenly, and numerous cases where a low frequency buzzing/humming sound has been heard. The presence of the mist seemingly being ejected from it is more unusual, although I’m sure there are similar cases on record. Perhaps it was interacting with the air around it in some way which led to the formation of the mist.
It is a shame that nobody else appeared to have heard or sighted the object. This was probably due to the time of morning that it occurred. Obviously it is still possible that there were other witnesses who Jackie did not manage to speak with. If you have any information relating to this fascinating incident please get in touch.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2022