Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Originally forwarded by Richard Hall
Release Date: 25/07/2011
In July 2011 Janice got in touch with me via Richplanet.net to provide details of two UFO sightings she has had – once when she was quite young and a second sighting she has had in the mid 90s. The most interesting thing is that both of these sightings appeared to be of a similar object performing similar manoeuvres.
1951 – The First Sighting
Janice’s first UFO sighting occurred in the second week of October 1951 when she was only 5 years old. It was mid-day and sadly the day of her father’s funeral. She was sitting on the steps of her neighbour’s house on Sturdee Avenue, Gillingham, Kent alongside her 14 year old neighbour who was comforting her. The weather was very clear and sunny.
Aerial map of Sturdee Avenue showing the position of the witnesses:
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Glancing up into the sky to the North the girls noticed an object at high altitude. It appeared to be oval or lozenge shaped and was a dull silver colour. It appeared to be very large in size. Unlike most normal aircraft which travelled across the sky on a straight path, this object travelled in an arc and left no trail behind it. It moved in a Southerly direction.
Modern photograph of sighting location in the direction the UFO was seen:
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Witness drawing showing the UFO, its movement path and the position of her and her neighbour:
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Janice remembers watching it for between 5-10 minutes until it had vanished out of sight. Due to the distance it was hard to judge how fast it was moving at. Even though she was only young, she remembers the incident in quite good detail, especially considering the day it occurred on. She does not remember telling anyone about the sighting, and is unsure whether her neighbour ever did.
This is an interesting sighting of something which was clearly not a conventional aircraft. Both witnesses were used to seeing planes fly over so knew that this was different. However I do wonder if the object was a blimp at high altitude. We must consider the fact that it did not perform any abrupt manoeuvres. Also the witnesses were both quite young, and had probably not seen one of these before. When I suggested this possibility to Janice she did admit that this may have been the cause, though says that she could not find any information on airships travelling in that area back in the 1950s. The witnesses were quite sure that whatever it was it was at very high altitude, so it must have been sizeable, too big to have been an inflatable or balloon.
Autumn 1994/95 – The Second Sighting
On an early morning in the autumn of 1994 or 1995 when she was 48/49 years old, Janice had gone out to do her shopping at Sainsburys in Burnley, Lancashire. It was between 8.30 - 9.00am. It was a very clear and sunny morning with a cloudless blue sky. The moon was also still visible in the sky, and was a pink and mauve colour due to the morning light. Janice was climbing up a short hill on Church Lane alongside St Peters church.
Aerial map of Church Lane showing position of the witness (A) and location of Sainsburys (B):
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As she looked up at the moon she suddenly noticed something else in the sky. She was astounded to see something which looked very similar to what she had seen back in 1951 – a dull silver coloured oval-shaped object! It appeared to be numerous miles away in the distance and was level with the moon in the sky but off to the right of it. It actually looked like it was coming out from behind the moon itself, so Janice assumed it was out in space.
Photograph of the sighting location in the direction the UFO was seen:
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The object seemed to be of considerable size and moving at a fast speed. Just like her previous sighting, the object travelled in an arc across the sky. She watched it for 3-4 minutes until it had gone out of sight. Janice is convinced that it was something out of the ordinary. It did not look like a conventional aircraft of any kind. She also feels it is unlikely to have been a secret military craft as she saw the same thing back in 1951 and does not think they would have been sophisticated enough back then to create such a craft. I would disagree with this, as it is widely known that the Nazis were working on disc-shaped craft back in World War II, however if such a craft was being flown it is unlikely this would be done near to residential areas in plain sight.
Witness drawing showing the UFO, its movement path and the position she was at:
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In this second sighting it is very unlikely that the object actually was behind the moon out in space. If it was then it would have had to have been absolutely massive to have been seen from Earth, and would have been known about and reported by many other witnesses and astronomers. It is much more likely that its positioning in the sky gave the impression that it was coming out from behind the moon, and that it was distant but actually in the atmosphere, similar to the first sighting.
Conclusion
It is very interesting that both of Janice’s sightings have been of seemingly very similar objects. Could this just be a coincidence, or did she experience two sightings of the same craft? Neither sighting seems intentional or directly linked to her, on both occasions the object was distant and there was no interaction in any way. Therefore it seems more probable that she was in the right place at the right time on both occasions and just happened to see two objects that essentially looked the same. Whether they were both genuine ET craft or something else entirely is hard to say. They certainly appeared sizeable but neither object performed any advanced manoeuvres, so the possibility of them both being blimps of some kind cannot be put out of the question.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2011