Spring/Autumn 1985 – Erdington, Birmingham – Lit Disc UFO Sighting

Birmingham UFO Group

Author: Dave Hodrien

Release Date: 17/03/2015

Sighting Details

It was shortly after midnight on a quiet night in 1985. Stephen Downing and his girlfriend (now wife) Sue were on their way home from Sue’s parents’ house. It was a clear night with no wind. As Sue drove onto North Park Road on the Brookvale Estate in Erdington they noticed something very unusual up in the sky ahead of them.

Aerial map of North Park Road:

Over one of the three story houses about 120-130 metres ahead of them was a disc-shaped object. It was positioned about 15-20 metres above the roof of the house and was motionless. The object quite large and appeared to be between 50-60 metres across. The main body of the object was quite shadowed but around the edge was a ring of glowing white rectangular windows/lights. On the underside of the object was a number of multi-coloured lights, each one seemingly housed in a unit of some kind.

Stephen’s and Sue’s drawing of the UFO (drawn independently of one another):

Sue was frightened of the object but Stephen was more excited by its presence. He wanted to get out of the car to get a better look at it, but Sue did not want to stop. In the end Stephen opened the passenger side door which persuaded Sue to stop the car. David stepped out and began to slowly walk closer to the house the UFO was hovering above. He immediately became aware of several things. Firstly the object itself appeared to be completely silent. However he could also hear a crackling sound coming from the M6 motorway which runs adjacent to the road. There was also a blue coloured light.

Photograph from North Park Road in the direction the UFO and blue light were seen. Note that the row of housing in the distance was only built in the 1990s, back in 1985 there was a grass covered slope which allowed for an easier view of the motorway: