Summer 2000/2001 - Cannock Chase – Dark Green Flying Triangle Sighting
- Chairman Dave
- Sep 24
- 6 min read
Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Year: 2016
Last Updated: 24/09/2025
Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used for some witnesses
Ian Gunner is a podcaster and UFO researcher. Back in 2000/2001 he had an incredible sighting of a triangular-shaped craft in the area of Cannock Chase, a known location of heightened activity. This report covers what took place. Ian has also had a previous sighting written up as a separate case report.
Sighting Details
Late summer in 2000 or 2001 Ian and two friends were returning from a weekend away, with him on the back seat, “Gareth” on the front passenger seat, and “Timothy” driving. They travelled back to Staffordshire in the early hours, leaving the M6 at around 3:30am and arriving in Cannock. Timothy decided that he needed to sleep for a while, so pulled up the car somewhere near to Cannock, Pye Green or Penkridge on a long farmer’s lane lined with trees (Ian does not know the precise location).
Ian remained awake with Gareth chatting. As they talked they were both looking out of the front window of the car along the lane. At around 6am in the distance, possibly over a mile away, they noticed something dark in the sky at an elevation of about 25 degrees. Ian wound down the rear driver’s side window to see if he could hear the sound of rotor blades or engines, but it was silent.
It was initially confusing as to whether the object was actually moving directly towards them or travelling directly away from their location. The morning sun was low in the sky, but didn’t seem to be reflecting off the object as you’d expect it to.
Their debate regarding the direction of travel of the object woke up Timothy. He opened one eye, looked down the road and said “It’s coming towards us.” At this point it was about half a mile away and it was now obvious that it was travelling in their direction at a very slow speed, around 10mph.
As it slowly came closer they realised that the object was triangular shaped and did not look like a normal aircraft. They sat there open mouthed watching it approach on a straight and level course, with the front passenger window still down. Sadly none of them had cameras or smartphones. 1`When it was about 200 yards away from them Ian thought to himself “It hasn’t seen us, it doesn’t know we are here.”
They realised it was going to pass directly overhead. Ian opened the rear side door and got out in an almost trance-like state, awestruck at what was taking place. At the same moment Timothy did the same. Ian cannot remember whether Gareth got out or not.
He walked around the back of the car into the centre of the road. Timothy remained by the car, staring up at the UFO opened mouthed with his arms open by his side. At less than 100 feet away it became clear how it was constructed. Ian says that “it was strange to see an object that looked so heavy be suspended so effortlessly. There were no rotors, propellers or any outwardly visible or audible propulsion. Just a solid mass floating along at a steady pace.”
Ian looked at the craft and particularly the front edge as it came close. There were no windows, doors, openings or even panels with rivets joining metal pieces together. It was a very dark green seemingly non reflective. But at close view it appeared to shimmer purple and gold colours, similar to two-tone paint on a car, or oil on water.
The surface appeared to have like a slightly raised webbing over it, a lattice like structure embossed on it made of hexagonal shapes. Ian says that “it looked almost like a group of cells and appeared to me to have an organic quality. Yet still retained this dense dark heavy mass feel.”
The craft now travelled directly over their heads. Ian remembers putting his hand up as if to try and touch it. It was about 20 feet above the trees lining the small road, probably around 50 to 60 feet up. It covered the full width of the road and extended past the trees slightly. Ian estimates it was about 60 feet across.
Looking directly up at it from underneath gave him the feeling of being underwater staring up at a decent sized boat passing over head. As the back came into view he saw no signs of engine or propulsion, the back face was flat and smooth eventually curving off towards the other sides like the rest of the craft. It made no attempt to change speed course or height in anyway. Once it had passed it disappeared very quickly over the trees behind as there was less open sky visible in that direction.
Ian and Timothy stumbled back into the car and the three of them sat in silence for about 5 minutes. They then tried to work out what had happened and discussed what they had just witnessed. All of them agreed that it had been a solid object and not a hallucination. Once they had composed themselves Timothy started the car. They then drove home to Rugeley in stunned silence.
Timothy dropped Ian off at his house. He tried to rest and eventually fell asleep. Once he woke back up the sighing was all he could think of. He wondered whether to report what they had seen, and if so to who.
That evening he, Timothy and Gareth met up again around another friend’s house. He brought up what had happened just to cement it as a real experience. Immediately Timothy made fun of what had taken place, saying “Oh yeah, little green men, no way!” Ian felt that the incident was too far outside of his comfort zone so the easiest thing for him to do was bury it and make fun of what had happened. Gareth did not say anything, but appeared to still be shell-shocked by the encounter.
After this the three of them did not discuss the sighting at all with one another until 2015, where Ian went over it with Gareth, who confirmed it had taken place as he remembered.
Looking back at what happened, Ian says “This event changed my life in many ways. How do you carry on from something like this? It was so far removed from anything I had ever seen before. It left me feeling over time like a UFO nut when I explained it, or like you may have invented it in some kind of 20 minute mental health breakdown lucid group hallucination and you’re crazy. It is impossible to compute.”
Sighting Analysis
This incident represents a very impressive multiple witness close encounter with a Flying Triangle, one of the more commonly reported types of craft. I have investigated many other sightings of similar objects. They are usually jet black or navy in colouration, but I have looked into other cases where dark green triangles have also been reported. In most cases these objects hover silently. There are even cases where the similar hexagonal patterning has been made out on their surface, just as Ian describes.
In recent years he has looked into geological features of Cannock Chase. He has seen research by others hinting at the links between leylines and UFOs. He wonders whether Cannock Chase could be subject to magnetic flux variations which could induce vivid visual hallucinations. However, even if there is some truth to this, I find it extremely unlikely that these magnetic fluctuations would create exactly the same hallucination for all three witnesses. It is much more probable that this was a solid and genuine craft sighting, especially given its similarities to many other cases on record.
Ian has also experienced a previous sighting of a glowing sphere. This has been written up as a separate report, which you can read here.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025
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