Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 12/05/2024 Last Updated: 13/05/2024 Debra first got in touch with me via the Birmingham UFO Group website. She informed me that she came across BUFOG by chance, and wanted to share with us numerous incidents which have occurred throughout her life since her early teens. I reached out to her via E-mail, and also met with her at one of our monthly meetings to discuss these events in more depth. This case report covers what has taken place up to this point in time, and contains numerous witness drawings. Chariots Of The Gods In 1972/73 when she was either 12/13 years old, Debra lived with her family in a house on Lowlands Avenue, Streetly, Sutton Coldfield. One day she recalls coming across the book “Chariots Of The Gods?” by Erich Von Daniken, the infamous book which theorises that some of our ancient monuments and artefacts were the product of alien visitations thousands of years ago. She picked up the book and stared at the cover of it. For an unknown reason she sensed that it belonged to her step-father. She also felt an unusual comforting feeling in holding it. Debra feels that her thoughts regarding it at the time were indicative of a psychic ability, one which up to this point she had no knowledge of. It cannot be proven one way or the other whether this was the case. She never confirmed with her step-father whether the book did belong to him, perhaps she subconsciously knew that her mother would not have purchased or read such a book so made the assumption. And perhaps her feelings towards the book were nothing to do with its subject matter, but instead she felt drawn to its cover. That said, many experiencers of contact do appear to demonstrate psychic abilities, so perhaps this was the reason for her feelings towards it. Visitor At The Door In the same year that Debra found the book another unusual occurrence took place one early Sunday evening. At around 7-7.30pm the door bell rang. Her stepfather went to the front door to see who it was. Debra heard him first say “Hello”, and then “Can I help you?” She did not hear any responses from whoever was at the door. He then asked “Are you ok?” Soon after this she heard him shut the front door. He walked back into the kitchen where Debra’s mother was. Her mother asked him who had been at the door. He informed her that it had been a young blonde-haired woman who stood there but did not say anything. He then went on to say that she had bare feet and no coat on (Although Debra recollects that it had been a warm and sunny day, so maybe she had been out enjoying the sunshine). Although what took place sounds odd, there is nothing really to suggest that the girl at the door was not human, or in any way linked with Debra’s other experiences. There are many possible reasons for why she did not speak. She may have rang the door bell of the wrong house and was too confused to open her mouth. Maybe she was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Perhaps she was just extremely shy. She could even have been mute, although then you’d have to ask why she had rang the door bell in the first place if she wasn’t able to communicate. Debra fully agrees that she could well have been human. However, as you will see, this is not the only time that her experiences have involved a blonde-haired woman, and a later encounter may suggest otherwise. Disc Sighting Debra did not experience anything else unusual until 1995. By now she was living in a house near to Warley Woods, Bearwood, with her three year old daughter. She cannot recall which month the incident occurred on, but one evening between 9-9.30pm Debra was in the kitchen of the house, while her daughter was asleep in her bedroom. She was standing at the sink filling up the kettle, and while doing so was gazing up at the sky through the kitchen window. It was a dry and still evening, with the light fading in the sky and patchy cloud. Suddenly out of nowhere appeared a disc-shaped object. It was at a high angle of elevation near the top of the view from the window, meaning that she was looking at its underside. It was partially covered by the low lying patchy cloud, and appeared to be around the height a helicopter might fly at, approximately 500 feet. Debra estimates that if it was at this height then its diameter would have been around the length of a single decker bus across, 24 feet. The main body of the object was dark, but around the outer edge of the base was a series of segmented cream-coloured lights. Initially it appeared to be stationary, but after a number of seconds began moving in a slow circling pattern over the back garden of her house and her neighbour’s house. Debra was transfixed by the object, staring up at it as it slowly moved across the sky. She did not step outside as she could see it clearly through the window. Sadly she did not own a camera at the time, and this incident took place before the days of smartphones. After approximately 4-5 minutes, the object suddenly appeared to enter the edge of a cloud and was lost from sight. She continued to watch the sky to see if it would reappear. Up to two minutes went by then suddenly the object re-emerged and once again began circling. Debra watched the UFO for a further 2-3 minutes. Then once again it disappeared into a cloud. Again she waited, but this time the object did not reappear. It seemed to have left the vicinity. In the end she stopped looking out of the window and went back to making a cup of tea, pondering what she had just witnessed. It is unknown as to whether her neighbour also witnessed the object. If they did they never spoke about it with Debra. She decided to keep the incident to herself for fear of ridicule. Prior to this investigation she has never mentioned any of her experiences to anyone. This is a very interesting sighting, and one which was clearly not of a normal aircraft or helicopter of any kind. The appearance of the object was completely different, and both planes and helicopters have white, red and green navigation lights on them, both static and strobing, not a ring of cream coloured lights. Initially I did wonder whether the lights could have been search lights projected into the sky from a nearby event venue. However there are a number of issues with this hypothesis. Firstly Debra says that there was just patchy clouds in the sky. For a ring of search lights to have appeared in the manner and length of time described there would need to be full cloud cover for the lights to continuously bounce off. Search lights tend to produce round soft-edged glowing points when they hit the cloud layer, Debra describes seeing straight edged rectangular-shaped lights which sound far too structured to have been search lights. She also confirmed that she could see the main body of the object as well as just the outer lights. Lastly, surely she would have seen these lights on other occasions if they were from a venue, it is extremely unlikely they would have just been utilised only once. The object sounds far too large to have been a radio controlled model, and drones were not commercially available until much more recently. It was moving in too much of a controlled manner for it to have been a large lit inflatable of some kind. Therefore it stands to reason that Debra may well have been staring at the underside of a genuine disc-shaped craft. I have investigated numerous cases involving craft of this kind, some even with extremely similar lighting to what has been reported here. This description is also extremely similar in appearance to the craft witnessed by Travis Walton, the abductee from Snowflake, Arizona who got taken in 1975. Debra was not aware of this case, and was genuinely surprised when I showed her the below drawing. Medical Issues In 1997 Debra began to suffer from a number of medical issues. These included episodes of blurred vision in her right eye, fatigue, as well as numbness and tingling in her legs. The following year she began to see a specialist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. After numerous tests he diagnosed her with a rare condition known as Neuromyelitis Optica or Devic's Disease. Several years later she began to suffer from acute migraines roughly every couple of weeks, which continue to this day. They last from between a number of hours to three days. I feel it is likely that the migraines Debra experiences are related in some way to her other medical issues, rather than being related to contact. Cloaked Greys It was not until 1998 that Debra recalled an extremely vivid dream which may well have been an abduction experience. She cannot recall the month it happened but she had gone off to sleep as normal around 11pm. When she awoke in the morning at approximately 6.30am she immediately recollected being in another place. She recalled finding herself standing in a very wide dome-shaped room which was about 9 feet tall at its highest central point. The walls and curved ceiling looked like silver metal. She did not remember what the floor looked like. It was quite bright in the room but there was no visible sources for where this light was coming from. She was wearing the pyjamas she had gone to sleep in. She found she could move freely and turned her head to survey her surroundings. In front of her was a curved rail. Beyond this rail the floor dropped down a little lower than the section she was standing on. On the right side of this lower area she could see what looked like a long curved control panel covered in lights and buttons. Directly above this appeared to be a row of small rectangular windows, but nothing could be seen through these, only darkness. She was not alone in the room. There were four or five identical looking beings also present. They were approximately seven feet tall and wearing silver-grey coloured hooded cloaks with the hoods up. They had heart-shaped heads with smooth grey coloured skin. Their eyes were quite large, black and almond-shaped. They had two small nostrils, and a thin slit for a mouth. These beings were clearly Greys, although Debra had not looked into the UFO subject at this point in her life so did not know this. One of the Greys was standing two feet to her right. The others were dotted around the lower section of the room. None of them moved, and there was no signs of any communication coming from them. For an unknown reason she was not frightened of them. Debra says that she felt welcomed, even though they did not say anything to her or gesture in any way. She remained there for what seemed like a number of minutes, staring at the beings. Then suddenly the scene changed. She found herself alone in the room and lying face down on a metal table of some kind, with her head turned to the left. The table seemed to be about three feet off the floor. She was now unclothed and her arms were dangling off the sides of it. She attempted to move and found that she could only move her eyes. This was more confusing than frightening to her. Again this seemed to go on for a number of minutes. She just lay there wondering what was going to happen. This is where her recollection of events ended. As the memories came flooding back, they felt extremely vivid, much more so than a normal dream would. It felt like she had actually been at this other location during the night. Her pyjamas were back on her, but she was clearly missing some memories of what took place, so it was possible that she had either re-dressed herself or the beings had re-dressed her. She did not feel different in any way, and so got up and began her day like usual. She did not tell anyone about what had happened, but was convinced that she had been taken. This incident bears all the hallmarks of an abduction experience. The appearance of the location (potentially aboard a craft), the appearance of the beings, the fact that some of the memories were blocked out with clear gaps, the metal table she found herself on in a state of paralysis, and the way in which the recollected memories were extremely vivid all seem to fit this possibility, and I have investigated many other cases involving these aspects. Of course the incident did happen at night while Debra was in bed, she did previously have knowledge of the subject, and there were seemingly no after effects, so a vivid dream cannot be entirely ruled out. However this is often how contactees recollect memories of abduction experiences. It is even a possibility that this was a vivid flashback to an abduction which had occurred on a previous occasion which had been blocked from her mind until this point. If this were the case, then this would account for the lack of any after effects. The Vanishing Lady One day around 2001-2002 Debra popped into Birmingham centre to pick up a book for her daughter from Waterstones on High Street. While there she decided to go have a browse in the section of books on spiritual subject matters. She was reading the back cover of a book she'd picked up when she noticed a tall blonde-haired lady. She looked to be in her late forties, and was standing about 10 feet away and staring at her. She looked back down at the book, and a moment later the lady seemed to be standing right next to her. Looking back at the incident Debra is puzzled by this, it was like the lady had shifted position almost immediately rather than walked over to her. The lady spoke, asking whether she liked the author of the book she was holding. Debra responded saying that she was not familiar with her work. In response to this the lady said "You should write a book." Debra just smiled at her. The lady then began walking away from her. Debra briefly glanced at something. When she looked back to where the lady had been walking she had completely disappeared. This was bizarre as she could see right around the whole section of the shop, yet she was nowhere to be seen. This is an unusual incident which took place in a very public location. The way in which the lady both seemed to jump position almost immediately, and then vanished when Debra briefly took her eyes off her is an enduring mystery. You may well think that this was just down to her perception of the situation, but there is of course a possibility, however slim, that this lady was not actually human. And if this were the case, could this have been the same lady who arrived at the front door of her house many years before? Debra has pondered this possibility, in addition to what the lady said to her. She finds it ironic that all these years on I have now written up her experiences based on what she has shared, in a way in-directly becoming an author as a result. Electrical Disturbances Debra has lived in her current house in Wednesbury from July 2020 onwards. Since the day she moved into she began noticing issues with electrical devices of various kinds, both in and out of the house. For an unknown reason she has regular issues with her Moto E30 smartphone (on EE network). Often when she makes or receives a call it will intermittently cut out, or sometimes disconnect entirely. According to Debra, she has taken it to a phone repair shop, but they have been unable to find any issues with it. She has also checked with her neighbours, including one on the same network as her, and they have confirmed that they get no problems of this nature. However she did inform me that when she is at other locations away from her own neighbourhood the phone issues seem to cease, suggesting that the problem is geographical in nature. The call issues happen so often that her family and friends now communicate with her via text messages only. Since late 2023 she has also become aware of repeating issues when using self-service checkouts at supermarkets. Obviously these are notorious for not working correctly, however Debra claims that it ceases to work far too regularly, even though it has worked fine for others in the queue before her. As soon as she starts scanning items or attempting to make a payment with her card the machine often brings up error messages and needs to be reset. Debra has attempted to capture this on her smartphone camera at my request, but shop security have noticed and asked her not to do this. While neither of these repeated incidents can be categorically confirmed as being related to Debra’s experiences, it is important to note that many contactees regularly report issues with electrical devices. The Black Chair In 2021 Debra had another very similar experience to what had happened several years before, possibly indicating a second abduction. Just like before she dropped off to sleep like usual, and when she awoke in the morning the vivid memories immediately came flooding back. She did not find herself in the same place as before. This time she was lying down on a reclining black-coloured chair, similar in size and angle to a dentist’s chair. It felt like it was made out of PVC to the touch. She was able to move freely, but did not feel any need to get up off the chair. The room she was in was much smaller and narrow, with straight walls which were dark grey in colour. The flattened ceiling was smooth and again a dark grey colour. Like her previous experience she did not pay any attention to the floor so cannot recall what colour or texture it was. The room was lit as if in normal daylight. Looking around behind her head she could see a window in the wall through which light was visible, but she was not able to make anything out. She was clothed, but unlike last time instead of her pyjamas she was wearing some of her normal day wear – a T-shirt, half zipped up fleece, leggings and trainers. Unfortunately she cannot recall whether it was the specific clothing she had been wearing before getting into bed, or whether it was other clothes she owned from her wardrobe. One thing that was consistent with last time was the entities present. Like before there were Greys wearing hooded cloaks, although this time there were only two. One of them was stood behind her head, the other was off to her left. Just like the previous occasion she did not feel frightened by what was taking place. Debra says that it “felt similar to going for a routine dental check-up”. The beings did not appear to interact with her, they just stood there, again similar to last time. After a number of minutes had gone by, Debra suddenly felt a trickle of liquid run down the back of her head. She felt that this was blood, but felt no pain or discomfort. For an unknown reason she remained calm, and did not touch the back of her head to confirm whether it was blood or not. About thirty seconds later there was a sudden pain in both of her legs. This was quite sharp and she attempted to let the beings present know this, audibly saying to them “It’s painful.” A moment later there was a white flash of light and a loud bang noise. This was the last thing she could remember taking place. She was aware that there was no pain in her legs upon waking. She also felt the back of her head but there was no blood or sweat. Like before, aside from the extremely vivid recollection, she felt completely normal. She was certain that what she recalled had taken place, although due to the fact she was wearing daytime clothing, the only way that it could have occurred during the night is if she had got dressed again (or been dressed by the beings) prior to being taken, and had the memories of this removed. This again was seemingly a second abduction experience, but unlike the incident in 1998, which could well have happened on the night in question, this one is much less likely to have. It is more probable that this was a vivid flashback to a previous experience that for whatever reason she was now recollecting. Body Marking One evening later in 2021 (Debra cannot remember exactly when) she felt hot when she went to bed so left her pyjama bottoms off. She slept soundly with no indication of anything taking place during the night. In the morning when she threw back the duvet to get up she noticed an unusual marking on her right leg just above the knee. There were three small red dots in a perfect equilateral triangle. She felt certain that they had not been there the previous day. The dots were several millimetres across and were spaced about an inch from one another. They did not appear raised or inflamed at all, and they did not itch at all as insect bites usually do. Debra thought they were strange but did not photograph them. She just got up and went about her day. She did not check for them again until the following morning, by which point they had completely vanished. Experiencers sometimes find markings such as these following contact, and can on some occasions even link the markings to particular instruments used on them. However Debra has no recollection of anything taking place. Although something may have happened, and then been completely blocked from her mind, it is possible that the dots had a natural explanation. Debra says that they did not itch, and that she is not prone to getting skin rashes of any kind, but neither of these potential explanations can be fully ruled out. People often get temporary skin blemishes or minor injuries which clear up quickly, and it may have been just coincidental that the dots were spaced evenly apart from one another forming an equilateral triangle. Emerging Interests Around the same time as her memories of the black chair, Debra began to develop an interest in the UFO subject, especially ancient alien theories. She felt drawn to look into this particular aspect of the phenomenon for an as yet unknown reason. In 2023 another completely different interest emerged. Debra gained a new fascination with quantum physics, especially the theory of quantum entanglement. This theory proposes that particles can be brought together and become fundamentally linked, even when separated by vast distances from one another. Like her interest in ancient aliens, Debra does not know what has drawn her to suddenly start looking into this, she just feels a need to take in the information. It is unknown whether either of these interests has come about as a side-effect of her prior contact experiences. Many people seem to develop new interests or skills after experiencing contact, so this could well be the case. Paranormal Activity Ever since the disc sighting, Debra informs me that she has experienced paranormal activity of various kinds including clairvoyance, clairaudience and glowing orbs in her proximity. One night in 2009 she was settling down in bed. Her daughter (aged 17 at the time) was in her own bedroom reading. Suddenly there were very loud and audible knocking sounds near the top of the wall that separated the two rooms. She called out to her daughter and asked her whether she heard the noises, to which she confirmed that she did. The house was semi-detached, but echoes from next door was unlikely to be responsible, as the adjoining house was vacant at the time. If the knocks had been down to water pipes in the wall surely Debra or her daughter would have heard the same sounds at other times too? On a number of occasions at both her previous house in Bearwood and her current house in Wednesbury she has heard muffled hushed voices while lying in bed. She is never able to make out what the voices are saying but it sounds like a conversation taking place. Debra confirmed her current house is semi-detached, and that her next door neighbour lives on his own and rarely has visitors, so once again the voices do not appear to be echoes coming from the adjoining house. In December 2021 Debra sadly had to have her pet greyhound put to sleep due to a serious health condition. Fifteen days later she was sitting down reading the newspaper in the late afternoon. Suddenly in the peripheral vision of her right eye she saw him sitting on the small sofa opposite her (the sofa he used to always sleep on at night). He looked completely solid like he was actually there. She turned her head to look at the apparition and for several seconds could still see him, before he faded away. Debra believes that he still comes to visit her from time to time. Ever since that incident she has occasionally seen an unusual ripple effect in the sitting room, about the height that he used to be. She describes this as being “similar to the effect of a slight ripple on water with sunlight dancing on it”. On two occasions in 2022/23 Debra believes that she was contacted by the ghostly spirit of a man haunting the property. One late evening she was alone in the bathroom cleaning her teeth. Suddenly she felt a tingling sensation run down her spine and the temperature in the local vicinity get cold. This was followed by a clear voice inside her mind which simply asked “You still here?” The voice sounded like a elderly man in his early to mid-seventies, and had a gruff edge to it. The cold temperate then seemed to recede almost like it was moving away from her. A couple of weeks later she was settling down in bed when she again heard the same voice in her head. This time it said to her “I am outside the door.” Obviously Debra was un-nerved by this, and did not go to check outside her bedroom door for fear of something being present there. After this particularly unsettling incident she decided to purchase a “witch ball” and hang it in the back porch of the house. According to folklore, these large decorated glass baubles are capable of warding off evil spirits. Debra says that since hanging up the ball she has not sensed this presence or heard the voice again, though whether you believe this is down to coincidence or something more is up to you. Debra claims to have also observed glowing orbs of light in the living room of her current house while watching television, even since hanging up the witch ball. The orbs she has seen have been a variety of colours – white, light gold, lilac and blue. They have ranged in size from between a penny to several inches across. She sees them moving in her peripheral vision, but whenever she turns her head to look directly at them they vanish. The fact that they are only seen in the one location while she is watching TV suggests that they are possibly caused by light reflection off the screen on her retina. Another possibility is that they are related to the blurred vision in her right eye, or the migraines she sometimes suffers from, although she has not noticed any particular link between these ailments and the appearances of the orbs. In addition to this, many experiencers have reported similar incidents to me over the years, so it is possible they are related to contact. Conclusions Debra has experienced a wide variety of unusual incidents throughout her life. Her repeated memories of being aboard craft surrounded by Grey beings certainly suggest that she is a contactee. As they happened during the night while alone the idea that they are merely vivid dreams brought on by her interest in the subject cannot be entirely ruled out, however the many similarities between them, and their similarities to other cases on record, indicate that they may well have taken place. If so this may explain some of her other fascinating experiences. Experiencers of contact regularly report incidents of paranormal activity in their proximity, electrical anomalies and psychic phenomena. It is unknown whether the disc-shaped craft which she observed was there directly for her, but it is intriguing that this incident seemed to potentially be the trigger for repeated paranormal activity. It seems unlikely that any of her medical ailments are related to contact. While her sightings of orbs and possibly the strange sounds she has heard could be down to her condition, it seems extremely unlikely to be entirely responsible for everything which has taken place. Debra comes across as a very down-to-earth and believable witness, and there is no sign that she has fabricated or exaggerated any of the information she has shared with me. I look forward to continuing to speak with her about any further incidents which may take place, and as always, if she does keep in touch this case report will be updated with any additional findings. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2024

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 01/05/2024 Last Updated: 05/05/2024 In November 2023 I gave a talk at East Anglia UFO Group. One of the attendees there was Mike Tennant, a repeat experiencer. He approached me after the lecture to discuss some of his experiences. I arranged numerous detailed conversations with him over the following months to discuss and document what has happened to him. Mind Reader In the early years of his life Mike lived with his father in Tibenam, a village South West of Norwich, but would also spend time visiting his mother in Tipperary, South Ireland. Mike informed me that he has had a latent psychic ability since childhood. He first realised this when he was about five years old. He found that he could sometimes hear people’s thoughts directly in his mind. While still young he thought this was completely normal, it was only later on that he realised that most people could not do this! He says that this ability comes and goes, and mostly happens involuntarily, although he has on occasion caused it to happen by focusing. He says that he does not often do this as he feels it is rude to do so, even if the individual does not realise at the time. One early example of this ability which he went over with me apparently took place at his primary school. The teacher wanted to teach his class how to tell the time. In order to do this they had enlisted the help of some older students. They instructed them to turn the hands of a model clock to a particular time. They would then ask the class member what the time was, and if they did not know they would then tell them. At his age Mike did not know how to tell the time. However while the older student set the time on the clock, he of course thought about the time he was setting it to. When he did so, Mike would hear what he was thinking in his mind like a clear voice. Without knowing what he was saying, Mike repeated what he heard in his mind back to the older student when he asked. After getting the answer right again and again, the older student put his hand up to get the teacher’s attention, then informed her that he could not teach Mike anything! The following year he was off ill with flu for a number of weeks. At the time he had two close friends Steven and Matthew. He claims that he used to communicate on a subconscious level with them, speaking to them directly via his mind, and hearing thoughts back from them. When he returned to school he attempted to speak to them in this manner again. In his mind he heard them push back against this, saying to him that they were big boys now and no longer wanted to communicate in this manner. From this point on with them he spoke audibly instead. Later on in from about the age of 16 Mike would use his ability to correctly state people’s star signs or favourite colour as an ice-breaker or party trick. He would inform people that he could guess their star sign or guess their favourite colour. In doing so they would think of it and he would hear it in his mind. He claims that he was correct on the majority of occasions. He says that as he has got older this ability seems to have faded. Mike says that sixth sense abilities have existed in his family for numerous generations. He informed me that his mother Sarah was a psychic medium and so was his grandmother Ellen. He was also informed by his uncles many years ago that her grandmother was a lady known as Biddy Early, who was a herbalist born in back in 1798 who was said to have psychic abilities. Her cures and premonitions became quite famous and many people around Ireland would travel to meet with her. Although Mike has no proof of this at present, such as a researched and official family tree, there is no reason to doubt this family link. If you are interested to learn more about Biddy, here is a video about her life: Repeated Missing Time In 1984 when he was 16 Mike moved to live with his mother and sister at Rathenny Gate Lodge in Rathenny, South Ireland. The Lodge still exists today and is now a Bed & Breakfast. As you can see, the lodge is in a very rural location surrounded by open farmer’s fields. Mike informed me that the outer look of the lodge has not changed much, including the black painted metal fence and gate. Mike managed to secure a job on a building site in Moneygall, two miles South East East of the lodge. Each morning he would ride his bicycle into the village. The M7 motorway did not exist at the time visible on the above map did not exist at the time. There was a social club on the High Street (R455) which runs through the centre of Moneygall. Today the location is known as J Hayes Bar. In 1986 he experienced two consecutive missing time incidents. Back then there was less home entertainment available, so the social club became a hub of activity in the evening, where many people would regularly meet up. Most evenings after work ended at 5pm Mike would head to the club to catch up with friends. One week day in the autumn (probably October) Mike completed his day on the building site like usual. He first rode his bike round to the house of one of his friends in the village. He stayed there for a number of hours enjoying food and coffee. At around 7.45pm he rode to the social club where he remained for a couple of hours playing pool with some other friends. His mother would not like him arriving home any time after 11pm, and he was aware that the journey home would take around 20 minutes, so he set off from the club at approximately 10pm. He had only a couple of drinks at most while at the club, so was not in any way inebriated when he left for home. Due to the time of year it was completely dark. There was complete cloud cover overhead but it was dry. The temperature was mild, and it was still. Once he left the outskirts of Moneygall it became extremely dark, as there were no street lights along the rural lanes which led back to the lodge. But he was very familiar with the route home so he was not in the least bit concerned by this. Roughly three quarters of the way home, one of the lanes (un-named) about 5 minutes South of his house ran up a gradual hill. Today at the summit of this slope there is a cottage, but back in 1986 there were just fields. It was very peaceful out in the countryside. There was nobody else around, vehicles nor pedestrians. Mike had no light on his bike, but could make out the edges of the road and see distant building lights which allowed him to keep his bearings. He just about to crest the rise of the slope and pedalling quite slowly. Suddenly the road around him lit up in blazing white light! This light was clearly coming downward from above, as it was a circle of light all around him. It was reflecting off the chrome handlebars of the bike making them glisten. When I asked Mike to describe what the light was like he said it was “like a million watt spotlight had been switched on, the brightest light you could ever imagine!” Immediately Mike thought to himself “What the hell is that?!” and looked left and right without stopping the bike. The light was illuminating the entire lane and he was in the middle of it. He looked up but the light was too bright to see any kind of source. There was no sound whatsoever detectable. This only lasted between 3-5 seconds. The next thing he knew the light had gone. He was still sitting on the bike and pedalling slowly along. However he was no longer in the same position he had been mere moments before. He was now between 50-60 metres further along the lane. However he did not realise this at the time, this aspect of the experience only came back to him later on when he went back over the incident, possibly due to how amazed he was at what had just taken place. He was fascinated at what could have caused the light, and couldn’t wait to tell his mother and sister all about it when he arrived home. He carried on riding the remainder of the journey. Five minutes later he arrived at the lodge. He parked up his bike on the outside, and used his key to enter the house. He knew that his mother and sister would still be up and was excited to tell them about what had just occurred. However when he entered the house he found that most of the lights had been switched off except for the hall light. At the end of the hall was an open doorway that led through into the kitchen. On the wall visible through this doorway hung a clock. He noticed that the time on the clock read approximately 2am. But he knew that it could not be that time as he had left the social club around 10pm. He assumed that the clock had ran out of batteries. He was a little puzzled by the fact that both his mother and sister appeared to have had an early night, but decided not to wake them. It had been a long day so he decided to go to sleep himself. Most mornings Mike would be the first to wake up as he had to leave for work. The following morning was much the same. He was still raring to tell his family about what had happened, but did not want to wake them up early so decided to go to work like normal, with a view of telling them in the evening. On both to and from work he rode along the same stretch of road where the light had appeared. He was a little apprehensive but wasn’t really frightened. He certainly didn’t feel the need to change his route just to avoid having to ride past the spot. That evening when he arrived home he finally got to tell his mother and sister about the glowing light he had seen the previous night. They both believed him and found it interesting. He mentioned in passing that the clock needed some new batteries, but did not really pay attention to what time it was now showing. The following evening his mother informed him that the clock had appeared to have been showing the correct time when she checked it, but she had some spare batteries kicking around so had changed them anyway just in case. At the time Mike did not really think too deeply about the implications of this. He had very little knowledge of the UFO subject at the time, so did not associate what had occurred with this at all. A fortnight later (Mike thinks possibly to the day) he was once again on his way home from the social club. Just like most days he set off from there around 10pm. This time it was a much clearer evening. The stars were fully visible in the sky. It was a full moon, which of course gave more light to the surroundings making it much easier to see the edges of the road. Once again he pedalled up the slope. As he reached the summit, in exactly the same place as he had been before, it happened again! Just like two weeks before he was enveloped in bright white light clearly coming down from above him. He could barely believe it and thought to himself “Here we go again!” Again he looked up desperately trying to see where the light was coming from. Just like before, seemingly after several seconds it suddenly went off. Just like last time he was a bit further along the road than he should have been, but once again did not realise this. It was essentially a repeated incident. He was blown away by what had just occurred. He was a little disturbed that it had happened a second time, but he did not feel particularly threatened by it. He pedalled home, expecting his mother and sister to be awake. But just like the previous occasion most of the lights were off and they were asleep. Looking at the clock in the kitchen he could see that it was again somewhere between 2-2.30am! This time around the reality of what had happened began to sink in. He was aware that his mother had changed the batteries of the clock, so it genuinely was the early hours of the morning instead of around 10.20pm. There was around four hours of time he could not account for. This realization puzzled him, but not enough to wake up his mother and sister. After sitting for a while and thinking about what may have occurred he settled down to sleep. In the morning he felt completely normal. He wanted to tell his family that the same thing had happened a second time, but again was forced to head into Moneygall for work before they had woken up. He waited patiently all day, before travelling home, again not changing his route, despite the fact that there were alternative lanes available to cycle along (albeit a longer distance). In the evening he told his mother and sister that the light had appeared a second time and that there was a period of time he could not account for. They were puzzled by the events, just as he was, but knew nothing of missing time and its links with the contact phenomenon so did not report these incidents officially to anyone. To his knowledge Mike never saw the light again, despite cycling along that route many times in the years following. He never mentioned either of the two incidents to his friends down at the social club as he felt they would think that he was crazy. However he did inform his uncle about what happened after a number of months. These two incredible incidents bear all the hallmarks of contact experiences involving missing time. However it is first important to look into and rule out other more mundane explanations for what took place. At the time there were no residences or farm buildings with floodlights anywhere near the location where the incidents occurred, so light from a nearby building can be ruled out. If the light was from farm machinery parked nearby, such as a tractor or combine harvester, it would have been obvious that it was coming from a particular direction at ground level. Mike is certain that the light was coming down from above on both occasions. The light was still when it appeared around him, so could not have been landing lights from a passing aircraft. These would have swept across the road. If it were a plane at low altitude surely the engines would have been audible, yet Mike says it was completely silent at the time. Sound travels very well after dark when other background noise is at its lowest, so Mike would certainly have heard a plane if there was one flying overhead. For the same reason it could not have been a helicopter hovering over the lane, the rotor blades would certainly have been audible, and Mike would probably have also seen it in the air as he looked along the lane approached the rise of the hill. Any navigation lights present in the sky would have been very obvious indeed due to how dark it was on both occasions. As you can see in the photograph, at the top of the hill stands a telegraph pole. Mike confirmed that this pole was present back in 1986. Could the light have been a brief electrical fault which only occurred for a few seconds? While this theory cannot be entirely ruled out, it seems extremely unlikely that this fault would occur twice precisely as Mike happened to be passing it on his bike. Also the light Mike describes sounds far too prominent and bright. Surely if there were some brief electrical sparks near the top of the telegraph pole this would have been quite obvious to Mike, especially when he looked upwards to see if he could identify the source. The incidents occurred decades before commercial drones were available, and occurred at a very rural location. Again the light sounds too bright to have been coming from a radio controlled model or lit inflatable, and surely this would have remained visible for more than a few seconds? Also, none of the above possible explanations account for the actual missing four hours of time which Mike experienced, or apparent jump in position on the lane. Regarding the missing time, Mike could not have lost track of time and remained at the club till about 1.30am on two separate occasions.  Mike informed me that the club would only stay open till about 11pm so this would have been impossible. He knew to a very good estimation how long it would take to cycle home, as this was a route he had taken many times. For this same reason he could not have got lost and accidentally ridden along a completely different road adding hours onto his journey time. Sadly Mike did not verify without doubt that it was actually around 2am when he arrived home on either of the two occasions. He did not wake up his mother and sister or check any other clocks before going to sleep. However, the fact that his mother and sister had switched most of the house lights off and both gone to sleep proves that, at the very least,  it was much later than it should have been. Regarding the kitchen clock, logically if it had actually been running out of batteries at the time of the first incident then the clock would have read an earlier time, not later, as it would have ran slow not fast. And his mother changed the batteries soon after the first incident, so even if it had been an issue with the clock then surely would have been working correctly on the second occasion? It seems very unlikely that the clock was faulty and happened to go wrong on the same evenings as the two incidents, yet then managed to correct itself soon afterwards and display the correct time. So, let’s assume that a number of hours really had passed without Mike being aware of it. What could account for this? On both occasions Mike had not had much to drink, so I do not believe that he collapsed due to alcohol consumption while riding home. Could both the light and the missing time have been down to a medical issue which he experienced twice within the space of a fortnight, such as a seizure or loss of consciousness? The issue with this explanation is that he would logically have fallen off his bike, and when he did come round hours later he would have found himself lying on the road. Yet on both occasions he seemed to remain on the bike. Also Mike informed me he has not been diagnosed with any medical issues of this nature, and after the two incidents has never seen any similar bright shining lights. As you can see there are numerous aspects of these two experiences which are hard to explain. With possible mundane explanations accounted for, I feel that there is a very good probability that Mike was taken on these two occasions, and that the white light he saw was coming from a craft hovering silently overhead. I have investigated many cases over the years involving periods of missing time which cannot be accounted for, often following sightings of either unexplained light or actual craft/beings. In some circumstances memories of what happened during the lost time have either come back naturally or been retrieved through hypnotic regression of the individual(s) involved. People describe memories of being aboard craft, sometimes for extended periods of time. There are some abduction cases involving entire days of missing time, for example the infamous Travis Walton case. Mike was on his own in a very rural location after dark. This would be an ideal time and place to abduct him without other potential witnesses. Perhaps on both occasions he was taken aboard a craft, but then had the memories of said abduction completely wiped from his mind. There have many reported cases of people finding themselves in a different position to where they had been previously, with no knowledge of how they had got there. Could this explain why Mike found himself up to 60 metres further along the road? Perhaps on both occasions both him and the bike were taken, and then after the experience were placed back on the road at a nearby but not identical position, as has seemingly happened in many other cases involving vehicles. As I mentioned previously, Mike only came to realise that this had occurred later on, many years later when thinking back over what took place in depth. Another fact which points towards contact is that the incidents happened at exactly the same location, and under very similar circumstances. The same light was observed for approximately the same length of time. The same jump in position occurred. Approximately the same amount of time was unaccounted for. If Mike was intentionally taken on both these occasions then these similarities would make sense. This is merely speculation, but perhaps the craft’s occupants decided on this particular spot due to how rural it is, or perhaps due to the fact that that it is right at the summit of the hill. Sadly Mike’s mum has since passed away, so I am unable to speak with her about what she remembers regarding these incidents. Mike says that his sister is very sceptical of the subject and for this reason is unlikely to want to speak with me or provide a statement on her recollection of what took place. Mike is very interested in being hypnotically regressed to see if any further details about these two incidents are revealed. If he proceeds with a regression, the transcript and findings will be added to this report in due course. Further Psychic Incidents When he was 20 years olf Mike moved back to England. A year later in 1989 he decided to start hitch hiking around the UK and Europe. He did not have much money at the time but figured he could stay on farms and do farm work to earn a living while at the same time get to experience many different places. In 1991 he was hitch hiking around Spain. He had been picked up by two Spanish men. They could not speak a word of English, but were going the right direction on the road, and did not seem to mind giving him a lift. At the time he was very tired so lay on the back seat of the car. The two men in the front were talking amongst themselves in Spanish. He did not know the language so could not understand a word of it. He started to drift off to sleep, and slipped into a semi-conscious state. Suddenly he began hearing the voices of the two men speaking in English instead of Spanish! He could hear every word of what they were saying clearly. They were discussing their plans for the journey, saying that they needed to stop at a friend’s house to pick up a guitar, then drive to drop it off at another friend’s house, before heading on to a bar. Suddenly Mike snapped out of the drowsy state of mind he was in. Immediately the two men in the front resumed speaking Spanish again. He sat quietly in the back looking out of the window. Over the next hour and a half he witnessed them do exactly what he had heard them say. As expected they stopped at a house and picked up a guitar, dropped it off elsewhere then drove on to a bar where they parked up. The following year Mike had finished exploring Spain and secured a job on a building site in Wolverhampton. He and a work colleague were working on the roof of a property when he suddenly had an extremely strong feeling that something had happened to one of his uncles named Patrick who was living in Ireland at the time. Mike says that it felt like he was not dead but was not really alive either. He had quite a close bond with Patrick, almost viewing him as a father, but had not seen him in a number of years. The sensation that something had happened to him was so strong that he decided to travel across to Ireland to check whether he was alright. When he arrived at where he thought Patrick was living he found that he was now living in a care home. He managed to determine which home he was in, and travelled there to see him. When he arrived at the home he was informed that Patrick had sadly experienced a very heavy stroke and was barely conscious, essentially being somewhere between alive and dead, just how Mike had sensed. A number of months later Mike went to stay with his friend Dave, who was a law student at Wolverhampton University. He was dropped off very late evening in Wolverhampton. It was around the time that the pubs closed. Unfortunately he was spotted by a gang of drunken men, who unfortunately decided to attempt to mug him. There was far too many of them to take on, so Mike started to run away. The gang began to give chase, and Mike was in real danger of getting caught. As he ran along he suddenly heard a voice in his mind say “Turn into this side road” just as he was approaching one. He did as the voice said. At the end of the road was a brick wall. The voice in his mind spoke a second time, commanding him to jump over the wall. He did so and landed in a rose bush at the end of someone’s garden. Luckily the gang had not noticed him run down the side street, and he heard them continue their search for him on the main road. Their voices faded away and he realised he had escaped. Mike believes the voice in his mind was something more than just him observing his surroundings and acting on these observations, although of course this is impossible to prove. Revolving Orbs Mike’s first actual UFO sighting occurred much later on in 2012 when he was 40 years old and living in Stretham, Cambridgeshire. At the time his family owned two mobile homes situated about a mile from their home in a rural area alongside the River Great Ouse at the southern end of Green End. These mobile homes still exist but are no longer owned by his family. It was a Saturday evening in the summer time. The weather was very pleasant and clear. Mike’s nephews Luke and Jonathan and their friend Jason were staying at the mobile homes at the time, and he decided to drive down and visit them after finishing his food delivery driver shift at 9.30pm. Mike arrived at the vans about 9.45pm, by which point it was twilight and the light had just started to fade. He found his nephews and their friend sitting around a campfire chatting and having a couple of drinks. He walked over and sat down next to them. Mike was happy to relax a while with them, so asked them to pass him one. He cracked open the can and took a sip from it, tilting his head back as he did, giving him a view of the sky in front of him. He noticed a strange sight. At an angle of about 60 degrees there was a bright white glowing orb of light which appeared at least 5 times as big as a bright star would appear. Surrounding this was 4 smaller orbs of white light which appeared to be rotating around it anti-clockwise at a slow constant speed. They appeared to be at high altitude rather than out in orbit. Wondering what the orbs could be he pointed them out to the others exclaiming “What the hell is that?” They looked up also and everyone present began to watch the objects. Unfortunately nobody had a smartphone or camera on them so could not attempt to photograph or video the orbs. After watching for about a minute, something incredible happened. All of a sudden the smaller orbs all shot away from the main orb at an extremely fast speed in different directions before halting at various points in the sky. Mike says that the speed of this manoeuvre was stunning, and that they must have moved miles in the space of a second. The larger orb remained stationary, but for the next two minutes the smaller orbs all slowly drifted back and forth in different directions. Then, again without warning, they returned to the main orb as fast as they had left it, and once again began circling around it. A couple of minutes went by and exactly the same process repeated, with the smaller orbs once again shooting away from the main one, remaining separate for a while before returning to it. Mike and the other witnesses could barely believe what they were seeing. About 30 seconds later the orbs seem to collapse in on one another and completely vanish from sight. Everyone waited to see if they would return but they did not. After the sighting was over everyone chatted about what they had just seen. The following morning they drove back to the family home in Stretham. Jason sat down at the laptop and decided to watch some YouTube videos. He was amazed to find that someone else from the area had also seen what they had observed, and had managed to record it on video. Mike says that the video looked nigh on identical to what they had seen. They discussed potentially reaching out to the uploader of the video, but in the end sadly forgot to do so. This is a very interesting multiple witness UFO sighting with some fascinating aspects to it. Firstly I will state that I do not believe the fact that the men were drinking had anything to do with what was witnessed, both because of the specific details and the fact that it was also apparently recorded by an independent witness. The main orb appeared far too large to be a bright star/planet. Mike also confirmed that it was too small to be the moon. While a distant helicopter could conceivably appear as a glowing orb of light, I do not believe this explains what was seen because of how the sighting ended. From Mike’s description of the movements of the smaller orbs (and I have no reason to doubt his recollection), they definitely appeared to be under intelligent control and in some way linked with the main orb. The fact that they rotated around it in a controlled fashion, and moved away from it and towards it at the same moments indicates that the objects were not drifting objects like white LED balloons or birds reflecting the setting sun. Mike says that the manoeuvres were far too rapid to have been a display of numerous drones. They appeared to move a substantial distance, probably numerous miles, within the space of a second. The sky was clear, so the orbs cannot have been caused by searchlights from an event taking place in Stetham bouncing off the base of the cloud layer. The way in which the orbs all vanished at the same moment is also intriguing, and tends to put many mundane explanations out of the question. If the objects had been drones and/or helicopters then why would the owners have suddenly switched the lights off permanently? Mike is convinced that there were no clouds for them to have been hidden behind, although without an exact date and detailed weather data it is impossible to verify this. Unfortunately Mike did not keep a link to the YouTube video, and so far I have been unable to locate it. Mike hopes that Jason may be able to track it down. If it is found it will be added to this report. I also hope to speak with both Jason and Luke about this incident in the coming weeks to obtain testimonial statements from them. Once I have spoken with them I will update this report as necessary. Six Pointed Star Roughly one year later on 29th July 2013 another truly bizarre sighting took place, once again at the mobile homes. On this particular date an extremely rare astronomical event was due to take place. The moon and planets in our solar system were set to align to form a six-pointed star shape in the sky, commonly referred to as a “Star Of David”. This event was widely known about by "new age" communities, who viewed this event as extremely positive, and one which would have numerous effects on people’s lives. For this reason many groups of people held meditation sessions around this time. Mike’s partner at the time, Kate, was quite spiritually-minded, and regularly enjoyed meditating. On this particular evening she had arranged to participate in a group meditation session to coincide with the planetary alignment. This was taking place at a rural location South of the Great Ouse river. Mike was not interested in joining her for this so instead headed to the mobile homes with Luke, who was 21 at the time, and his 9 year old son Arthur. By the time they arrived at the homes it was twilight and the stars were beginning to show in the sky. They walked towards the front door of one of the homes, and were about to head inside when Mike happened to spot something in the sky. Off to their left he saw a triangle of three brightly glowing orbs of light. These orbs were a little brighter than normal stars so caught his attention. The three orbs were very slowly moving on a straight path to the right. They appeared to be at high altitude but not out in orbit. Mike then noticed another triangle of orbs off to the right. These had the same brightness as the first three, but their positioning was a mirror image of the first set, and they were slowly moving to the left. His son and nephew had by this point entered the mobile home. He called them back out, shouting “Come out and have a look at this!” They came back outside and then started watching the orbs alongside Mike. Over the next five minutes the two sets of orbs slowly moved towards one another. Eventually both sets stopped moving, coming to rest in the shape of a six pointed star directly over the heads of the witnesses! They stood there with mouths agape, transfixed on what was taking place. They expected the orbs of light to disappear but they did not. They remained in position for quite a long time as the remaining light faded in the sky. Sadly neither Mike or the other witnesses present had smart phones or cameras which could be used to attempt to capture the objects. Mike believes that the orbs remained stationary for up to an hour. After this they suddenly all began moving again. The three that had been heading left continued left, and those which had been heading right continued on their path at a slow speed. The two sets of orbs crossed over paths with one another and continued onwards, slowly getting more and more distant over numerous minutes until they had vanished from sight. Later on Kate returned from the meditation session and Mike excitedly explained what had taken place. She confirmed that she had not seen the lights from her location ten miles away, possibly because it had been misty. Mike was convinced that the objects had been moving intelligently and with intent, and had decided to position themselves in this manner because of what was taking place. This is a bizarre incident, especially given the apparent shape the lights formed which seemed to coincide with what was taking place that night. Although it is not outside the realms of possibility that there was a connection, I feel it is likely to be more coincidental that the lights were in a formation which could be interpreted as the points of a six-pointed star. However the fact that they appeared symmetrical, remained in place for an extended period of time an d then started moving away at the same time does seem to suggest an intelligence behind them. White LED balloons are out of the question for a number of reasons. Although two sets of three balloons could conceivably drift on two opposing air currents, it is extremely unlikely they would both drift to a halt in the same part of the sky and then remain static for an extended period, before resuming their original courses. If the sighting had been for a shorter time period then perhaps a prank using six drones may have been considered, but even professional drones only tend to have a battery life of about 30 minutes. Mike is convinced the lights were present for much longer than this. Conclusions Mike has had some varied and intriguing experiences. The most compelling events linking him with the contact subject are the two missing time incidents which took place while he was living at Rathenny Gate Lodge in Ireland. There are some truly incredible aspects to these incidents and it is certainly possible that Mike has been abducted but then had the memories removed. Many experiencers of contact report having one or more psychic abilities, so the fact that Mike appears to have a sixth sense and has seemingly experienced premonitions on multiple occasions again points towards the idea of him being a contactee. Although we only have his testimony to go on, and there is no way of proving they took place, he comes across as very trustworthy, and has no real reason to be fabricating these incidents. It is unknown if the two UFO encounters he has had are anything to do with his previous experiences. Neither of the sightings were at close range, and both also involved other witnesses, so it is possible he was just at the right place at the right time. While not particularly impressive in appearance, the objects in both experiences performed some very interesting manoeuvres which point towards non-mundane explanations. As previously mentioned, I hope to speak with some of the other witnesses in due course. Mike is keen to proceed with a hypnotic regression to explore some of his experiences in greater depth. I hope to arrange this within the coming months. If anything comes from this session then this report may well be updated going forward. I am pleased that Mike is open about sharing his experiences with me, and look forward to continuing the investigation into these fascinating incidents. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2024

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 22/04/2024 Note: For reasons of privacy, precise location details have been purposely omitted On 2nd April 2024 I was contacted on the telephone by a gentleman named Mick who lives in Olton, Birmingham. He wanted to report a sighting of a triangular-shaped object which he had experienced the previous evening. I arranged to visit him later on the same day to discuss what took place and obtain location photographs. Sighting Details Around 8.50-9pm on 1st April Mick decided to go for a cigarette at the back door of his house near to Lincoln Road, Olton. Looking to his left to the North East he saw a familiar copse of trees surrounding the nearby railway track. It had been raining earlier in the evening but by this time the rain had stopped and most of the cloud had cleared. He looked up diagonally at the stars in the patch of sky visible over the tops of the trees, the left side of his view blocked by the housing. Suddenly coming in from the left an unusual triangular-shaped object appeared, seemingly travelling in a South Easterly direction. It appeared to be an elongated triangle with an orange light at each corner, not particularly bright. The main body of the object was jet black, darker than the sky beyond it. There was no sound coming from it at all. Mick estimated that the object was not particularly far away, within half a mile of his location, due to the fact that he could clearly see its shape. If it was indeed at that distance he feels that it was around the size of a large aircraft, possibly hundreds of feet across, although it is difficult to judge distance of an object in the sky with no point of reference. The object did not move on a straight course but instead appeared to turn upward in a gradual curve. He did not have his smartphone on him at the time, it was left inside the house, and he did not want to take his eyes off the object. After about ten seconds it suddenly seemed to disappear. He didn’t see it suddenly blink out or fly away, it was just there one moment, gone the next. This was strange as there was very little cloud in the sky for it to have been hidden behind. He waited to see if it would reappear. It did not, but about 8-10 seconds after it had vanished there was a strange low rumbling sound, very different from a normal passenger jet engine. Mick described it as like a “bomb exploding in the distance”. This noise appeared to have come from the North East in the direction the object had been seen in, so he immediately associated it with what he had seen. The object did not reappear so he finished his cigarette then headed back inside the house. Knowing that the object was not a normal aircraft of any kind, he excitedly called his friend, also coincidentally named Mick, and told him about the sighting. He wondered whether anyone else may have seen the UFO, which is one of the reasons he reached out to BUFOG the following evening. Sighting Analysis This is a very interesting sighting with numerous aspects that do not sound mundane. I checked Flight Radar 24 for the presence of aircraft in the vicinity around the time of the incident. As you can see from the below images taken at 8.50, 8.55 and 9pm there are no aircraft shown (I also checked half an hour earlier and later just in case Mick had the timing wrong): Only aircraft with transponders on show up on Flight Radar 24, and pilots are not legally obliged to have one active. However Olton lies only a couple of miles from Birmingham International Airport. This means that it falls within controlled airspace, both above and below 4000 feet, which is indicated by 360 Radar: Aircraft flying within this airspace are strongly advised to have transponders so they can be detected by Air Traffic Control. This reduces the possibility of the object being an untracked private plane. Also, and more importantly, the appearance of the object does not sound like a normal aircraft of any kind, civilian or military. Normal aeroplanes and helicopters have white static, white strobing, red and green navigation lights on them not orange static lights, as highlighted by the below diagrams: The shape of the object would also put out of the question most normal aircraft except for certain military jets such as the Stealth Bomber, and even this is not a straight edged triangle. Mick informed me that not only did he get a good look at it, but that he is also very familiar with how aircraft look after dark due to the proximity of Birmingham airport, a statement I have no issue with whatsoever. Also the object seemed to curve upwards in a gradual arc. Aeroplanes tend to climb on a straight path not curve in this manner. If a plane turns on an arc towards the position of viewing it could give the impression of curving upwards, but Mick observed the object for ten seconds. Surely in this time it would have become obvious that it was starting to move towards his location? If the object was not an aircraft then we have to look at other possibilities. It was clearly a singular solid object rather than three orange lights drifting in a triangular formation, as Mick confirmed it was darker than the sky beyond it and he could make out the shape. It had the wrong shape and lighting to be a drone, and also seemed much too large for that. Hot air balloons are only lit near the base from the flame at the basket. Also owners are not permitted to fly them after dark as they are required to have three mile visibility at all times. Could it have been a large lit inflatable of some kind, drifting on an air current? This seems rather improbable due to the appearance and way it moved on an upward arc. Also the wind direction around 9pm was North, whereas this object appeared to be travelling South East. This can be seen on the below graph obtained from Weather Underground website: The sudden disappearance of the object is another anomaly. After an earlier shower, the rain had stopped and clouds largely cleared from the sky by 8.50pm (I live relatively close to the location of this incident and recall this directly). This meant that there was very little for the object to have suddenly been hid from view by. While the idea of it moving behind a cloud which was out of sight against the late evening sky cannot be ruled out, such a cloud would also have blocked out the stars and probably been obvious, especially as Mick was staring at where it had disappeared to see if it would return. It is unknown whether the strange rumbling noise that Mick heard was related to the object or not. I would have suggested it was the normal rumble of a jet engine taking off or landing at Birmingham International, but Mick confirmed that he has heard this himself on many occasions and this noise sounded distinctly different. In order to prove that he has contacted his friend about the incident after it happened, Mick actually gave him an unplanned call while I was there speaking with him. When his friend picked up he immediately asked “What did I call you about last night?” His friend responded “A massive black triangle in the sky. As far as I remember three white lights, one on the front and two on the back”. Mick corrected him, informing that the lights were orange. He replied “Orange. Sorry. I forgot that.” Mick then went on to inform him of my presence and the reason for the call (I have a saved audio recording of this conversation but have not included in this report for privacy reasons). The fact that his friend stated the wrong lights colour is not suspicious at all, it was clearly just a minor detail he had forgotten about. But this conversation as a whole is great evidence supporting that the sighting took place as Mick reported it. One of the more commonly reported craft reported by witnesses are known as Flying Triangles. These craft are almost always black or very dark in colour, and I have investigated other cases where they have displayed exactly the same lighting that Mick described (although there are a number of variations of both colour and positioning). Given the analysis of the evidence available I feel there is a good possibility that it was indeed one of these craft. So far I have had no further witnesses come forward reporting the object. If you believe you may have seen it too or have any other information relating to this case please get in touch. Mick has had other previous sightings of white orbs, these incidents are currently being written up in a separate report, which will be released soon. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2024

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 16/03/2024 Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used In late January 2024 I was contacted by a lady who I shall call "Diedre" via the Birmingham UFO Group website. She wished to report a sighting of a triangular shaped object she had witnessed while travelling between Banbury and Stafford. This report covers the details of what took place and investigative analysis. Sighting Details Between 4-4.30pm on Thursday 25th January 2024 Diedre was travelling from Banbury to Stafford on the M42 motorway with her son "Luke". She was in the passenger seat while Luke was driving. Due to the time of day the road was very busy. It was a dry and still afternoon. The sun had started to set and it was quite dark, yet not pitch black. They were driving slowly along the left lane of the motorway, heading North, 1 mile after Junction 7 M6 North exit. Traffic was very slow due to congestion. As they slowly approached a bridge over the motorway. For much of the motorway a line of trees blocks the view of the sky, but at this position there is an embankment free of trees, giving a view of the sky to the North West. Diedre happened to look out of the passenger side window at this patch of sky. It was now that she noticed a hovering object. The object looked like an upright equilateral triangle, and appeared to be within a mile of their position. It seemed much lower than a plane would usually fly at, perhaps 2000-3000 feet up. The main body of the object looked dark grey or black in colour, although this was not very clear due to the darkness. At each corner was a static light. The lights at the top and lower right corners were white in colour. The lower left light was orangey-red in colour. They were all static and non-strobing. If it was at the distance that it appeared to be, Diedre estimates that it was about as wide as 2/3 of the length of a football pitch (approximately 230 feet). Diedre wound down her window to get a better look at it. She briefly lost sight of it as they travelled under the bridge. It was still visible when they emerged. She exclaimed that she could see a triangular-shaped object over the fields. Luke briefly crouched down in his seat and looked left through the passenger side window and also got a look at it. He replied “You are right, it is a triangle!” Due to the high amount of traffic he did not stop the car, however Diedre was able to look at it as they slowly drove about 100 yards along the road, sometimes having to briefly stop behind other vehicles. She lost sight of it temporarily as they passed under the bridge, but it was still visible on the other side. The object appeared to be stationary. It possibly could have been moving very slowly but if so this was undetectable due to the car’s movement. After three to four minutes she lost sight of it out of the left side of the passenger side window. She did not have a smartphone or camera on her at the time. Luke's smartphone was in his jacket pocket on the back seat of the car out of reach. Diedre was too busy watching the object to think about asking her son to stop the car on the hard shoulder so she could get his phone and attempt to take some footage. Later on both Diedre and Luke checked online to see if anyone else had reported seeing it, but did not find anything. Luke’s Testimony In March 2024 Luke contacted me via E-Mail to provide a testimonial statement about what took place. “I can confirm I also saw the dark triangle on the evening my mother told you about. I didn’t see it in the same location it was a small way past the bridge having driven a small distance. I don’t remember the bridge but I did see a dark triangular shape as described by my mother. I only saw it for two or three seconds as I was focused on the traffic. I can say it was not a plane coming in to land. It looked to be banking away flying from East to West i.e. Coleshill towards Birmingham centre. I am familiar with the flight paths of the planes at the airport. I live under a path and also have seen Flight Radar where the flight paths are shown.” As you can see Luke's testimony matches that of his mother’s. It appears that his impression was the object was moving and heading West away from their location rather than stationary. However he was only able to observe it for a few seconds. Diedre was able to view it for much longer and I feel that during that time period it would have become obvious that it was travelling Westward. Sighting Analysis This is an intriguing sighting due to the shape of the object and its apparent lighting. Due to the angle the object was being viewed at, and the length of the sighting, if it had been travelling across the sky this would have become obvious. So an aeroplane or microlight can be ruled out. It was not the correct shape for a helicopter hovering over the fields. Also the lighting was incorrect for normal navigation lights. Helicopters (and aeroplanes) have red, green, white static and white strobing lights after dark: Flight Radar 24 also confirms that there were no tracked aircraft in the vicinity between 4.00-4.30pm. The only tracked aircraft that passed anywhere near was British Airways flight BA1489 travelling from Glasgow to London at 4.12pm: However this was too far to the West to have been seen at all, and even if it had been in view the plane was moving fast in a South South East direction which would have been obvious over the length of time of the sighting. Due to the proximity to Birmingham International the area lies within controlled airspace, both above and below 4000 feet, as confirmed by 360 Radar: Not all aircraft are tracked, however when flying within controlled airspace aircraft are required to have a tracker fitted. This means that it is extremely unlikely that the object was an untracked helicopter. Also Diedre informed me that they live between the base of the local air ambulance, Cosford RAF base, and the local hospital which has a landing area on its roof, so is very familiar with how helicopters look after dark at different altitudes and distances. If the object was not a plane or helicopter what could it have been? It was clearly a singular solid object rather than three glowing smaller objects arranged in a triangular formation. Due to the apparent large size, a lit inflatable such as an LED balloon, drone or RC model can all be discounted. Hot air balloons are not flown after dark, as their pilots are only allowed to operate them in FAA VFR conditions, meaning they need to be able to see clearly for up to three miles. In addition to this, the only lighting which would be seen on a balloon would be the flame at its base. With these mundane explanations discounted, it is reasonable to consider that this may have been a sighting of what is commonly referred to as a Flying Triangle, one of the more commonly reported types of craft, possibly of extra-terrestrial origin. I have investigated many Flying Triangle sightings over the years and more often than not they do have a singular light at each corner, in some cases varying colours. Flying Triangles are usually very dark in colour and can seemingly hover stationary in the sky, just as Diedre has reported. I would like to thank both Diedre and Luke for coming forward with this information, and their dedication to working out the precise position that the sighting took place. If you believe you may have seen it too or have any further details please get in touch. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2024

On Thursday 4th April we will be welcoming back historian, researcher and author Mark Olly. He will be giving a fascinating talk on the Aberystwyth UFO crash of 1983 and discussing it's many strange aspects and implications. For further details check out the event here. But before that, don't forget Graham Allen's talk on Thursday evening. Hope to see you there!

As the Chairman and lead investigator of Birmingham UFO Group I would like to share with you the launch of UK Pilots Reporting UAP website (UKPRU), which is administered by myself and several other UAP/UFO researchers. The website is dedicated to creating a safe platform for pilots and those in the aviation industry, who wish to report cases of UAP/UFOs. Although UAP/UFO reports are a global occurrence, at UKPRU we are focusing our efforts on encounters by pilots/crews of UK registered aircraft, and aircraft transiting to or from airports in UK and Irish airspace. The launch website (linked below) currently contains some stunning UK-based historical sightings, but we welcome pilots and other aviation staff to come forward with further information. All correspondence will be treated with the strictest confidence. https://www.ukpilotsreportinguap.co.uk

Hi everyone! We have a rather special announcement. If you've attended our recent meetings you'll already know that we are planning a Rendlesham Forest camping trip later this year with U.P.R.I.S.I.N.G: UFO and Paranormal Investigation. After discussion we have now decided on the dates of Friday 31st May to Sunday 2nd June. We will be staying at a campsite close to the forest edge. Planned activities will include open exploration, a walk along the official UFO Trail, BBQ and sky watching. It's going to be an amazing time and I hope you are able to attend! Check out the event here for further information.

BUFOG Investigator Ian Jones's case report on the various sightings of a cylindrical-shaped object/objects over Rushden and Eastcombe in the mid 1970s (originally released back in April) has now been extensively updated with details provided by a third witness, again from Rushden, who came forward late last year. This additional information and the detailed analysis Ian has performed now points towards a potential mundane yet highly unusual explanation. Have a read here and see whether you agree with his conclusions.

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Ian Jones Release Date: 28/04/2023 Last Updated: 04/01/2024 This report covers multiple sightings of cigar shaped objects from various locations by independent witnesses. The initial witness from Rushden, a lady named Paula Moss, got in touch with BUFOG in the spring of 2023. The first version of this case report was released on 28th April. Later in the year a man named John from Eastcombe got in touch as a result of reading the report to discuss his own sighting. At this point the report was updated. Griff Chamberlain, a member of the East Anglia UFO Discussion Group, and another resident of Rushden at the time of the inicent, contacted BUFOG in November 2023 to say he saw something very similar to what Paula reported seeing. There are a number of similarities between the sightings which suggest they may well have been of the same object, and various viewpoints regarding what it may or may not have been. Paula's Sighting The Sighting: Occurred sometime between 1967 and 1973 The Time of Year: Sometime during the summer The Time of Day: Between 5.30 and 6 pm The Place: Rushden, Northamptonshire Paula lived in Rushden, Northampton, in the late 1960s to early 1970s. She cannot be more precise about the year when this event happened to her and her husband and neighbours. She was in her 20s. Their house at 28 Mallery Close, a cul-de-sac, was in a row of 4 semi-detached terraced houses with a gap down the middle, which gave access to the rear gardens. The area has changed since then, but the following pictures indicate the general nature of the area. Paula’s Testimony It was sometime during the summer months between 5.30 and 6 pm. It was daylight and no electrical items were being used. Paula reports that she was in the kitchen cooking a meal, when suddenly the pans on the gas stove began to vibrate and a terrifyingly loud roaring noise could be heard. Then the cooker began to shake and the house to vibrate and shake. She thought at first that the cause might be an earthquake, so she ran out into the back garden. The occupants of the other houses had also gathered outside, clinging to one another. Paula reports that the ground was actually shaking and the noise became more deafening and it seemed to be coming from above them, in the sky. However, initially there was nothing visible. Then it was a terrible shock as a huge “rocket shaped thing” came over the rooftops, really low so that they thought it would crash. Lengthwise it was like a passenger jet. It reminded her of a tube, rounded, but open at the back. It had no wings, or fins. The noise was incredible, overpowering, and there were masses of flames belching out of the tail end, which was round. The flames were enormous. She said “I think they were multi-coloured, but also invisible, which is mad, but I say that because I could see up into the rear end and the inside looked dark. What was strange was that it wasn’t going very fast somehow. Then it gained height, still not going fast. It was like a plane with no wings, or a sort of missile, just terrifying. I don’t recall seeing any markings on it. Suddenly, within a garden’s length, it went upwards at speed and was suddenly gone – flames gone, noise gone, vibration gone. There was complete silence as we waited for the explosion, that never happened. There was no smoke, or smell. We didn’t have any pets, so no problems with them.” She said it cleared the rooftops and seemed to be heading towards Chelveston Air Base. Just before the object disappeared, Ivor, a friend of Paula’s, who lived less than 2 miles away, ran into their garden. He had heard and seen the object at his house and followed it, either by car or motor-bike, from when it was over his house, to their house. “No air traffic, clear, if you get a map and can find The Hayway, or just Hayway, that is where Ivor lived. The object flew in a straight line diagonally from there to over our house.” Ivor worked at the US Upper Heyford Air Base and said he thought it was some sort of missile, or perhaps a plane was in trouble. After the event he phoned them to report the strange sighting and was told that there was nothing in the local air space. Paula emphasised that the object’s speed was unusual: “How it stayed in the air was remarkable, I would say too slow to be airborne, but I know nothing about planes. How it suddenly vanished even now sounds unreal. What I cannot understand is how Ivor managed to get to my house in time to see it shoot off! I think that is why we felt it would crash on us. So to blink out was probably scarier.” Paula’s husband confirms the event. He says it reminded him of the Doodlebugs he’s seen in war films, although not the size of the object, but in particular the loud roaring of the engine and the sudden silence after seeing it disappear from sight, and then expecting an explosion, which never happened. He thinks that either the explosives didn’t work, or they were not present. Paula commented “The whole row of houses was involved and with the noise many other neighbours no doubt, but weirdly it was never discussed. Like it was pretended it never happened. My husband and I had never spoken of it until I asked him which direction the airbase was in. It was like the thing dropped a feeling of 'that's OK nothing to see here.’ We have never spoken of it, even to our son, that in itself is probably weird.” She looked in the local press at the time, and also since then, to see whether there were any other reports of the object, but there have been none. She said that “It is unbelievable I realise, but I doubt I have ever been as terrified in my life as that day.” Paula moved away from Rushden to Buckinghamshire shortly after this, so lost contact with her neighbours. Ivor also moved away. General Analysis Paula’s sighting was a long time ago and she admits that there are some details that she is not certain about, or has forgotten, such as the date and year it took place. However, the core elements of the event – the loud noise, the shaking of appliances and buildings, the appearance of the object, the neighbours’ reactions, her friend Ivor turning up because of seeing the object as well – are the main elements that she does remember. On that basis, this is an interesting and unusual report. Based on Paula’s description, weather-related causes and astronomical causes can be ruled out. Similarly, Paula’s description did not suggest this was a conventional airborne object, such as a passenger aircraft, jet fighter, or helicopter, nor could it have been a glider, micro-light, balloon, blimp, etc. Factors that are significant in this report include: 1. The speed at which the object was moving. 2. The description of the object. 3. The appearance of intense flames from the rear of the object. 4. The loud noise it made. 5. The way it caused things to vibrate and shake. 6. How it disappeared, suddenly. 7. The location of the sighting, where it came from and was heading towards. 8. The lack of reports in the media from people in the local area. 9. The lack of confirmation of anything by way of an incident from the local air base. Focused Analysis 1. For such a reportedly large object (like a passenger jet, but with no wings) to be moving so slowly seems to defy the usual laws of physics. From the Hayway, where Ivor lived, to Paula’s house in a straight line, which is the track the object would have taken, is about 1.2 miles, as in the map below. For Ivor to have been able to follow it from his house via local roads, to Paula’s, according to Google maps, the shortest route was 1.5 miles, which would take about 6-8 minutes, depending on the traffic conditions. Paula can’t recall whether he used a car, or motor-bike, but both would have needed time to get started and then to be parked on his arrival at Paula’s as well. Adding in those factors, the time Ivor took to travel the 1.5 miles to her house and run into the back garden, at best, could have been about 10 minutes. However, this means that the object travelled just over a mile in 10 minutes, which is less than 10 miles an hour! Yet for Ivor to be able to initially hear and see the object and then to follow it as he drove along confirms that it MUST have been clearly visible and moving at a very slow speed, compared with any other usual flying object. Otherwise, he would have lost sight of it. At that sort of speed it should have stalled and crashed. Pauls says she has always been puzzled by this whole event, the slow speed of the object and the fact Ivor could have followed it at all. “I have never been able to explain the time factors or the slowness of sudden appearance…I cannot think you can explain it, because it sounds so impossible.” The approximate direction the object was moving in, from Hayway to Paula’s house, was from the NW to SE. Paula says she thinks it was going towards Chelveston Air Base, but this is more to the NE of where she lives, about 5 miles away. 2. As Paula says, her description is like that of a rocket, or missile, flying horizontally. As far as I have been able to discover, it is not likely that it was either of these things. Rockets take off vertically and do not fly horizontally, certainly not at the height Paula describes. Rockets cannot move at slow speeds, typically they move at hundreds of miles an hour, and they do not manoeuvre in flight. Accidental launchings of rockets do not happen. There were no rockets launched in this country at that time, even on a test basis. All rocket test launchings were conducted overseas, such as at Cape Kennedy in Florida in the USA, or at Woomera in South Australia. Regarding missiles, there had been, for example, the Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile system located at many sites in eastern England, but they were withdrawn from service by 1966. They were over 60 feet long and about 6 feet wide, but had to be launched vertically, their liquid propellant only burned for 3 minutes and they travelled at about 10,000 mph up to a height of up to 1100 miles! All testing was done in the USA. Short-range surface-to-air missiles, used for airfield defence, such as the Tigercat, were also located at many RAF airbases. They were heavy subsonic missiles that had a maximum range of over 3 miles. The altitude was limited to about 3,000 ft due to the low power of the rocket motor. Upon launch there was a dead zone of about 1,500 ft in which the operator had to actually see the missile whilst tracking the target at the same time. Then it was guided by radio. However, they were only about 5 ft long, 9 inches in diameter and had 4 wings that stuck out about 2 ft. All missiles at that time had wings and fins. From 1966 the Thunderbird 2 surface-to-air missile was 20ft long and less than 2 ft in diameter, with a wingspan of over 5ft. It travelled at about 2,000mph with a range of up to 46 miles. There were other, similar, missile systems around, but all were similar to those described above. Clearly, safety concerns would prevent a missile from being test- fired anywhere near such a built-up area. The procedure for firing a missile means it cannot be done accidentally. None of the missiles I have researched fitted the description Paula gives of the object she saw, specifically it’s remarkably slow speed, low horizontal flight and sudden disappearance. 3. Such military objects had markings on them, identifying their make and nationality. Paula says she saw no markings, or windows, on the object. However, perhaps it was some sort of fighter aircraft? So, where might it have come from? Air bases in the Northamptonshire area: RAF Upper Heyford is about 24 miles to the WSW, near Bicester. In 1965 RAF Upper Heyford became a ‘standby base’, before a USAF Tactical Reconnaissance Wing arrived from France in 1966 and the role of RAF Upper Heyford changed. It’s role from 1971 was to house General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark tactical strike aircraft, as in the next picture. RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, which is over 60 miles to the East, also had the F-111 fighter aircraft at this time. This aircraft was 74ft long, wingspan 63ft (32ft swept back), air speed up to 900 mph at sea level. It would have made a lot of noise. There is no reason to think the US Air Force would fly their nuclear-armed fighters low over residential areas. An aircraft such as the F-111 could have flown over the house, but it would have been flying a lot faster than the object was and it’s shape, markings and the way it disappeared do not fit in with Paula’s description. Her friend Ivor could not have followed it at all, by car or motor-bike. RAF Chelveston is to the NW, about 5 miles away. Again, this is not the direction the object was travelling in. It hadn’t been active during the 1960s. This was closed due to Department of Defence budget cut-backs in the early 1970s. RAF Croughton is 42 miles to the SW of Rushden. It was designated as part of the US Air Force Communications Service throughout the 1960s and 1970s. No rockets, or missiles were there. RAF Harrington was 18 miles to the NW of Rushden, but the buildings, runways and taxiways were demolished in the mid-1960s and it became farmland. Similar findings apply to other military airfields in England at that time. 4. Paula described the colours of the flames coming out of the rear of the object as being transparent close to the exit area, but then being multi-coloured. Also, she said they were belching out, suggesting a forceful, continuous blast. However, Paula says there was no smell associated with this incident. If the flames were the result of fuel combustion, there would be some sort of residual smell resulting from that process. As the object was moving slowly and just above the houses it would have been impossible to ignore. 5. The “terrible” loud noise Paula reports may have been the result of whatever the fuel was that was burning and powering the object. 6. The vibration of everything, from the house and it’s contents to the ground below it, was caused by the noise and movement of the object as it passed overhead. Factors 5 and 6 suggest this was a real solid object. 7. The way in which the object disappeared was unusual. It started to move upwards, increasing in speed and then seemed to vanish suddenly. It didn’t move extremely fast out of sight. All sensory contact with it was lost simultaneously and instantly. That does not happen with a conventional aircraft, etc. 8. It was flying really low over a residential area, something that aircraft do not do, especially when they are no-where close to a landing site. If it had been an aircraft, or some other conventional flying object, that was in trouble, it would have crashed in the open fields across the A6 just to the east of Paula’s house, and made the news. But it disappeared completely in mid-air, so such an explanation does not apply. 9. At the time of day this happened, many people would have been at home, because it was around evening meal time. Yet despite the reported extremely loud noise and disruptive vibration caused by this object it doesn’t seem to have caused much discussion locally. From Hayway the object would have passed over the following: many houses and roads, a primary school, and the cricket club. It was a built-up area, so if the noise and vibration disturbed Paula and her neighbours, it should have had the same affect on many others living along the route below where this object travelled along. Yet this does not seem to have been the case, which is incredible. 10. The nearby air base at Upper Heyford said they didn’t have anything in the local air space that could explain Paula’s friend’s enquiry. In itself this is no help – they could have been with-holding information about something that did happen, but was sensitive information. If that is the case, we may never discover what happened. John's Sighting The Sighting: Occurred sometime between 1972 and 1973 The Time of Year: Sometime during the summer The Time of Day: After 4 pm The Place: Bismore Common, Eastcombe, near Stroud, Gloucestershire Sighting Details The following is the description John gave me of the sighting he had in the early 1970s. It was after school had finished for the day. “It was sometime in the summer of 1973 or 2, it is a long time ago, so I do not remember all the details. It was in a wooded valley near the village of Eastcombe near Stroud, Gloucestershire. The actual location was in a field known as Bismore Common. I think I had gone down there with my friend after we had finished primary school for the day. I was in their house next to the field when two of the girls ran in saying they could see a UFO. I ran outside and immediately spotted the object. It appeared to be about 2000 feet up (although altitude is difficult to work out) and was bullet shaped just like the picture you previously posted. I could not see flames coming out of the back, but it did have some sort of contrail coming out of the back. This meant that I had a good look at it before it disappeared over the trees. There were no wings, fins or windows or anything to break the outline. From memory it seemed to be a dull bronze colour (I am slightly colour blind so take any description of colour from me with a pinch of salt). I would say the sighting took about two minutes or so. It’s difficult to remember the month and exact time of day I saw it. I know I had school next day, so could not have been August and if I went down after school, it must have been BST rather than GMT. I think it must have been late afternoon about four-ish. All I can remember is that it was a bright day as the object was easy to see. My friend denied seeing anything the next day in school (fear of ridicule I think) and it was only their late father who said anything about it afterwards. The reason I have not mentioned it before, was the slow speed involved and the contrail which seemed to go against every other report.” John also described the size of the object as like the fuselage of a modern jetliner and it was about 30-40 feet in diameter and that it may have been July when he saw it. Eastcombe is about 3 km (about 2 miles) east of Stroud, 12 km (7.5 miles) south of Gloucester and Cheltenham, 30 km (19 miles) north-west of Swindon and 35-40 km (about 24 miles) north-east of Bristol and Bath. It is a relatively sparsely-populated area now and was probably more so in the early 1970s. John can’t recall the address of the house he was in, but the field he saw the object from was known locally as Bismore, or Bismoor, Common. The red and blue icons on the maps below show where this is located, just to the north of Eastcombe village. They give slightly different geographical information about the location where John was. Even today it is not easy to obtain good photos of this area. There is no road nearby, so a helpful google street image of it does not exist. It is not open farmland, but is at the bottom of a small valley with a stream running through it, surrounded on both sides by trees. The house John was visiting is just to the right of the red icon in the below aerial map, but it is obscured by trees. The larger area around Bismore/Eastcombe is still a mixture of mostly open and wooded land. John said that where he saw the object from “was a long flat field at the bottom of the valley, with a stream running through it. Woods on all sides & only able to see a few houses”. Links With Paula's Sighting John reports that the UAP came from the Southwest and it was heading Northeast. John was about 110 km (68 miles) away, in a straight line, from where Paula lived in Rushden and that trajectory would take the UAP towards her location. The direct route between Stroud and Rushden is over mostly open countryside. The only significant populated places over which the UAP would have passed are Banbury and to the south of Northampton. Both would have had smaller populations than they have now. Also, the roads between Stroud and Rushden would have been less busy then and they were not major roads anyway. The flight-path of the object is also midway between the airports of Birmingham, to the north and Luton to the south-east. The following section is an exercise in comparing the details in Paula’s and John’s descriptions of what they saw, to see whether there is much agreement between them. Then, to consider whether the object they saw, from their different locations, could be the same one. Year? John thought 1972 or 1973. Paula thought between 1968 and1973. Time of year? John thought a summer month, possibly July. Paula thought during the summer months. Time of day? John thought after school, late afternoon after 4 pm. Paula thought between 5.30 and 6 pm. Weather conditions? John described “either clear, or high cloud cover. A bright day, the object was easy to see”. Paula described “Daylight”. (The object was just above the height of the houses, so easily visible) Size? John estimated “the fuselage was like a modern jet liner”. Paula estimated “Lengthwise it was like a passenger jet”. Shape? John described “bullet shaped, no wings or windows”. Paula described “a huge, rocket-shaped thing, a tube, rounded, but open at the back. It had no wings, or fins.” Colour? John reported "a dull bronze colour”, but he’s slightly colour-blind, so may be wrong about that. Paula said it was white. Exhaust? John described “some sort of contrail, a faint vapour trail, white cloud-type”. Paula described “masses of flames belching out of the tail end, which were enormous. I think they were multi-coloured, but also invisible, which is mad, but I say that because I could see up into the rear end and the inside looked dark.” Smell? Both John and Paula reported that there was no smell associated with this object. Height? John said “about 2000 to 10000 feet”, although he then states that “altitude is difficult to work out”. His comment above, about the weather conditions may suggest it was at the lower end of this height. Paula said “it came over the rooftops, really low so that they thought it would crash.” Length of sighting? John estimated it as being about 2 minutes, but there is no way to estimate the distance the object travelled as he observed it. Paula couldn’t estimate this. Speed? John said “It was flying in a straight line and going very slowly. About the speed of the slowest light aircraft. Or even slower.” Paula said “the object’s speed was weird. How it stayed in the air was remarkable, I would say too slow to be airborne, but I know nothing about planes.” I previously estimated the speed of the UAP Paula saw as being less than 10 mph. John reckons it was after 4 pm when he saw the UAP, Paula thought it was between 5.30 and 6 pm. So, that is anywhere between an hour and a half and 2 hours between the two reported sightings. If the UAP was moving at a constant speed, to have covered the distance between where John was near Stroud and Paula near Rushden would mean it travelled at a speed of between 45 mph and 60 mph. Crucially, that speed is too slow for any aircraft to stay aloft. For example, today, the slowest speed an average single-engine plane will fly at is around 115 mph to 140 mph. Take-off and landing speeds are about 70 mph for small, single-engine planes. In early 1970s these speeds would have needed to be the same, or faster, because current aircraft engines and breaking systems are more efficient and powerful. Direction of travel? In Paula’s case the object seemed to travel initially from the Northwest to the Southeast, then veer more to the Northeast just before it vanished from sight and sound. John reported the object he saw moved steadily from the Southwest to the Northeast. Noise? John reported “it made no noise, went serenely." Paula reported “a terrifyingly loud roaring noise could be heard, the noise was incredible, overpowering, it made her insides churn and tremble”. Emotional impact? John said he thought “it was great! Not threatening in any way.” Paula was terrified by the experience, “I doubt I have ever been as terrified in my life as that day.” Other Reports? Both said they did not see, or hear, anything about the object they saw in any media then, or since. Sighting Analysis The details in the two sighting reports do have quite a number of similarities including the object’s size, shape, lack of wings, fins, and markings, unusually slow speed, steady horizontal movement and direction of travel between Stroud and Rushden, the approximate time of day it was seen in both locations is feasible, given it’s speed, the weather conditions were good in both locations – both observers got a good look at the object. Of course, there are differences in the two descriptions, which include direction of travel, noise, exhaust, colour and emotional impact. Overall, based on the available evidence, the similarities between the reports seem to outweigh the differences. Therefore, it is interesting to consider whether this was the same object seen on the same day in these two different locations. A Similar Object? The below screenshot is taken from the podcast Weaponized, Episode #7 Storming Area 51 and The Baghdad Phantom, from 6th March 2023, with Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp. The link to the episode is: https://youtu.be/F1hRHo2QHSw?t=6871 The still picture (from a video) is one of several in the programme, taken with a thermal imaging camera in Iraq on 14th May 2022. The section covering it starts at about 1 minute 51 seconds and the first picture is at about 1 minute 54 seconds. The object moves progressively from left to right in each picture. Jeremy Corbell emphasises that the black object in the lower middle part of the picture is NOT A ROCKET, because there is no heat signature and no flight surfaces (fins, etc). It is in controlled flight. He states that it has an undefined propulsion system / non-reaction propulsion system. This object has similarities with the object seen by Paula and John, but there is no information about it’s size, sound, or speed. However it does seem as if it was moving much faster than the speed reported by the witnesses. Griff's Sighting The Sighting: Around 1974-76 The Time of Year: Summer The Place: Rushden, Northamptonshire Griff thinks his sighting was a military jet aircraft. The details for what Griff saw and what Paula saw are certainly similar. Further research has produced some interesting facts that might throw light on what the object was. However, there are still some inconsistencies. Sighting Details During the early/mid 1970s Griff lived in Rushden, about 1.5 miles away from where Paula and where her friend Ivor lived, as shown on the map below Pink dot = Paula’s house Blue dot = Griff’s house Black dot = Ivor's house Griff’s initial message read as follows: “I remember that, probably around 1975. I was with a mate in my room in Rushden when all the clutter on the shelf started to vibrate and fall off. The noise was very loud and sounded like an aircraft in serious trouble and heading for the house. I rushed downstairs and out into the garden where I joined my dad to witness the military plane with flames being emitted from its tail. From subsequent news reports it was stated that windows were broken throughout the area. Despite the press contacting military bases no explanation was given and it was assumed the flames were afterburner on the aircraft. There must be lots of people who saw and heard this. It was quite terrifying to start with. To add to this, agreeing with my dad that it was a jet aircraft. It was travelling very slow at first. It was travelling towards Chelveston base. My viewpoint was Wellingborough Road, opposite junction with station road. The precise year is debatable, but it must have been pre-1977 as I went to uni then, but with the specific mate with me would suggest 1974 to 1976. I am sure it was a military plane. It was quite an unforgettable event. We saw it briefly coming towards us then heading away. I am positive it had wings, it was a stubby aircraft so depending on the view it could easily be mistaken for having none. The flame as I remember was out of the tail, a single flame and quite intense and the noise was incredible. With regards to how long the episode lasted, I was in my room and would have been playing records on the music centre I had. The noise gradually increased and when it got really loud and things started falling off shelves, I honestly thought a plane was about to smash onto the house, so panicked and rushed down stairs, through the hall, breakfast room and kitchen to where my dad stood in the garden. In all I would guess the episode lasted 5 to 10 mins. When I arrived outside I saw it to the South of the garden, it was low, slow and made that huge noise. It headed off and I saw it more from the rear, the flame stopped, the noise stopped, and it accelerated away very quickly." Griff's drawing of what he saw: “It came over to the South of the garden, from the West and headed Northeast - that is why we thought it may have been heading to Chelveston airfield for an emergency landing - this was a USAF airfield and and although i understand it was not still in use as a base it was nonetheless still had the structures in place. Not sure when it actually closed but I do remember being taken there as a cub scout in probably 1969 and meeting the US staff. This seems to be the opposite direction to Paula's memory of the event but I am adamant it was heading that way - having said that memory is a strange thing! Immediately after the event my dad switched on the radio hoping to catch a report about it but there was absolutely nothing. It wasn’t until the following week that the local Northants Evening Telegraph picked up the story, but then it was only a minor column in the paper referencing that it had broken windows and mentioning the denials from the military. It was definitely lower than normal aircraft and by a considerable amount to the south by about 8 miles we had RAE Bedford and that used to occasionally fly military jets and even concord test flights out of there - it was more that sort of height. As I remember it was a clear sky so no clouds to reference it against. I am not very good at estimating height but i would guess well under 2000 ft but that is a complete guess. Unfortunately both of my parents have passed away and more recently my old friend who was with me on that day. I am sure there must be many more witnesses to this event." Other Witness Testimonies Later on I recieved another message from Griff: “Just to update you on this, I put the question to a Facebook group dedicated to Rushden and am already seeing responses of others who witnessed this.” The group Griff posted on is called Rushden: Now And Then, and the post was made on 11th November 2023. His initial post read as follows: “I am not sure if you or any of your readers can help me. recently I came across a story about a mystery object that flew over the town and caused windows to shatter and things to fall off the shelves in houses. I distinctly remember the event myself and it happened some time in the mid 70s. the noise was enormous as this plane flew over town spewing flames from the rear. From inside it sounded like the plane was going to crash into the house. I am trying to trace the specific year, and any other witnesses and whether any resolution as to what this aircraft was. I seem to remember this being a Saturday afternoon in summer and also remember the ET reporting the event soon after, albeit only a couple of paragraphs.” He received numerous responses to this post, some from other direct witnesses: "I remember it so I'll say it was 1974 or 75." "I remember about 1975/76...There was a story of an American F1-11, based at Alconbury had an engine fire. It was 'limping back' to Cambridge one afternoon." "Exactly right! We were out in our garden when it flew over and my dad, who worked at the RAE in Thurleigh at the time, said straight away that it was an F1-11 with an engine on fire. I don't know what the outcome was but do remember it being quite a big deal at the time in sleepy Rushden." "I remember this! We looked up and saw it from our garden, basically something flying with flames shooting out from the back." "I think i remember something similar in the 70's, looked just like a cigar with flames coming out the back. Mum could never find out what it was but it was low and nearly got chimney pots up Osborne close where we lived." "I remember that as a kid, said it was a jet burning off fuel." "I remember this, my sister in law worked in a jewellery shop and it shattered things in there." "We moved up in May 1976. We had not heard it or about it. We lived in Melloway Road, if it was heard in Birchall Road, we would have noticed. So I guess it would have been 1975." "I remember that. It was 1975. I was in Trafford Road park at the time. And first year at the boys school." "I remember this incident very well, and i'm pretty sure it was 1976, during that very hot summer. I believe it came from one of the American air bases, and although friends tried to find out exactly what it was they were not able to, as it was veiled in secrecy. It was very frightening as the noise was terrific." "I remember seeing this as a teenager one hot afternoon mid 70s. It was going at great speed, was very loud with fire spewing out the back but you couldn't define what it was. The windows did indeed shake and if memory serves me well USAAF Alconbury advised it was one of theirs (refuelling ) but we all said it was a cover up. I remember this I was a kid at my nans and her windows were shaking, it was very loud I didn't see anything but this was Raunds. My sister said she saw it and thought it was a missile. Nothing was said ever said about it and seemed like a cover up. I'm glad others remember it too I'd like to know." "I remember it. It was 1975 or later. I was in a house at the top of Washbrook Road and saw it go over the Oakley Arms." "I remember that. I was stood in a queue at the Co-op butchers shop in Birchall Road at the time. The whole shop was shaking. I stepped outside to see a low flying craft at around 1000 to 1500 feet high going in a straight line heading north. The craft had a huge tail of flame. It must have happened in the early 1970's though. There was a report in the ET the following day but it was inconclusive as to what it was." "F-111s had a dump valve for fuel between the jet nozzles so might be. I’ve shared this to a F-111 group that pilots and associated crew are on. Might get some info." Griff also provided a link to a previous post on the same group from March 2021 made by someone else: “Seem to recall as a kid in Higham Ferrers, around 1975/76 there was an incident on the sky, just above the cloud level. As kids we saw flames and a loud raw travelling from Wellingborough towards I think now believe was Alconbury. Thinking it was a meteor or spaceship, Gota love the 70s. Turned out I think according to the ET of the time it was an F1-11 jet bomber with an engine fire. Can’t seem to find anything on the internet......Help?" This earlier post also received many responses: "I remember it the sound omg it scared the life out of me. I thought it was going to crash into our garden." "No, but think it landed at molsworth air base. rember reading something along them lines." "I watched it fly over at Chelveston it was an F111 with a problem, it was dumping fuel this caused a long flame from the rear as the fuel dump valve was between the engines." "I remember seeing that when we lived in Farnham Drive. It was indeed loud with a ‘flame’ coming out of the rear." "I thought I was the only person to see it. If my memory is correct it was early evening but didn't know what it was." "I remember that. It was indeed an F111. It was burning off fuel I think. I saw it fly over when I was standing on Station Road in Rushden." "I remember that as a 14 year old the roar was loud it knocked some windows out at the factory where my dad worked" The following link mentioned in the thread has information relating to fuel dumping of F-111 jet aircraft: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/.../why-does-the-f-111... Someone in the thread asked "Why does the F-111 sometimes squirt a giant fire plume behind it? (NOT afterburners)" The response to this was as follows: "I used to be an F111 test engineer; the jet can hold about 19000 liters of fuel (without external tanks). At 0.81kg/Liter, that's 15390Kg (33,939 Lbs) of weight, which is substantial (the empty weight of the jet is 45200 Lbs / 20,500 Kg). Basically with a full load of fuel, the jet is 75% heavier.  Although the giant flame plume is cosmetic, the F111 can dump fuel like this in case you need to quickly reduce the weight of the aircraft; in-flight emergencies are one possible reason to reduce weight quickly. The fire is because the pilot lit the afterburners whilst dumping fuel. Assume you loose your flaps, or maybe you discover the brake lines are leaking... if you had to land on a short field (such as a small civilian airport), it makes sense to dump your fuel so you have a better chance of stopping quickly." Below are pictures of F-111s dumping fuel, showing the flames from the engines: "The 'Dump and Burn' as it was called here in Australia was used for 'effect' at air shows and for 'promoting' the Air Force as a great place to be. The 'effect' was really quite spectacular. And frightening to those who saw it for the first time, like here in Brisbane, resulting in many phone calls to the police of a UFO sighting. It also has uses in an emergency, where you might find yourself above an airfield about to land, but with too much heavy and flammable fuel: you want as little fuel as possible on a crash landing, but you don't want to fly in circles to burn fuel, so you can use a fuel dump port instead." Aircraft Possibilities This evidence, from March 2021 and November 2023, seems to confirm that there was an object sighted and heard flying low over Rushden, probably in 1975. It was very loud, shook buildings and broke windows. It also had flames ejecting from the rear end. Some observers thought it was heading towards one of the RAF airbases in the North- to North-east direction, such as Chelveston, Alconbury, or Molesworth. The aircraft mentioned by more than one person is the F-111. The F-111’s exhaust flames were used at air-shows, for additional interest, OR, it was a way of dumping fuel prior to making an emergency landing. So, I did some research into the F-111. I found that it was an American fighter aircraft, based at RAF Upper Heyford. This is located about 30 miles South-west of Rushden. From June 1970 this was the Headquarters of the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW). From November 1971 the first two F-111Es were declared operationally ready. They were nuclear weapon capable. This aircraft was 73ft long and the most famous feature of the F-111 was it’s variable swing wings. This means the aircraft could change the shape of its wings in flight. It’s wings were swept back when flying at 2.5 times the speed of sound at low levels. In this position the wingspan was 32 ft, with an area of 525 square ft. But if it wanted to land on a runway, it could move its wings into a forward horizontal position which was more stable and slower to allow for safe take-off and landing. In this position the wingspan was 63ft, with an area of 657 square ft. In both the swept and forward positions, the wings would usually be visible to an observer, especially when seen from below, at a very low altitude, as can be seen in the diagrams of it below: Terrain avoidance radar on the F-111a allowed it to fly low-level (down to 200ft above ground) supersonically day or night in all weather. However, that was at about 550mph. Could it have flown much slower, say at about 10mph, as was estimated for Paula’s sighting? The F-111’s minimum controllable airspeed would have been higher than 10mph due to its design and aerodynamics. Flying at such a low speed could be challenging for an aircraft designed primarily for supersonic flight. Various estimates suggest it’s slowest speed in horizontal flight would be around 110 knots (127 mph). The F-111 was equipped with terrain-following radar and automated systems for low-level flight. These systems allowed it to maintain a consistent altitude above the ground even at high speeds. However, flying at extremely low speeds might compromise its stability and safety. Note that the exterior of the aircraft was painted according to the different missions/events it was engaged in and was never a featureless white, or pale colour. The F-111 could land on a grass field in less than 3,000 feet. Therefore, any of the 3 RAF airfields suggested to the North-east could have accommodated it, if it had needed to land due to some emergency. Next, I looked at the 3 airfields referred to. Alconbury was mentioned by some FB respondents as one airbase the object could have been headed for. RAF Alconbury was the only one of these in operation at that period in the 1970s. I then discovered that there was a NATO Display Day at RAF Alconbury Airbase on Saturday 25th June 1975. RAF Alconbury was an operational air base located near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. It was used by the United States Air Force from 1951 to 2020. It is about 7 to 8 miles North-east of Rushden, as seen in the map below: So, I asked Griff whether he thought his sighting could have happened on a Saturday? He replied: “That is probably 95% certain if not more. At the time my friend and myself would parade the town each Saturday and quite often come back to mine to listen to the latest records I'd bought. This only happened on a Saturday and without a doubt he was there when this occurred, so I am pretty certain it was a Saturday” This opened up an alternative explanation, which didn’t involve the object being an F-111 jet fighter. On 28th June 1975, which was a Saturday, there was a NATO air show, where the star turn was a prototype of the General Dynamic YF-16  fighter aircraft. This special display was part of a demonstration tour at various European NATO airbases. This was it’s first ever appearance in the UK. They did not have an F-111 flying on that day, as far as I have been able to discover. One online source gave the following report about that day, and a photo of the YF-16 jet fighter: “This air show was classified as 'NATO' Air Day - it was our introduction to the next generation fighter for NATO... the F-16Without question the appearance of the new General Dynamic YF-16 demonstration aircraft along with its RF-4C Phantom 'chase' plane was the 'star' attraction. Thankfully I had been at Bentwaters the day previous to witness when the pair first arrived in UK for their demonstration performance to senior NATO staff and VIP's. Simply awesome! The pair would line up together on the runway, the Phantom in 'clean' configuration and await the count down to 'brakes off'. All burners engaged the F-16A in no distance was nose up and climbing while the Phantom was still rolling. As the Phantom rotated the F-16s was already rolling over to level out at around 5000'. “ This source provided the following photo of the YF-16 at that NATO Day: In June 1975, the YF-16 was not yet operational in the United Kingdom, because the YF-16 program was still in its developmental stages in America. So this aircraft was a prototype / demonstration model. It had appeared at the Paris Air Show earlier in the month. It’s presence in Paris and the UK during June 1975 was to show off it’s capabilities and to encourage some NATO countries to buy it in large numbers. Interestingly, and possibly relevant, at the Paris Air Show, at Le Bourget, this aircraft made a 6 minute demonstration flight, which is not a long time in the air. However, the organisers accused it’s pilot of dangerous flying: they considered the YF-16 had attempted a "very dangerous manoeuvre exceeding the pilot's brief" and penalised it. The YF-16 pilot roared off in a spectacular take-off during a demonstration flight and made a roll with the under carriage down less than 50 metres (150ft) from the ground. It landed at USAF Bentwaters on Friday 24th June, the day before the NATO day. The eye-witness does not say anything about any problems with any of the aircraft that were flying at the NATO Display Day at Alconbury – no emergency landings, or other incidents, etc. Indeed, there are no records of any accidents, or incidents for this aircraft ever happening in the UK. Estimates for how slowly this fighter aircraft could fly, before stalling, are in the 180 to 210 mph range. This seems too fast for what Paula and Griff described seeing, though. This aircraft was 49 ft long and had a FIXED WINGSPAN of about 33 ft and a wing area of 33 square ft: The underside of an F-16 during a vertical climb: F-16 in afterburner: I’ve not found photos of the YF-16 with flames from it’s exhaust that are as impressive as those for the F-111. Summary These photos would suggest that, seen from below, it would be easy to identify that the YF-16 was an aircraft – the wings and tail fins would be clearly outlined –  and not mistake it for a long tube/cigar shape with no markings on. The manoevre described in the above NATO Display report of the YF-16 - “All burners engaged the F-16A in no distance was nose up and climbing”, is interesting. As is the fact that in Paris the pilot also flew at a height of less than 50 metres (150ft) above the ground, which the organisers determined was a dangerously low level. So, could this be the jet aircraft that people saw and heard? Other aircraft flying on the same day included 43 Squadron Phantom FG1, 233 OCU Harrier GR.1, West German Navy MFG.2 Starfighter and the Belgian AF 350 Squadron F-104G Starfighters pair team known as the ‘Slivers.’ These Starfighters thrilled with flat-out straight-line speed, seemingly aiming at each other, creating screeching and howling manoeuvres. Both Paula and Griff mention that the object took some time to pass overhead. Paula said it flew weirdly slowly and my report, based on how long it would have taken her friend Ivor to get from his house to Paula’s, estimates it was moving at less than 10mph. On the face of it, that seems most unlikely, because no aircraft can fly very far horizontally at such a slow speed. Griff also mentions the object was moving very low and slow at first and the incident took about 5 to 10 minutes in total. That’s a long time for an aircraft, which is flying just above house height, to be heard and visible from the ground, especially in a built-up area with surrounding buildings nearby obscuring the more distant views. However, both Paula and Griff did then describe how the object they saw  flew low over their house, and then angled upwards and suddenly disappeared. At the same time the loud roaring sound stopped. Other Airfields If it was an aircraft in difficulties, what nearby airfields could it have landed at? In the early 1970s, due to budget cutbacks, the MOD decided to close Chelveston. The concrete runways, taxiways and hardstands were broken up and removed in 1977. It is about 3 to 4 miles North-east from Rushden and is suggested by the various reports, including Paula’s and Griff’s. The imprint of the 11,000ft postwar jet runway is clearly visible in aerial imagery, as seen in the photograph below: So, if needed, the runway probably could have been used for an emergency landing of a jet aircraft in June 1975. RAF Molesworth is about 9 miles North-east of Rushden. It went into a maintenance status for twenty years after 1951 and closed to flying in 1971, with only the occasional aircraft using the airfield. It did have a 9000ft jet runway, which existed until about 1980. An aircraft that needed to make an emergency landing could do so there. Other Airshows It is important to note that there were other Air Shows in the 1970s at RAF Alconbury: 1973: The Alconbury Air Show featured a dazzling display of aircraft, including the iconic F-4 Phantom II. Spectators craned their necks as the Phantoms sliced through the air, leaving contrails of excitement in their wake. 1976: The Harrier Jump Jets wowed the crowd with their vertical take-offs and nimble manoeuvres. The sun glinted off their sleek frames as they hovered like futuristic dragonflies. 1979: The majestic Blackbird, the SR-71. Its sleek, black fuselage seemed to defy both gravity and time. As it streaked across the horizon, it whispered secrets of speed and stealth. Flight Speed All the reports, together, describe flames coming from the rear of the object, which rules out it being something that was non-military. When comparing the stall speeds of military planes with general aviation or civilian planes, military planes cannot fly as slow as general / civilian planes. General/ civilian aircraft such as Cessna 152 and 172 are designed to be stable and economical, which allows them to continue a level flight at lesser airspeeds than a fighter jet. This trade-off happens primarily in the wing design of an aircraft. A military aircraft wing is designed to continue generating lift at supersonic speeds which in turn reduces its ability to generate lift at slower airspeeds. Of course, this has to do with the small size of the wing relative to the airplane’s weight. For general/ civilian planes, the wings are larger relative to the weight of the airplane and designed to operate within subsonic ranges. Therefore, planes such as Cessna 152 can fly as slow as 48 knots (55 mph). The lowest speed a fighter jet can attain during controlled flight, typically ranges from 100 knots (115 mph) to 200 knots (230 mph) depending upon the design and other flight factors. Some of these design elements include parameters such as the angle of attack, the load factor, and the altitude. In optimum conditions and level flight, an F-16 has stall figures within the range of 160 - 180 knots (184 – 207 mph). Based on this information, neither the F-16, nor the F-111 could have flown relatively slowly across Rushden at a low altitude for more than a mile. Yet this seems to have been what Paula and Griff reported happening. Paula's Views On Griff's Testimony I asked Paula if she might have misremembered the year and she was open to that possibility and that it could have happened on a Saturday, possibly the 25th June 1975. However, she still has some doubts that what she saw was an aircraft. Her description of how it disappeared is: “Suddenly, within a garden’s length, it went upwards at speed and was suddenly gone – flames gone, noise gone, vibration gone. There was complete silence….” She feels that this isn’t how a big, noisy aircraft would disappear. Compare this with Griff’s description of how the object disappeared: “It headed off and I saw it more from the rear, the flame stopped, the noise stopped, and it accelerated away very quickly.” These descriptions are remarkably similar and jet aircrafts do carry out such a manoeuvre. These comments suggest that Paula and Griff could well have seen the same object. The differences in their descriptions – seen in their drawings – may well be caused by their different views of the object, as Griff suggests. He saw it both approaching and departing, whereas Paula mostly saw it departing. General Discussion After more than 45 years, it is clearly not possible to be 100% certain about what the object was that Paula initially reported to BUFOG. There are also some discrepancies about the suggestion that Griff and others have made and a link to the Alconbury Display Day that I thought may be an explanation. Points to consider are: There definitely was something that flew low over Rushden and caused many people to become aware of it. It made a lot of noise, the vibrations from it broke windows and it had flames coming out of the rear. It seems to have been flying in a North-east direction. It happened in a summer month, in the afternoon. The online consensus and Griff’s feeling is that the year was 1975. Paula isn’t so certain about that, but says it could have been then. This is obviously crucial to determine, because if it was 1975 then it was likely related to the NATO Display Day on June 25th. However, there were other airshows at RAF Alconbury in previous and later years in the 1970s. The general online consensus is that it was in a summer month, during the early evening. Griff is 95% certain it was a Saturday. Paula agrees it could have been on a Saturday. The NATO Display Day was on a Saturday in June. Bear in mind that some of the people who reported online didn’t recognise it as an aircraft and were puzzled by what it could have been. Paula is still doubtful that what she saw was an aircraft. Griff feels certain it was an aircraft. Some of the people who reported about it online thought it was an aircraft. Several people who responded online mentioned it could have been an F-111. Inconsistencies If it was an aircraft, then the two most likely candidates are the YF-16 and the F-111, as described above. However, there are problems with determining how likely it was either of these, as explained below. The F-111 aircraft was in service with the USAF at Upper Heyford. This airbase is about 30 miles South-west of Rushden, and even further from RAF Alconbury. Therefore, the direction of flight is correct – the object was described by the online observers and Paula and Griff, as flying North-easterly. The F-111 certainly was capable of flying very low over the area and had an exhaust that flamed when it was dumping fuel, or performing at air shows. BUT there are no reports, or photos, of an F-111 appearing at the 1975 NATO Display Day. Indeed, it would not have been there, because the star attraction was the YF-16. The other USAF fighter aircraft would have been kept away. Given the figures about it’s minimum speed, this aircraft could NOT have flown as slowly as reported by Paula and Griff. Why would an F-111 carry out such a major manoeuvre over Rushden at any time? The YF-16 aircraft landed at USAF Bentwaters on Friday 24th June, along with its RF-4C Phantom 'chase' plane.  Bentwaters (RAF Lakenheath) is about 60 miles to the East of Rushden. The demonstration flight was the next day, Saturday, at RAF Alconbury. The YF-16 aircraft would not have needed to fly anywhere near Rushden en route to Alconbury, because it is 7-8 miles further to the West of Alconbury. It was able to fly low, as the pilot showed in Paris. The afterburners were used at demonstrations, so could have been used at Alconbury. However, where was the RF-4C Phantom 'chase' plane that accompanied the YF-16? There are no reports of a second aircraft. The YF-16 had to stay within visual range of the chase aircraft, because it was still a prototype and had no navigational equipment, so could have easily got lost once it had taken off. Therefore, it would not have been flying much beyond the boundary of Alconbury airfield. Chase planes also ensure safety during the demonstrations and copy the manoeuvres the other plane makes. They also capture stunning air-to-air images and videos of the subject vehicle. These visuals are valuable for analysis, documentation, and public relations purposes. It only flew for about 6 minutes for it’s demonstration flight in Paris, so it probably did a similar flight time at Alconbury. That suggests a shorter time in the air than reported by Paula and Griff, who saw something fly over Rushden, for around 5-10 minutes, when it would still have been 8 miles from Chelvaston. The YF-16’s minimum speed means it would have flown over Rushden in a much shorter time than that. The object was reported as flying over Rushden from the South-west, which would have been a strange direction for it’s display at RAF Alconbury. Then, why would it be flying and using afterburners 7-8 miles away from the airfield, where no-one there would be able to see it? An Experimental Aircraft? If the 2 aircraft discussed already were not likely to be the explanation, could there be another one? If the date is correct and it was the 25th June 1975, then maybe one of the other jet fighters at the display was responsible? Griff's description of the object seemed to provide a possible clue: “I am positive it had wings, it was a stubby aircraft so depending on the view it could easily be mistaken for having none. The flame as I remember was out of the tail, a single flame and quite intense and the noise was incredible.” I have emphasised the stubby aircraft detail in the description, because "stubby" seems to be an unusual word to use. It implies that the front of the object was not particularly elongated and that the object was relatively short and narrow when compared to other aircraft. I decided to look at the Harrier “Jump jet”, because it seemed to have the manoeuvring capabilities described in the sightings. It was a jet and had flames coming out from the rear. It could fly at low altitudes. It could fly slowly horizontally: Then I discovered that the Hawker Siddeley Harrier aircraft was being developed at RAE Bedford in 1975. RAF Bedford was a research site of the Royal Aircraft Establishment between 1946 and 1994. It was located near the village of Thurleigh, north of the town of Bedford in England and was the site of aircraft experimental development work. It is about 5-6 miles to the South-east of Rushden and 11-12 miles to the South-west of RAF Alconbury. In the early 1970s, RAE was tasked by MoD to enable Sea Harriers to recover to a vertical landing on a ship at night in poor visibility. A Harrier XW175 was allocated as the trials aircraft. The Harrier XW175 was a two-seater aircraft, which first flew in 1969. It was delivered to RAE Bedford in February 1975. It was unique as a military aircraft as it spent all its working life at RAE Bedford and Boscombe Down (Wiltshire) in support of innovative short take-off and vertical landing STOVL research programmes. So it would probably have been flying around the local area during these research and trial developments. It could hover at a low level and move forward slowly, steadily increasing speed to that of a typical aircraft. The figures in the table below show that it was a smaller, especially a shorter aircraft, than the YF-16 and F-111: The Harrier is much shorter and narrower than the F-111, in particular. It would, therefore, present a much smaller profile than the other two aircraft when seen from below, or at an angle. The flames from the exhaust could more easily obscure the details of it’s outline, which would make it harder for an observer to identify what it was. A description of a Harrier XW175 in flight: “When the Harrier jump jet takes off or hovers, its jet engine roars to life, and you’d witness a mesmerizing spectacle. Flames would indeed dance from the exhaust nozzles, painting the sky with fiery hues. The intense heat and power generated by the engine create this captivating display.” It fits in with the general descriptions, and it could have flown at the slow speed indicated by the sighting reports. If it came from RAE Bedford it was also flying from a direction to the South of Rushden. There was one Harrier that was at the Display Day – a 233 OCU Harrier GR.1 Or, could it have been a Harrier out on a test flight from RAE Bedford? Conclusions Despite all this research, it is not possible to come to a definite conclusion about what people reported seeing. Based on their descriptions of their sightings, it seems almost certain that Paula and Griff saw the same object. Griff, and the responses from people on the local Facebook page, suggest 1975 as a consensus year. Griff is almost certain it was on a Saturday. Paula isn’t quite so sure, but doesn’t reject the possibility. The date of Saturday, 25th June 1975 was when a major NATO Air Show at RAF Alconbury happened. The YF-16 jet fighter was on display there, but there are some reasons which might exclude it from being the object that was reported. If it wasn’t that date, there were other Air Shows during the 1970s in the region. There are similar problems with the other suggestion that the object was an F-111. With the RAE Bedford establishment not far away from Rushden, perhaps something it was developing was responsible – such as the Harrier Jump Jet, which could perform much like the observed object. Aircraft they were working on would have needed to be flown dozens of times over the local area during the development stages. With something like the Harrier, it would have been done in secrecy. There was also a Harrier at the Alconbury Display Day. Therefore, my main conclusion is that what was observed by Paula and Griff and the other people who went online about it, was most probably a jet aircraft of some sort. Which aircraft it was, where it came from and where it was headed for are still unknowns. Also, what was a jet aircraft doing flying so low over Rushden in the late afternoon, creating so much distress and confusion to the population there? John also reported seeing something similar to what Paula reported, from his home in Eastcombe, near Stroud, in the early 1970s. When I compared the drawing he did and his description of the sighting, with what Paula provided, there were numerous similarities between them. So initially I stated that on the balance of probabilities they had both seen the same object. However, John thought that he saw his object in 1972 or 1973, which is a 2 year discrepancy with the new date suggested for Paula’s sighting. Given my conclusion now, that a jet aircraft of some sort is the most likely explanation for what was seen over Rushden, and that it was in 1975, it means my earlier suggestion is not tenable. So John did see something, but it was probably not the same as what Paula or Griff saw. New information can help us to understand unusual / strange sightings, but often it still doesn’t provide definitive answers. If anyone can come forward with more information – including pointing out whatever significant errors I’ve made – that would be interesting. If anyone has questions or additional information, about any of these sightings, please do contact me. Copyright Ian Jones 2024

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 16/11/2023 Last Updated: 17/11/2023 Eesha Patel is an experiencer and online podcaster. In late October 2023 I was invited to talk on her podcast about some of my past investigations. In the run up to the show we were in contact for a number of weeks and Eesha informed me of a UFO photograph she had taken earlier in the year while on holiday. I offered to take a look at the image and perform some detailed metadata analysis which would help prove the authenticity of the photograph. She provided full details of what had taken place, and sent me the original photo for examination. Photograph Background In May 2023 Eesha and her partner Martin Sisolakwas were on holiday in Kragujevac, Serbia staying with their long time friend Zeljko Zivkovic. On 26th May Zeljko decided to take them to visit Manasija Monastery in Despotovac. They used their car for the journey, with Martin driving and Zeljko on the back seat. The route to the monastery took them through a small town called Medveða. Due to the town’s small size it was quite quiet with not many other drivers or pedestrians around. It was a sunny and warm morning with only light cloud in the sky. At 10.42am Eesha suddenly spotted a stork sitting on top of a nest it had built on top of a tree. As these birds are not native to Australia, Eesha asked Martin to pull up the car so she could briefly get out and take a “live” photograph of it on her iPhone SE 2020 (One which takes multiple frames in quick succession to create a very short video). After Eesha had taken the photograph of the stork, everyone got back in the car. Back in the passenger seat Eesha glanced at the photo preview on her phone to see how it had come out. She immediately noticed an unusual cigar-shaped shape seemingly positioned in the sky visible above the nest: She opened the live photograph in her gallery to examine it further. She soon found that the object only appeared in a single frame of the live photograph, and it so happened that it was this particular frame which had been chosen by her phone to display as the preview! Eesha has had numerous contact experiences throughout her life involving a number of different types of beings, and she immediately felt that the object on the image was an alien craft. She attempted to telepathically connect with this, and sensed that the object was indeed a craft, and that it contained both Grey and Reptilian beings, in addition to the lesser known Arcturians, an other-dimensional species believed by some to exist. She told Martin and Zeljko straight away and showed them the photo. Looking around the sky there was no sign of the craft so she did not ask them to further delay the journey by remaining in the area. They spoke about the photograph with one another as they continued their journey to the monastery. Later on Eesha airdropped the image to another friend and he ran it through some picture inspection website to attempt to figure out what it was, but this came up with no useful results. General Analysis The original photograph provided to me is in the relatively new HEIC file format. Unfortunately this cannot be displayed inside the report directly. Below is a converted Jpeg copy of the original image, with the object circled in red: Zoomed view of the object: Zoomed view of the object with edge find: At first observation, the object has a distinct shape to it, with sharp angular edges and a variety of shades of grey within it. It does not immediately suggest a solid three dimensional object, although if it was moving very fast past the camera lens the exact structure could have been blurred or stretched out. Below is the live photograph video footage: I performed some frame-by-frame analysis of this footage. Unfortunately it is not possible to see the frame containing the object. This is most likely due to the conversion process from Eesha's smartphone. Metadata Analysis The metadata embedded in both photographs and videos can assist in confirming whether or not they have been manipulated using image/video editing software. HEIC files are quite hard to edit in the first place. They are a more obscure file type which is not always supported by image editing software. However some modern versions of editing software such as Microsoft Paint and Adobe Photoshop allow you to open and modify HEIC files. If an image is manipulated using editing software some of the metadata will unavoidably alter. While it is possible for a technical expert to amend most of the the metadata back to what it was using advanced software, the majority of people don’t even know that metadata exists behind image files, let alone how to manipulate it. The photograph Eesha took was on an iPhone 2nd edition back camera. In order to perform the necessary analysis I asked Eesha without prior warning to send me another random HEIC image file from her smartphone. Here is a JPG version of that image for reference: I then intentionally edited a copy of this image using online software. Lastly I compared the metadata of the UFO photograph, the original control image and the edited control image. The following metadata changes occur when an image type taken on Eesha’s particular make and model of smartphone is directly manipulated using image editing software: - File Size changes - Compatible Brand 1 changes from MiPr to heic - Compatible Brands 2 to 4 vanish - Meta Image Size changes from Image Width x Image Height to Image Height x Image Width - Orientation vanishes - Colour Profiles appears - Colour Primaries appears - Transfer Characteristics appears - Matrix Coffeicients appears - Image Width changes to Image Height value - Image Height changes to Image Width value - Image Spatial Extent changes from Image Height x Image Width to Image Width x Image Height - Media Data Size changes - Media Data Offset changes - Image Size changes from Image Height x Image Width to Image Width x Image Height - Many metadata values change positioning In the below comparison screenshots the first column of values is the UFO photograph. The second column is the control image. The third column is the modified control image. I have highlighted metadata values of significance where changes have occurred: While it is not possible to tell if the File Size or Media Data Offset has changed as these vary per image, it can be seen from the comparison that the UFO image (first column) matches the ordering and values seen in the original control image (second column) instead of the modified control image (third column). This means that it is extremely likely that the UFO image has not been manipulated using editing software, and is an original un-tampered photograph. Conclusions The witness took a "live photograph" with multiple frames, and the object only appears in a single frame of this, which means that it is not a mark/scratch on the camera lens and also confirms that the object was not stationary. The pale pixels around the edge of the object are an artefact caused by the colour difference between the darker object and the lighter sky beyond it, and do not indicate the presence of a field of some kind around it. I have seen many similar photographs before which have turned out to be birds, with the wings happening to be level with the body, creating a disc/cigar-like shape, or positioned slightly above creating a domed-disc shape. Below is an example of such a photograph (which is a seagull): However if this was a bird it would logically have been present in multiple frames, and therefore would also have been visible in the footage. The metadata proves beyond reasonable doubt that the object seen in the image was not later added using image editing software by the witness, however it is unfortunately impossible to determine exactly how far away from the camera lens the object is. Therefore it is also not possible to tell how large it is, or how fast it could have been moving. While the object could certainly be interpreted as a distant cigar (or disc) shaped craft of some kind, there is not enough detail to confirm this. Sometimes small objects close to the camera such as insects or airborne debris can get photographed and appear as something much larger and further away. If an insect flies past the camera at close proximity it will cover the viewing area extremely fast. This can lead to its structure blurring or stretching out in the direction of travel, which means that it may not be recognisable if it happens to be caught on the photograph. There were insects in the air at the time. It is possible to see at least a few in the moving video footage. Here are a couple of stills from the footage showing some of these insects: There is therefore the possibility that the object is an insect, or perhaps something else, such as a seed pod drifting in the air. This could also explain why none of the individuals present saw anything with their naked eye. However this possible explanation does not take into account Eesha’s telepathic sensation that the object was a craft containing several specific types/species of being. If she does indeed possess such abilities, and the sensation she felt at the time was correct, then this of course suggests a much less mundane explanation for the photograph. Essentially your thoughts regarding the origins of the object shown in the photograph are largely going to be down to whether or not you believe that certain experiencers are able to receive telepathic information, whether you feel this happened on this occasion, and your views on the specific types of ET being which Eesha mentioned. Looking at the photograph on its own it is quite easy to dismiss it as an insect/debris moving past the lens, but it is important to look at all aspects of a case before reaching a conclusion. Either way, I have enjoyed analysing the photograph and can at the very least say that it is extremely unlikely to have been manipulated on computer. If you would like to listen to Eesha’s podcast, you can check it out at https://eeshapatel.com/show/ Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023

Ian Jones's case report on the cigar-shaped UFO seen over Rushden between 1967 and 1973 has now been updated with a second sighting from Eastcombe. The witness came forward as a result of reading the initial released details. Due to the similarities between the two sightings it is reasonable to assume that this was a previous observation of the same object. Click here to head to the updated report.

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 23/10/2023 In May 2023 a man who lives on Brandwood Park Road, Kings Norton, Birmingham named Martin Dean got in touch with BUFOG via our Experience Report Form to inform us of a possible missing time incident involving both him and his sister which had occurred a couple of days previously. Incident Details Early afternoon on 29th April 2023 Martin and his sister took their pet dog Alfie out for a walk around the neighbourhood. It was a clear and sunny day with a mild temperature. They decided to use a route they were familiar with which leads along the tow path of the nearby canal. They walked South East along the tow path for about 500 metres before leaving it to join onto Shelfield Road. This leads back up a short distance to Brandwood Park Road, which they planned to walk along to get back home. The next thing both Martin and his sister remember is of being at the end of the path which leads down to the front door of the house. They had completely forgotten the entire return walk from Shelfield Road! However they did not realise this at the time. Martin said that “it didn’t seem unusual. There was no ‘How did we get here?’ feeling. We just carried on, spoke to a neighbour that came out, then went inside.” After arriving home Martin took Alfie out into the back garden as he usually likes to go out there a while after a walk. He wandered around the garden with him a while, then decided to bring him back in. As he was closing the back door it suddenly occurred to him that he couldn’t recall how he and his sister had got home after leaving the canal. Discussing how this felt, Martin said “It wasn’t like when you are on public transport and you're daydreaming and suddenly realise that you are near your station but there is still a vague sense of the passage of time and what you had been thinking about. The only thing I can liken it to was having anaesthetic. That feeling of one minute you are in the theatre and it feels like you close your eyes, open them straight away, and you are in the recovery ward.” As this was dawning on him he started to wonder if the situation had a medical explanation, perhaps the onset of dementia. His sister could see that he was troubled as he was standing still for a moment with his hand on the door handle. She asked him what was wrong but he brushed it off as nothing. However as the afternoon progressed Martin could not stop thinking about what had happened. Later on he decided to ask his sister about what she remembered. He didn’t want to lead her in any way, but, knowing that his sister likes to talk while they are out walking, he asked her if she remembered what they were talking about as they made their return to the house. He was hoping that if she did recollect this it would jog his memory in some way. But after thinking for a moment she shook her head, and said “I can’t remember!” in a slightly bemused tone. Martin then asked her if she could remember anything at all about coming back down the road. Looking more concerned she confirmed that she could not remember anything. She just said that she recalled leaving the tow path and starting to walk towards the main road. Then she remembered being at the end of the path outside the house. Later she said that if he hadn’t bought it up she wouldn’t have realised at all. Incident Analysis This bizarre event is quite hard to explain in mundane terms due to the fact that it involved multiple people. If just Martin had forgotten the return walk home it could easily have been put down to daydreaming or just forgetfulness because of the regularity of what was going on. But his sister also appeared to have completely forgotten about what took place, a fact which certainly seemed to concern her as it did him. It seems far too coincidental that both of them would randomly forget the same period of time. Martin says that it would have usually taken between 15-20 minutes to walk back home after leaving the canal. They usually walk slowly as the dog spends time sniffing around. Even though they were familiar with the route, you would expect them to have some memory of the second half of the walk, I have investigated numerous contact cases involving periods of missing time. Sometimes the missing memories return later on or are triggered by something specific, other times they seem to have been permanently wiped from the individual’s mind. Despite the fact that neither Martin nor his sister recall seeing, hearing or feeling anything unusual which could point towards a contact experience, it cannot be fully ruled out as a possible explanation for what took place. So far I have only been able to speak with Martin about the incident. I hope to speak directly with his sister in due course to hear her side of events. If I am able to do so, her testimony will be added to this report. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023