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On the evening of Saturday 28th May 2016, Birmingham UFO Group returned once again to Cannock Chase for the fourth time. The chase has certainly become our sky watch location of choice. It provides a superb view of the night sky, and is secluded yet not too much of a hike from the road. We began the evening at our usual meet up point, the bar of The Barns on Cocksparrow Lane, Cannock. By the time I and my friends Paul and Sam arrived, most of the other sky watchers had already taken one of the corners of the outdoor seating area. As with our previous sky watches, the weather was definitely on our side, with barely a cloud in sight. It was clear that once the light in the sky died we were going to get a superb view of the stars. We remained at the bar for about an hour, socializing and listening to some truly shocking jokes courtesy of BUFOG member John! After some of the sky watchers went to grab some emergency last minute food and drink supplies we set off in convoy to the location for the watch – a rural area accessible from Broadhurst Green Lane. We parked up in a couple of nearby lay-bys. For the first time ever, it was not yet fully dark. However the first few bright stars were already beginning to appear. After grabbing our coats and sky watching gear we headed along the path which leads to our chosen location for the watch. It was then that I noticed what Richard was holding – a cluster of huge fireworks, that from a distance looked like a bouquet of flowers! These were sure to make an impression later in the night. We reached a junction in the path at the base of a gradual slope that led to our destination. Suddenly a group of sky watchers who were turning the corner stopped dead. I quickly caught up with them to ask what was going on. They informed me that they had just heard two low growling sounds coming from the undergrowth alongside the path! We remained very still hoping to hear the sound again but everywhere was silent. A couple of us started to step into the vegetation but to no avail. Whatever it was that had made the noise had seemingly exited the area. I like to think that it was the hybrid pig-man said to stalk Cannock Chase, although this could not be ascertained. We continued our walk to the summit of the hill. By now the light was definitely fading in the sky and the stars were beginning to show themselves. Everyone put down their bags of supplies and equipment. Camp chairs was set out by those who had bought them. Then a number of sky watchers immediately got to work searching the nearby area for wood to start a bonfire. Soon enough we had a roaring fire going. I introduced everyone to our sky watch mascot – a green coloured inflatable Grey who was lovingly christened “Bob”. I also showed off my glowing alien head T-shirt which I’d worn specially for the occasion. In addition to this, our BBQ master Paul was once again on hand to cook up some hot food for everyone. While he got busy with that, others began scanning the night sky – which was after all what we were here for. It wasn’t long before we began to spot satellites crossing the sky, as well as several distant aircraft. At about 10.30pm we noticed a bright orb of yellowish light moving in our direction from the West. It appeared to be the height of a high altitude aeroplane, which is at first exactly what I thought it was. But as it got closer we realised that no strobes or other navigation lights could be seen on it, even through high magnification binoculars. It continued its approach on a straight flight path. As it passed overhead we kept track of it using a laser pointer. So what was this bright orb of light? It certainly didn’t appear to be a normal aircraft, and was too bright to be a satellite or Chinese lantern. We soon managed to find an explanation – it turned out to be the International Space Station! This was confirmed by checking a phone application which maps its position. What amazed me most is how bright it appeared on this occasion. It certainly seemed to be something in the atmosphere instead of in orbit. I have received a number of UFO sighting reports in the past which have turned out to be the ISS, and can now see why it could be perceived as something more unusual. Later in the evening Bob got his acting debut by the firelight, courtesy of some clever off-camera puppetry. The end result was pretty impressive, I’d say at least as convincing as anything put out by Third Phase Of Moon (Note: Hoaxing company of the highest order)… At around midnight I read out a recent newspaper article covering a Cannock Chase UFO sighting, and followed this up with one of BUFOG’s own reports from the area which involved multiple sightings of a lit object seen over the chase and a close encounter with this object that involved missing time. Richard then decided it was time to put on a little firework display for us all. What I wasn’t ready for was the deafening sound that the rockets he had brought along made after dark! They were some serious fireworks, and the sound echoed all around the surrounding area, possibly scaring off any aliens and Pig Men in the process. We remained at the sky watch location for another hour, hoping to see something unusual. No UFOs turned up on this occasion, however just before heading for home the ISS did fly overhead again right on schedule. After watching it disappear into the distance we made our way back down the slope to the cars. Another Cannock Chase sky watch had drawn to a close. And while we did not have any close encounters with extra-terrestrial craft, we had all had a great time. Here’s to the next one! Copyright Dave Hodrien 2016

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 12/04/2016 Most UFO cases involve a singular sighting of one or more objects that are very rarely seen again in the same location. However every so often repeated incidents occur where it appears the same UFO has returned to a particular area. This report covers one such case, where incredibly the same object was seen in the same area by an individual on two different occasions. October 1981 Sighting On a Tuesday evening in October 1981 Malcolm (who was 35 at the time) headed out to Tylorstown Rugby Club on Penryhs Road for a drink with his friend John. They left the club about 8pm. It was a clear still evening, and due to the time of year it was already dark, and the stars were visible in the sky. Photograph of Tylorstown Rugby Club: Aerial map of Tylorstown Rugby Club: As they exited the club, Malcolm noticed a glowing light in the sky to the West at a 45 degree angle over the top of the treeline. It appeared larger than a star and was glowing bright white. Suddenly the object darted across the sky before coming to a halt again. Malcolm drew John’s attention to the light and they watched as it started zig-zagging back and forth across the sky, moving fast before halting then reversing direction. This went on for about 10-15 seconds, after which the object suddenly shot away to the North at extreme speed and was lost from sight. The men were amazed at what they had seen. The light did not return so they had no choice but to continue walking home. October 1982 Sighting The following year, again on a Tuesday evening in October, Malcolm took his son Lyndon rugby training at Ystrad Rugby Club, which is based at Rhondda Sports Centre on Tyntyla Road, Ystrad, about a mile to the West of Tylorstown Rugby Club. Photograph of Rhondda Sports Centre: Aerial map of Rhondda Sports Centre: Aerial map showing the locations of Tylorstown Rugby Club (A) and Ystrad Rugby Club (B): Again it was a pleasant evening. After training was over Malcolm and Lyndon exited the club and Lyndon remarked “Hey look at that up there!” Looking up Malcolm was amazed to see what appeared to be the same object he had seen the previous year – a bright white glowing light quickly zig sagging back and forth. This time it was to the East of their location, in roughly the same area of sky that it had been before. As with the first sighting, the witnesses observed the object for a number of seconds. However on this occasion instead of flying away horizontally, Malcolm reports that it suddenly shot straight upwards and within a second was no longer visible. After it had gone he informed Lyndon about seeing the object on the previous year. They were both astounded that the object had seemingly reappeared. Son’s Testimony Unfortunately Malcolm is no longer in touch with John so I cannot speak with him about what happened in 1981. However Malcolm did pass on his son’s phone number, so I got in touch soon after speaking with him. Below is Lyndon’s direct testimony of what took place during the second sighting: “I can still remember it quite well. We were at training at Ystrad rugby club. We left the club and I looked up in the sky and saw this light. It was a long way away like a dot. This thing shot across the sky and stopped dead. It went one way, then the other way a few times, and then shot off. It just disappeared, it was gone in a flash. It moved in ways things don't generally move in. For it to move that fast and stop that fast was unbelievable. We watched it for at most a minute. Afterwards my father told me about his previous sighting. He said he saw exactly the same thing around the same time of year. He was with another guy then, his friend John.” Sightings Analysis With both of these sightings the most impressive aspect is the manoeuvres the object was seen to perform. Glowing lights seen after dark can often be explained away as a variety of mundane objects including helicopters/aircraft, LED balloons, Chinese lanterns and drones/radio controlled models. The object was clearly present on both occasions as it was observed by two people each time, so could not have been down to personal perspective. As the objects were zig-zagging back and forth, and stopping then moving abruptly, they certainly appeared to be under control rather than drifting. It was a still night so they would not have been moved by air currents at the velocity observed. They were the wrong colour for Chinese lanterns, and neither lanterns nor LED balloons were publically available back in the early 1980s. The speed of movement was too fast for the objects to have been distant helicopters. If these were modern sightings, a fast paced drone could have possibly been an explanation, but drones have only been available in recent years. The lights could not have been caused by laser pointers as it was a clear night so there was no cloud for the laser to be reflected off. There are also no nightclubs in or near to Tylorstown. With these alternative explanations discounted, there is certainly the possibility that these sightings were of advanced, possibly extra-terrestrial, craft under intelligent control. If so then it is truly fascinating that they were observed on two separate occasions in the same location by the same key witness in the presence of other witnesses. It is also interesting that the two sightings were around the same time of year. Were the two sightings of the same object, and if so what was it doing in the area on these multiple occasions? Perhaps it has been seen at other times by other witnesses too, and Malcolm was lucky enough to have observed it twice. Or maybe it was appearing on purpose and deciding for whatever reason to reveal itself to Malcolm on these evenings. Either way, these sightings have remained in Malcolm’s thoughts ever since, hence the reason why he has finally decided to come forward with this information. I would like to thank both him and his son for sharing their experiences. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2016

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Last Updated: 16/06/2020 Sighting Details On the afternoon of 18th May 2014, Lee Jessup was in the garden of his house on Mill Lane, Govilon, Abergavenny playing with his pet dog. It was a bright, sunny and still day with hardly any cloud. Aerial map of Mill Lane: 📷 At 2.41pm Lee threw the ball for his dog to fetch and was looking to the North North East when he noticed a strange object in the sky. He estimated it to be about 2000 yards away from his location and at an altitude of about 2000 feet. The object appeared to be a dark grey metallic disc. It was hovering completely motionless and seemed to be silent. Lee estimates it was about 50-75 feet in diameter. There were no markings visible on the object. Intrigued, Lee stared at the object trying to figure out what it could be. A minute later his wife Alicia got home from work. When she came out into the garden Lee pointed the object out to her but she didn’t have her glasses with her so could not see it. At this point Lee decided to head indoors a moment to get his compact camera. When he returned outside 30 seconds later the object was still present. He tried to take a zoomed photograph but the camera wouldn’t focus on it, so instead he took a wide shot. He then momentarily took his eyes off the UFO to manually zoom in on it on the camera screen and show Alicia. When he looked back to the sky the object had vanished. It was a clear day so there was no clouds or other objects it could have moved behind, it was just gone. He and his wife continued to watch for it, but the object did not reappear. Soon afterwards Lee got in touch with BBC Wales and sent them the photograph, but did not hear back from them. He told a number of people about the sighting. They either did not believe him, or thought it was probably something conventional, but had not seen the photograph so were basing these theories on description alone. The Photograph Below is the original photograph which Lee took from his garden. The UFO can be seen above the right edge of the building: Obviously the object is quite small in terms of the whole photograph due to its distance. But luckily the photograph is of good quality so it is possible to zoom in and pick up detail. Here are zoomed, edge find and colour saturated views of the object: 📷 📷 As you can see, at first glance the object appears to be as Lee described - a flattened dark grey disc. The darker area around the middle of the object gives it the appearance of two plates placed face-to-face. This split into two distinct halves can be seen even clearly when the photograph is sharpened: 📷 Another fascinating aspect is the pale aura or haze seen around the edges of the object, which can be most clearly seen on this zoomed high pass view of the image: Confirmation of Authenticity No matter how convincing the witness’s testimonial evidence and how compelling the photograph is, it is still important to confirm beyond reasonable doubt that the image is genuine and has not been manipulated in any way. The best way to do this is to obtain a copy of the RAW photograph file. Many modern digital cameras automatically store RAW images alongside the standard JPEG format. These are usually very large in size and in most cases would not be copied across from the camera by the standard software. RAW images cannot be modified using editing packages, so are a great way of immediately confirming if a photograph is genuine or not. Unfortunately as this photograph was taken over two years before the witness got in touch only the JPEG image exists. The best way to determine whether or not a JPEG has been modified in any way is to analyse the metadata behind it. Most images shot on digital cameras or smartphones come with a wealth of hidden information which can be very revealing indeed if you know what to look for. I have performed extensive analysis of many images and consider myself to have a very reasonable knowledge of this. Although some metadata tags can be seen simply by going to the Properties on the file in Windows this is quite minimal. In order to get a much more complete picture of the metadata it is necessary to utilise a tool or website specifically designed to extract it. The following images show three metadata extractions laid out alongside one another. The first extraction on the left is of a control photograph shot on another Fujifilm camera. It is not exactly the same model as the one the witness used, but it is close enough in terms of the metadata which is generated. The second extraction is of the same control image after it has been modified in Paintshop Pro by adding a small black blob towards the top left. Most photo editing tools will affect the metadata in similar ways. The third extraction on the right is of the UFO photograph. On each image I have noted the significant tags/values in yellow, and under each image are details explaining the significance of these findings. Basic Image Information - Size of the image is usually greatly reduced on modification as the compression quality of the editing tool is better than that of the standard camera software. While it is impossible to say what size the UFO photograph should be, it is large enough to not be suspicious in any way. - When the image is first photographed it will not have an embedded color profile. Once it is set the color profile is set, usually sRGB. The UFO photograph has no embedded color profile. - Original Fujifilm camera images have a preview image tag. In the tool I utilise this leads to a preview image appearing directly under the Basic Image Information. This tag vanishes on modification, and so the preview image no longer appears. The UFO photograph displays a preview image. XMP - XMP tags are related to the editing software. They do not show up on original Fujifilm images, and only appear after the image has been modified. The UFO photograph has none of these tags. EXIF (1/2) - Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling tag only appears on modified Fujifilm images, it is missing on originals. The UFO photograph does not have this tag. - On original Fujifilm images Software shows the name of the standard camera software. When the image is modified this changes to the name of the editing tool. The UFO photograph has the standard camera software listed. - Original Fujifilm images have the tag Exif Image Size. This changes to Image Size once the image is modified. The UFO photograph has Exif Image Size tag and does not have Image Size tag. - On original Fujifilm images the Maker Note Fuji Film tag exists. When the image is modified this tag vanishes. The UFO photograph has this tag. - Many of the EXIF tags move position when images are modified. Comparing the UFO photograph with the two control images it can be seen that the order matches the original. EXIF (2/2) - Interoperability Index and Version appear on original Fujifilm images. On modified images these tags are missing. They are present on the UFO photograph. - Print Image Matching is related to original Fujifilm images and vanishes when modifications are made. It is present on the UFO photograph. - Thumbnail Image reduces in size on modification in the same way that file size does. MakerNotes (1/2) - MakerNotes tags are linked with the Fujifilm camera software. When the image is modified they vanish. Although they do not identically match between the control image and UFO photograph (due to camera model differences), they are present on both. MakerNotes (2/2), PrintIM and FlashPix - PrintIM tags are linked with the Fujifilm camera software, and vanish when the image is modified. They are present on the UFO photograph. - The Fujifilm camera software creates a number of FlashPix tags. When the image is modified these tags disappear. They are present on the UFO photograph. File and Composite - File Size in the File tags is a replication of details shown in Basic Image Information, and is likely to reduce when the image is modified. - Flash tag in Composite tags only appears after the image is modified, it does not exist in original Fujifilm images. This tag is missing from the UFO photograph. - Preview Image Size exists in original Fujifilm images but vanishes once modified. It is present in the UFO photograph. - Some of the File and Composite tags move position when images are modified. Comparing the UFO photograph with the two control images it can be seen that the order matches the original. ICC Profile (1/2) - ICC Profile tags are related to the editing software and so will only appear if the Fujifilm image is modified. The UFO photograph does not have these tags. ICC Profile (2/2) - Further ICC Profile tags which only appear in modified images and do not exist in the UFO photograph. Many people would assume that the above information is enough evidence to conclusively prove that the UFO photograph has not been manipulated. Given the extent of the changes which occur this would be a reasonable assumption to make, however there is one issue with this. It is possible to manipulate metadata on images utilising either a custom-built tool, of which there are a number available online, or by using programming code. Obviously most witnesses will not even be aware of metadata. Even if they are aware of it, they may not be aware it can be modified. If an individual has deliberately modified a photograph and they are aware that metadata changes and are knowledgeable enough to do so, the most probable thing they would do is completely remove the metadata from the image. If the metadata is not removed then they would need to change it back to how it looked prior to modification. The most likely way they would do this would be to utilise a pre-existing tool, as this would be a laborious process to do using programming code. The most well-known, thorough and easily available tool which would be used for this process is Exif Tool. This has functionality to completely replace the metadata of a file with the metadata of another file. There is a chance that the photographer is aware of this tool and its functionality, and attempts to utilise it to make their modified image look like an original. However there is an issue with this. There are certain tags which Exif Tool is unable to write back across to files. Sometimes this is because they are unusual tags related to the original camera software. Others can cause corruptions in the image if they are copied across and so do not copy across. A number of these exceptions apply to the analysis work done on the UFO photograph above: - FlashPix tags vanish when the Fujifilm image is modified, and cannot be written back across. These tags exist in the UFO photograph. - Preview Image in Composite tags is directly related to the FlashPix tags as Composite tags are an amalgamation of information taken from other tags for convenience purposes. This tag exists in the UFO photograph, which also results in a preview image appearing directly under Basic File Information. - Although it is possible to write missing PrintIM tags back into the image file, when this is done they move position and appear below MakerNotes instead of above. In the UFO photograph they are positioned above this section. There is a slim chance that it may be possible to get round the above Exif Tool tag writing issues using raw programming code. However nobody has been able to conclusively confirm this to me at present, and it is stands to reason that if the highly renowned Exif Tool application has issues with this, then doing it with raw code would lead to similar issues. Due to all of the above I believe that the metadata behind the Abergavenny UFO photograph confirms beyond reasonable doubt that it has not been manipulated in an editing tool. Photographic Analysis Now that we have confirmed the object has not been added through manipulation we next need to look at what it could be. It is unfortunate that there is only one photograph of the object available, however the key witness explained why this was the case, and the explanation given is in no way suspicious. In most UFO sighting cases there are no photographs to examine at all. Temporarily putting the testimonial evidence to one side, let’s examine the picture itself. Because of the appearance of the object most mundane explanations can be discounted. It is clear that it is not a normal aircraft or helicopter of any kind. Nor does it look like a bird caught in flight. It would be possible for it to be some kind of large inflatable object, for example a novelty solar airship. It was a hot sunny day, which would be perfect weather to launch such a thing. Could it be a small object, such as vegetation like a seed or leaf, or an insect crossing close to the camera lens at the moment the photograph was taken? While this is possibility there is not much evidence pointing towards this explanation. The saturated view of the object brings out a turquoise colour suggesting a blue tinge to the object. This could easily be down to the reflection of the blue sky in its surface. None of the above explanations can confirm what is responsible for the pale outline around the object. While there is a very small chance that there just happens to be a small patch of cloud directly behind it this seems improbable, as the sky is mostly clear of cloud and the pale colouration clearly follows the edges of the object. Testimonial Analysis Now let’s look at the testimonial evidence. Via an initial sighting report form and then follow on E-Mail and phone conversations the key witness confirmed that the object was present in the sky for a minute and also that it vanished extremely fast when he and his partner looked away from it momentarily. Firstly there were no indications that the witness was being untruthful about what was reported. He made no mention of gaining any money from the image either through myself or a newspaper. Nor was there any insistence on his name being shared with anyone. I was given no reason to doubt the story I was being told. There are also particular aspects in the testimony which suggest it was legitimate. The witness informed me that to his naked eye he could not make out the central rim on the object, this was only visible on the photograph. If the story was fabricated there would be no reason to state this. Logically he would simply have stated that he saw exactly what the image appears to show. Although his wife was involved in the incident, she did not physically see the object herself at any point. However I was still able to speak with her about it and gain additional confirmation on the claims of the key witness. If the story was not fabricated then why involve this second individual at all if they did not actually see it? Conclusions Assessing all of the evidence at the current point in time I feel that the most likely explanation was that this object really was an advanced craft of some kind which hovered at a distance for a period of time before suddenly leaving the area. If this is the case, could it have been a secret military craft of some kind? As with most UFO sightings this is a slim possibility, however it seems illogical that the military would fly such a craft in a clear sky in full sight of civilians. It would also have had to perform an extremely fast flight manoeuvre to have vanished from sight in such a short space of time. Could the pale colouration around the edges of the object be some kind of air distortion or energy field? We know that the photograph has not been manipulated in editing software so this cannot be attributed to a blended image. Photographs of objects, either distant or up close, do not have this anomaly, so this may well be a possibility. It is interesting that it vanished precisely when Lee looked down at his camera to zoom in on the photograph he took. Was this just coincidence, or did the UFO have occupants who were aware that he was not looking at this moment and so decided to depart? We will never know for sure but this is an additional point worth considering. Despite the distance of the object I feel that this is one of the most compelling UFO photographs yet received by the group. If any further analysis work is done which suggests otherwise it will be added to this report. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

Birmingham UFO Group Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 26/03/2016 Richard Upson is a heavy metal/rock musician, and has written original pieces for me to use with my lecture presentations. Back in 1978 he and a friend had a fascinating UFO sighting which he has shared with me. Sighting Details Richard used to live on Somers Road, Malvern. In 1978 when he was 16 years old he would regularly stand outside after dark and watch the stars. One evening he and his friend Kevin had been out sky watching on Link Common and were walking back home. It was a very clear and still evening with very little cloud cover. Aerial map of Somers Road and Link Common: They had almost reached the garden gate. Looking overhead Richard could see what initially appeared to be a bright star. It was there for an extensive period of time and completely motionless. Suddenly without warning it split into two identical points of light which immediately began moving away from each other! The acceleration was instantaneous. Richard pointed out the moving lights to Kevin. One headed South a little faster than a satellite would tend to move at. The other initially moved in a North East direction. However it soon began to move in a wide circular arc. It continued turning until it had gone completely round in a circle, and then continued away into the distance to the North East. In total the sighting lasted for about 90 seconds until both objects had vanished into the distance. The boys immediately ran into the house and excitedly told Richard’s mother Anne what they had seen. They then rang the local police station to report the sighting. The officer they spoke with recommended that they contact nearby Worcester-based UFO organization Sky Scan, which they did soon after. The following day Richard wrote a letter to the MOD to report the sighting. He soon received a standard response letter from them, thanking him for his letter but not providing any explanation to what he had seen. Mother’s Testimony Unfortunately Richard has not kept in touch with Kevin so I cannot speak with him about what happened. However below a direct statement from Anne about what she recalls took place: "It was late evening, just dark, in the summer of 1978 when my son Richard and his friend Kevin came rushing indoors at our home in Somers Road, Malvern. Both were white faced and breathless. They had been walking home down Worcester Road and round Osborne Road to our garden gate, staring upwards, when they became aware of what they thought was one of many stars In the sky above them, splitting in two. One continuing towards the South, the other completing a 360 degree turn and disappearing to the North East. The boys were very shocked and puzzled by this strange happening and rang the police in Malvern where an officer suggested they report the sighting to Sky Scan in Worcester who were interested in their story." Sighting Analysis This is an interesting distant sighting which appeared to be of unidentified objects in orbit. Obviously all that was seen were points of white light, however the moment patterns they performed is what makes it impressive. Let’s first assume that the objects were out in space as they appeared to be, rather than at high altitude in the atmosphere. They could not have been satellites as these move on a straight course at a constant speed, they cannot move from a standing spot or change direction at all. Meteorites cross the sky extremely fast and again move in a straight line. It appears that the objects were under intelligent control. At the start of the sighting there only appeared to be a single object, at which point it was indistinguishable from a star. It is only when it split into two and began instantly moving that the boys took an interest in it. It is impossible to say whether it was a single object that separated into two, or whether it was two objects in close proximity that looked like one until they began moving away from one another. If we assume that the objects were spacecraft of some kind, then nothing we currently know about would have made such manoeuvres. There is the slim possibility that the objects were actually at very high altitude rather than in outside the atmosphere. If this were the case then the only reasonable explanation would be two helicopters. Lit inflatables seem very unlikely for a number of reasons. The lights were white so could not have been Chinese lanterns, as these are usually amber orange in colour and tend to flicker in brightness. Also they were not available to purchase back in 1978. LED balloons have only been available in recent years. Also the movement patterns observed were too directed to be inflatables drifting on air currents. Aeroplanes cannot remain still in the sky for a period of time. When viewed at the horizon they can appear to hover if flying towards the observer, however the point of light the witnesses initially observed was overhead so could not have been a plane. Nor does this explain how it could split into two. It seems improbable that the objects were helicopters. If this were the case then initially they would have to have been positioned one directly above the other so as to appear as a single point of light. Also even at high altitude it is usually possible to see other navigation lights or flashing strobes. Looking at these possible explanations, it seems much more likely that the objects were in orbit, and were also under intelligent control. Do we have manned craft out there which we have not been informed of? Or were these objects of another origin entirely? Copyright Dave Hodrien 2016

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 13/12/2015 For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used Red Orb On an evening in November 2003/2004 Jason was walking along Sandfields Road in Oldbury. It was cloudy but dry. The sun was setting but there was still some light in the sky. Looking to the North West in the direction of Sedgley Hill Jason noticed what initially appeared to be a bright white star-like light. It was slowly moving in his direction. It appeared to be about 1000 feet up. As it got nearer and reached the grass fields along the North edge of the road it gradually turned until it was moving aligned to the road heading Eastward. Aerial map of Sandfields Road indicating the fields over which the UFO traveled: As it neared the end of the road where Jason was standing it began to dim in brightness. It then flared back up changing to a brilliant red colour. It appeared to be massive in size, similar to a small red-coloured sun. It was very bright but Jason was still able to observe it directly by squinting. The red light shining from the UFO reminded him of a laser pen. He was quite frightened by the objects appearance but continued to watch it. Without warning it began to descend, dimming as it went until it vanished from sight. Witness drawing of the red orb: Jason was convinced that he had seen something highly unusual. He was aware of what aircraft look like after dark and also of Chinese lanterns, but this looked completely different to anything he had seen before. Soon after the sighting Jason found out that one of his friends who lived about ½ a mile away had also observed the same object. It certainly appears that Jason and his friend may have witnessed something out of the ordinary. If it was an aircraft or helicopter it is likely that other navigation lights/strobes would have been visible when the object approached. The red glow coming off the UFO was intense enough to give the impression of a spherical shape of great size, I find it unlikely that an aircraft light would appear in this manner. It was clearly impressive enough to have got the attention of Jason’s friend in addition to himself, meaning that it cannot have just been down to his individual interpretation. The apparent size of the object also suggests that it was not a lantern. These tend to be amber orange in colour rather than red, and even though it would be possible for a lantern to perform the observed manoeuvres I feel this is unlikely to be the explanation in this case. However a larger electronically lit inflatable of some kind cannot be entirely ruled out. Jason wonders if an unusual atmospheric event such as an earth light was to blame. However it was not stormy weather, and earth lights tend to appear over rural areas rather than towns and usually only last for a brief amount of time. Ghostly Fire The orb sighting is not the only unusual incident which Jason has experienced. In 1997 when he was 15 years old he used to regularly head to Baggeridge Country Park in Sedgley on his BMX. One evening autumn he and his friend Steve met up at the adventure playground for a while. It was 9.30pm and getting dark so they decided to head on back. They started walking along the path that led back to the top of the hill alongside Himley Gardens. Aerial map showing the area of Baggeridge Park where the path lies: Jason was a little bit further along the path than Steve. He suddenly noticed a glowing light about 20 feet from the edge of the path visible in the darkness. Looking more closely he saw what appeared to be a huge fire with flames reaching 15-17 feet into the air. Standing next to the fire he could see the silhouette of a figure. He immediately thought that this figure may be someone burning a body out of the prying eyes of the public. Suddenly Jason heard Steve shout at him from along the path. He motioned to him to be quiet and they both continued to watch the figure by the fire. Steve got quite spooked out so they decided to head back home. When they arrived back at the houses Jason said goodbye to Steve. He was about to go home himself but the urge to return to the hill was too great. Five minutes later he arrived back at the path. But the fire was nowhere to be seen! It had completely vanished. It was too dark to have a proper look around so Jason called it a night and headed back. The following morning he went back to the path and had a walk around the area. There was absolutely no sign that there had ever been a fire there. It was a complete mystery. The flames had seemingly been much too large to be put out in the short amount of time that he left the area on the previous evening. And even if the figure had put them out there would have been remnants of a fire left behind to see now that it was daylight. It is possible that the fire was situated at a different location to where it appeared to be, but Jason was familiar with the area so surely he would have found the site when he went looking for it. The area was too remote for it to have been a reflection of house/street lighting, and it was close enough for him to see the actual flames rather than just an orange glow. Could the fire and figure have been an apparition? Even though this sounds improbable, given the facts of the incident it is certainly worth considering. Either way, this is a bizarre, and some would say rather spooky, incident. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2015

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 28/10/2015 For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used Sighting Details On the morning of Tuesday 20th October 2015, Neil was working in the garden of his cottage which lies between Henley-In-Arden and Claverdon, Warwickshire. It was a bright sunny morning with very little cloud in the sky. It was approximately 9.30am when he heard a loud whooshing noise which he initially thought was coming from the neighbour’s garden. As the sound increased in volume he realised it was coming from the sky. Looking up into the section of sky visible between the trees either side of the avenue he observed a very peculiar shaped object. Aerial map showing the route between Henley-In-Arden (A) and Claverdon (B): It appeared to be between 8-10 feet in length and either silver or white in colour. It was made up of cylindrical tubes. There appeared to be bright white lights flashing on and off randomly on the underside of the object. There was no visible means of propulsion, propellers or trail. Witness drawing of the UFO: The UFO appeared to be at a height of about 150-200 feet. The UFO was travelling to the East on a level and straight course about 40-50 mph. It remained at the same angle without any rotation. Neil observed the object for about 10-15 seconds before it vanished from sight behind the trees. He tried to move position to continue watching it, but could not find anywhere suitable. He was baffled by what he had just witnessed. Later on Neil told several members of his family about the sighting, who had varying degrees of scepticism towards it. He rang the local police to see if they had received any other reports about the object but they informed him they had not. The police suggested he should ring the Civil Aviation Authority, which he did. They were unable to provide any explanation to what he may have seen. He also checked on the news to see if anyone else had seen it but nothing was mentioned. Sighting Analysis The shape of the object seen in this sighting is very unusual indeed, and I have not dealt with any previous reports of something exactly this shape before. It was clearly not any normal type of aircraft or military drone. The most likely mundane explanations for the object would be an unusual inflatable or solar airship. It is possible that the white lights the witness saw on the base of the object were in fact the bright sunlight catching it, although Neil feels certain they were lights not reflections. The object was certainly small enough to be an inflatable. Solar airships are usually larger than the apparent size of the object, are a single black-coloured cylinder, but perhaps it was an unusual novelty shape or even home-made. Also it was a bright sunny morning, ideal conditions for launching such an object. However there are a number of issues with these explanations. Firstly if it was an inflatable/solar airship it is very unlikely it would have been making any audible sound. Also if it was drifting on an air current you would expect there to be some rotation in the object as it moved, yet the witness says it was not turning at all, and appeared to be under controlled flight. If it was not an inflatable or solar airship then what could it have been? Due to the size and apparent size of the object it is very unlikely it was manned, but there is a possibility it was some kind of radio controlled model. Or could it have been an automated drone, perhaps of non-human origin? It is unlikely we will ever know for sure. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2015

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 05/10/2015 Last Updated : 23/06/2020 Introduction Alyson Dunlop is a member of SPI (Strange Phenomena Investigations) Scotland and a paranormal radio host on Enemy Within Radio. In September 2015 she saw my talk at UFO Truth Magazine Conference in Holmfirth. This prompted her to speak with me about her own experiences, some of which appear to be contact related. In early October she invited me to talk on her radio show, and we have kept in touch ever since. Sleep Paralysis Alyson has experienced sleep paralysis for many years. Some of these incidents have involved hpnogogic hallucinations and the appearance of entities. In 1999 when she was 28 years old Alyson lived in a flat on Prospecthill Circus, Toryglen with her partner “Martin” (Name changed for privacy reasons). One night in December she was having a nightmare about vampires. She awoke from this dream to find the entire room bathed in a dull blue glowing light with no obvious source. As far as she was aware it was still fully dark outside. Martin was fast asleep alongside her. Alyson felt un-nerved so leaned over to her right and shook him a couple of times calling his name, but he did not stir. Aerial map of Prospecthill Circus: Photograph Alyson found which is representative of the blue glow in the room: Suddenly she was violently pushed backward onto the bed and found she could no longer move or make a sound. A humanoid figure was crouched over her. He had a pale white face with black eyes and long black hair. In the hair was tied a number of red, blue and white coloured ribbons. Alyson believes he was wearing black coloured clothing although she did not see this clearly. The figure’s face was extremely frightening to look at and she sensed he was extremely evil. Drawing Alyson found which looks similar to the pale faced figure: In the far corner of the room stood an elderly hag-like woman wearing a white coloured night dress. She was laughing into her hands. The pale faced figure leered towards her and pointed at her with one long fingernail and said “You thought you could get away from me, didn’t you?” He then reached down and began to scrape at her throat. Alyson felt that he was there to kill her. As she was paralysed she could not escape from this attack. She backed her head into the pillow as hard as she could. Eventually she passed out, and did not wake till the morning. After this terrifying incident Alyson was understandably frightened to go to sleep. She began to stay up much later, but would usually drop off in the end through tiredness. About a week later she experienced paralysis again. She woke up and found she could not move. The blue glowing light was there again but no figures. However this time she found that she could still speak. Martin was still awake and in the adjoining room. She shouted out for him. He came into the bedroom and was able to bring her round before anything else took place. Following these experiences Alyson began looking into sleep paralysis and found out that many other people had seen very similar entities to those she had witnessed, and described similar incidents. Since then she has experienced sleep paralysis roughly once every 1-2 years. Most of the time she just senses a presence in the room. The last time it occurred was in June 2015. She awoke to find that she could not move. Alongside her bed was a brown creature which had a grotesque smile on its face. She realised she was experiencing sleep paralysis so started to chant “Go to sleep” in her head. As she did this the creature slowly closed its eyes, and then the paralysis ended and it faded away. It is clear that there is some cross-over regarding aspects of contact and aspects of sleep paralysis and hypnagogia. However there are also many differences which set them apart. I have investigated numerous contactees who have experienced both. Some people believe that contact can be fully explained as a sleep-related phenomenon, however there are many physical aspects to contact which are not so easy to explain. Pre-Cognition There have been a number of occasions where Alyson has experienced what she believes to be pre-cognitive dreams. In 2001, 3 months before 9/11, she had a vision of a plane coming through the window of her 15th floor flat. Soon afterwards she had repeated visions of planes going into other high rise buildings around Glasgow. These visions came to her as vivid day dreams. After them she would question where they came from and why she was thinking so negatively. It was only in September that she realised what these visions may have symbolised. In the summer of 2013 she had a dream in which she found herself in car with some gun wielding agents. The car drove past a wolf at the side of the road. As they went past it, it looked her right in the eye. She realised it had human looking eyes. The agents sped away and took her to what she interpreted as a safe house. They locked all the doors and asked her to go upstairs. About a month later she started to date someone who had very similar eyes to those of the wolf in the dream. The relationship did not work out well. Alyson wonders if her dream was trying to warn her of this in advance. While these experiences are far from conclusive, it is very common for contactees to report such pre-cognitive dreams/visions. Shadow Beings Alyson used to work in the Hetherington Research Club at University Gardens. This was a private members club for post grads, mature students and staff. One day at around lunchtime she arrived at the club to find her friend Bryony sitting alone at a table next to the fireplace. Behind her was a staircase leading downward, and another staircase to the next floor to her right. Aerial map of University Gardens: As she entered the building her eyes had to adjust to the dark, as there was not much light coming in through the windows. As her eyes adjusted Alyson immediately became aware of what appeared to be a shadowy apparition wearing a hooded cloak standing behind Bryony on the staircase leading down. It was quite well defined and about six feet in height. As she looked at it, it was as if it was aware it had been spotted. It moved across to the corner which was filled with boxes, and seemed to crouch down, as if trying to avoid detection. This sent shivers down Alyson’s spine (and still does when she thinks back to the incident). Within seconds it had faded from view. Bryony could see the look on Alyson’s face, and asked her what was wrong. Alyson told her what she had just witnessed. Bryony informed her that she had felt the sense of someone standing behind her all morning, but when she had looked she could not see anything there. Several nights later, Alyson was working at the club with her friend Kerry. Some of the staff were quite spooked to work at the place after dark. Several people had thought they had seen a ghost, which they named Hector, after Hector Hetherington, the man who had bequeathed the building to the post graduates. At the end of their shift, Kerry went to use the toilet down the same stairs Alyson had seen the cloaked shadowy figure. She was in the toilet when Alyson suddenly heard her shout. Alyson asked her what was wrong. She came back up the stairs and asked “Was that you?” Apparently she had heard a male growling sound outside the door and heard the boxes being kicked. Both Alyson and Kerry searched the building before locking up but found no-one. By early 2014 Alyson had moved to a flat on South Woodside Road. One night Alyson was feeling sleepy so decided to sleep on the sofa in the living room. She reached around and turned out the side lamp behind her. Immediately she saw what appeared to be a shadowed humanoid form step out of the open doorway to the adjacent bathroom. As this happened her pet cat Gandalf jumped up and called out loudly. It seemed that he had reacted to the presence of this entity. Alyson immediately switched the light back on in shock. The room was once more bathed in light, and nothing could be seen. She was understandably quite disturbed by what had just happened so left the light on for the remainder of the night. On another occasion her other cat Merlin appeared to observe something in the hall of the flat. Alyson discovered him standing still and clearly fixated on something she could not see. After about 15 minutes she felt a little spooked by the cat’s behaviour so said out loud “If you are a friend or relative visiting you’re welcome. If you are just passing through do so quickly”. Immediately the cat seemed to snap out of what it was doing and walked away. Although these experiences may seem at first to be related to ghostly phenomenon, it should be noted that contactees have often reported seeing shadowy figures, commonly termed “Shadow People”, around their home or in their vicinity. There appears to be a connection, but exactly what this connection is has not yet been determined. Nordics on Platform Soon after the sighting of the shadow being in her flat, Alyson woke up in the night to find she was paralysed. She could feel her head and shoulders lifting off the pillow. There was a cone shaped beam of light above her which appeared to be coming from the centre of her forehead. It seemed that the ceiling no longer existed, the cone expanded upward much further than the height of the room, like she was staring through it. Aerial map of South Woodside Road: In the circle of light roughly 15 feet above her was a round flattened white platform. Peering over the side of this platform was a humanoid male being with black hair. He was wearing a skin-tight blue coloured suit. He looked down at her then said to someone else out of sight “We’ve got her!” A moment later several other similar beings also leaned over the edge of the platform to look down at her. One of them was again male, but was wearing black and had pale brown coloured hair. He reached out to her saying “You’ve got to promise me you’ll tell people about us.” Alyson responded saying “I promise. I’ll tell people.” She was aware that the beings did not mean to frighten her, but she was experiencing a mix of emotions, including fear due to the odd-ness of the situation. She then heard her pet cat Gandalf begin to call out loudly and pace back and jump around on the bed. He was quite clearly deeply agitated by what was taking place. The cat’s behaviour seemed to bring her back to normal waking reality. The cone of light and platform with beings on vanished from view. She sat up and comforted her cat. He had been so upset that he had urinated on the bed covers. Alyson said he had never done this before or since. In the weeks leading up to this experience Alyson had actually been practicing chakra meditation. She wonders if this somehow prepared her mind and enabled the experience to take place. At the time of the experience Alyson did not realise the similarity between the beings she had seen and “Nordic” beings regularly reported by contactees around the world. It was only later that she started looking into the contact subject in more depth and realised that it was likely these beings she had met with. This is certainly an unusual experience, and one on a more meta-physical than physical level. The beings could not have been physically there in the room as they were positioned much higher than the ceiling would allow for. Also they immediately vanished when she snapped out of the state of mind she was in. As she was paralysed at the time one could argue that this was merely another sleep paralysis experience and in no ways linked with ET contact. However this experience felt very different to her, she did not get a sense of evil or darkness from these beings. Also Alyson’s description of both their appearance and their clothing would fit in with other accounts of Nordics. However it should be noted that these beings usually speak telepathically, whereas the one which spoke with her was doing so vocally, moving his lips. World Contact Day UFO Sightings On 20th March 2015 there was a solar eclipse. Someone online decided to name the same date “World Contact Day” and suggested it would be the ideal day for those who were interested to attempt to get in touch with ET. The idea caught on and many people in different locations arranged sky watches and meditation sessions. A number of members from SPI decided to join in with this, and arranged a sky watch at Carron Valley Reservoir, The Campsies, North of Glasgow. This location happened to be only 10 miles from Bonnybridge, an infamous UFO hot spot. Alyson met with fellow SPI members Margaret, Lynsey, Gordon, Lawrence and Kirsty at an ideal sky watching spot alongside the B818 on the North side of the reservoir, with a view of the water and the sky to the South. The weather conditions were great, it was dry and still with very little cloud. The stars and a new moon were visible above them. Aerial map of Carron Valley Reservoir: View of the reservoir from the road along the Northern edge: Around 1am they spotted a stationary white light in the sky to the West. It was too far away to tell whether it was a helicopter or something else, but it was present for about half an hour before fading away. Between 3-4am Alyson decided to go and meditate on her own in her car in an attempt to open contact. While this was going on the others suddenly called out that they had seen a flash of light to the North East. Alyson continued her meditation and a visualisation of a humanoid being appeared. In her meditative state she spoke with this being, informing him that she had brought some others along with her and she didn’t want it to be a wasted journey for them. The communication ended and Alyson went back outside to meet with everyone else. Soon afterwards Alyson was facing to the North. She looked to her left along the road and in her mind’s eye saw the image of a Grey being standing there in the darkness. Again she telepathically asked for something to take place which everyone could witness. The Grey did not seem to respond to her in any way. Picture Alyson found which is similar to the Grey on the road: For a long while the sky watchers had noticed a brightly sparkling star with an orange hue to the South at an angle of about 50 degrees. At around 4.45 am without warning this “star” began to slowly move! Alyson noticed it first, and pointed it out to the others. Everyone confirmed that it was moving. The glowing light banked right around the reservoir, so was clearly within the atmosphere, although it was hard to judge exactly how high it was. It appeared to be completely silent. They looked at the object through binoculars and were surprised to find that it appeared to be a pale grey colour through them. The orange glow could only be seen when viewing it with the naked eye. After watching it transfixed for a number of minutes Alyson suddenly thought about getting the UFO on camera. She asked if anyone was filming or taking photos. Someone did attempt to photograph it, but on the camera it just came out like a glowing point of light. It was too distant and too dark to photograph it clearly. Eventually after about 10 minutes the object disappeared from view behind a hill to the North North East. Everyone present was convinced that the object was not a helicopter on patrol. It was certainly not a satellite as it turned as it moved. It could not have been a plane, and is very unlikely to have been a Chinese lantern as it was stationary in the sky for a long while before it began to move. Unfortunately it was not close enough to see clearly, but the origin of the light remains a mystery. Alyson wonders if it was a craft which had appeared because of her earlier meditative communications, although there was no confirmation of this. Metallic Egg-Shaped UFO Photograph At around 7.30pm on Thursday 20th August 2015 Alyson decided to go out for an evening walk around Glasgow. The weather was warm and still, perfect to be out and about. Due to the time of year it was still daylight. It was quite a busy evening with plenty of other pedestrians and vehicles around. By 8pm she was near to Glasgow University and walking along University Avenue. As she followed the path round to the left to head past Glasgow University Union she suddenly became aware that it had gotten really quiet. There seemed to momentarily be nobody else around. Aerial map of University Avenue: Alyson happened to look up into the sky and noticed a strange object to the East over the Theatre Studies building. It appeared to be egg-shaped and was metallic silver all over with no markings of any kind. Initially was at an angle of 45 degrees. It was hard to judge the height accurately but it appeared to be lower down than a plane would fly at. Alyson estimates it was about 60 feet across. Photograph of the location in the direction the UFO was seen: The object was moving on a straight and level course to the West, and travelling quite fast, at least 100 mph. It did not appear to be rotating at all as it moved. Alyson immediately reached for her Samsung J1 mobile phone in her pocket to take a photograph of the UFO. She had been listening to the radio on it so had to change the settings to get to camera mode, at the same time as keeping an eye on the object. This was quite difficult and the object almost went out of sight but luckily she managed to quickly snap a photograph before it did. In total the sighting lasted for about 20 seconds. Below is the photo which Alyson took. The object has been ringed in red: Zoomed view of the UFO: Zoomed enhanced view: Zoomed view with edge find: The metadata behind a photograph can often be used to determine whether an image is an original or whether it has been potentially manipulated. While I highly doubt that this image has been modified in any way, there are sections missing from the metadata which I would expect to see. It is probable that these have been lost during transfer of the image from one place to another, although it is also possible that they just do not appear in Alyson's make of phone. It is quite hard to tell exactly what the object may have been from the photograph. It is clear that it was highly reflective. Alyson cannot put out of the question that the object was not a silver-coloured inflatable of some kind drifting on an air current. However it was still at ground level, and it did seem to be moving too fast for this to have been the case. Also it did not appear to be rotating, you would expect a balloon of this shape to rotate as it drifted across the sky. After the sighting was over Alyson continued her walk back home. She did not mention it to the other members of SPI Scotland for over a week. Usually she would mention something like this immediately but she forgot about it afterwards, and only remembered when she was flicking through the photos on her phone. However she believes this was down to other things going on at the time in her life, not due to an intentional removal of memory. Conclusions As you can see, Alyson has experienced a wide variety of unusual phenomena. She certainly appears to have had an experience involving Nordic beings, and many of her other experiences are the sort of incidents which are regularly reported by contactees. It is unclear at present how many of these experiences are directly related to contact. However they are all fascinating. I would like to thank Alyson for coming forward with this information. If she keeps in touch then this report may well be updated in the future with other unusual events in her life. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2020

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 14/08/2014 For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used In most UFO cases the objects are only seen once and then never reported again. However in some cases UFOs can seemingly return to the same location numerous times and be witnessed independently by different people. This fascinating case involves a UFO observed in 2010 which was later found to have been seen 15 years before by two police officers over the same area! Sighting Details Thomas works as an occupational therapist at a hospital on Dogpool Lane in Stirchley, Birmingham. One day in late October 2010 he was standing outside on an open courtyard having his lunch with a work colleague. It was about 1pm in the afternoon and a clear sunny day with only light cloud in the sky. There was nobody else out on the courtyard at the time. Suddenly a glowing light up in the sky to the East of the courtyard caught his eye. Looking up he was amazed to see a strange object hovering over the roof of one of the hospital buildings adjacent to the courtyard. It appeared to be only 15 feet above the roof of the building, so only about 60 feet off the ground. The object was quite large in size, almost as wide as the building it was over. It appeared to be a glowing orange coloured bar, approximately 40 feet in length and 10 feet in height, and set at an angle of about 280 degrees. Around this bar seemed to be a glowing field of energy, blue-white in colour with electricity flowing through it. Arial perspective view showing the position of the witness (A) and the estimated position of the UFO (B): Witness drawing showing the UFO hovering above the building and himself in the courtyard: The object was hovering completely motionless and was not making any sound. Thomas pointed out the object to his colleague exclaiming “What the frigging hell is that?” His colleague dismissed the object as a helicopter, even though it quite clearly was not. Thomas responded asking “Why the hell would we have a helicopter above the building?” His colleague still seemed dismissive of the UFO and headed back inside. Thomas continued to stare at the object for about 2 minutes. Without warning it then seemingly began to shape shift and shrink in size. This continued until it was nothing but a small white ball of light and soon afterwards vanished. It took about 1 minute to shrink down in size and disappear. Thomas was left standing there amazed at what he had just seen. He walked back into the office. Knowing that one of the girls in his office was interested in the subject he told her about the UFO first, saying “You won’t believe what I’ve just seen!” She seemed to accept what he told her. Later in the evening he told his family and friends, which got mixed reactions. One of his friends, Mark, is particularly interested in UFOs. Thomas decided to ring him up and tell him about the sighting. Later in the evening Mark excitedly rang him back up. He had searched various sites on the internet to try and find other matching sightings of the object. He told Thomas to go to his computer and load up the PRUFOS database. This is a website managed by ufologist Gary Heseltine. It contains details of hundreds of UFO sightings reported by police officers. Mark told Thomas to go to a particular page on the database. There in front of him was the details of another UFO sighting by two police officers from 1999. Like his own sighting, it had taken place on Dogpool Lane, Stirchley. And the description of the UFO was a complete match with what he had witnessed! It was clear that they had seen the same thing 15 years before over the same area! PRUFOS Sighting Report Below is the sighting report from the PRUFOS database (duplicated with permission from Gary Heseltine): 1850 hours. 19/01/95. Location – Birmingham, Warwickshire. Following a number of reports by the public of a UFO in the skies above the city, two uniformed officers were dispatched to Russell Road in the Moseley area to investigate. However as they approached the scene they observed the UFO on Dogpool Lane, Stirchley. There they saw a UFO hovering above some nearby trees. They described the object as being the size of a double decker bus. In the middle of the object there was a horizontal bar of orange light, whilst on the outside there appeared to be a blue field of energy. After a few seconds the object appeared to shrink in size and vanish from view. Further reports from members of the public followed the police sighting. Unconfirmed reports allege that several other police officers also observed the object from the vicinity of the West Midlands Police training school at Tally Ho. UFO CLASSIFICATION – CE1 (CLOSE ENCOUNTER 1ST KIND) On Duty sighting. 2 Officers. Source – John Hanson. The actual report can be read at the following address: http://www.prufospolicedatabase.co.uk/4.html Sighting Analysis This is both an unusual and very impressive sighting. It is clear that the object that Thomas witnessed was not a normal aircraft or helicopter. It remained motionless for a number of minutes so could not have been an aeroplane. If it had been seen at a distance one could have suggested that it was a helicopter reflecting the sunlight. However it was low down, just over the roof of the building and at close proximity to the witness. It was also making absolutely not noise. If it had been a helicopter the sound of the rotor blades would definitely have been heard at that distance. It was clearly not an inflatable object such as a blimp, and was too large to be an unusual radio controlled model. Could the object have been some kind of unusual atmospheric phenomenon? You could speculate this due to its strange appearance and the fact that it seemed to shrink down and vanish. However there is no known atmospheric conditions that would create such a sight. The energy field surrounding the bar appeared to be electrical in nature. Electrical phenomena such as ball lightning could possibly appear similar to this. However ball lightning only appears in stormy weather conditions, and would be relatively small in size. As mundane explanations do not seem to fit with what was seen we have to consider the possibility that the object was some kind of advanced craft, perhaps extra-terrestrial in origin. If so then it appears to have been surrounded in some kind of energy field, perhaps involved in its propulsion. There are other sightings on record where orange glowing bars of light have been reported, including some which I have directly investigated. There have also been many sightings where the object observed has been surrounded in a field of energy, although many others where no such field is seen. Perhaps the field is only visible under particular conditions or on particular types of UFO, though this would just be speculation. When the object began to shrink in size and finally vanish perhaps it was passing through into another dimension or cloaking in some way. The fact that the details of the UFO clearly match those from the case reported on the PRUFOS database is extremely compelling. I have no reason to doubt that Thomas saw what he says he did in October 2010. He provided excellent initial information, and was happy to answer my additional questions to an acceptable level of detail. Given how unusual the description of the UFO is, it seems like far too much of a coincidence that both sightings would occur over Dogpool Lane in Stirchley. If the object was an advanced ET craft, maybe it was returning to the same area for a specific reason. This is what Thomas personally believes. He speculates that there could be some kind of portal in the area which the UFO has passed through on multiple occasions, at least twice, perhaps more. While we have no evidence that this is the case, it is still a possibility worth considering. This is not the only UFO sighting Thomas has had, details of his other sightings will be uploaded soon in a separate linked report. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2014

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 25/07/2014 Last Updated: 29/07/2019 In mid 2014 BUFOG member David Gooding got in touch with me via E-Mail. He informed me of a fascinating UFO he had witnessed back in 1972 when he was only 14 years old. This sighting forever changed his perspective on the UFO subject. Sighting Details Back in April 1972 David used to have a morning paper round. It was a bright, cloudless, clear morning at around 7.00am with an estimated optimum visibility of around 15 miles. Due to the time of morning there was nobody else around. In order to save himself time on his round he took a short cut across the local rugby pitch which lay between Walstead Road and Cypress Road. The pitch still exists today but is now a football pitch. Aerial map of the pitch showing the approximate sighting location: Modern photograph of the pitch: David was around the mid-point of the pitch when he suddenly heard from above and behind him a loud noise akin to the sound of ripping paper. He was startled by this and looked up to determine the source. To his amazement, around 10 metres above his head was a stationary circular object, approximately 10 metres in diameter. It had a phosphorescent underside exhibiting multiple shades of electric blue which swirled around in a similar was to smoke caught in a laser beam. The object made absolutely no noise and was completely still. There were no other notable effects e.g. no sensation of ionisation. As his view was entirely from underneath, David had no idea of the side profile of the object. He says it was hard to estimate exactly how long this situation persisted, but he thinks he looked at it for around 8 seconds. Then without warning the object massively accelerated until it was at the observable horizon (20Km away) two seconds later. This would make its average speed around 10Km/s (22,000 mph). Shaken and gob smacked by the experience, David ran home and incoherently blurted out what had happened to his parents who, though consoling, were clearly very sceptical. Friends he later told were equally unconvinced. However two day later the local morning newspaper published an article about the UFO, which it turned out had been seen by several other witnesses. One in particular was a very experienced mariner who had witnessed a whole range of meteorological/astronomical events at sea but who had “never seen anything like this”. His observation had occurred at the same time as David’s, from a vantage point at Great Barr, approximately 1.5 miles from the location of David’s sighting. Aerial map showing the location of David’s sighting (A) and Great Barr (B): Sighting Analysis This is an incredible and well documented account of a disc-shaped UFO. Unfortunately due to how long ago the sighting took place we have not managed to locate the newspaper report. However I have no doubt that the witness is talking about a real event. Many aspects of the sighting point to the fact that this was a highly unconventional object. David is now a trained physicist, and says he has no idea what this object was or where it was from. However, he says with certainty that this object was under some kind of intelligent control, and that its aerodynamic performance was well beyond the technology today, let alone the technology of 1972. The fact that the UFO was seen by other witnesses at different locations to his means that it could not have been a product of David’s imagination and was clearly a physical object in the air. It was clearly not a normal aircraft or helicopter, and the stunning manoeuvre which it performed completely puts out of the question the idea that it was some kind of inflatable object such as a reflective balloon or blimp, or a remote controlled model of some kind. I certainly feel that this is a genuine sighting of an advanced craft of probable extra-terrestrial origin. There are some very interesting aspects to this sighting which are not commonly reported. The electric blue underside of the object which appeared to be swirling like smoke is indicative of some kind of field being generated around it, probably involved in its propulsion. There have been other cases where similar energy fields have been observed, although many cases where no such observation has been reported. It is also unusual that there was any sound coming from the object. In the majority of cases UFOs are either completely silent or emit a low humming noise. It is likely that this ripping sound was directly linked with the apparent energy around the object. The fact that one of the sightings reported in the paper took place only 1.5 miles away at the same time means it is very likely to be of the same object viewed from a different angle and distance. This adds a lot of weight to the case, despite the fact that at present we only have David’s testimony to go on. In recent years David has visited the library on numerous occassions to perform extensive searches of the newspapers around the time of the incident in a desperate attempt to track down the article. Unfortunately this has so far proved un-successful, but his dedication is further evidence of the reality of his encounter. Due to the various factors involved I am convinced that this was a genuine craft sighting. I would like to thank David for coming forward with the details of this stunning case. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2019

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Last Updated: 22/07/2014 For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used Introduction Emily first got in touch with me about her experiences in May 2013. Looking back through her life there are a number of very interesting incidents which have taken place. These incidents include a clear recollection of an abduction experience, signs of other abductions and a possible visitation. This report covers her experiences in depth and includes numerous drawings she has sent to me for inclusion. A Different Home When Emily was young she remembers that whenever she got upset she would start to cry and say to her parents that she wanted to go home. She would do this even if she was in her house at the time. She does not know what “home” she was referring to at the time, but assumes that it was somewhere else, possibly elsewhere in the universe. Certain contactees appear to have a deep connection with the beings that interact with them. These individuals sometimes referred to as “star children”, often feel that they have come from elsewhere and do not really belong on Earth. They are often drawn to the stars at night, and are usually concerned with the destruction of the environment and the barbarism of the human race.  They tend to possess heightened senses, and as a result often suffer from allergies and avoid artificial/cosmetic products. All of these things Emily says apply to her. Obviously none of them are definite signs of contact, but they are aspects which are regularly observed. A Visitation The first unusual experience which Emily can remember happening took place when she was 7 years old. Even at an early age she would often find it hard to sleep at night, something she still suffers from today. One night in the summer of 1997 she was lying awake in bed. Back then the family used to live in a house in Farnley, Huddersfield. Emily used to share a room with her twin sister. As she lay there, she felt like she was being watched in the dark. She decided to get in to bed next to her sleeping sister for comfort. She recalls getting into bed and closing her eyes for about 10 seconds. She feels sure that she did not drop off to sleep. She opened her eyes again to peer round the room. When she did so she immediately saw a shadowy figure leaning over her. She only saw the head and shoulders as it was only about 10 cm away from her face! Despite its closeness to her she could see no features, it was just a humanoid shaped shadow. However it was shorter than an adult human would have been. It looked about the same height as her, around 4 feet. Point Of View witness drawing of the figure: Witness drawing of the figure alongside the bed: Emily closed her eyes and screamed in fear. Her sister woke up and her mother came rushing into the bedroom. When she opened her eyes she found that the figure had vanished. She told her mum and sister what she had seen. Her mother dismissed it as a dream. Emily insisted she remained in the room, so she sat alongside the bed until she had dropped off to sleep. In the days following the incident Emily says that she tried not to think about what had happened or tell anyone else. She was scared that if she did the figure would return. Looking back at the incident, Emily feels that the figure did not want to cause her harm, she was just scared of it due to its proximity and sudden appearance. Many years later she spoke with her sister about it. Her sister remembers her screaming and crying but does not recall being told about the figure. It is of course possible that Emily had dropped off to sleep and that the figure she had seen was the result of a dream. As she only caught a glimpse of it before shutting her eyes, and as it was clearly no longer in the room when her mother entered, this cannot be put out of the question. However this could well have been a visitation by a Grey or other short ET. I have dealt with a number of cases where the ETs appear to mask themselves in shadow, so no physical features can be seen, just a silhouette. This may be done in an attempt to reduce the trauma of the experience, or there may be another reason why they would want to mask their true appearance. There is also the possibility that this was not an ET but a “shadow being”, a type of apparition which has often been reported by both contactees and non-contactees alike. Paralysed When Emily was 15 years old she went on holiday to Somerset with her family. They stayed at a Haven holiday camp in a chalet. Emily was again sharing a room with her sister. They had gone up to bed and she was lying there with her eyes closed trying to get to sleep. Suddenly she found that when she tried to move she was paralyzed. She thought that she was dying but when she tried to open her mouth and shout for help no sound came out. She then felt waves of electrical energy start to flow through her body from her toes to the top of her head. At the same time as this she began to hear a roaring sound in her head which steadily got louder and louder. She sensed that there was a presence of some kind in the room but was too frightened to look. This seemed to go on for about 3 minutes. Then suddenly everything stopped and went back to normal. She found she could move freely again. She went and informed her mother what had just taken place. Her mother put it down to a migraine, and so she returned to bed. Several years later she started to have similar experiences happen. Her parents arranged  for her to have a number of tests at the local hospital to see if they could work out what was causing it. She went in for an EEG and was required to go to sleep in a room. But Emily found that she was unable to do this, and decided not to go back again. Although she was not officially diagnosed, it is likely that the above described experiences were a result of sleep paralysis. Everything she describes – the inability to move or speak, the electrical sensations, strange sounds, sense of a presence and the way in which it started and stropped without warning are all commonly described side effects of this. Although some aspects of sleep paralysis are not yet fully understood, it is widely accepted that it is a real state which can occur. Some people are more susceptible to it than others. It is probable that this is what Emily was suffering from on these occasions. As certain aspects appear to be similar to aspects of abduction, some researchers believe that sleep paralysis fully explains ET contact experiences. However there are many distinct differences between the two. The Abduction In the winter of 2010 when Emily was 20 years old she was to experience the only abduction she can currently recollect. One night she was staying over at her boyfriend (now husband) Ben’s house in Bradford. They both went to sleep at around 11pm. In the middle of the night, Emily woke up seemingly for no reason. There was no clock in the room but she felt it was around 1am. She immediately became aware that everything was extremely still and silent. She lay there for a couple of minutes wondering what was going on. Everything seemed un-naturally quiet and she got a sense that time itself had stood still. Emily then looked over at Ben alongside her. As she turned it felt like everything was moving in slow motion. Ben appeared frozen, she could not even see him breathing. For some reason she felt that this was not the first time she had seen this, although she had no memories of it happening before this date. She sensed that neither her or him were going to come to harm. Because of this she was not frightened and did not try to wake him up. She was also aware that someone was going to come for her, and that she had known this was going to take place, but had somehow forgotten until this point. It was as if it had all been planned in advance, but that it had been blocked from her mind so that she could lead a normal life. She felt completely calm and relaxed, which was unusual given the circumstances. After this her memories are extremely fragmented. However the memories which she does recall certainly indicate that she was abducted and taken aboard a craft. She recalls being up in the air floating towards the wall and window of the room. She was floating about 5 cm off the floor in a standing position. She could move freely but did not try to struggle against what was happening. As she got near to the wall and window she put out her hand to stop herself from bumping into it. But she continued forward and passed through it. Her head and upper body passed through the glass of the window. Her lower body passed through the solid wall. As she did so she felt the sensation of doing so. It was an itchy feeling, and felt more viscous than moving through the air. After this she then has a period of missing time. Although she doesn't recall seeing a craft hovering in the sky close to her house, she does have an image of what it looked like. She remembers it being a silver disc-shaped craft with a dome in the middle of the upper surface. It had smooth curved edges and no visible markings or other lighting. She feels it was about 30 feet in diameter. Her next recollection is of standing in a large open room with white walls and no visible furnishings. She is unsure whether she was on board the disc-shaped craft at this point or somewhere else entirely. There was a Grey being standing about 15 feet in front of her. It was about 6 feet in height and was wearing a skin-tight suit either silver or white in colour. There was some kind of insignia on this suit on the upper chest area but she currently cannot recall the details of what this looked like. The being had a slender body with long thin arms and legs. The skin of its exposed head was pale grey in colour. Its head was tear drop shaped with a very pointed chin and large black oval-shaped eyes. It had very small nostrils and just a 2cm long slit for a mouth. Witness drawing showing the proximity of the Grey: Point of view witness drawing of the Grey: She remembers that the being then communicated telepathically with her. She could hear its voice directly in her head. It felt neutral to her, neither male or female. She believes that she had a long conversation with the Grey but does not currently recollect most of what was said. Her only clear recollection is that it said to her “It’s time for you to come back with us now.” At the time she knew exactly what it meant by this without the need for it to explain to her. She did not feel ready to leave behind her life on Earth and responded saying “I’m not ready yet, I want to experience more before I go.” The being did not seem angry at her response. Another memory which Emily feels sure took place during the same experience was of being shown a glowing golden holographic map.  This was displayed in the air and was covered in unusual symbols, points of light and lines. The points of light appeared to be star constellations. At the time she feels that she could read and understand what the strange symbols meant, but does not when she thinks back to it. She also remembers that one or more Greys were showing her something on this map but can’t remember what. Emily says the holographic maps in the control room in the movie Avatar were reminiscent of what she observed. If she decides to be regressed at some point we may be able to gain more information or even a layout of it. Witness drawing of the holographic map (map details shown are a representation and not accurate): Emily believes that after this she was returned to the house, although she has no recollection of this return journey. She just found herself back in bed under the covers. Initially the eerie silence was still there in the room but after a short while it seemed to dissipate. She lay in bed thinking about what had just taken place and wondering why there appeared to be large gaps in her recollection of events. She did not tell Ben what had happened till about a year later. As time went on she began to view the experience as nothing more than a bizarre dream, even though at the time she knew that it had felt much more vivid than this. However in recent years she has looked into ET contact on the net and realises the similarity between her experience and other cases. Further Contact Memories Another recurring memory that Emily has is of standing on a path close to where her mother lives in Comle, Huddersfield. In the memory it is daylight so cannot have been related to the above mentioned abduction experience. She recalls seeing the same craft that she remembers from her abduction – a silver coloured domed disc. It approaches about 100 feet above her and then suddenly stops in the sky. The domed part of the craft has a rectangular shaped window in it, and she sees a Grey on board the craft put its hand up against this window. She then reaches up towards the craft almost as a return gesture. She has no idea whether this craft was there to observe her, abduct her or had even just dropped her back off after being taken. Witness drawing of the UFO and Grey at the window: The fact that the craft she sees in this memory matches the one she remembers from the abduction means it is clearly linked with her experiences in some way. While it is entirely possible that she has just imagined this memory it seems more probable that this is a flashback to an experience which has happed at some point in her adult life prior to the abduction. Pyschic Abilities Many contactees often appear to express one or more psychic abilities, so many so that this could be termed a common aspect of the contact phenomenon. Emily claims to possess a high level of intuition. She says that often she will be able to detect an individual’s personality and emotions before speaking with them and can be aware of ulterior motives. Sometimes this feeling is so strong that she feels physically sick when in the presence of certain individuals and can’t go near them. She can often sense a connection with people and can feel sorry for them without knowing why. On a number of occasions Emily has had dreams which have seemed to later on come true. I have looked into many other cases where similar premonition dreams have been reported. Many of these premonitions seem to be warning Emily of danger to either herself or others around her. When she was 17 her boyfriend at the time started driving. She knew when things were going to go wrong. One night she had a dream that something bad was going to happen to him on the road. She dismissed it but later that same day her boyfriend pulled out onto a junction and almost crashed. About a year later she had a dream that her boyfriend’s mother had stomach cancer. She told him about it soon afterwards. A week later his mother went into hospital for some tests. Emily never found out whether it was cancer as around that time they broke up. Her boyfriend blamed her in a way for what had happened. Emily used to own a motorbike. On a number of occasions she would get a gut feeling that it was not safe to go out on the bike. A couple of times she ignored this feeling, but on both these occasions even when riding extra safely she still skidded and came off the bike. After this she used to put on extra padded clothing or where possible not go out at all if she sensed something was wrong. In 2012 she had a dream that Ben’s car was going to break down. In the morning she informed him and told him to get the car serviced. He ignored the warning, and later that day the car’s tyre burst, damaging the wheel. After this incident Ben tended to take Emily’s warnings more seriously! In summer 2013 Emily’s twin sister visited Scarborough for a few days. She said she would pop in on the way home but did not give a time of arrival. That day Emily had got up early so she decided to take a nap. While she was asleep she had a dream of looking at the clock in the front room. It said 6.13pm. She then heard a knock on her door and her twin sister arrived at the house. She remembered the dream when she woke up as it was extremely vivid.  She told her husband that her sister was going to arrive around quarter past 6. Sure enough, that evening her sister turned up at exactly 6.13pm! On another occasion later in the summer she was watching a film with her husband when she suddenly began feeling uneasy. She felt that something bad was going to take place. She heard distant shouting along the road of some teenagers. The bad feeling got stronger so she ran upstairs to take a look out of the front window. She watched as the teenagers opened the garden gate and started trying to light a fire on the doorstep. She shouted at them and they moved on elsewhere. It seemed that her senses picked up the imminent danger of the situation. Another Visitation In early August 2013 Emily woke up in the middle of the night to find she could not move. She looked over at the bedroom door which was open. Out on the landing she saw what appeared to be the silhouette of a Grey. It was standing completely still at the top of the stairs. It was completely black and no physical features could be seen. It was about 5 foot high. Its arms were very long and hung down at its sides past its hips. It was slender in frame and had skinny arms and legs. It’s head was pear shaped, similar to the Greys she had seen during her abduction. She panicked trying to move and get away but found she could not. The Grey just stood there, it did not begin to move towards her. After a short while she must have drifted off to sleep, and awoke several hours later. She did not feel unusual in any way, and there were no signs that she may have been taken on this occasion. Silver Disc Sighting On 7th August Emily and Ben where out driving on their way into town. It was about 1pm in the afternoon. Emily suddenly noticed a large object in the sky. It was disc-shaped and silver in colour, with a white light at either end. It appeared to be larger than a plane. She pointed it out to Ben saying “Look at that!” He replied “That’s weird!” A moment later they lost sight of the object behind a clump of trees. When they had passed the trees they again looked up into the sky but the object had vanished without trace! Emily believes that this was the first time she had seen a craft while being fully consciously aware. Ben was more sceptical, and suggested that it must have been some kind of plane, though he does admit that it looked very strange. Flashbacks On a night in December 2013 Emily experienced what she could only describe as multiple flashbacks while asleep. These felt very different to a normal dream. She saw about 30 quick visions one after another. The themes of these visions included the following: - Being awake during the night in the front room of her house and seeing a small craft-like object with red lights on hovering outside the window as if monitoring her. The vision ended with a sudden bright white light filling the window. - Waking up in the night to see white light pouring into her bedroom from outside. - Multiple visions of her being outside and witnessing a craft in the sky. The craft flew overhead of her and then she felt a tremendous pulling sensation from above. - Beings with human heads and features but with large black eyes. This vision made her feel sick and terrified. The beings were a mix of male and female and varied in age. After experiencing these visions Emily woke up feeling extremely disturbed, and could not get back to sleep for a long while. At the time she was heavily pregnant, so she wondered if that could have triggered what she saw. But she still could not shake the feeling that the visions were actual memories of things she had seen during contact experiences. Conclusion Due to Emily’s detailed recollection of an abduction experience, it seems clear that she is a contactee. Some of the flashbacks/dreams she has had indicate that she has been taken on more than one occasion. It is common for contactees to be abducted more than once, so this would not be at all surprising. The recollection of a shadowy being in her room as a child is interesting and could well be a visitation. Perhaps this was an intended abduction which was avoided, or maybe she was just being observed at this point. Because of the length of time between her experiences, it is unknown at present if she will continue to experience contact in her life. If she does experience any further incidents and keeps in touch with me then this report will be updated as necessary. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2014

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: George Gregg Release Date: 07/07/2014 Sighting Report Sedgley is a small town in the north of Dudley.  It is situated along the A459 between Wolverhampton and Dudley. Since 1974 it has been part of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough. Andrew is an author and a paranormal investigator. He is an Approved Investigator with ASSAP (Association of the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena). The report below is made up of E-mails that he sent to a colleague almost minutes after the sighting. The wording has been edited to remove irrelevant material: “At: 19/12/2013 23:12 Postcode: DY3 1HN I've just seen something really strange on the way back from the Beacon! The sky is clear here and it is freezing. I saw a grey wing shaped thing moving fast in a straight line across the sky. It had no lights, no sound and logically I shouldn't have been able to see it against the dark sky. I don't think it was close to the ground but of course very difficult to tell at night. It came from the Tipton direction. I have never seen anything like this. Only a short sighting but clear. I could not tell how high or big it was in the dark. My impression was light aircraft sized but faster moving. This is purely subjective of course. Absolutely no sound heard either. It was like a fast moving glider. Strangest airborne thing I have seen so far!! Maybe it was illuminated by moonlight. I was only aware of a fixed wing. It flew right over me by the way not in the distance at all. Cheers Andrew.” Map indicating the sighting location: Photograph of the sighting location taken by the witness: Clarifying this with the witness he observed an object moving from east to west but which was soundless, a single wing in shape, grey in colour and had no lights but moving quite fast. He was a little puzzled by how he could have seen it due to the fact that it could not be heard and was not self-illuminated. Sighting Analysis Having known Andrew since 1999 When he was a lecturer at Dudley College I found him to be a highly truthful individual and not given to flights of fancy. He is very knowledgeable about anomalous phenomena and is aware of the psychology of how the mind can play trick on people. He is very good with details and accurate observation. He is also reasonably familiar with aircraft types. Given the background of the observer it would be highly unlikely he would find a normal aircraft to be strange. The main possibility is that he saw some kind of stealth aircraft. A new design that does not make a noise. Most stealth craft such as the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit are invisible to radar but extremely noisy and tend to move quite fast across the sky. The shape of this stealth craft does not match that of the sighting. Given that neither I nor the witness is familiar with a military vehicle it would seem to me that the sighting should be recorded as an unknown. Copyright George Gregg 2014

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 04/06/2014 For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used Sighting Details It was between 9 and 10 pm on the evening of 7th May 2014. Richard was in his house in East Blackley, Manchester with his girlfriend Emma. They were watching TV in the living room. Suddenly something caught Richard’s eye through the window. He got the attention of Emma and they both stared outside. It was a warm clear evening and the sun was just setting, no moon or stars were yet visible in the sky. Travelling from Rochdale Road to Victoria Avenue in an Eastward direction he saw a fast moving white coloured light. It appeared to be within half a mile of his location, and only a couple of hundred feet high. It was also descending as it moved. It was extremely bright but did not have a trail behind it. Richard estimates it was at least 12 foot across but could have been larger. Aerial map highlighting Rochdale Road (A) and Victoria Avenue (B): Richard and Emma watched the light for about 25 seconds until it went out of sight in the direction of Charlestown, by which time it was quite low in the sky and looked like it was going to descend to the ground. Sighting Analysis White lights are often seen after dark and usually have a mundane explanation. They can often turn out to be distant aircraft, white coloured LED balloons, satellites or shooting stars. However this sighting does sound unusual. As the light was descending as it moved the most likely mundane explanation is that it was a meteorite. But it does sound like it was observed for too long to have been this, meteorites are usually only visible for a brief moment as they cross the sky. Also they usually have a burning trail behind them, yet Richard says this light did not. As the witness states, it appears to have been moving too rapidly to have been a plane or helicopter, and certainly too fast to have been an LED balloon. Richard says that he is well aware of what shooting stars and distant aircraft look like after dark and says that it was definitely something else. Could the object have descended to the ground somewhere in the Charlestown area? It certainly appeared that it was going to. So far no other reports of this light have been found online so we have no way of knowing if anyone else observed it. If any more information on the mystery light becomes available this report will be updated with the details. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2014