Birmingham UFO Group Report Sighting Details It was the evening of Friday 20th March 2009. The two witnesses to this sighting, Kerry and Matt (Names changed for privacy reasons), were at their home in Sutton Coldfield. It was 10.00pm and Kerry had just sat down to watch some TV. Their lounge window looks out to the road outside. It is ¾ covered in a blind, but through the uncovered section Kerry noticed an unusual moving light. Intrigued, she went to the front door and also called her husband Matt. It was a clear and still night, and the stars were visible. In the sky behind the houses on the opposite side of the road and off to their right, they saw what looked like a glowing sphere of very bright white light, which faded to orange light on the outer edge. It looked like a solid orb-shaped object rather than just a light with a glow around it. It was hard to judge how far away it was from them but it was certainly within a mile. They estimated it was between 60-100 feet high. The object was moving at least the speed of an aeroplane and from their perspective was moving to the left across the night sky on a very straight course. They could hear no sound coming from it. The witnesses watched it cross the sky for about 30 seconds. It was then hidden by a tall fir tree in their front garden, but they could still see the light from it through the branches. The object re-emerged and then suddenly turned at 90 degrees and began moving away from their position. They watched it get smaller due to distance, and within 10 seconds it had completely vanished from sight. Drawing of object seen: 📷 Conclusion There are a number of impressive aspects to this sighting. Firstly the witnesses are certain that what they saw was not a Chinese lantern. They lived in Thailand for a number of years, and regularly saw lanterns in the sky. They have even lit and launched some themselves. The object seen was too bright, too spherical and did not flicker at all. Its trajectory looked far too controlled and fast to be a balloon and it did not appear to be drifting. Also why would a balloon have a constant bright white light in the first place? Hot air balloons glow orange and only intermittently. However, the fact that it performed a sudden right angle turn in still weather conditions suggests that it was under intelligent control. The description given does not fit in with any other explanations such as a meteorite or earth light. The witnesses are convinced that what they saw was some kind of unidentified craft rather than a conventional object. It is currently unknown whether anyone else saw the object, but it would have certainly stood out against the night sky. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2009

Birmingham UFO Group Report Late in the evening of 10th January 2009, Steve Kitts called a taxi to his house to pick up himself and a friend. The witnesses headed outside to wait for its arrival on Cottage Street, Kingswinford. It was a clear and still night, and about 10.30pm. Steve noticed a glowing orange orb of light in the sky above the houses on the opposite side of the road. It was about as high as a plane would be in mid-flight, but appeared to be moving faster than a plane. The object was travelling in a Southerly direction from the right to the left of their vision. Both the witnesses took out their mobile phones and managed to capture video of the object (Watch the video footage at the base of this report). They watched it cross the sky in a straight path for about 70 seconds until it was out of sight. They heard no noise at all during the sighting and were convinced they were not observing a normal aircraft. In the morning Steve watched the video footage and realised that he had managed to film something unusual. He decided to then look into the subject of UFOs on the internet and find out about other local sightings that had been taking place recently. A still from Steve’s mobile phone video footage: 📷 Map showing location of witnesses: 📷 There is the possibility that the object that was filmed was an individual Chinese lantern in flight. These appear as orange orbs of light and tend to drift through the sky for up to half an hour. However to counteract this argument, Steve did mention that the object appeared to be travelling quite fast and on a straight path, which tends to suggest it was powered rather than just drifting in the wind. It certainly doesn’t look like it can be explained by a normal aircraft or helicopter as they do not display lights of this colour. It could possibly have been a radio controlled model with an orange light but this seems unlikely. For now it looks as if this particular sighting will remain unexplained... The video footage: Copyright Dave Hodrien 2009

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 08/01/2009 Occasionally BUFOG is contacted by people who have seen a UFO many years ago and feel they now wish to get it down on record. This is the case with this particular sighting where two "classic" Flying Triangle UFOs (FTs) were observed by two witnesses, Jamie and his father Steve. It was summer time of 2000, and a clear, dry evening. The witnesses were out walking their pet dog on a local field in Shrewsbury. It was around 9pm, the sun had gone down and the stars could be seen. Suddenly two objects in the sky caught their attention. They watched as two triangular shaped craft flew in a south-westerly direction in front of them. Both of the craft had a red light underneath at each corner, and emitted a blue haze from the rear. They were black in colour, with a reddish glow possibly from the lights on them. But also they appeared to be translucent. Jamie remembers seeing the stars through them. He estimates that the craft were flying quite high (under 35000 foot), and were extremely large, perhaps five times the size of a normal aircraft. It looked as if one craft was being chased by the second. The first one started moving erratically side to side, as if trying to shake off its pursuer. But the following one would react extremely fast and turn to follow. Jamie describes it’s movements as astonishing, he says that with any normal aircraft it would take several seconds for the pilot to react and change course, but the craft was performing these manoeuvres almost instantaneous. At no point during the sighting did the witnesses hear any sound coming from the craft, they were completely silent. Within ten seconds the craft had travelled the entire skyline and vanished from sight. Witness drawing of the craft seen: 📷 Location map showing position of witnesses and path of UFOs: 📷 This is a very impressive sighting as the objects certainly looked like Flying Triangles, which have been reported many times before all around the world. There are many aspects of the incident which simply cannot have a mundane explanation. The appearance, size, speed, silent flight, and movement patterns observed dismiss most alternative possibilities. The fact that the objects were semi-transparent suggests that they were using advanced technology to provide a form of camouflage. It certainly seems that Jamie and Steve witnessed two unexplained craft which performed both intelligent and complex manoeuvres in the skies over Shrewsbury. Jamie believes that the craft that they saw, and others which have been reported over the past decade, are not extraterrestrial but instead are secret military aircraft. He says that considering the F-117A Stealth Fighter was in use for 6-8 years before the public even knew about it, he sees no reason why Flying Triangles are the same but with more advanced technology. There is certainly logic in this argument, though I personally believe that Flying Triangles are extraterrestrial. If they are secret military craft that the general public is not meant to know about then surely they would not be flown across heavily populated areas? Also I have read numerous cases where alien entities have been seen at the same time as this type of craft. They have also been seen to reach speeds and perform manoeuvres which, to our current knowledge, a human pilot would not be able to withstand. This case certainly appears to be a genuine Flying Triangle UFO sighting, and one which may have been observed by other witnesses elsewhere who have not yet come forward. If you have any further information about this incident, please get in touch with BUFOG. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2009

Birmingham UFO Group Report Sighting Details On the evening of 19th December 2008 between 7.30-8pm numerous witnesses observed many glowing orbs of light in the skies over Halesowen. The objects were moving in roughly the same direction, some individual, some in groups. Many were convinced that they were watching a fleet of extraterrestrial craft. It was a clear night so the objects were easily noticeable against the dark sky. Below are several photographs taken at the time: 📷 Witness Steve Randall who lives in Halesowen was interviewed by Sky News and said “This was incredible and so spectacular. The lights seemed to climb into the sky to the North of us, just before 8pm. A neighbour had shouted for us to come and look. There were so many objects. From a distance they looked like bubbles rising in a fizzy drink. Then they came towards us and flew right over the top. Some were so close they were almost touching and were only a hundred feet or so above us. The objects were absolutely silent and travelling at probably twice the speed of a normal aircraft. They were all circular and had 13 to 15 lights around the rim. Each had lights in the centre which were flashing on and off. They went south at a terrific speed.” When asked whether the objects could have been aircraft he said “Aircraft are not allowed to fly over this area. We regularly see air traffic in the distance and I can assure you that this was something very different.” Among the witnesses was one of the members of BUFOG. He spotted the objects near Junction 3 of the M5 motorway looking eastwards. He said the ligts were moving slowly in the same direction as the wind. Every so often one of the lights would fizzle out and disappear. He saw around thirty at first but by the time he had got his camera there were only about six to eight still visible. He managed to take several photographs including the one below: 📷 He was convinced the objects were Chinese Lanterns due to the consistency of their speed, the direction they were heading in, the way they were grouped and the way they were vanishing one by one. Another witness contacted BUFOG via the forum to say that he had seen “around thirty glowing orbs and oval-shaped objects, some stationary and some moving at speed”. The witness did not know what the objects could be but said they were too low in the sky to be stars. He saw them from the area of Harbourne, which is east of Halesowen. The Explanation By the afternoon of the following day an explanation for what was seen had been found. And sadly this time there was no extraterrestrial connection. The lights seen were Chinese Lanterns that had been launched after a Christmas carol service by children from Lutley Primary School. The lanterns were apparenly on sale after the service for £2.50. Many parents and children decided to buy them and set them off all together from the playground at 7.30pm. One of the parents, Sam Gibson, was interviewed by the Sunday Mercury about the incident. She said “There were certainly no UFOs around that night – just the 50 lanterns that the parents and children decided to set off over Halesowen. We all watched them float off into the night sky towards the fire station. It was really nice and I was thinking of investing in some more for the children.” Case closed it seems. Just as with numerous other sightings of glowing lights in the sky, this incident turned out to be lanterns. Even though Chinese Lanterns have been around for several years now, they are still rare enough for a lot of the public to not know about. Hopefully over time people will become more aware of what these lanterns look like when launched after dark. Unlike many of the other sightings reported around Birmingham over 2008, we can safely say that this mystery has been solved. References Sky News, Friday 19th December 2008 Sunday Mercury, Saturday 20th December 2008 Copyright Dave Hodrien 2008

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Special thanks to John Hanson, (retired CID Officer) & Dawn Holloway, Researcher,Credit to Dave Sankey with illustration. 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷 Copyright Dave Hodrien 2008

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report You can read the complete Airprox report of the Police helicopter incident in West Bromwhich in May 2008. We have also requested Freedom of information requests from the MOD and West Midlands Police Force. 📷 📷📷📷 Copyright Dave Hodrien 2008

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report I took these pictures on the 24th April 2008 in Birmingham using my Sony DSC-H1 camera (5mp). I only noticed the objects when i uploaded to my PC. I am at loss to explain what these objects are. Details with held 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 Copyright Dave Hodrien 2008