Birmingham UFO Group Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Originally forwarded by Richard Hall
Release Date: 31/08/2011
Last Updated 08/09/2024
Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used
On the night of 5th November 1990, a massive UFO flap took place over France. According to various internet sites, over 400 UFO sightings were reported up and down the country.
In August 2011 “Emma” got in touch with me via Richplanet.Net to provide details of her sighting of a massive triangular shaped UFO. Though she understands that other people reported seeing UFOs in the same city, I am not sure she is aware of the full scale of the incident.
There are reports online which suggest that the triangular UFO was seen by many other individuals, and that this was one of a number of huge craft covered in glowing lights which were seen that night.
In this report I cover only Emma’s sighting, as many other researchers have already looked into the overall UFO wave. However towards the end are a number of website links, newspaper articles and a documentary video.
Sighting Details
In 1990 Emma lived in Reims, France. She shared a council flat with “Caleb”, her boyfriend at the time. The flat was on Avenue Du General Bonaparte in the Croix Rouge district, close to the Business School where Emma was studying at.
On the evening of 5th November Emma and Caleb had just got off a bus in front of their flat. It was dark, but the weather was clear and calm. The stars were not really very visible due to the street lights.
As they approached the building, Emma happened to look up into the sky and noticed a large object directly overhead. Due to its proximity she initially felt that it was an aircraft about to crash into the buildings, but it only took a moment to realise this was not the case.
The object was triangular in shape and appeared to be either black or very dark in colour. It was huge, at least the size of several blocks of flats, and was clearly solid and darker than the night sky. Along the edges were white and blue lights at various points. Each corner of the triangle appeared to be emitting bright sparks.
The object was completely silent, it was a quiet neighbourhood so Emma says she would have heard any noise coming from it. It was at quite low altitude, only a short distance above the buildings. It was moving quite slowly on a straight and level course, and heading East towards the centre of the city. Emma immediately pointed it out to Caleb.
Both witnesses were amazed at what they were seeing. They watched it for about a minute in silence until it had gone out of sight behind the buildings. The sighting was so out of the ordinary that they barely discussed what they had just seen, it was hard to comprehend. Emma feels that this is the reason why she has barely spoken of the incident since, except with her direct family.
However, it was not just her and Caleb who saw the object. Later on in the evening they were watching the news on TV, they saw a report which stated that numerous people had seen a UFO over the city.
However the report played down the incident, and put the sightings down to a meteorite, which was of course nothing like what they had seen. Emma says it is possible that it appeared in the local newspapers as well, however as she was studying for exams at the time she did not read them herself.
Recently Emma decided to do a painting of what she saw all those years ago to illustrate the incident to her partner. This painting shows how the object looked from underneath, and its size against the surroundings.
Sighting Analysis
This is a very impressive sighting indeed. Most mundane explanations can easily be dismissed. The object was much too large to have been an electronically lit inflatable, kite, hand glider or model. It was clearly not a conventional aircraft of any kind, the shape, size and lighting configuration do not fit this explanation. Also it was moving much too slowly to have been an aircraft and was completely silent despite being at low altitude. It is unlikely to have been a secret military craft – why would they fly something so large right over the city in plain sight?
You may feel that the date the sighting occurred on is suspicious, as this was bonfire night in the UK. However this is not celebrated in France, so fireworks are unlikely to have been an explanation for what was seen.
According to online sources, the meteorite explanation mentioned by the report Emma heard on TV was put forward by a German observatory. However this does not work for what Emma and Caleb witnessed – meteorites cross the sky extremely rapidly and are only visible for a brief moment, so even if many entered the atmosphere at around the same time forming a triangular pattern they would not have remained visible for long at all. Also Emma says the object was darker than the surrounding night sky, so must have been a solid singular object.
Later on SEPRA (Now named Unidentified Aerospace Phenomenon Research and Information Group or GEIPAN), a unit of the National Centre For Space Studies (CNES), put forward another explanation, stating that the sightings were the result separation of a third stage of a Russian rocket which had been launched on the evening. While this would remain visible for a number of minutes, it again would not look like a solid triangular object.
I feel it is more likely to have been a genuine Flying Triangle craft. This is one of the more commonly reported types of UFO. Flying Triangles are often described as being very large in size, and are regularly seen to glide very slowly across the sky. The white and blue lights seen along the edges are less common; however I have investigated other cases where this exact lighting configuration has been described.
The “sparks” seen at each of the corners are very interesting. Emma felt at the time that perhaps the object was in trouble. However perhaps these were not sparks at all but just bright twinkling lights which gave the appearance of sparks. Flying Triangle craft are often described as having a bright white light at each corner.
The fact that other people reported seeing a very similar object, as well as other huge UFOs on the same night, means that this sighting is both very impressive and very hard to dismiss.
External Information
Various French newspaper articles related to the UFO flap:
Federation Europeenne A.I.R.P.L.A.N.E.
Direct Link:
English Translation:
Wave of UFO demonstrations on November 5, 1990 over France
It all started on the evening of November 5, 1990. From 6:30 pm, unknown flying objects were seen in many places above the national territory. In the darkening sky at the start of the evening, unknown, luminous, numerous objects of varying dimensions appear. Some fly peacefully, projecting beams of light towards the ground or horizontally. Others simply cross our airspace conspicuously but in a measured manner. There are thousands of witnesses across the four corners of France. Photos, video recordings, detections of all kinds soon confirm the observations.
In various regions, the lights move in formation, in parallel ways under the cloud layer. In other places, immense structures whose scales are compared by witnesses to the size of a city are observed. In almost all cases, the machines move in total silence, very slowly and at very low altitude.
The numerous witnesses came from all levels of society. Among these are a large number of professionals from the aerospace industry, astronomers, gendarmes, scientists, police officers, doctors, pilots, air traffic controllers, soldiers, a president of the high court, judicial controllers, civil servants at the Ministry of the Interior, Mayors and deputies, general councilors...etc... the list is long.
In the hours that followed, the media reported these observations and sought an explanation from scientists who took their time to respond.
Within 24 hours, a German observatory declared that the flyby was nothing other than a meteorite. French astronomers appear publicly reluctant to confirm this interpretation, which does not take into account the thousands of testimonies prohibiting the "meteorite hypothesis". Finally, SEPRA, a CNES service, will present an equally contradictory explanation from the perspective of the testimonies, but which will have the merit of reassuring: a third stage of a Russian rocket would have fallen above the hexagon from North-East to South-East. (Remember that the fallout of such a compartment is reduced to only a few minutes)
This is what the re-entry of a third stage of the Molniva M rocket in 2001 corresponds to. We will notice a descending trajectory (and not horizontal or ascending), a high speed (and not slow, estimated by some at 2km/h) as well as the impossibility of distinguishing a shape (while on the contrary the witnesses report hundreds of objects of varying sizes and shapes)
At present, our contacts within the French Defence indicate to us that certain observations carried out that evening with their means as well as some privileged testimonies (by the conditions of observations) still fall within the field of safety and a very high level of confidentiality (for reasons unknown to us and which we find very difficult to understand in light of the very sensitive UFO affairs which have been revealed by other Western nations)
If such observations made by thousands of French people (estimate of at least 10,000 people made considering the number of reported testimonies), one day arouse the curiosity of the population, a serious study on the origin of the unknown manifestations could be demanded from institutions.
Note that it would have been interesting to carry out a statistical study to determine the possible concordance between the hours at which these events took place and the hours at which availability outside the buildings (home, professional establishment, university and buildings schools) of the French population is the largest that day.
French UFO Wave November 5, 1990 PowerPoint presentation containing many witness drawings and details
If you have any further information about this impressive series of events please get in touch.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2024
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