Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 27/08/2009
On the evening of Saturday 8th August 2009. Neil Mason and his girlfriend were chatting to their four neighbours over the garden fence of their house in Yardley. It was about 10pm and was warm and dry, with quite a clear sky. The stars and moon were both visible. Suddenly Neil’s girlfriend spotted something up in the sky. She pointed upwards at the object. Neil was in the back door of his house, so stepped outside to see what she was looking at. Everyone present saw an orange ball of flickering light head over the house in a South Westerly direction. The object was flying on a straight course and made no sound. Neil estimated it was about 30-35000 feet high and bigger than a commerical airliner.
The witnesses watched the object for 5 minutes as it flew away into the distance until it faded away. They were all baffled by what the object was. Neil checked the Nasa website to see if it was the International Space Station but this was nowhere near at the time.
Taking all the aspects of this sighting into consideration, it seems highly probable that the object was a solitary Chinese Lantern which had been launched by someone in the local area. The colour shape and flickering of the object, and the fact it travelled in a straight trajectory without performing any complex manouvres all suggest it was a lantern. As there is no point of reference in the night sky, objects can sometimes appear to be further away and therefore larger and faster than they in fact are. It is my belief that this is what has happened with this particular sighting.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2009
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