Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 03/01/2010
Reg Edwards lives in Kings Norton and over the years has had a number of interesting UFO sightings, including a highly impressive close encounter with what appeared to be a very unusual craft. He has an interest in the subject, and got in touch after seeing some glowing orbs of light on just after New Year 2010. This report will cover each of his sightings in order, starting with the oldest.
October/November 1978 UFO Sighting
One night in late autumn 1978, Reg and a friend stopped over at another friend’s house close to Selly Oak Park. They slept in a spare bedroom at the property. When they awoke the following morning between 7-8am, Reg drew back the curtains of the room’s window. The view from the window was to the North over the area of Harbourne. It was a frosty but clear morning with only light cloud cover.
Reg made a cup of tea and had a cigarette. While he did this he stared out of the window. It was still semi-dark and the morning sun was just coming up. He noticed something metallic, possibly spherical in shape, which appeared to be reflecting the sun’s rays rather than being self-illuminated. It was completely stationary in the sky, and appeared to be less than 1000 feet up and 2-3 miles to the North of his position.
Aerial map of Selly Oak Park, close to which the UFO was sighted from:
📷
Reg told his friend about the object who then too sighted it. They continued to watch the object. It remained motionless for a while. There were other aircraft in the sky with usual navigation lights on. They appeared to be flying past the position of the unknown object. After a while it started to slowly descend in altitude. It then slowly moved back upwards again, before once more hovering still. Reg and his friend were both puzzled by the object and wondered what it might be. Due to Reg’s previous experience in the army, he was used to recognising various aircraft from different angles and different times of day and night. Yet there was something very odd about this object which intrigued him.
Over the next hour, Reg checked back out of the window numerous times but the object remained visible in the sky. In the end he left his friend’s house to return home so does not know how long the object remained in the area for.
This sighting is interesting; especially due to the length of time the object appeared to remain hovering in the sky. Reg assumed at first that he may be looking at a bright star rather than an object – this was until it began to descend in altitude. He could see no real shape to the object, it just looked like a metallic orb. He was certain it was not a helicopter hovering over Harbourne, as it appeared to have no lights on it, even when it was quite dark at the start of the sighting. If it was a metallic coloured balloon or inflatable surely it would have drifted away after a while rather than remained for over an hour. One possibility was that it was some kind of tethered inflatable, but this too would have been unlikely to have changed altitude. Considering the amount of time it was present for, and the fact that numerous aircraft appeared to be flying past it, it is probable it was also seen by other witnesses, however it happened many years ago and I have been unable to find any articles on the internet which could relate to the incident.
1985-87 UFO Close Encounter
Reg’s most impressive UFO sighting took place in the the mid 1980’s during spring or summer months. He does admit that he had been drinking prior to the sighting; however what he experienced was highly unlikely to have been caused by alcohol.
Reg was round his friend’s house in Northfield for the evening for some drinks. He left his friend’s house to walk back home at around 2.00-2.30am. It was a clear, warm night with moderate cloud cover, and due to the time there was nobody else around.
As he walked along a road that leads past Northfield Railway station he suddenly heard a strange pulsing sound in the air coming from his right from around the area of the station. He looked round to find the source of the sound.
Aerial map of Northfield railway station:
📷
He was immediately confronted with an absolutely stunning sight. There through a gap between the housing he saw a large object in the air, about 150-200 yards away from his position. It was long and cigar-shaped with rounded corners, and a matt grey/silver in colour. It was at least 30 feet in length and 10 feet high. The object was facing slightly away from him, but he could see what looked like a number of round darker portholes equally spaced along the centre. There was also a rounded fin-shaped protrusion from the rear end of the object, the same colour as the bulk of it. Reg says there may possibly have been other protrusions but he cannot remember for definite.
Drawing of UFO (side view) done from witness description:
📷
The object was tilted upward at a shallow angle, and was slowly increasing in altitude as if it was just taking off. Reg estimates it was moving about 15-20 mph. It was completely silent but he could feel something strange in the air, possibly energy coming from the object, like pin pricks against his skin.
Reg only watched the object for several seconds as he was completely terrified by what he was witnessing. He quickly moved round out of sight of the object up against a chain link fence with a wall behind. He was filled with adrenaline and the hairs on his neck were standing up. Despite being hidden, he could still feel the energy in the air around him and could still hear the unusual pulsing sound. He had no idea of what the object was but was highly disturbed by its appearance and proximity to him. He lit up a cigarette and took a few drags.
After about a minute he decided to move away from the area without looking back. He briskly walked away, continuing his journey home towards Kings Norton. After several minutes he looked back towards Northfield station but could no longer see the object at all. For the rest of his journey he thought about what he had experienced, and felt certain that he had seen a highly unusual craft of some kind.
Reg has only ever spoke of this sighting to a few individuals, as he feels that many would just ridicule him about it. This is sadly true, and the reason why many witnesses never come forward about their experiences at all.
This is a truly stunning close encounter with a UFO. Many aspects are highly intriguing and most alternative explanations for it can be discounted. Due to it’s proximity, Reg got a clear view of it’s appearance. The object was clearly not a conventional aircraft of any kind. It seems too large to have been a model of some kind, and was also making a very unusual sound. It also seems unlikely to have been a large balloon or inflatable. These would of course have been silent, and Reg says it certainly appeared to have mass and structure to it. We can assume that the unusual energy that Reg felt in the air was coming from the object. This again seems completely un-natural and suggests that the object had some kind of power source or was perhaps giving off radiation.
I certainly do not believe that the fact Reg had been drinking had anything to do with this sighting. People do not see large unexplained flying objects under the influence of alcohol, and Reg had never seen anything like it before or since.
He clearly remembers the entire incident due to the level of fear it caused. He feels certain that other than the energy in the air, it did not interact with him in any way, and he did not experience any missing time. But he does believe that he had a very real close encounter with a craft, probably of non-human origin. He feels it was unlikely to have been a secret military craft as there would be no reason for them to fly this over a highly populated city at low altitude. I too would use this logic and also believe this to be a genuine sighting of an extraterrestrial craft.
July 2009 UFO Sighting
It was late evening on a day in mid July 2009. Reg was using his computer in his house on Broadmeadow Close, Kings Norton. One of the lounge windows runs behind his computer, but most of the view is obscured, giving a small letterbox-shaped view of the sky. He became aware of movement in this patch of sky, so glanced out of the window to see what it was.
Aerial map of sighting location:
📷
Travelling slowly across the sky in a South Westerly direction was an object which looked similar to the one he had seen back in 1978 – a metallic sphere shaped object which was reflecting the setting sun. The object was moving in and out of cloud cover and heading on a straight course. Reg estimates it was at least 3000 feet high. It was hard to judge the distance from him and size of the object. He went to grab his binoculars to take a closer look at the object, but when he did so he could not seem to focus on it as it was constantly on the move. To the right of the window view is a tall tree. As the object passed behind this it suddenly slowed down and came to a halt (It was definitely far behind the tree not caught up in it). It then began slowly moving around in the same area of sky, back and forth. It did this for quite a while, and Reg returned to his computer. He occasionally glanced up to see if it was still present. After a while he checked and it had completely vanished from sight. He walked outside to take a better look but could no longer see the object.
The sky viewable from the window is used as a flight path, so Reg is used to seeing aircraft and helicopters of various types. The object he saw looked completely different, and he is certain it was not a helicopter caught in the evening light. It could not have been an aeroplane as these are not able to hover in the same area for a long while. Reg wonders if the object changed course and was actually heading away from his position, which would have given the impression that it was nearly stationary. This is a possibility but surely the object would have got noticeably smaller or vanished from view quicker? The movement pattern tends to suggest that it was not merely a balloon floating in the breeze, so the true identity of the object will remain a mystery.
1st January 2010 UFOs Sighting
On New Year 2010, Reg was again at his computer. Just after midnight he opened the curtains of the lounge window to watch the local fireworks going off. It was a clear night, with only partial cloud cover and the stars visible. He noticed a small orange/yellow orb of light floating in the sky in the distance. He estimated it was about 1-1.5 miles away from his position. It was travelling on a straight course to the South West, and appeared to be quite small in size. He continued to watch and then noticed more orbs travelling in the same direction as the first. He watched for about 15-20 minutes in total during which he saw at least 15 identical looking orbs. Most moved slowly across the sky until out of sight, but he spotted one which appeared to be nearly stationary. It remained like this for the duration of the sighting before fading away.
The appearance of these orbs, combined with the fact that Reg saw them directly after new year means they were more than likely Chinese lanterns being launched from a party. These are very popular around Christmas and New Year and have been widely available in the shops. Reg has seen lanterns before in Thailand, and although he accepts that this is probably what was seen in this case, he did mention that they appeared to move very smoothly and also did not flicker unlike those he saw abroad. This was probably due to the type of lanterns being launched or the weather conditions. The one orb which remained still while the others moved is puzzling, I can only assume that it was I have received many sightings of orange orbs over the last year, sometimes they are seen to flicker like flames, and other times not. I am pretty sure that lanterns were the explanation for this particular sighting, although Reg’s previous sightings cannot be so easily explained away.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2010
Comments