Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Originally forwarded by Richard Hall
Release Date: 25/07/2011
Last Updated: 05/11/2024
This report covers a fascinating UFO sighting witnessed by Les Bond, his brother and a friend back in 1960. Les has also had a later sighting in 1968. The link for this second incident can be found towards the end of this report.
Sighting Details
Les has an interest in astronomy and often like to look at the stars through his telescope. Back in 1960 he owned a 3 inch refracting telescope with high quality lenses, and a 6 foot focal length on the object lens.
In the early hours of Monday 8th August 1960, Les, his older brother and a friend (both now deceased) were standing on the roof of the outhouse of his property on Ascot Way, Accrington, Lancashire. This location was perfect for looking up at the stars. It was a very clear still night. They were up there a short while when suddenly a policeman approached below them and asked what they were doing. Someone had clearly seen them up on the roof and assumed they were up to no good. They soon explained themselves, then began star gazing once more.
Suddenly Les noticed through the telescope a glowing white object rapidly moving in from the West. It was blurred, almost like it was surrounded in a white mist or fog. He could not seem to focus directly on the object. He estimates it was over 40000 feet in altitude.
As the object was roughly overhead it rapidly decelerated until it was stationary. It then began moving in a figure of 8 pattern for about a minute. After this it stopped and then started pulsating in brightness for another minute. Once this was over, it then rapidly moved off to the East at around 300 mph. Its acceleration was so fast that the direction it had moved in was almost too hard to determine.
About 5-10 miles away from their location, the object suddenly stopped again and once more began the figure of 8 movement followed by the light pulsing, again for the same amount of time. After this it seemed to disappear, but had probably just moved further East out of sight.
Throughout the sighting Les gave his brother and friend a look through the telescope so they too could see what was going on.
Sighting Analysis
The manoeuvres performed by the object clearly designate that it was under some form of intelligent control. It performed the same pattern numerous times, something which a randomly drifting object would not do. Also the speed of movement and near instant acceleration/ deceleration again mean it cannot have been anything mundane such as a cloud or inflatable drifting at high altitude.
I did wonder if the "object" was in fact a searchlight bouncing off the cloud layer being used at a nearby event. This could explain the regular pattern, and perhaps why the object appeared to be blurry rather than having defined edges. However the distance that it moved across the sky seems quite large. Also while the figure of eight manoeuvres could be explained by this, the pulsing in brightness seems very unlikely, there would really be no reason for the searchlight to change in this manner.
Perhaps this was a genuine craft and the blurred effect around it was caused by an energy field of some kind. It is unlikely that it was actual mist forming around the object as when it moved this mist would have been left behind and it would have taken time for it to reform. But this mist-like effect was around the object for the entire sighting.
There would be no reason for a conventional aircraft to perform such manoeuvres, nor would it be possible for it to perform the acceleration and deceleration observed. Therefore I feel that it is likely this was a genuine sighting of an advanced craft. Quite why it was performing these manoeuvres is of course a mystery.
If it had just moved in this manner and pulsated directly overhead of the witnesses then it would suggest direct interaction. However it did not do this – it moved and then performed the same pattern elsewhere. This tends to suggest that it was doing some kind of regular process, perhaps scanning the area, and just happened to stop overhead of the witnesses. Whatever the reason behind the manoeuvres observed, this was a very impressive multiple witness sighting.
This is not the only UFO sighting Les has experienced. In 1968 he would have another sighting of multiple objects. Click here to go to the seperate case report on this incident.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2024
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