Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Year: 2011
Last Updated: 11/09/2024
On 30th May Andrew Hipwell got in touch with me via Richard Hall’s website. He described a very interesting UFO sighting which he had experienced back in February 2001. As I was actually familiar with the area of the sighting, and Andrew still lives in the area, I decided to arrange to meet up with him on 6th June 2011 to go over the sighting in more depth and visit the location where it took place.
Sighting Details
Back in 2001, Andrew was a student at Birmingham University. Most of the time he would not have lectures till the afternoon, so got into the habit of staying up very late. One night in mid to late February 2001 he decided to go out for a night-time jog around the local area. It was around 3am and he was just jogging past Blossomfield Tennis Club on Widney Lane. The weather was clear but it was quite cold.
For some reason he looked up above the trees to his left which ran alongside the grounds of the club. It was now that he noticed a strange aerial object. There was something hovering a short distance above one of the trees, about 30 feet off the ground.
The object was about 20 feet in diameter and the base of it was elliptical in shape. It was obsidian black in colour, and there were four metallic silver strips which led from the sides of the object into the centre of its underside. It was partially lit by a nearby street light.
It was moving extremely slowly in the direction of the street light, and was also making a faint but constant hissing sound that was barely audible. Andrew could barely believe what he was seeing. However he was not frightened of the object, he was more curious. He went and stood directly underneath it and looked up at its underside. He felt sure that it was not a balloon or conventional object of any kind. The movements it was making seemed deliberate and controlled. As far as he is aware the object did not interact with him in any way.
After staring up at the UFO for about 10 seconds he then continued his jog. He is not sure why he did this, rather than remain in the area and see what happened next. About 10 seconds later he glanced back down the road and realised the object had completely vanished.
Over the years Andrew has told numerous people what he saw that night, to mixed reaction. He feels that what he saw that night was extraterrestrial in origin, and was a craft of some kind. Of course he has no direct proof of this but it seems unlikely to him that the object was military owned given the circumstances under which it was seen. The incident left a lasting impression on him and changed his views on the UFO subject forever.
Sighting Analysis
This is an interesting sighting of a very unusual object. The object clearly was not a conventional aircraft. Could it have been an unusual helium-filled inflatable of some kind? Could the hissing sound heard have been gas slowly escaping from the object, propelling it along? If the object was mundane then this would be the most probable explanation.
However there are numerous aspects which do not fit in with this. The object seems too large to have been a drifting inflatable. If it was an inflatable then it would not have suddenly vanished a mere 10 seconds after the witness had stopped looking at it, it would have still been visible in the air. Also we must consider the location and time of the sighting. It seems quite unlikely that there would have been an inflatable of this odd shape and size drifting in the early hours of the morning over Solihull.
If it was an advanced craft of some kind, then I too feel it is more likely to have been alien in origin than military for the same reasons as the witness. There would be no purpose whatsoever for the military to fly a secretly built craft over such a highly populated area at low altitude, even in the middle of the night.
If it was a genuine craft then this may explain why the witness only stared at it a short while before continuing on his way – often when people encounter craft or beings they act differently to how they would normally do in such a situation, and become overly complacent towards what is happening. This has been seen time and time again with cases.
Also this could explain why the object mysteriously vanished within 10 seconds. Perhaps it flew away extremely fast, or even made itself invisible. Whatever it was that was seen that night, it was certainly out of the ordinary.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2024
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