Author: Dave Hodrien

Release Date: 07/02/2017

Sighting Details

At 12.35am early on the morning of 2^nd January 2017, Nigel was outside his house on Cole Valley Road, Yardley Wood, Birmingham. It was a clear, still and dry night, with the stars and moon fully visible.

Aerial map of Cole Valley Road:

Looking to the South he noticed an object moving quickly in his direction. It appeared to be very large and tubular/cylindrical in shape. The main body of the object was quite hard to see due to the darkness. Along one side of it appeared to be between 6-8 square shaped panels or windows, which emitted a dull orange/reddish coloured glow. The panels were equally spaced out along the length of the object. It appeared to be flying at a height of 300-400 feet, about the same height a helicopter would fly at. Nigel estimates it was about the same size as a cruise liner aircraft.

The UFO moved extremely fast on a straight and level course. Within seconds it had reached his location. It passed over the roof of his house, then turned to the left and headed off in the direction of Kings Norton to the West. It vanished into the distance within 10-15 seconds. Nigel was convinced he had witnessed something extremely unusual.

Sighting Analysis

When the witness first contacted me about the sighting via E-Mail, my initial thought was that it may have been a launch of multiple Chinese lanterns which were drifting on an air current in a straight line, giving the impression of a single larger object with glowing “windows”. However when I suggested this to Nigel he was adamant that it definitely wasn’t these. He has seen lanterns before and knows exactly what they look like. He says the panels/windows were exact squares and precisely level with one another. He was also able to see the main body of the object around them, it was clearly a single object rather than multiple. It was also travelling much too fast to be lanterns drifting across the sky.

If it was not lanterns then what else could it have been? It was definitely not a normal aircraft as no wings, tail or navigation lights were visible. Solar airships are cylindrical in shape and usually black or dark coloured. However these only ascend during sunny daylight and the sighting took place in the middle of the night. Also they do not have glowing panels along them. The size and speed of the object also make it unlikely that it was a radio controlled model of some kind or a novelty LED balloon.

With none of these possibilities sufficiently able to explain the sighting, we are left with the very real possibility that this was a genuine sighting of an advanced craft, one that appeared to be under intelligent control.

The witness was quite surprised that nobody else had reported seeing it. If any further information does come to light, this report will be updated.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2017