There have been a number of UFO sightings in the UK recently, in fact Britain is probably one of the most active areas for seeing UFOs on the planet just lately.

Why is such a small country as Britain seeing so many UFOs? That is a good question, to which at present there is no answer.

Just a few weeks ago (on Christmas Eve) Andrew Freke, an amateur pilot for more than 15 years, spotted six pairs of mysterious bright orange lights flying above his Solihull home while he was smoking a cigarette at about 11pm.

At first he believed it was simply a plane from nearby Birmingham Airport but he quickly dismissed the idea because the lights were silently flying in a zig-zag pattern at about 150 miles-per-hour. Officials from nearby Birmingham Airport confirmed they had no aircraft matching the description in the area on Christmas Eve.

Many recent sightings of this nature have been put down to “Chinese Lanterns” and that might be a possible explanation. However, similar reports have been seen in many other countries.

A large percentage of the UFO sightings have taken place around the Birmingham and West Midlands area (quite a few have also been seen near Kidderminster).

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “The MOD examines reports solely to establish whether UK airspace may have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised military activity” adding “Unless there is evidence of a potential threat, there is no attempt to identify the nature of each sighting or report.”

Sadly, this is the fate of most reports and perhaps a good reason why the subject of UFOs is ridiculed so often, and dismissed as the figment of people’s imagination. If the authorities were to take some of these sightings a little more seriously and investigate them, maybe we could make a better judgement knowing the facts?

Other reported sightings around the Birmingham area over the years have included a “streak of light” passing about 100 feet over a person’s house, a “red and silvery figure-of-eight type object”, a “crescent formation of maybe thirty lights”, and a popular sighting of “three lights in triangle formation”

The following article is one that I personally submitted to UFO Casebook almost four and a half years ago:

This UFO sighting report was sent in by a Lady living in the Birmingham area (UK). Although this was not her first sighting, it is the first time she has reported one.

Whilst travelling from Warwick with her daughter and heading towards North Birmingham along the M6 (at approximately 10.45pm-11.00pm), something caught her eye in a nearby field.

She was driving along at about 55-60 mph, on the inside lane of the motorway, when she saw a bright white light.

The object came down from the sky "at a very fast rate of speed and seemed to curve upwards as it approached the ground"

She did not stop her car to investigate further (this is difficult on a motorway) and is uncertain where the object went, it just appeared to vanish.

Her 16 year old daughter also witnessed the strange object.

It is difficult to guess the size of the object, but it appeared approximately 20-30 meters away from their vehicle.

The sighting took place on Wednesday the 10th of August 2005 (between 10.45pm and 11.00pm). We would love to hear from anyone else who might have seen this unusual light at around this time and area. It would also be interesting to receive information on any other sightings that include an object like this.

For those living in the Birmingham (UK) and West Midlands area who wish to send in details of their own sightings (or other subjects), I would be happy to publish your reports on the Profindsearch Birmingham Guide. You can submit your articles HERE.

Here are some more reports:

UFO Sightings Reported over Birmingham South, UK

I witnessed a streak of light that passed directly over the roof of my house, 1 mile from the Licky hills in Birmingham South. The sighting occurred in the early hours of the morning , it appeared to be heading west. It was similar in general appearance to a star wars-type of laser beam with very defined edges to the light streak.

It was about 100 ft. at most above the house roof and was gone in about 1/-1/2 of a second. It disappeared over the tops of the houses at the bottom of my garden. This occurred during August, 2006. It was certainly not a meteorite, comet, low flying plane, nor helicopter. We are only a few miles from Birmingham airport on or near a flight path and familiar with the over flying aircraft, etc.

Also, on August 11, 2007, between 3-4: 00 PM, a red and silvery figure-of-eight type object flew quite rapidly towards us from direction of the airport. It stopped in the sky as observed from between the rooftops. At first we thought the object was a child's helium balloon, but it remained in the same spot for three or four minutes-time enough for me to get my binoculars and take a closer look.

It alternated from red to silver with a darker band through the middle [like two half circles joined in the middle]. The air was shimmering around the object and closer inspection was difficult. It completely disappeared into a cloudless sky.

Further sightings occurred on Janurary 27-28, 2008, witnessed by both myself and my wife.

1. 7.50 PM-a crescent formation of maybe thirty lights very high in the night sky heading south.

2. 8.05 PM-after flashing, a small lead torch, three lights in triangle formation over flew the house then began what I can only describe as 'dancing' around each other within the triangle shape. It was silent and low.

3. 11.38 PM-again after flashing torch, a string of about thirteen lights again over flew the house, this time in a Y-formation with the cup at the front end swooping low and veering slightly to the right. When I flashed my torch at them, all lights moving as one unit heading east. All sightings were silent against a starry sky. Light were bigger than surrounding stars but slightly dimmer.

More details sent from witness

I've attempted to do a few diagrams to illustrate the sightings that we have recently had. I'm obviously not seeking any attention here, but really believe that there are 'objects' out there doing 'something' wherever they originate from.

Whether they specifically responded directly to my signaling [with a small led type torch] or not is open to debate, but I feel that they were at least curious as to my motives for doing so.

There was no noise of any kind throughout any of the sightings and no time lost. The lights were not as bright as the surrounding star map though slightly bigger in appearance. The sky was scant/patchy clad cloud cover, ink black.

The crescent object was flying high and fast-about six seconds before lost to view. The Y-shape lasted about four/five seconds though it seemed much longer to me, and flight was tight and smooth, arcing a little in 'response?' to my signaling.

The triangle just seemed to appear from above, swooped in overhead and began to dance [as in each light revolving around each other in an apparently random fashion] before passing to my left, and sweeping up into the sky, again before rapidly being lost to view.

The summer day sighting traveled in from the direction of Birmingham airport [north to us] quite rapidly in three to four seconds, before stopping dead and hanging in the sky quite motionless. [I had time to send my wife: chauvinistic I know, for my binoculars and after trying to focus on the object, couldn't make out more than a shimmering figure of eight, silvery on top, reddish underneath view of it] for about five to six minutes.

It then sort of grew rapidly smaller and disappeared... into a cloudless sky. The overhead streak was caught as I paid a late night/early morning check on my young boys in their room during the school summer break around late August/early September.

I felt drawn to lift the net curtain and look up and out of the bedroom window. It shot very rapidly away as in the diagram and the whole sighting took maybe less than 1/2 second.

Best Regards,

Dan

December 21st 2008 : Bournville, Birmingham, West Midlands, England

(5 Witnesses)

On the night of the sighting whilst smoking outside in the garden we spotted two circular, bright orange lights in the night sky from the East, the orange lights moved to the front of the house moving West, we ran to the front of the house and watched it change into two oblong flying objects, flying parallel with each other, no sound came from these flying objects and they were travelling very slowly across the sky, the lights had changed now to white lights, they disappeared into the night sky. Five adults witnessed this sighting who would not have believed in UFOs until this evening, we reported the sightings to the local police and to the local newspaper but there was no response, hope we were not the only ones who spotted these UFOs that night.

Helicopter in dramatic near-miss with 'sinister' UFO 1,500ft above Birmingham

Last updated at 9:12 PM on 21st November 2008

It was a cloudless night and the police helicopter was carrying out surveillance over Birmingham when the attention suddenly switched from ground to sky.

Beside it was a small aircraft beaming out continuous blue-green lights.

It came within almost 300ft, forcing the pilot to swerve out of its path, and appeared to circle the helicopter in a cheeky gesture before flying off.

Initially the pilot and two police observers dismissed the near miss at 1,500ft as a close encounter with a model plane.

But despite searching the area with a thermal camera, the pilot was unable to find any signs of radio-controlled activity.

The British Model Flying Association also dismissed this possibility, saying the mystery object was flying too high to be a miniature craft, while gliders, kites, balloons and a laser light show were further excluded from the possibilities.

All of which leads UFO experts to believe that alien forces were at work.

Details of the incident, which happened at about 9.50pm on May 2, were revealed yesterday in a document compiled by experts from the Airprox Board, which records near misses and reports them to the military and air traffic control units.

The report describes the strange other aircraft only as 'small and probably non-metallic' and its intent as possibly ' sinister'.

It adds that the pilot informed radar operators but they saw nothing on their equipment.

He told the Airprox Board that he thought 'the intent may either have been sinister or just someone messing around'.

Yesterday a West Midlands Police spokesman attempted to play down the incident, saying: 'As far as the pilot and the crew were concerned, nothing was picked up on Birmingham Airport radar and the object was probably a radio-controlled model aircraft.

'The helicopter was conducting a search at the time and was flying slowly at low level.'

But Nick Pope, who worked for the Ministry of Defence's UFO desk and is nicknamed the British Fox Mulder after the science-fiction character in The X-Files, favours a less complacent approach.

'A helicopter was nearly blown out of the sky,' he said. 'This is a very disturbing incident which needs to be thoroughly investigated by the MoD and the Civil Aviation Authority as well as other near misses.

'The conclusion on the report is unsatisfactory especially when this aircraft came within seconds of a collision.

'It is a very interesting case especially when you look at the eyewitnesses. They are credible and reliable sources who have experience in night-time flying.

'This sighting clearly illustrates that whatever one believes about UFOs, this incident raises important air safety issues and should be taken seriously.'

Date: 15th November 2002
Time: 1:03am
Location: Coventry, West Midlands
Observation Point: Coventry
Type: LITS
Source: www.ufoinfo.com 

Eyewitness Report, "I was watching the stars at 1:03 AM on November 15, 2002, while walking home and saw something shoot across the sky, that I thought was a shooting star." Then I realized it was not a shooting star as the craft hovered for five seconds before shooting off, at a speed that I could hardly tell it had gone. The craft when it was stationary seemed to glow green in color, and left a green streak as it left from my vision. One of my friends who was with me claims to have seen the exact same thing.

Date: 5th January 2002

Time: 23:05pm

Location: Birmingham
Observation Point:

Type: LITS

Source: National UFO Reporting Center

Objects that appear as stars 'dancing' in the sky. I witnessed a white light which appeared at first to be a satellite moving overhead at great speed, in a southerly direction. However, after it reached an arc of approx 50 degrees from the horizon, the object rapidly slowed and then curved sharply to the east. The object then hovered in a random-dancing motion before halting to a stationary position. Then, to the north of this object, i notice two similar objects, parallel to each other, moving overhead-north at satellite speed. These two objects then simultaneously changed directions by an angle of approx 40 degrees in opposing directions, appearing to cross paths and flew off, one to the north-west & one to the north east. Another object then appeared close to the stationary object, traveling towards the east. This object looked identical to the first object and was again, moving in a 'random zigzagging' motion, as if dancing in the sky. The brightness of this object then became very intense for about 5 seconds. It then dimmed and 'shot-off' at 'satellite speed' towards the north east. 

Date: 24th September 2001

Time: 22:30pm

Location: Oldbury, West Midlands..
Observation Point: Chip Shop

Type: Triangle

Source: N/A

On 9/24/2001 22:30 black triangle in the sky with no sound . I was stood outside the chip shop in Oldbury, when we saw this black triangle ship in the sky, it was over the supermarket across the road. I watched it fly over towards the other side of the road, it was black or very dark in colour and had lights, three lights one in each point/corner. I didn't hear a noise, there wasn't much traffic but I could hear no noise from the sky. My girlfriend ((name deleted)) saw it too, we watched it and was thinking what is it? Is it a helicopter, like the police helicopter, but ti wasn't, was it a radio controlled toy or something? I don't think so, it looked too big.

Date: 10th August 2001

Time: 22:15pm

Location: Warley, West Midlands, England.
Observation Point:

Type: LITS

Source: National UFO Reporting Center

The same region as my last sighting Warley in the West Midlands, as an astronomer I have just had my telescope mirror re-silvered and was out on the clear night on the 10th Friday 2001, I was with my brother and girlfriend when my brother got our attention, he pointed to a set of lights that were traveling towards us, there were two lights, the top one was bright white whilst the lower one was dimmer and red, they were flying at the same speed across the night sky it was if they were joined together because there was no fluctuations in the movements as they got closer they seemed to speed up and they vanished. I've seen satellites that are similar but not in pairs and they don't speed up and not as bright. I hope someone else in the midlands is reading this so that they can clarify it... it happened at 22:15pm

Date: 18th July 1998
Time: Midnight
Location: Wellington Road, Bilston, West Midlands.
Observation Point: ?
Type: ?
Source: ?

On Saturday, July 18, 1998, at midnight, Stephen T. was on Wellington Road in Bilston, a suburb of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, UK, when he sighted a silver coloured triangular UFO.

"It appeared to be silver in colour and was traveling eastward," Stephen reported, "There were no apparent lights that I could see. The object appeared to be only 1,000 feet up. It was traveling fairly fast. The object had rounded aerodynamic corners. It was about 80 degrees above the horizon. It was a fairly clear night with little cloud in place. I had the object in view for about five to ten seconds, after which time it reached the horizon and disappeared into a cloud in the distance".

Date: 13th February 1998, Friday.
Time: 6:00pm
Location: Small Heath, Birmingham
Observation Point: ?
Type: ?
Source: ?

June was in her neighbours south facing kitchen in the Small Heath area of Birmingham. Small Heath is approximately 3 miles from Birmingham airport.

June stood in her next door neighbours kitchen with three other witnesses when they became aware of an extremely bright light that they could see due south through the kitchen window. It appeared to be hovering over Digby Park and remained there stationary for approximately 15 minutes. By naked eye the object appeared to be a diamond shape. When viewed through binoculars the object was too bright to define a shape. An aircraft was seen to travel towards it or at least in that direction. As it got closer the light from the object: "went out and it shot off but it shot off at such a speed and there was all sort or red lights on it" said June "actually the way it shot off I expected it to crash into the church at the top of the road and I ran actually from the back door to the front to see if I could still see it but it had gone." June told us that as the object moved off at speed a number of red lights could be seen which appeared to be moving around the object.

UK.UFO.NW are continuing with enquiries. One point worth mentioning is that June who lives quite close to Birmingham International Airport is very used to seeing aircraft flying near to her house. She is also used to seeing the West Midlands Police helicopter with its powerful search light. Her 'UFO' was not like any of these.

Date: 9th January 1998, Friday
Time: 6:20am
Location: Dunlop Plant, Erdington, Birmingham
Observation Point: ?
Type: ?
Source: ?

Rubber worker Stephen was driving to work at Dunlop in the Erdington area of Birmingham. He had with him two friends James and Derek. The Dunlop plant is located in the central Birmingham conurbation, in an industrial area. Dunlop's is famous for it's tyremaking although the plant is now closed and "Fort Dunlop" as it is known has been re-developed. It is also on a major flight path to Birmingham airport situated 5.25 miles away.

Although it was dark, the weather was clear and the moon and stars were visible. As the men approached Dunlop they saw a man staring into the night sky. They then saw a stationary single flashing red light with what appeared to be the outline of an unusually shaped aircraft. They were late for work and could not stop to converse with the other witness who has still not been identified.

Date: August 1995
Time: 01:00
Location: Aldridge.
Observation Point: Walsall, West Midlands.
Type: Landed UFO.
Source: Nick Redfern - A Covert Agenda.

A cylindrical UFO was observed above Aldridge, near Walsall by three on duty uniformed officers. They reported that the object appeared to have landed and the forces helicopter was dispatched to investigate. No trace of the object was found.