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My UFO Sighting (IHTM; Njm)

N

Njm

Fresh Blood
Joined
Jan 4, 2019
Messages
12
Hello Everyone, firstly i'd like to introduce myself as this is my first post on ft although i have been lurking for a while i finally thought i would like to sign up so as to share a recent experience with you and join in the forum debates etc.
My Name is Neil, i am 38 married, have 2 young children(daughter 7 and son 5) and i live in birmingham (for my sins). I am a self employed multi skilled builer(carpentry/joinery/plastering/drylining/ceiling fixing/partitioning) and i work on commerciall properties carrying out refurbishments and new build fit outs. While working on a job in warwick recently me and a colleague spotted something flying outside that we watched for a few seconds(maybe 20?) As it traversed the sky at low altitude, it went out of view from the room we were in. I decided to re-position myself so i could get it on film and the video i will now post is the result.
Please bear in mind that i have the original footage but it is a large file(90.12mb), but i will link you to a report i made here : http://www.beamsinvestigations.org/13280112018BarrelShapedUFOOverWarwick.html ... although it seems to have lost some quality having been compressed i think and also i asked the site admin to remove the audio as it has my voice on it which i wasnt happy about ( awfull brummy accent).
I await your comments!
Thanks-Neil.
 
Hi Neil. Welcome abored.
Thanks for posting the link. Looks quite balloonlike to me. Can you recall the wind speed and direction?
 
Welcome to the board. Nice to see a lurker getting stuck in.
My first thought is a home made hot air balloon made from a wheelie bin liner.
As you’ve probably gathered, we do the obvious first.
 
Hi, thanks skinny.
I cant remember the direction but i would say the speed was probably just a light breeze maybe 5- 10mph? I will try now and see if i can get a retrospective weather report from that day.
My gut instict still remains though that for it to be something "blowing in the wind" e.g a balloon, it would have noticeably deviated more in either forward speed(sped up and slowed down) in height and of orientation, of which i feel is very fixed as i statein my report -it seems to stay seemingly perfectly upright.
 
Ok ive done some digging regarding the weather and here is the data ive found:
Screenshot_20190104-233854_Chrome.jpg
Screenshot_20190104-234754_Chrome.jpg
 
Excellent video, Neil; thanks for posting it.

My thought is that someone has been watching YouTube videos:


... or that a bin liner just cut loose on its own:


OK, number 2 doesn't actually fly, but you get the picture.

maximus otter
 
I dont want to sound like i think it is an alien spaceship or anything as i am skeptical and cynical about most mundane things nevermind fortean and paranormal things but i dont see how it could be a bag, as you can see in the video's you posted they are too random in shape and behaviour and barelly able to get off the ground. It would have to be a sonething rigid and probably counterbalance/weighted at the bottom to be able to stay perpendicular to the ground over such a large distance, even then i think we would see some deviation (like a small plane coming into land being affecred by the wind , even on a calm day).
 
One interesting 'sighting' I had was a 'chinese lantern' which had gone out, and was slowly falling to earth. That looked very similar to your video.
 
eburacum said:
One interesting 'sighting' I had was a 'chinese lantern' which had gone out, and was slowly falling to earth. That looked very similar to your video.
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Ive seen lots of things in the sky that look strange including 3 more what i deem to be unexplainable objects in the sky ufo's/uav's whatever you want to call them,and most of them turn out to be a balloon/satellite flare/ helicopter/ plane coming head on so looks like its hovering) but this was no lantern. The thing went from one horizon to the point at which it dissappeared behind the treeline. Bear in mind behind those trees there is water treatment plant , the river avon, then the m40 ,plus it had already flown over the a46 dual carriageway, a residential and a commercial business area. Bear in mind i watched the object fly level for about 20-30 seconds before i started filming.
 
There are such things as full-sized (people-carrying ... ) hot air balloons in the shape of an upright cylinder, but I don't think this is one of them.

For one thing, there's no visible gondola. This could be due to its having been farther away than you thought and / or the fuzziness of the captured image.

Second, you would probably have seen one or more flares from the gas / flame jets during the time you were watching it. This, I believe, is the main reason to rule out a large hot air balloon.

Still, IMHO it was most likely a balloon / chinese lantern sort of object.

Its relatively steady upright orientation would be explained by the weight of a heat source mounted in its lowermost area.

The notably rigid shape could be obtained by inserting a lightweight cylindrical framework within the envelope - e.g., a collapsible mesh laundry hamper inside a large trash bag.
 
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Here's someone flying a chinese lantern in daylight; note that you can't really see the flame in the long-shots.
 
I think thats a very plausable explanation(rigid framework with lightweight covering). My other outlandish theory is that it was some kind of top secret military drone black project, which is a theory i have for another sighting i, my wife and neighbour had about 10 years ago in birmingham. Im not sure wether to talk about that here and also 2 other sightings of what i will call an "anomaly" which both were almost exactly the same looking 'thing' in similar scenarios(forgive my rambling-im trying to talk about it withought going in to too much detail on this thread). Should i start a new thread for those sightings? One i made a report on uk-ufo.co.uk , the other 2 were not reported.
 
Njm said:
I think thats a very plausable explanation(rigid framework with lightweight covering). My other outlandish theory is that it was some kind of top secret military drone black project, which is a theory i have for another sighting i, my wife and neighbour had about 10 years ago in birmingham. Im not sure wether to talk about that here and also 2 other sightings of what i will call an "anomaly" which both were almost exactly the same looking 'thing' in similar scenarios(forgive my rambling-im trying to talk about it withought going in to too much detail on this thread). Should i start a new thread for those sightings? One i made a report on uk-ufo.co.uk , the other 2 were not reported.
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Not very top secret if you are flying it over Warwick!

Good video, the weight appears to be at its bottom as Enola says. Also as a cyclist that windspeed would be enough to slow you down if riding into it as it bordering on moderate wind (BS). So would easily keep something like a box kite in the air.

Just a few ideas:


Not sure a solar balloon would have had sufficient heat to make it fly on Nov 1st 2018 in the Midlands as top temp was around 9c.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Balloon-1/


Something similar was spotted in Somerset 2009 https://alien-ufo-research.com/researchdiscussion/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9

Neil - make sure you use this chart the next time you see anything weird in the sky. :D

usaf_aircraft_id_chart_3906.jpg
 
Naughty_ Felid , thanks for your post, i think the first video you embedded bears a good resemblance to what i saw, although theres was some more erratic movement towards the end of the video. A few points ive thought about and dissected the sighting of 'whatever it is' are 1. The size seems to be 2x1 i.e-it seems twice as high as it is wide (roughly) ,2. it is travelling roughly in wind direction, 3. it could be travelling at roughly wind speed, so point 2 and 3 considered would point in the direction of something man made/floating.
I just want to say that my initiall hope by posting the sighting on beams was that somebody else had also spotted the same object and had close up pics to identify it etc, makes you want to carry some high powered bins with you at all time(i have some 15 ×75's for stargazing) and would definately have been able to see it close up with those ☹
 
Njm said:
Naughty_ Felid , thanks for your post, i think the first video you embedded bears a good resemblance to what i saw, although theres was some more erratic movement towards the end of the video. A few points ive thought about and dissected the sighting of 'whatever it is' are 1. The size seems to be 2x1 i.e-it seems twice as high as it is wide (roughly) ,2. it is travelling roughly in wind direction, 3. it could be travelling at roughly wind speed, so point 2 and 3 considered would point in the direction of something man made/floating.
I just want to say that my initiall hope by posting the sighting on beams was that somebody else had also spotted the same object and had close up pics to identify it etc, makes you want to carry some high powered bins with you at all time(i have some 15 ×75's for stargazing) and would definately have been able to see it close up with those ☹
Click to expand...

That makes perfect sense and well done for actually getting your shit together by posting a detailed account, particularly with the phone footage. If more people did this we'd understand the Fortean world a hell of a lot more.
 
Naughty_Felid said:
That makes perfect sense and well done for actually getting your shit together by posting a detailed account, particularly with the phone footage. If more people did this we'd understand the Fortean world a hell of a lot more.
Click to expand...
^this^, nice work @Njm
 
eburacum said:
One interesting 'sighting' I had was a 'chinese lantern' which had gone out, and was slowly falling to earth. That looked very similar to your video.
Click to expand...

Lovely to see Chinese Lanterns still making an appearance. It could also be a weather balloon.
 
Fahrenheit 451 said:
Lovely to see Chinese Lanterns still making an appearance. It could also be a weather balloon.
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You're a lot more likely to see a Chinese lantern in the sky than a representative of the Thargon fleet. I've seen both, but lanterns more often.
 
eburacum said:
One interesting 'sighting' I had was a 'chinese lantern' which had gone out, and was slowly falling to earth. That looked very similar to your video.
Click to expand...

I was on the bus once sat reading Keel's The Eighth Tower, when the elderly lady sat next to me asked what I was reading. After I explained what the book was about and some small talk regarding UFOs, she went on to tell me how many years earlier she and her son had set off a chinese lantern from their garden one night. A few days later there were reports in the local paper of a UFO being sighted in the area on the same night she had set off the lantern. She thought it was very amusing and made a point of not telling anyone at the time to set the story straight!
 
I heard a moron caller phone in to a radio show one night to say he had seen lights drifting across the sky that were obviously spacecraft. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he'd never heard of Chinese lanterns.
 
GNC said:
I heard a moron caller phone in to a radio show one night to say he had seen lights drifting across the sky that were obviously spacecraft. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he'd never heard of Chinese lanterns.
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It's very difficult to deal with armchair ignorance - which is why I don't bother discussing my own sightings. Having had sightings though, I take the more generous view that others that say they have, have also seen something very unusual. I see no reason why these people might not be every bit as intelligent as you or me.

The fact that the caller (who actually saw something) didn't think they were Chinese lanterns (as you seem to) doesn't make him a moron.
 
Fahrenheit 451 said:
The fact that the caller (who actually saw something) didn't think they were Chinese lanterns (as you seem to) doesn't make him a moron.
Click to expand...

this


AlchoPwn said:
the item appears to flatten out around 15-17 seconds, like it is less barrel shaped and more like a door or wing.
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also this. The way it turns and flattens....

Great account @Njm! and welcome :)
 
Fahrenheit 451 said:
It's very difficult to deal with armchair ignorance - which is why I don't bother discussing my own sightings. Having had sightings though, I take the more generous view that others that say they have, have also seen something very unusual. I see no reason why these people might not be every bit as intelligent as you or me.

The fact that the caller (who actually saw something) didn't think they were Chinese lanterns (as you seem to) doesn't make him a moron.
Click to expand...

It wasn't that he didn't think they were Chinese lanterns, he didn't appear to be aware of such things. Later callers pointed out they had seen them too, and they were obviously Chinese lanterns. It's not that difficult to tell, unless you are shortsighted.
 
So they were one of his unknown unknowns?
 
Frideswide said:
So they were one of his unknown unknowns?
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This was the year everyone and their granny was setting off the lanterns at parties and weddings, and they kept getting reported as UFOs - I think the FT covered it in a bit. They seem to have dwindled in popularity in recent times, I hope because people realised they were bad for the environment (mind you, that hasn't harmed the popularity of balloons).

Anyway, the caller reminded me of the time someone phoned into a radio station to say there was a ghost in Three Men and a Baby. That didn't go well either.
 
GNC said:
Anyway, the caller reminded me of the time someone phoned into a radio station to say there was a ghost in Three Men and a Baby. That didn't go well either.
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one of the classics! (the not-ghost rather than the film)
 
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