UFO SIGHTING REPORT

CODSALL
STAFFORDSHIRE
ENGLAND

June 12th 2001

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Name on file

Codsall, Staffordshire, England ­ 12 June 2001

DAYLIGHT OBSERVATION REPORT OF LOW-LEVEL SMALL BLACK TRIANGLE UFO

A black triangular aerial object was observed on 12 June 2001, near our house in Codsall, Staffordshire, England. The object was seen first by my wife as she looked through our rear patio door while she was ironing in the living room at about 1300hrs BST. She called me from upstairs to see it. When I got downstairs it had disappeared out of sight obscured by our large oak tree. Within a few minutes or less it had reappeared and we were both able to watch it, initially with the naked eye and then I alone was able to see it using 10 x 50 binoculars. It was a fine summer day, with very little cloud and at no time was my vision of the object obscured by anything other than the oak tree in our garden. Once it was in view, it stayed in view until it was too far away to be seen even using 10 x 50 binoculars.

The object, when first seen by my wife, was at about 40o to 50o elevation roughly NNE of Codsall, a dormitory village next to Wolverhampton and on the edge of the West Midlands conurbation. The object had seemed to appear suddenly in the sky above the roofs of houses fronting a main road some 200 yards away and then disappeared from sight, obscured by the large oak tree in our garden. Within a minute or so we were both able to see it, this time at an elevation of about 70o as it climbed above the oak tree, now slightly west of NNE. I estimate that it was between 200 to 300 yards away when first seen, with the object itself measuring between ten and fifteen feet wide. It was black in colour and showed no lights

The object also appeared to be “tumbling” or “rocking”. More precisely, it was rotating through as much as 70o about its longitudinal axis (if it was a conventional aircraft, its wings would tip up 35o on one side then up 35o on the other side in a rapid and rhythmic regular way. It was not, however, pitching and tossing (going up and down at the nose end). The object was also moving in a steady upward spiral, pretty much as though it was a bird in a thermal. However, the object was rigid, triangular with rounded points, very thin in sideways view and dull black. Through 10 x 50 binoculars, one edge seemed to have a yellow flare. The flare was unlikely to be chromatic aberration (flare is not observed when using these binoculars to look at other “normal” objects such as high-flying aircraft, micro-lites or hot-air balloons) but neither did it look as though it was a definite part of the object's colouring. It did not seem to be an emanation associated with propulsive energy. It looked like a diffused or out of focus yellow stripe along one edge of the triangle. Apart from the yellow “flare”, there were no distinguishing features.

The object continued to spiral and climb in height until it could no longer be seen with the naked eye. After reaching a certain height, the object began to move horizontally, no longer spiralling, and was tracked traversing the sky to the north east until it could not be seen any longer. At no time did its speed appear to increase.

We made no note of wind direction at the time. The object always presented the same size and form, just different aspects depending on its position relative to the viewpoint. It continuously seemed to move with a circular motion, about a relatively tight, small radius, and kept presenting a different angle of view so that the impression gained was that it was "tumbling". This may have been an optical illusion due to the differences in aspect ratio as it moved.

It was definitely a man-made aerofoil of some kind. I think that what we saw was an unmanned remote-controlled reconnaissance craft that had temporarily lost the ability to control its performance. It was unstable and out-of-control to some extent. However, it sought a safe altitude, and once out of visual range it was able to fly slowly in a straight line. The yellow line on its rear edge suggests that it could be man-made and possibly a prototype that was testing new flight technology”.

A later search for "black triangle ufos" on the web revealed nothing from a UK search, and two interesting bits of information from a world-wide search. The first claimed that such sitings were increasingly common over the United Kingdom, even over built-up areas, and that the UK Government had issued a D-notice to editors "encouraging" them not to publicise reports. The secod suggested that the USA had been experimenting with neutral buoyancy gas-filled aerial craft for reconnaissance missions. This second explanation put together with what is now known about American "stealth" technology lends credence to a view that this was a stealth aerial device.

The object was seen some time between 13.00 and 14.00 hrs approx. BST. We didn't notice the exact time or make a note of it but remember that we had a late lunch afterwards.

The news desk at the Wolverhampton Express & Star was telephoned shortly after the sighting, to see if anyone else had seen it but they had had no reports and were not interested in taking any details. Which fits in with the D-notice claims. Having said that, the same local newspaper has printed reports of black triangle UFOs from time to time, including one from some years ago, of a man who reported seeing one stationary over the Sandwell Valley Country Park in West Bromwich, West Midlands, right in the centre of of Britain's second largest conurbation and industrial heartland. Just as in the case described above, no-one else apparently reported a similar sighting, despite the fact that the UFO was unmistakable and at very low altitude.

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