Starting around 9 pm on March 24, 2015, residents of the town of Cannock Chase in the UK took to social media to post UFO sightings and reports of loud noises. Local paranormal investigator and author, Lee Brickley, says hundreds of witnesses were involved.
Brickley was a witness himself, and he blogged about the event as it happened. He wrote: “Before anything could be seen with the naked eye, there was a deep and very loud drone noise not unlike that you would expect to hear from an old WW2 bomber. After around three minutes, the craft came into sight. It seemed to be incredibly large and astonishingly low in the sky with three red lights that were easily noticeable. The UFO traveled very slowly, and so many people thought it was about to crash to earth. Thankfully, it disappeared out of view without anything too catastrophic happening. The sound from the engine (or whatever it was) lasted for around another five minutes.”
Brickley went online to find that many other local residents also heard and saw the UFO, and many seemed shaken up by the event.
One witness wrote: “I heard it and thought that’s low..thought it might have been a plane coming down ….it looked like one big thing with 3 lights,,scared the ……outta me.”
Another posted: “My house was rumbling….and i’m still shaking..it was slow and it was bloody huge.”
Another witness wrote: “It wasn’t a fighter jet. Way to big. Three red lights one at rear one on each wing. Usually commercial planes have flashing lights but this just had three solid red lights. Could have been a large military plane especially with such an unusual flight path.”
Birmingham Mail, a local newspaper, also wrote about the sightings. They interviewed Sunday Mercury journalist Hannah Hiles, who also heard the loud noise.
“It was ever so loud and it went on for quite a while,” she said. “It was much more prolonged than a military jet. It was very curious.”
Brickley checked with Birmingham Airport to find out if it was an aircraft in trouble, but they said they had no such reports.
In his original blog on the sighting, Brickley noted that there was a U.S. aircraft carrier off the coast of Portsmouth, which is about 175 miles south of Cannock Chase. He speculated that perhaps they were testing a new secret space plane.
Birmingham Mail contacted the British UFO Research Association to find out if they had ideas as to what the people of Cannock Chase might have witnessed. A spokeswoman told them, “I’m sure it is something that can be explained. Whether it will be explained is another matter.”
They speculated that the witnesses might have seen a drone, or an experimental aircraft.
However, checking up on some of the original witness reports online there are an abundance of witnesses who are certain that what was seen were three fighter jets. Several Connock Chase residents said they see them often.
I followed up with Brickley to ask him about this latest theory. He agreed that it was likely jet fighters, and thinks they may have been escorting an experimental drone being tested by Facebook.
Header image: Sunset over Cannock Chase by Jonathan Stonehouse.
This is strange. Multiple witnesses; no video or photos; no description of the shape of the vehicle. Brickley speculates that the US Navy is testing a new aeroplane. This is patently a nonsense statement. He is trying to debunk the incident, even though he witnessed the whole event himself.
BUFORA said it was something that could be explained. Really?! I hope some realistic investigation takes place.
I’m going to a lecture on Saturday by Richard Hall, of richplanet.net and will discuss the matter with him.
Astonishing….”hundreds witness” yet not a single cell phone photo, recording, image or attempt. In a crowd of 500 random people I doubt you could find 25 that didn’t have a cell phone in their hand with their faces glued to the screen. The really astonishing aspect of this story is that this phenomena got those cell phones out of the hands of all these people.
I think that it is probably the test module for the mobile drone platform. It is partially an air ship capble of landing and remaining operational in the air. Not sure why they would test it in the UK perhaps to draw Russians there for Intel gathering
This well could be something as I went to speak to a farmer the following morning near Lichfield. He found 3 mutilated female sheep in the field, with typical laser burns and their tongues and rectums had been removed. I think this was definately aliens.
“Astonishing….”hundreds witness” yet not a single cell phone photo, recording, image or attempt.”
Also astonishing is the fact that there was something… I saw it myself and posted a few lines on Facebook minutes later (other people posted what they saw too… all saying similar things). Three large bright orange/red lights (no other lights) and a very loud noise. I was actually on the car park outside my flat and without looking I presumed the noise was from a large military or commercial aircraft… it was only when I bothered to look up that I saw it wasn’t. No photo or recording? No, I stood in awe for about 30 seconds, by the time I even thought about getting my phone the thing was probably too far away for a picture to mean anything.
So… I saw it, posted on Facebook, a journalist saw it, many many others saw it too… and posted on FB. Now, we all know each other right? We’re all just making up the same story?. Hmm, personally I could never give a crap about UFOs and always believed people were mistaken or crazy – but I saw what I saw 🙂