I’d like to relate a sighting I had in 1989. I was mocked quite badly at the time by friends and workmates and I reported the sighting to another UFO investigation group but never had a reply.
WESTBOUND BETWEEN J2 AND J3 COSFORD 1989
This was pre-internet days. I’m a private pilot, I’ve held a full licence for eight years and currently fly out of Tatenhill. I’ve always been aviation mad, even as a child and always found pride in being able to discern aircraft types at long range before my family did. I’ve always been an airshow attendee and used to seeing rare aircraft types displayed in unusual flight altitudes. I live near Junction 10 M6 under the base leg of Birmingham International South facing runway so I am used to seeing all types of heavy commercial traffic. I mention this only to tell you that I’ve always been used to looking at the skies for the first sign of aerial activity and figuring out what type of aircraft I’m looking at.
My ‘UFO’ sighting happened in November 1989. I was 20 years old and had a Yamaha FJ1100 motorcycle. Previous to this I’d had a 350 YPVS and so was quite comfortable and used to travelling at well over 100 MPH and having the spatial awareness of what was going on around me. I was young and young men adore speed and danger ( or should do! ). Going illegally fast on public roads had become second nature. It’s not socially acceptable to do this now but it was 25 years ago.
Anyway, I used to use the M54 as a test track to see how much speed I could wring out of my bikes. Just for the natural rush as I’ve never been a boozer or into drugs but I do like velocity and risk. I always did this at night when the traffic was quiet. There wasn’t anywhere near as much traffic on the roads then in any case. I’d been seeing how fast I could the FJ1100 up to sitting upright and prone ( Prone is a position where lying flat against the bike can reduce aerodynamic drag which in turn increases the efficiency of the bike ). 20 year old kids play X-Box nowadays!
I’d been up and down the motorway a couple of times already between J2 and J4. The incident happened when I was westbound J2 and J3 ( Cosford ). I was sitting upright and the bike was flat out at an indicated 142 MPH ( The number has always stuck with me ). The weather was clear, no wind or else I wouldn’t have been doing the runs. The motorway was clear of cars, can’t be sure of exact time now but it was somewhere between 7pm and 8pm. My head is being buffeted around quite badly but my vision is good and I sense something above me and to my right in my peripheral vision, above the Central Reservation. Being clued up on aviation I assume it’s a Police Helicopter which I’d read that some forces were starting to use and immediately slow down to 70 MPH to get a good look.
The object slowed with me. It held station on me as my speed decreased. I looked up and managed to get a very good look for at least a minute. It was the same shape as a Toilet Seat but with ragged, serrated, zig-zag edges. See why the mickey was taken out of me? The two sides curved together to form a blunt nose and the rear was flat. A bit like a clothes iron but I still feel that Toilet Seat without the hole in the middle is the best possible description of the shape I can give. It was Black in colour and appeared Matt in texture in that there was no reflections on it. There were no navigation lights, beacons or strobes. I detected no wings, Pitot Tubes ( A Pitot Tube is a pressure measurement instrument used to measure fluid flow velocity ), rotors, propellers, Jet efflux or noise although that I have to say the wind noise generated by my crash helmet was high.
It had the same area as a medium sized semi-detached house. I couldn’t see any windows or canopies or markings. It was perhaps 60 or so feet up in the air. It was relatively flat in terms of height compared to length/width. It was darker than the surrounding night sky. I could smell no Jet A1 fuel which always impresses me with its warm, sweet pungent scent whenever I’m in proximity to an aircraft that burns this type of fuel. I could smell no 100LL which the aircraft I fly now burn. This too gives off a good pong at quite a distance but is sharper and sicklier. It was obvious to me that it wasn’t any type of Helicopter I’d seen myself or in my books. I speeded up and it kept station again. Then after a short while, perhaps 500 yards or so, it slowly moved in front of me then moved to the left ( south ) over my carriageway and slid off over the fields and out of sight to the south. I carried on, trying to get a further look but couldn’t. I was approaching J3 at this stage so sped up with the plan of exiting then rejoining the M54 in the reciprocal direction.
Just before J3 I saw a Ford Escort so I nipped in front of it to slow it down and started pointing to the sky where I’d seen the aircraft to see if they’d spotted it too. I had no response and in truth they were probably alarmed that a nutter on a big bike was gesticulating to them so I realised I was being ridiculous and got off at J3 then returned home via the M54 eastbound then M6 J10. Cosford was in the general but not exact area where I saw it last heading. Cosford is/was a Museum, general training and maintenance training camp and to my knowledge does not operate odd aircraft.
Never to this day have I seen anything like it even in books and aviation magazines. I know what I saw. What I did find interesting was its all Black colour which certain types of so called Stealth aircraft use for Radar absorption purposes. The serrated edge on the flanks of the aircraft I saw also reminded me of the zig-zag panel fit on American F117 and B2 which diffuses a radar signal aimed at it but at this point I believe those aircraft hadn’t left the Top secret list. That happened at the same time as the Gulf war a couple of years later. Anyway, what I saw wasn’t a F117 or a B2.
Thanks to the witness for sending this report who wishes to remain anonymous.
Visit Jodie’s website: UNITED KINGDOM UFO GROUP