Hundreds of residents of Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, U.K., witnessed a UFO flying very low, slowly and loudly in the sky over homes in the area on March 24, 2015.
The incident, which took place around 9 p.m. local time, caused a great stir even in an area that has become notorious over the years as a UFO hotspot.
According to local witnesses, minutes before the object became visible in the air, a very loud droning noise could be heard. And soon, a massive aircraft appeared, moving slowly over homes with three red lights.
It was flying so low that many feared it was going to crash and cause a major catastrophe. At first, many thought it was an aircraft in distress.
According to the Birmingham Mail , immediately after the incident, hundreds of residents took to social media to report their experiences.
“My house was rumbling, and I’m still shaking. It was slow and it was huge.”
“Way too slow for fighter jets. It flew directly over our house, made a sharp left turn and carried on.”
“It was stupidly loud. My heart is still pounding.”
“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.”
“I heard it; very low and loud- sounding and seemed to last for about 3 mins. The dog went mad.”
“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. It could have been a large military plane especially with such an unusual flight path. [sic]”
A paranormal investigator, Lee Brickley, described his experience on the Paranormal Cannock Chase Blog as the UFO flew over the area. He described the noise as similar to the engine of an old World War Two bomber.
“Before anything could be seen with the naked eye, there was a deep and very loud droning. After around three minutes, the craft came into sight. It seemed incredibly large and astonishingly low in the sky with three red lights that were easily noticeable. The UFO travelled very slowly and many people thought it was about to crash.”
Another journalist, Hannah Hiles, agreed with Brickley that the “thunderous noise” continued for several minutes after the craft had disappeared. She said the noise was much more prolonged that the noise of military jets.
Although some locals thought it was likely an alien UFO flying over the area, many thought it was more likely a prototype of a secret military aircraft under development. Others thought it was possibly a military aircraft from the U.S. aircraft carrier that recently arrived off the coast of Portsmouth.
Brickley ruled out the earlier explanation that it was an aircraft from a nearby airport in distress.
“I’ve checked online with flight tracking services, and have concluded it would be impossible for this to have been a plane in trouble. There simply weren’t any flights in the area at that specific time. I also contacted Birmingham Airport to make sure, and they confirmed none of the flights leaving or arriving at the airport experienced issues that would have led them to fly so low.”
A spokesperson for the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA) said it was likely a drone, pointing to the fact that several recent UFO alerts turned out to be drones.
The spokesperson, who thought it could also be a secret military aircraft undergoing testing, said, “I’m sure it is something that can be explained. Whether it will be explained is another matter. There are so many drones around.”
Both Brickley and the BUFORA spokesperson agreed that it would be difficult to rule out the possibility that it was a secret military aircraft undergoing testing because that the military authorities tend to be very reticent about issues involving their secret projects.
[Images: Wikimedia Commons]