Over the coming months we will be highlighting some of the more interesting UFO/UAP cases from the UK, both recent and historic. In this first case Adam Goldsack reports on five nights of mysterious lights in the late summer of 2020 and how an intelligence official helped the case.

AS A UAP RESEARCHER, I’ve spent a lot of time since 2017 investigating strange and unusual sightings. I’m not a professional by any means, but it’s fair to say I know how to approach a case report, and I know how to apply appropriate methodology when writing a UAP investigation report. Running through a certain processed checklist is essential with specific details in place, this allows for the data to speak for itself. And that’s what we do, basically. We present the facts as such, and we present all possible hypothesis in a way which doesn’t set out to debunk the case or influence people down a rabbit hole, but rather, we  address the case holistically. This is what I tried to do on the ‘Tenbury Wells’ case of 2020, a case that still remains unexplained, a case that made the local papers, had field investigations and even had an intelligence official offer advice on the hypothetical explanations. Needless to say, this all happened in late summer 2020, a time when speaking openly about ‘UFOs’ was easy and the world was preoccupied with Covid. So, I kept most of what happened to myself, but now, as we are moving into a world in which UAP are accepted as real, I can start talking about the phenomena in detail. At long last.

When my wife’s Nanna rang us up late evening on a Sunday night, I didn’t expect her to be expressing concern about something strange in the Shropshire skies. I also didn’t expect to be speaking openly with her about sightings of strangely shaped lights -  lights and formations I knew only to well on paper - but my experience of gathering direct information from an actual witness was, for lack of a better term, limited. After all, I wasn’t a professional, I’m not a ‘Ufologist’,  in fact I hadn’t mutter a single word to another person about my interest in UAP, at least not like this, and certainly not to a family member. My background was essentially writing up cold cases, that’s how I got started on this, that was my interest, providing and assessing data that is credible and without hype.  

With regard to the Tenbury Wells (2020) sightings, the varying objects appeared over a sequence of nights in the week beginning the 13th of September, they appeared at varying heights within low altitude over the county of Shropshire in the evening. Described by my wife’s Nanna on the first night as a ‘circle of lights’ on a clock, with the brightest lights being at 3, 6, 9 and the 12 position. The lights remained in the same position for a hours before the main witness (Nanna), went to bed. In total they were observed for around 2-3 hours. The lights would then return for an additional four nights, totalling five nights of sightings (see the case report below). However, the lights would change in shape on the last 2 nights form circular position to oblong shaped and back to two circular clock light formations on the final night, but they still remained in the same area of sky and at the same altitude and would remain in a fixed position.

Naturally, I tried to run through the possible  scenarios of what the objects might be, however without good enough camera to capture a clear photo of lights at an altitude of a few thousand feet up it is always going to be difficult. What I did know, is that my wife’s Nanna is a straight arrow, if there was ever a person whose word you would believe at face value it would be hers, and that is an important part of credibility within UAP case reports. A neighbour had also reported the lights.

This rules out any form of hoax.

After the third night (15th of September), I began to suspect that whatever was being seen, potentially, could be something anomalous in nature. My experience of UAP reports tell me that UAP follow a pattern, and they, (whatever they are), have a tendency to come in waves and to come back to the same location time and time within that specific wave. Additionally, they have a tendency to come back to the same area of the sky and hold position for hours without moving.

It was at this point I decided to reach out to the UAP research community for advice. Online, I had spoke to one gentleman who I had had conversations with prior about various things. He somehow seemed to know the advanced elements about UAP. I had spoke a few times with this person that week, he was clearly intelligent in his understanding of UAP and reminded me of someone, but I wasn’t quite sure, I couldn’t but my finger on it. Whereas most people within the community were knowledgable about case reports and trait behaviour, this one person seemed different. He, I assumed it was a he, spoke in a way that drew authority without demanding it, he was unlike to the others, more assured somehow - precise, clinical and what impressed me most was his ability to be very careful about drawing conclusions on limited data. When I reached out to him for guidance about my nanna’s sighting he was more than happy to help. He suggested not to assume anything about the sightings and to explore all options equally. He advised to look at high altitude balloons or even surveillance drones, which I did gratefully.

At the time I wasn’t exactly sure what to think. I did speak to a renowned British UAP field researcher (Paul Jones) who lived in the area, he himself had saw the sighting in the Shropshire newspaper and found it credible. He looked at possible bases in the area, spotlights from nearby facilities and anything which might explain what was being witnessed. Unable to instantly discount the properties of the case he tried to document the lights - consider balloons move over hours and can’t maintained a perfect circle, they also aren’t oblong shaped. On the last night of sightings he attempted to see the lights for himself, but was unfortunately unable to locate them or capture them on camera. After that night the lights disappeared after 5 straight nights and nothing more was reported. That was the end of the case.

All I could do was ensure my wife and Nanna that the lights were nothing to worry about, which is true, there is not threat in most UAP cases. They lights remain unidentified to this day, and if you ask me personally, I would say they are not easily explainable and hypocritically should be considered ‘Anomalous’. What the Tenbury Wells case highlights is just why we need professional research involved with UAP that deploy scientific instruments for eliminating unusual sightings such as Nanna’s.

Simply put, we  need to be able to identify aerial objects.

A few months later, it would turn out that the random person I was speaking with about our Nanna’s UFO sightings, was actually Luis Elizondo, the former director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) – the Pentagon’s UAP program that ran from 2007-2012 (and probably onwards). This spoke volumes to me if the man’s character, a high level government official who investigated UAP for the U.S. government took the time to help us understand my Nanna’s sighting in rural Shropshire. Obviously, I had to keep things on the down low until the time was right. That’s one for the history books.

Case Report:

The Lights of Tenbury Wells

Case ID: GLP031
Date: 13/09/2020, 14/09/2020, 15/09/2020, (each night, time of sighting: 20.00-22.00, GMT).

16/09/2020, 17/09/2020, (each night, time of sighting: 20.00-22.30, GMT).

Location: Tenbury Wells, U.K. low/mid stratosphere, rural Shropshire.

Incident:

Sunday, 13th of September, 2020. 20:00-22:30

Credible witness, Kathleen Barney, reported a series of 12 circular lights that appeared to be part of a whole object. The object(s) was silent, stayed steady and fixed (relatively) to position for the two hours. The twelve circular patterned lights occurred at the same time (20.00- 22.00) over three nights (13/14/15th of September, 2020), with the 15/09/20 object being ‘more overhead’ than previous nights. Witness was able to watch the lights from a western position with binoculars. The sightings were reported in the local newspaper at the time and drew a lot of interest from the UAP research community at the time.

Wednesday, 16th of September, 2020. 20:00-22:30

On the night of the 16th of September, the lights returned for a fourth successive night. This time however, the witness, again watching to a western position through binoculars, reported 2 ‘Oblong-ish’ larger lights with 2 smaller oblong lights at the 5 o’clock position of each of the two bigger objects. Later in the night 11.00pm, the witness stated they were still present in the same position, however the drawing she presented suggested there were now a total of 5 oblong objects/lights and not 4.

Thursday, 17th if September, 2020. 20:00-22:30

On the night of the 17th of September, the witness again reported lights in the sky for a fifth successive night. This time the circle of twelve lights appeared with a smaller second set of circled lights at the ‘10 o’clock’ position. Sightings lasted 20.00 until 22.30. Researcher and UFOtwitter team member Paul Jones made the journey to the area (having seen the newspaper article) arrived at just past 11pm. He  was unable to verify the lights, however did report a C.130 Hercules flying low and in a northern direction.

Additional case: 

Another case involving a flying disc occurred a few days later to the North of Tenbury Wells

Analysis:

The description and circumstances behind the reports indicate that these objects(s), most probably weren’t balloons or birds (standard balloons don’t fix to position for 2 – 3 hours and birds don’t light up). Again, the theory that these ‘UAP’ objects might be stars is ‘ruled out’ by the ‘perfect circle’ description, however might be ‘ruled in’ by the motionless position of the objects.

The possibility of a satellite is ruled out due to the fact that satellites take up a very high orbit and travel quickly across the observable night sky.

The possibility of drones might be a realistic consideration, given that potentially the witness may have been far away enough to not hear the rotor blades. Some companies now have the ability and technology to sequence multiple drones to fly in formation, creating patterns in the sky, possibly such as those reported over Tenbury. However the reported UAP flight time of 2 hours runs over the best flight time for current civilian drones. The possibility of spotlights bouncing off clouds can not been ruled out without further investigation (however this is speculation at the moment).

Update 16/09/20:

The encounter from the night of the 16th (fourth successive night), suggested the objects/lights had changed shaped from 12 lights in a perfect circle on a clock face, to 4/5 oblong shaped objects. The oblong lights on the night of the 16th remained in position from 08.00pm till 11.00pm (onwards).

Update, 17/09/2020:

The fifth successive night of sightings. The lights changed again to two sets of ‘12 lights within a circle’, again different from the previous nights. Unfortunately, no video or photographs were able to be taken. The objects weren’t visible even after the research team arrived on site at 11pm. Finally, the case is severely hindered by the lack of video evidence or photos (too dark to capture), and the one singular witness on record. Additional witnesses have alledgedly seen the objects from a reported ten miles away on the first few nights (13/14th Sept), neighbour has also confirmed the sighting. The lights weren’t visible when our #UFOtwitter research team was sent to investigate on the fifth night.

Summary:

Night One Sunday 13th, Sept. Twelve lights at high altitude, fixed to position in a perfect circle. Sightings lasted from 20.00-22.00.

Night Two Monday 14th, Sept. Twelve lights at high altitude, fixed to position in a perfect circle. Sightings lasted from 20.00-22.00.

Night Three Tuesday 15th, Sept. Twelve lights at high altitude, fixed to position in a perfect circle. Sightings lasted from 20.00-22.00.

Night Four Wednesday 16th, Sept. Five oblong shaped lights, sequenced in a pattern, fixed to position. Sightings last from 20.00-23.00.

Night Five Thursday 17th, Sept. Two sets of ‘12 lights in a perfect circle’, fixed to position, one set larger than the other. Sightings last 20.00-22.30. 

Conclusion:

The lack of additional data ensures it is difficult to prove or disprove what the UAP object(s) might be. The change in shape across the 4 nights brings further questions. The conclusion is that more data is required to make an appropriate conclusion.

If anyone has further information relating to this case, please get in touch by filling out the form here.