Helicopter in dramatic near-miss with 'sinister' UFO 1,500ft above Birmingham



A helicopter pilot said he nearly crashed with a UFO over Birmingham (artist's impression)

It was a cloudless night and the police helicopter was carrying out surveillance over Birmingham when the attention suddenly switched from ground to sky.

Beside it was a small aircraft beaming out continuous blue-green lights.

It came within almost 300ft, forcing the pilot to swerve out of its path, and appeared to circle the helicopter in a cheeky gesture before flying off.

Initially the pilot and two police observers dismissed the near miss at 1,500ft as a close encounter with a model plane.



But despite searching the area with a thermal camera, the pilot was unable to find any signs of radio-controlled activity.

The British Model Flying Association

also dismissed this possibility, saying the mystery object was flying too high to be a miniature craft, while gliders, kites, balloons and a laser light show were further excluded from the possibilities.

All of which leads UFO experts to believe that alien forces were at work.

Details of the incident, which happened at about 9.50pm on May 2, were revealed yesterday in a document compiled by experts from the Airprox Board, which records near misses and reports them to the military and air traffic control units.

The report describes the strange other aircraft only as 'small and probably non-metallic' and its intent as possibly ' sinister'.



It adds that the pilot informed radar operators but they saw nothing on their equipment.

He told the Airprox Board that he thought 'the intent may either have been sinister or just someone messing around'.

Yesterday a West Midlands Police spokesman attempted to play down the incident, saying: 'As far as the pilot and the crew were concerned, nothing was picked up on Birmingham Airport radar and the object was probably a radio-controlled model aircraft.



'The helicopter was conducting a search at the time and was flying slowly at low level.'

Near miss: The 'UFO' incident happened 1,500ft over Birmingham



But Nick Pope, who worked for the Ministry of Defence's UFO desk and is nicknamed the British Fox Mulder after the science-fiction character in The X-Files, favours a less complacent approach.

'A helicopter was nearly blown out of the sky,' he said. 'This is a very disturbing incident which needs to be thoroughly investigated by the MoD and the Civil Aviation Authority as well as other near misses.

'The conclusion on the report is unsatisfactory especially when this aircraft came within seconds of a collision.



'It is a very interesting case especially when you look at the eyewitnesses. They are credible and reliable sources who have experience in night-time flying.

'This sighting clearly illustrates that whatever one believes about UFOs, this incident raises important air safety issues and should be taken seriously.'