Did Hiroshima open the door for UFOs?

Byline: JONATHAN WALKER 

THE Midlands was reported to be on UFO alert at the start of this month after five silvery discs were seen hovering over the village of Water Orton, Warwickshire. Police contacted what they called 'the relevant authorities' including the Ministry of Defence, air traffic controllers at Birmingham International Airport and local UFO investigators about the sightings. So is there any truth about strange and inexplicable sightings in the sky? Or are UFOs simply the result of one too many at the pub?

AS a former police officer, John Hanson is used to interviewing witnesses and examining evidence.

And for the past five years, he has dedicated his skills not to solving crimes - but to discovering the truth about UFOs.

The 52-year-old from Redditch, Worcestershire, has travelled the county interviewing those who claim to have witnessed a UFO fly overhead, spoken to aliens or been abducted.

He has collected hundreds of accounts and believes the Midlands is a flying saucer hotspot.

With partner Dawn Holloway, aged 45 - herself an expert on crop circles - he has written a book, although it has yet to be published.

The pair met when he was a lecturer in UFOs in a 12-month course at Redditch College, and she was a student.

The reports from Water Orton came as no surprise to John. An eye-witness claimed he saw lights swoop over the village before moving off slowly towards Tamworth.

Inspector Dave Fry, of Warwickshire Police, said: "The caller had not been drinking and appeared to be of sound mind. He clearly believed he had seen something.

"We treated it as a genuine inquiry and passed the information on to the relevant authorities."

John believes incidents such as these are connected to ghosts, ancient pagan churches and the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

His search for the truth began in January 1995, soon after he retired from West Midlands Police.

Some old colleagues, still with the force, told him about a disturbing incident in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

They saw a huge oval shaped ball of light surrounded by a blue field of energy.

The Meteorological Office said the strange phenomena was a shooting star but the officers were not convinced. John's police instincts kicked into gear. He decided to use some of the free time on his hands to discover what had actually happened.

At the time, he didn't believe in UFOs. Like most people, he was a sceptic who thought they were usually the result of a deranged mind or a pint too many.

His search for clues brought him into contact with organisations like the Birmingham UFO Society and Birmingham UFO Group, also dedicated to researching objects in the sky.

They allowed him to look through their files and he came across more unusual reports such as panoramic light displays above Birmingham in the mid-70s and golden balls of light spotted by motorists outside Bromsgrove in 1984.

Then in June 1995, John himself was visited. One evening, he noticed a light outside his bedroom window.

It was a silver pear-shaped object hovering above a tree, 40ft off the ground. It was around 20ft long and 5ft wide, he said.

Opposite this was a red cigar shaped object, about 30ft tall. The two objects then merged into one, producing a rippling light effect and vanished.

John now treats his research as a full-time job, working at least nine to five, five days a week.

Much of his time is spent following up leads from newspaper reports or articles in specialist magazines such as Flying Saucer Review.

He will try to contact eyewitnesses, for a first-hand account of what they experienced. Often this will include drawing garish illustrations showing what they saw, including spacecraft or alien beings.

His researches have covered:

A UFO seen by Rover workers in Longbridge, in 1995. One worker reported an alien later visited him at his home.

- A woman who found a UFO parked in her back garden in Tamworth, in February 1996.

- A number of objects seen flying in formation over Birmingham late in 1996, which was apparently linked with the death of a pet guinea pig.

John has developed theories explaining these bizarre events but he is not convinced UFOs come from outer space.

He said: "One common feature of these reports is the objects seem to vanish suddenly.

"This suggests they are moving between dimensions. Sometimes the objects are visible in our dimension and other times they are not.

"UFOs have always been with us in some form. They may well form the basis of stories of dragons flying through the skies.

"But it is possible they are more visible now than in the past following the use of atomic bombs which could have weakened the barriers between dimensions."

- Anyone who spots a UFO can write to John at: PO Box 6371, Birmingham, B48 7RW.

- What do you think about UFOs? Have you ever seen a UFO? Or is it all pie in the sky? Write and tell us what you think at Talk About, Sunday Mercury, 28 Colmore Circus, Birmingham B4 6AZ.

CAPTION(S):

PARANORMAL EXPERTS... Dawn Holloway and John Hanson have written a book on UFO activity in the Midlands CAUGHT ON FILM... video footage of alleged UFOs filmed by Ray Baughn in August 1995 (left) and by Maurice Ridgley in Abingdon in 1986 (second left). Also pictured is a dish-shaped UFO in the sky and an artist's impression of a UFO seen drifting over rooftops in Worcester in 1976 (right)