NUFORC Sighting 96659

Occurred: 1983-10-01 17:00 Local
Reported: 2013-03-18 02:11 Pacific
Duration: 31 years

Location: Birmingham (UK/England), , United Kingdom

Shape: Sphere
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Left a trail, Emitted beams

UFO SIGHTING BIRMINGHAM UK JANUARY 1983 (TUESDAY) It was approximately 5pm on a cold drizzly dark early evening in the winter of January 1983. At the time I was 19 years old, I lived Lozells, a suburb of Birmingham 2-3 miles from the city centre. My place of employment was the 200 bedroom 3 star ‘Ladbroke Hotel’, Union Passage B2 4RX, I commenced employment there in June 1979 and left in January 1990. The hotel is now called the ‘Britannia Hotel’. My first position there, as a school leaver, was as Hall Porter, when I resigned my position was Sales Manager, having held various managerial roles such as Reservations Manager and Front of House Manager.

I had arranged to meet my cousin, Brian, at the Backyard Bar at the Grand Hotel, Colmore Row, Birmingham. I travelled to Birmingham City Centre on the 33 bus from Lozells. It was a windy, drab dark early evening, I walked through Union Passage, the location of the ‘Ladbroke Hotel’, late shoppers and workers going home were walking towards me, there is an overhead hotel signage canopy which obscures the skyline for approximately 15 yards, when the sky was visible I saw an enormous lit spherical shape in the sky, the typical flying saucer shape. Firstly, I was stunned and stared at the object for what seemed minutes, but probably was only seconds. My first inclination was to beckon to the people walking towards me, I said “Look at that”, there was no response from anyone, I repeated, “Look up there!”, still no response, I was getting frustrated that nobody was taking any notice of me so I kept repeating the request, eventually I realised that there was no sound coming out of ! my mouth.

I followed the object, still trying to get people to look at it, but everybody ignored me. I walked through Union passage, and turned left at Union Street; I crossed the road and stood almost directly outside ‘Rackham’s department store, Cherry Street. The object had moved to directly in front of me but probably 1-2 miles away. I stared in disbelief, and then the glowing object moved rapidly to my left and out of sight.

I returned to the Ladbroke Hotel to ask the on-duty Receptionist, Lin, if she has seen anything unusual also if any guests had reported the sighting, she said no and looked at me in disbelief.

The following day (Wednesday) I was due to attend the wedding reception of my very good friends and colleagues, Gwynne and Richard at the ‘Yard of Ale’ public house in Birmingham city centre.

I received a phone call at home from my cousin, Brian, he said “I’ve been trying to contact you, are you ok?”, I said, “I’m ok, I’m going to Gwynne’s and Richard’s wedding reception today, Brian replied, “It’s Thursday evening!”. I thought he was joking, so I turned on the TV and ‘Top of the Pops’ was on, (Thursday 7.30pm).

I felt confused, stood there for a while trying to understand what had happened, I had lost more than a complete day and missed the wedding of my good friends. I called them to explain, but I could not explain, I was forgiven, eventually.

Years later in 1991, I worked for ‘Hilton National Hotels’ as ‘Front Office Development Manager’. My base at the time was the ‘Hilton National Hotel’, Farlington, Portsmouth; this is where I met my future wife Mary, an American from Colorado. Mary was a guest at the hotel; I checked her in and showed her to her room, she was in a wheelchair having suffered a serious car accident in London.

Within a week of meeting I asked Mary to marry me, she accepted and we moved to Rotherhithe London, moving to Ashby-de-la-Zouch a year later.

I told Mary of my ‘Union Passage’ experiences on many occasions, back in 1992 the Internet was a relatively new concept, but Mary, being from USA, was already experienced, she Emailed a UFO investigator, I think from Leicestershire or somewhere fairly local, can’t remember his name, he was interested in my experiences and a meeting was arranged at our house in Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

On the day in question Mary had organised tea and cakes etc. and I was eager to meet with the investigator. Everything was arranged, he was due to arrive early evening, I went upstairs to change clothes, sat on the edge of the bed, the door bell rang, Mary shouted up, “Steve, they’re here”.

I cannot explain what happened next and still cannot to this day, I had ‘turned to stone’, I told Mary to send them away, I just could not move of the bed, I was embarrassed but there was nothing I could do, I felt controlled not to allow the conversation to take place, eventually they left the house, shouting up the stairs that they would come back with pleasure if I changed my mind, I never did, until now.

I’m now 50 years old, looking back I realise that I had changed a lot after the experiences of 1983, nothing quite seemed the same again, I feel that I have had memory loss, time loss and a feeling of dread and intrusion, I have had dental problems but feel a total dread of anybody looking in my mouth, in fact it’s distressing for me to open my mouth wide. I cannot touch my navel anymore and since then digestive problems. When I’m alone I do not feel alone. I woke up during an appendix operation in 1985, I could feel the pain but I was unable to tell the surgeon, the same feeling I had when I saw the object in Union Passage. My friends recall incidents to me a few years after this experience; I cannot remember those years, I was responsible for 60+ members of staff but to me those years are mostly blank.

I have never experienced a ‘UFO’ again, I have told family and friends about my experiences, some believe me some don’t, it doesn’t really matter to me if they believe me or not. When I hear the stories in the media and the debates on whether ‘we are alone in the universe or not’ I feel a great sense of satisfaction in knowing that ‘I already know’.

Surely I cannot be the only person who experienced this in Birmingham in the early 80’s; I would be fascinated to hear from anyone who has had similar experiences during this time.

Thanks for listening.

Steve Welsh

Posted 2013-04-12