“THEY came flying out of the west between two stars, silent, and really high up, one after the other – we counted 16 in total.”
Jackie Costello and Ivan Mitch from Oakenshaw may have had a tiring day working in their garden but they’re certain what they saw was no illusion – 16 objects, possibly more, flying west to east across Redditch.
“It was between 7pm and 7.30pm on Monday night – we were sat in the garden and had got a fire going when we looked up into the sky,” said Ivan.
“When we saw the first one we thought it might be the International Space Station passing overhead, but then there was a second, and a third, and more.
“As they passed they disappeared into the distance and then from exactly the same spot, between the two stars, another would appear.”
The couple realised they weren’t looking at UFOs but possibly American B-2 Stealth bombers.
“It was most unusual, and we hadn’t been drinking, but I’ve never witnessed anything like it in my life,” said Jackie.
It’s known that at least three B-2s had been at Lajes airbase in Portugal, their crews having flown over from the USA to acclimatise to military operations in Europe.
Their mission included bombing runs over Garvie Island, off Cape Wrath in the far north of Scotland, a training area for the RAF.
Normally based at the Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri in the United States, the B-2 aircraft touched down at RAF Fairford, just 55 miles south of Redditch.
