A DISC like saucer, a flying chandelier and a strange black orb are just some of the unexplained sightings seen in the skies in the Black Country over the last two decades, according to a UFO database.

To mark World UFO Day (July 2), we've compiled a list of the strange sightings reported in the Dudley, Stourbridge and Halesowen areas and published on https://ufostalker.com/.

The subject of UFOs (unidentified flying objects) or UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomenon), as they are now often referred to, has barely been out of the news this year ahead of the publication a few days ago of a much-hyped Pentagon report about what the US government knows about unidentified objects spotted in the skies by military pilots.

According to media analysis all but one of the 144 reports made about the phenomena since 2004 remain unexplained.

The UK Airprox Board, which records near misses in UK airspace reported by pilots, also details a number of 'unknown objects' witnessed from the cockpit, a 2019 data investigation by Newsquest revealed.

Between May 2017 and 2019 the Board reviewed 36 unknown object reports detailing airborne near misses in the UK - nearly a quarter of which were in the most serious risk category - and real life X-Files investigator Nick Pope, who investigated UFO sightings for the Ministry of Defence in the 1990s, said the reports raised “important defence, national security and air safety issues”.

These official reports are not the only unexplained sightings logged as having been seen in UK skies.

West Midlands Police have also received reports of UFOs, a Freedom of Information request reveals. The force logged 12 reports about UFOs in the Birmingham and the Black Country area between February 2015 and December 2018, an FOI submitted by the News revealed.

None were reported in Dudley - and only two were logged as UFO reports in Sandwell...one of which was ultimately described as a 'non-incident' while the other was classed as 'public safety/welfare - suspicious circumstances'.

But data published by Ufostalkscanner reveals a raft of other peculiar sightings in the area have been reported to MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) - a network of volunteers who collate and study reported UFO sightings.

The website, for ufologists, lists more than 10 reported sightings in the Dudley, Stourbridge and Halesowen areas over the last two decades and one going back to 1985.

The most recently reported was on April 19, 2021, in Oldbury where a silver orb was seen speeding across the sky. The observer said they spotted the strange sight from their garden and took a photo of it which on zooming in showed two lights.

Another observer reported having been filming an electrical storm from their bedroom window in Brierley Hill on August 11, 2020, when they noticed a long rocket type craft come into view and whizz off in under two seconds.

The reports get even stranger though.

In Halesowen, a keen astronomer reported having seen unusual objects tailing a plane at around 10pm on September 12, 2018. First two then four, and the witness said: "The one object that appeared to be much bigger than the others was covered in white lights. The only way to describe it is it looked liked a chandelier flying on its side! The other object was a definite triangular shape, three points of red light. All four objects moved across the south western sky in random flight paths for about 45 minutes."

The witness went on to add: "I regularly observe aircraft in the night sky. These were not aircraft sequential strobe lights or even shaped like aircraft. The flying chandelier was the object that really made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I know what I saw that night and it wasn't like anything I have seen before."

Another report from May 28, 2017, tells of a strange black orb with no lights seen zig zagging and "flying all over the place" across the sky over Brierley Hill.

While another details a sighting from February 10, 2016, of a white saucer shaped object following an aeroplane - spotted by someone walking by the Ruby Cantonese at Amblecote, Stourbridge.

And on October 1, 2015, a black triangle shaped object with white and red lights was reportedly seen moving slowly across the sky by a witness in Dudley who said: "What made it weird was there was no sound from it at all."

There's also a curious report of an alleged incident in Oldbury on October 31, 1985, in which a teenager saw four UFOs as if they were congregating high above the evening sky before shooting off out of sight at warp speed. The witness who reported the incident to MUFON some 31 years after it happened also claims to have possibly stumbled into another dimension - saying they saw a farmer on a tractor on fields at the back of some shops but when an attempt to revisit the area was made the next day, and on subsequent days, there was just a building yard in its place.

Another incident was reported some 47 years after it allegedly took place in Birmingham on March 31, 1968, when the witness was a child. It states how the youngster was at junior school at the time and as pupils waited for the bell for lessons to resume a fireball was spotted in the sky. At first it was thought that it was a plane on fire but another object appeared to emerge from it and "there was no sound and the object did not behave like an aircraft in distress". The witness said the incident had left a lasting impression and added: "We were all quite shaken by this.

"Teachers were unable to provide any sort of explanation, refusing to discuss it any further. There were no reports of a crashed aircraft on news broadcasts on that day or since."

Have a look at some of the reports yourself on the UFO scanner website, see link above, or get in touch with your stories and pictures if you have seen something unexplained in the skies.