Is there plane truth behind the UFOs?

They're here - and they've been spotted by dozens of folk across the Black Country in the past few weeks.

Mysterious triangular unidentified flying objects with sinister flaming orange lights have been seen above Dudley, Halesowen and Lower Gornal in the last month.

Spotted in the early evening and flying in a westerly direction, the strange craft have been seen by schoolchildren, pensioners and paranormal enthusiasts.

Dubbed the 'Dudley Doritos', the UFOs have raised fears that extraterrestrial beings are about to invade the area.

But a sonic boom over Shropshire this week could have solved the mystery of the "spacecraft" sightings.

The incident involving Britain's newest fighter jet has offered a clue to the Black Country space invaders.

A malfunction to a Typhoon Eurofighter forced the pilot to plunge 30,000ft causing a sonic boom which shook the county.

The plane - which when viewed from underneath looks like a triangle with lights at the tips of both wings and on the nose cone - performed an emergency descent above Shrewsbury, breaking the sound barrier.Police were inundated with calls from concerned residents wondering what they had seen and fearing there had been an earthquake or an explosion.

The Eurofighter had been flying on a training sortie from RAF Coningsby when the malfunction happened, although, not surprisingly, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) refused to confirm whether the plane had been flying over the Black Country in recent weeks.

Spokesman for the MOD, Mervyn Wynne Jones, would only say: "The MOD only investigates UFO sightings to see if it believes there may be airspace integrity issues.

"The MOD examines reports to establish whether the UK's airspace may have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised military activity.

"If required, sightings reported are examined with the assistance of the department's air defence experts.

"Unless there is evidence of a potential threat, there is no attempt to identify the nature of each sighting reported."

Drawings by two schoolgirls of a UFO they saw over Dudley have similarities to the shape of the new Eurofighter.

Chelsea and Casey Bridges, aged seven and nine, were drifting off to sleep at their grandmother's house in Chestnut Avenue, in Dudley, when they saw the UFO flying over Dudley Castle last week.

They pair were so afraid they ran crying downstairs to tell their grandmother what they had seen and proceeded to draw identical pictures of the strange craft.

Diamond-shaped with orange lights in the corners, their drawings matched descriptions of sightings seen since last December.

Earlier last month, dozens of people saw a huge orange "Dorito-shaped craft" with three lights flying over Halesowen and a similar object was seen by people living in Lower Gornal on New Year's Day.

Householders in Wallows Wood described the object as looking like an "arrowhead" with three orange lights arranged in the shape of an isosceles triangle.

The Express & Star has been bombarded with messages speculating what it could be.

The girls' grandmother, Mrs Marie Bridges says it was the girls' "spooked" reaction which made her realise something was not right.

"I was sat watching the TV and the girls were sleeping in my bed when they ran into the lounge looking scared," she says.

"They were both frightened and said they were scared something was coming to get them and asked if they could stay downstairs with me because they didn't want to go back upstairs.

"I made them both draw a picture of what they saw.

"They both drew what looked like a diamond shape with lights, although Casey said it only had lights in each corner and Chelsea said it had lights all around it.

"They're used to seeing planes and helicopters and they never bother them, so it can't have been something like that.

"I joked to them that it was ET going home, but it didn't make them laugh. I really believe it could be something from another planet."

The truth, though, could be a little bit more mundane.

Paranormal enthusiast Craig Lowe, who is a member of the Birmingham UFO group, says he had suspected the strange craft spotted over the Black Country could be of military origin after reading witnesses' reports in the Express & Star.

"The description seems to fit in with the profile of a Typhoon Eurofighter and I'm of the opinion the craft is of military origin," he says. "Unfortunately, we can't know for sure because the Ministry of Defence won't confirm anything - maybe they're flying over populated areas to see how the public react."

So for now, at least, the sightings remain a mystery.