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'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot
Last updated at 15:52pm on 22.06.07One of the largest UFOs ever seen has been observed by the crew and passengers of an airliner over the Channel Islands.
An official air-miss report on the incident several weeks ago appears in Pilot magazine.
Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, flying close to Alderney first spotted the object, described as "a cigar-shaped brilliant white light".
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Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, described what he thought to be a UFO as 'a cigar-shaped brilliant white light', similar to the image supplied by Dennis Plunket of the British Flying Saucer bureau
As the plane got closer the captain viewed it through binoculars and said: "It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area.
"It was 2,000ft up and stationary. I thought it was about 10 miles away, although I later realised it was approximately 40 miles from us. At first, I thought it was the size of a [Boeing] 737.
"But it must have been much bigger because of how far away it was. It could have been as much as a mile wide."
Continuing his approach to Guernsey, Bowyer then spied a "second identical object further to the west".
He said: "It was exactly the same but looked smaller because it was further away. It was closer to Guernsey. I can't explain it. This was clearly visual for about nine minutes.
"I'm certainly not saying that it was something of another world. All I'm saying is that I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying."
The sightings were confirmed by passengers Kate and John Russell. John, 74, said: "I saw an orange light. It was like an elongated oval."
The sightings were also confirmed by an unnamed pilot with the Blue Islands airline.
The Civil Aviation Authority safety notice states that a Tri-Lander aircraft flying close to Alderney spotted the object.
"Certain parts of the report have not been published. I cannot say why," said a senior CAA source.
Earlier this year, however, the MOD declared its intentions to open its UFO files to the public.
Reader views (9)
Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.
Hi,
It is fun to read these UFO reports, but I must give you a little advice on your reports. If you see a bright light in the sky then report it as a bright light. If you see something that has volume you explain what makes you think it has volume. If it is solid you explain how you know it was solid. Use words like it “appeared”, “apparent” in your descriptions of things that you view and are making your own interpretation. As far as your impression of whether it was an extraterrestrial craft or not you can make any conclusion because there are so many possibilities. The image that you saw could be a projection, an atmospheric phenomena, an electromagnetic phenomena, a refractive phenomena, local aircraft, ball lightning, experimental aircraft, US, experimental aircraft, foreign, inter-dimensional craft, extraterrestrial craft, time/space craft (from civilization in Earth's future). If you select any of these you should elaborate why. Thank you for your kind consideration.
- David Thompson, Arnold, USA
I had just got back from work about 7 years ago, I was in the back yard chatting to my neighbour, he said "you don't see planes like that very often" I looked to the sky (it was a clear day) I saw 2 long thin silver aircraft, no wings, no vapour, no sound, moving very fast, we watched them for approx 2 minutes, they must have been 50 miles away but were quite big, so I imagine close up they would have been vast in size, the speed they were travelling at was much faster than any conventional air craft, my friend said "maybe its a military test", I replied, "i hope not above a populated city"
To this day i think about it, the city was Exeter, Devon.
We watched them further and as they flew over some roofs of houses opposite where we lived they just disappeared, I shouted for other people near by to look as well, they saw them too.
We never reported it because we thought the whole city of 110 thousand saw it,
when we saw the newspapers and nothing had been reported we were amazed,
we left it like that in fear that people would mock us and think us mad or drunk.
I can honestly say this is what I saw with no emparement, and I am now a believer in life beyond Earth.
- Miche Johnston, Exeter, UK
I myself have seen several UFO's over the years, but the ones I saw up until about 3 years ago were distant/at great height, but over the last 2 - 3 years there have been many really good sightings, by myself and many people who were previously sceptics. Each year there are more and more seen by more and more people from all walks of life, it all just makes me wonder what the governments of the world think about all this. Sure some people see experimental aircraft and mistake them for UFO but that doesn't explain all of them I am sure.
- Fred, Cambs
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