O'Hare? Pah! - "One mile wide" UFO seen TWO pilots, passengers, ground-control and radar - Guernsey / Alderney, UK - 24th April

O'Hare? Pah! - "One mile wide" UFO seen TWO pilots, passengers, ground-control and radar - Guernsey / Alderney, UK - 24th April '07

"One mile wide UFO" - report by Airline Pilot and passengers. Recorded on radar.

ITV NEWS REPORT - VIDEO

25th April 07 - BBC News

BBC REPORT

A commercial airline pilot has reported seeing two unidentified flying objects in the sky near Guernsey.

The bright yellow flat disc shapes, estimated to be twice the size of a Boeing 737, were spotted on Monday, 12 to 15 miles north east of the island.

Captain Ray Bowyer was about to fly an Aurigny plane from Alderney to Southampton when he saw the objects through binoculars.

Mr Bowyer said he was "pretty shook-up" by the sighting.

"This is not something you see every day of the week - it was pretty scary," he said.

At first he thought it was the sun reflecting from greenhouses in Guernsey. He said the objects were bright like the sun, but did not hurt his eyes when he looked at them.

The stationary objects were also observed by other aircraft and the passengers on the plane.

John Spencer, deputy chairman of the British UFO Research Association, said: "These types of sightings have been reported by pilots - generally accepted to be reliable and sensible observers - since the 1940s and they have excited attention to this day.

"Such light effects are often popularly thought to represent alien visitors but many UFO researchers believe they more likely represent natural, atmospheric, phenomena not yet fully understood by science.

"However, a similar encounter in 1978 over the Bass Straits in Australia, where the pilot was in radio contact with the ground throughout, resulted in the pilot never being heard from again, so these phenomena are important to study."

This is the sort of sighting that is taken seriously and should be investigated thoroughly

Nick Pope, former UFO investigator for the MOD

Nick Pope, who used to investigate UFOs for the Ministry of Defence said: "While no witnesses are infallible, pilots are trained observers and less likely than most people to misidentify something mundane.

"The MoD's UFO case files contain several reports from civil and military pilots, some of which were correlated by radar. This is the sort of sighting that is taken seriously and should be investigated thoroughly.

"While most UFOs can be explained as misidentifications of aircraft, weather balloons, satellites and suchlike, a small percentage are more difficult to explain. This is one of the most intriguing sightings I've heard about in recent years."

A current spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence, said that while it does monitor air space for any unusual foreign objects which might pose a threat, they would not be carrying out an investigation in this instance.

Oh, well that's OK then! But if you watch the ITV interview with the pilot (above link) - he describes the craft as being about one mile IN LENGTH! Now, that's a big bit of something for the MOD to think there is nothing worth investigating.

How are these MOD responses dished out? Answer-phone?

"Hello, this is the MOD - what you are reporting has no National defence significance... please leave your name and address after the tone.. **BEEP**..."

Updated! - Hang on - the MOD ARE going to investigate now!

Now TWO pilots have come forward on this one. -

This is possibly a better documented case than O'Hare already -

UFO sightings are being investigated by the Ministry of Defence.

Experienced Aurigny pilot Captain Ray Bowyer’s reports of massive UFOs off the coast of Alderney have been corroborated by a Blue Islands pilot en route to Jersey.

Two experienced airline pilots on separate flights saw something up to a mile wide off the coast of Alderney on Monday afternoon. Surprisingly, Jersey radar equipment did not pick up the object, although an air traffic controller said he had received simultaneous reports from the Aurigny and Blue Islands pilots.

Aurigny’s Captain Ray Bowyer, 50, said he saw the strange object during a flight from Southampton.

He spotted a bright-yellow light 10 miles west of Alderney while his plane was about 30 miles from the island and at 4,000ft.

‘It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area. It was 2,000ft up and stationary,’ he said.

‘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 737.’

A 737 is slightly smaller than a jumbo jet.

‘But it must have been much bigger because of how far away it was. It could have been as much as a mile wide.’

As he continued his approach to Alderney, Capt. Bowyer saw a second identical object further to the west.

‘It was exactly the same but looked smaller because it was further away. It was closer to Guernsey.’

The sightings come days after reports that scientists have discovered outside our solar system an Earth-like planet capable of supporting extraterrestrial life.

‘I can’t explain it. At first, I thought it might have been a reflection from a vinery in Guernsey, but that would have disappeared quickly. This was clearly visual for about nine minutes.’

The sightings happened at about 3pm. Capt. Bowyer, who has flown commercial planes for about 20 years, said he had described the objects to air traffic control and filled in an incident report.

‘As I got closer to it, it became clear to me that it was tangible. I was in two minds about going towards it to have a closer look but decided against it because of the size of it. I had to think of the safety of the passengers first.’

He added that the experience had been quite scary.

‘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.’

Paul Kelly, 31, the air traffic controller who was on duty, said the Blue Islands pilot had made a similar report, but nothing had appeared on his radar.

‘The pilot from Blue Islands was en route to Jersey at the same time and as he went past Sark he described an object behind him to his left,’ he said.

‘The description was very similar to Captain Bowyer’s and they described it as being in exactly the same place. But they were looking at it from opposite sides.’

The pilot told him the object had been 1,500ft beneath his plane.

‘The Blue Islands plane was at 3,500ft at the time so, again, both pilots placed it at the same altitude.

‘If the object was stationary, our equipment would not have picked it up because the radar would have screened it out.’