An airline pilot cruising in an A320 Airbus at 34,000 feet near Heathrow Airport was so sure that his vessel was going to collide with an unidentified flying object that he ducked when it got close.
According to the pilot, the UFO passed within a few feet of his jet during the “near miss.”
The captain spotted the object out of the left cockpit window and told investigators that it was “cigar/rugby ball like” in shape, “metallic” in construction and bright silver in color.
“He was under the apprehension that they were on collision course with no time to react. His immediate reaction was to duck to the right and reach over to alert the FO (First Officer); there was no time to talk to alert him,” reads an official incident report. “The Captain was fully expecting to experience some kind of impact with a conflicting aircraft.”
The sighting allegedly happened at 6.35 p.m. on July 13 but the report about the incident was just released.
The report concluded that it was “not possible to trace the object or determine the likely cause of the sighting.”
The airline and the flight that was involved were not named in the report.
“The aviation authorities obviously think this is something they should continue to look into and if you are a regular air traveler, you are likely to agree,” Dr. David Clarke, a UFO consultant for the National Archives, told British newspaper The Telegraph. “This latest sighting is interesting, because it is detailed and clear. These pilots don’t file these reports for something and nothing. There was obviously something there.”
The Telegraph reports that in 2012, National Air Traffic Control Services staff detected around one UFO per month.
[The Telegraph]