CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE WEIRD KIND

Internet UFO Group Media Archive

From:rhoenich@ix.netcom.com(Richard Hoenich )
Title:CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE WEIRD KIND
Source:Canada's Globe
Date:Feburary 03, 1996


Sub-heading: Year-long inquiry finds no explanation of UFO that buzzed

airliner

by David Wallen, special to the Globe and Mail

LONDON - After an year-long formal inquiry, British aviation experts

admit they are baffled by a close encounter between a passenger jet and

an unidentified flying object on an approach to Manchester Airport.

The Civil Aviation Authority said yesterday it can find no logical

explanation for the UFO, which apparently buzzed the British Airways

Boeing 737 with 60 people on board last January at the 4,000-foot level

of its descent on a flight from Milan.

Captain Roger Wills, 35, said a wedge-shaped UFO, emblazoned with

small white lights, came so close to his jet that co-pilot Mark Stuart

ducked.

The object also was spotted from the ground, yet never appeared on

radar screens. It made no attempt to deviate and passed very quickly

down the right side of the aircraft. It made no sound and created no

wind turbulence.

The incident happened at 6:48 p.m. on Jan. 6, 1995, with the

aircraft just above the clouds and visibility at least 16 kilometres.

Air traffic controllers had the following conversation with Flight

5061:

B737: "We just had something go down the right-hand side, just

above us, very fast."

Manchester ATC: "Well there's nothing seen on radar. Was it an

aircraft?"

B737: "Well it had lights, it went down the starboard side very

quick."

Both the captain and co-pilot were convinced the object was not a

balloon, model aircraft, kite or even a stealth aircraft. Captain Wills

said he had seen a stealth before and thought he would have recognized

it.

Suggestions that the object might have been a reflection from a

cloud or even a secret U.S. spy craft also have been discounted.

The CAA's Joint Airmiss Working Group said in its report, published

yesterday, that it cannot explain the incident, confirming there was

nothing else on the radar screens apart from the jet in that position

at that time. It concluded that it was "not possible to suggest either

the cause or the risk" of the incident. "The reported object remains

untraced."

The report praised the crew for telling their story in the face of

possible derision from colleagues.

"It's all a bit of a mystery," a Civil Aviation Authority spokesman

said. "There was a similar case about three years ago involving

Alitalia and it was not possible to explain that one, either."

On the ground, Mark Lloyd was near the airport and says he saw the

object, too.

"There was like a glint in the sky and, as I looked, I could see

this triangular-shaped object hovering quite high up and it had depth

to it," he said. "It was rounded off at the back end and appeared to

have something like back burners." He described a black line down the

side and a triangular-shaped window.

When Mr. Lloyd told his girlfriend what he had seen, she said he

was "talking a load of codswallop."

Later, he telephoned the airport and was put through to the control

tower.

Mr. Lloyd said yesterday he was relieved that the official report

backed his version with the words of the air crew.

While the incident has baffled aviation experts, it has delighted

UFO enthusiasts. The word of pilots, they said, might give some

credibility to their favourite subject.

"Now that the CAA have actually come out with a statement saying it

was unidentified, we shall go straight back to them and try and get

them to say more," said Eric Morrison, one of Britain's leading

exponents of UFOs and extraterrestrails.

One of the best authenticated UFO sightings was made by the crew of

one of the Apollo space missions, when an object tracked the spacecraft

for some minutes before moving off at high speed. The astronauts told

Houston they were being tailed, adding: "We'll assume it's friendly."