A UFO?

Internet UFO Group Media Archive

From:Erik Skindrud (skindrud@rosebud.berkeley.edu)
Title:A UFO?
Source:DAILY MAIL
Date:Feburary 03, 1996


IT flashed past silently in seconds. Illuminated by white lights like a

Christmas tree, it came shudderingly close as the British Airways Boeing 737

approached Manchester Airport.

The Boeing's bewildered pilots knew they had seen something. They weren't

sure what.

Yesterday, officials were also scratching their heads after a year-long

investigation failed to come up with a convincing explanation.

But there were knowing nods at the British UFO Research Association.

Members are sure the mysterious craft was the "Silent Vulcan" - a

triangular-shaped craft that has been reported cruising northern skies for 20

years.

Captain Roger Wills and First Officer Mark Stuart were almost ready to

land BA flight 5061 from Milan when the craft hurtled towards them on

January 6

last year. They radioed traffic controllers at Manchester and filed a

formal air miss report after landing.

Yesterday the findings by the Joint Air miss Working Group said: 'There is

no doubt that the pilots both saw an object. Unfortunately the nature and

identity of this object remain unknown.'

It was quick to dampen any speculation of an alien close encounter. 'To

speculate about extra-terrestrial activity is not within the group's

remit,' it said.

But morale at

the British UFO Research Association rocketed. Members

believe the report practically confirms what they have known all along - there

is definitely something 'out there'.

'The report is remarkably open-minded,' said director of investigations,

Philip Mantell.

'It is a milestone in official recognition of the phenomenon of UFOs.

'We have always contended that there is something out there which is

beyond accepted science and now this is being reflected in the corridors

of

officialdom.'

Mr Mantell said the Silent Vulcan - named because it is shaped like the

old British Vulcan bomber - has been seen all along the 'Pennine

Corridor', from the Midlands up through Derbyshire and into Yorkshire.

There was a surge of sightings in the 1970s and then again in the late

1980s. One came from a Sheffield police officer.

The Silent Vulcan widened its horizons in 1989 and 1990, with a spate of

reports in Belgium. The airforce there even scrambled two F-16 fighters, which

tracked the object by

radar.

They failed to find any UFO but their readings showed it accelerated and

lost altitude at speeds that would have turned any human pilot to pulp.

'This latest report is the first officially recognised sighting of the

Silent Vulcan along the Pennines,' Mr Mantell said. 'British Airways are to be

complimented for treating this incident seriously.'

It seems that not all at the airline appreciate the gravity of the

situation. Captain Wills of Normanton, West Yorkshire, and First Officer

Stuart, from Congleton, Cheshire, are said to have been constantly ribbed

by colleagues.

'I think they're both fed up with hearing about it, although they're glad

the CAA took them seriously,' one said.

'Both are level-headed guys but they have had their legs pulled

unmercifully over this business.'