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