Two pilots thought their last moment had come as their British Airways jet headed for mid-air collision - with a high speed UFO. Terrified fliers Roger Willis and Mark Stuart ducked down in the cockpit when the brightly lit mystery craft appeared only yards in front of them at 13,000ft over the Pennines.

But as they waited for the deadly impact, they saw the triangular UFO flash down the right hand side of their Boeing 737 and disappear. Captain Willis and First Officer Stuart immediately checked with air traffic control. But they were told theirs was the only plane on the radar.

Their flight from Milan, Italy to Manchester Ringway was 17 minutes from touchdown when the "alien" invader zoomed past. The Boeing landed safely, with the 60 passengers unaware of the drama.

Sketches

At first, the pilots didn't tell pals about the UFO, incase of ridicule. But BA bosses were informed and they sent a detailed log and sketches to the Joint Air Miss Working Group, which is part of the Civil Aviation Authority. An inquiry was launched into the January 6th incident. But a CAA spokesman said yeterday: "We have not been able to trace the aircraft involved."

Sensible

The pilots refused to comment. A colleague said: "They are high grade, sensible guys. Everyone's talking about what they saw."

Theries that the UFO could have been a new military aircraft were discounted by experts.

A spokesman for Jane's Defence Weekly said: "We know of nothing at all being developed that could account for this sighting."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Henk van Winkoop

A fellow ufo investigator from Germany made me notice a German tabloid paper called 'Bild' which showed a ufo article. So I was able to buy this newspaper in a Dutch bookstore. : This is a translation.

Bild, 30 January 1995.

Ufo over England attacks Boeing 737. Ufo alarm in cockpit.

A Boeing 737 from British Airways, Flight Mainland-Manchester, (60 passengers). Captain Roger Wills stated: "We were already above Great-Brittain. Suddenly a mysterious, fiercely illuminated triangle was heading towards our machine in a straight way. We thought of the worst. We drew in our heads because we thought we are going to collide. But in the last second the object passed our airplane on the right side". The captain immediately alarmed the nearest control-tower. The answer from the control-tower: "Besides you we didn't see anything on the radar!". At this moment the British airtraffic control handles the case.

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From: ccff0@central.susx.ac.uk (Simon Clout)

This UFO sighting appeared in Saturday 28th Jan edition of The Daily Express (somewhat tucked away). It also appeared in my local paper 'The Brighton Evening Argus' of whom I must congratulate for putting the article on page 3 instead of some little paragraph near the back. There was a very similar case a couple of years ago where a British Airways crew reported a near-miss with an object. The outcome of the official report was that the crew had indeed witnessed something that was not an aircraft even though those immortal words 'Weather Balloon' appeared!